Are you willing to spend 17k$ on speaker blind?

I can visit China with entry visa which will take around 2 weeks advance.

The question is whether to utilize Anniversary sale discount which expire in 2 days.

Normal cost of this speaker is 20K$ or more.

 

I had bought Wilson Watt Puppy 6 without listening with incentive from the dealer about 20 years ago.

The speaker turned out to sound too bright for my taste and sold it at loss within 6 months.

But now I have more tools to tame the sound like lot of cables and digital equalizers.

 

I see and I wasn't thinking because you did mention that in the OP by the time I read through the thread I guess I forgot it.

My Dad always said there is no sale that won't come back around again if it doesn't feel right. Truth be told I bought my speakers without auditioning them based on the manufacture. I upgraded sticking with the same manufacture, so I knew how they would sound.

 

I agree with Ghost Rider- don't let a 'Sale' force your hand.
Phffft. - Next week there will be another sale for sure.

I still found nothing I could tell from the vids that would make me jump on the deal.

As a PA speaker maybe. But I suspect your current system is way more evolved, involving, and refined as is.

And dam, they do take up space. Behemoths.

 

I've never bought speakers without demoing first, or with a policy that I could return if I didn't like them. And they were all at price points far below $17K. There is no way I'd do a blind buy on them. But hey, to each their own.

 

Ouch.

 

It is normal to buy the speaker after auditioning.

But it is not easy to audition this speaker here.

17K$ may be lot of money but not for this kind of big horn speaker.

I have not made decision yet.

 

If ,like me you have fallen in love with the WE A22 snail horn I would advise you don't buy them because of the sale.I decided 5 years ago I want one and still putting the rest of the system together to replicate the 1940s WE sound. I will run twin 15 inch woofer boxes like in the link below.The equipment I will be using to run the horns will be all Line Magnetic from the Foshan Plant.
Stump

Line Magnetic – Live Acoustics

 

Not unprecedented...an acquaintance purchased $90,0000 speakers after hearing them once in a hotel room at a show. They are made in Europe, on
US dealer, and cost a fortune to ship. Its been done.

 

Thanks a lot for your advice.

Your system looks very nice.

But since this one will be my second system, I am not ready to go into bigger system than LM3.

 

$20k speaker for $17? What is that 15% off. Big deal. Any respectable dealer with match that, if you can find one

Here's my theory after owning 20 pairs: They all sound good in their own way. Some Frankenstein with a Weller could whip up a Tower of Pisa from Dayton Audio tweeters and repurposed Bazooker woofers and as they blast your favorite songs, you're gonna stand there, grinning into the wind at the new toys, until one day you hear something better.

And then, as you play the speaker you think you've outgrown for the Guy from Craigslist, who is grinning because he's there to buy them, you suddenly get a twinge of doubt as you wonder if your departing guest is suddenly doing something better your current love.

They all sound good in there own way (except Fishers) Such is the speaker life. Resale value, baby. Stick with the classics!

 

I had gone through 15 speakers in 40 years of audio history.

I agree with you that each speaker has its own merits.

There are only two speakers that I had used for more than 10 years.

The first one is Apogee Duetta Signature(from 1989 t0 1999) and Lansche 4.1 (from 2007 to present).

This LM3 speaker is not imported by dealer network. If so, the price shall be more than 30K$.

Even with that, if I decide to sell it in the future, the used price shall be around 10K$.

Thus as soon as I pull the trigger for this speaker, I have to be prepared for loss of 7k$.

It is going to be expensive toy as second system.

The more expensive products are extravagant DACs.

Some DAC like MSB Select cost 90K$.

As soon as you buy it, you have to be prepared for loss of 40K$ or more.

 

I'm not really sure what the point of your thread is. For some people $17,000 is a lot of money to spend on an audio component unheard. On the other hand some people make $17,000 per second. So to them spending $17k is an eye blink. So they won't at all be impressed or think this is an amount to be concerned about.

