Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems CES 2010 speculation thread

JerryL, I have purcahsed a lot of equipmentdirectly from the UK in the past -- most of it from TAG -- and am very familiar with the duties and atxes that are levied both in Canada (where I live) and in the US (where I have an office) and can tell you that the duties and taxes do not even come close to that difference...

Jerry has hit the nail on the head with his car analogy. Pricing of anything is based upon what that market will bear and generally has no relevance to the cost of manufacture/construction. Many years ago a senior executive in our organisation was 'toasted' by the MD when asked to price a product at �10 said' we can't charge that it only costs us 2p!).....nuff said!

Rod

You bought direct from the UK. The US prices are as bought from the US, via the US subsidiary. Do you think this subsidiary is run for free? Well of course not. So I expect that part of the difference is the cost of running Meridian America Inc.

@Ian, apologies but I do not agree with your thinking because the cost should factor in the cost of running the entire company not with added cost / tax for units only sold in a country where a subsidiary operates...my company's head office is in Canada with subsidiaries all over the world yet we charge the same price