Plenty of people buy $200-$300 headphones from MassDrop without ever hearing them. People who make more money are willing to spend $2k to$3k on a gamble and other $20k to $30k

I go to casinos where people put $20,000US on one number on Roulette or $100,000USD on one hand of Baccarat. So $17k is a pittance to them.

 

You haven’t mentioned shipping costs. Surely the cost of shipping a large horn like the 22A will be substantial.

Personally I don’t think the difference between 17K and 20K is enough to be a factor. You either want them enough to be willing to risk that kind of money, or you’re not. Simple as that.

 

I think I must be missing something: you've used that line about taming the sound 4 times now. I still don't understand why you are thinking of buying speakers whose sound you need to tame instead of ones whose sound you like.

 

But this thread isn´t about speakers.

 

Post #1 said $17k included shipping and WA tax. I agree with the rest of your post.

 

You’re right. I missed the part about shipping being included. That does make it a better deal than just a $3000 discount.

 

How would you place these - would you move the Lansches out of the room each time you want to connect the LM3's? I would think that the correct positioning of each pair would overlap so you'd need to move them, which would obviously not be fun. And you'd need to move them far enough away so that they wouldn't interfere with the sound. Now if you're going to have them in a completely different set-up / room that's a different story.

 

OK, I prefer a Roman blind and, no, I wouldn't spend $17k (whether US, Canadian, Australian or whatever) or £17k or 17k euros on blinds. That would require an awful lot of windows...

 

The US importer has these set up in NY at their affiliated retail store there (or did, according to their website). I don't know what buying directly from China gets you other than a discount. You've already travelled to the East and heard real WE - something you were pondering in another thread, as well as the GIP recreations. There's also that dealer in Virginia- Deja Vu-- that a couple people here know, who is also into WE recreations.
I don't know if anybody can answer the question whether you should take that risk but you.
If you are asking what somebody else would do in your place, I guess I could tell you what I'd do:
I have a pair of aging Avantgarde Duos that I would eventually like to replace, not because I dislike them but because I want more. I don't really want to throw money away and at this point in my life, I'm more careful with my expenditures. I'd spend time auditioning different horn systems to come up with a solution that makes sense, whether that's cobbling together different reproduction WE style components or letting someone, like that Deja Vu dealer do it for me. Why? Because a few thousand dollars saved (assuming there is no risk on this deal directly with China) isn't really a savings if you don't like it. And if you need support, my suspicion is that the US importer will not help you- maybe i'm wrong, but the grey market stuff is a big issue for a lot of manufacturers these days.
I personally have no idea what you should do. I know what I would do. And that would probably be what I've outlined. I'd very much like to listen to some big JBLs too, but they need more power than my Lamm ML2 at 18 watts. Did you post this query on other fora? What was the response?
PS: Auditorium also makes a WE clone as well, but you probably know that.

 

seems like a mistake to buy these. why not just get real retro stuff? or planar speakers? if you want something different from todays traditional box speaker, go planar, or electrostatics

 

The cost of real WE is astronomical.

 

diy

 

I'd check if that NY dealer has a pair available for demo. Sure, they won't sound exactly the same as they would in your room, but you can still get a pretty good idea. Any respectable dealer would help you arrange the demo system to best mimic your home conditions, i.e. similar amp, source, seating distance, and speaker separation.

I'm seeing great deals on airfares recently as a result of the 737 Max debacle. Schedule a short NYC vacation.

If U.S. retail price is $20K and the Chinese gray market price is $17K, the latter is not a very good deal. Keep in mind that one should never pay full retail for high-end audio. I won't accept anything less than a 15% discount unless it's a product for which I know has very little dealer margin worked into the price. A 15% discount would bring these down to a stateside price of $17K, and you'd get a warranty.

A trip to NYC would also allow you to demo dozens of other speakers in this price class. Being that you're retired, might as well make some appointments and spend a whole week there. You can document your experiences and share them here. That's what I would do.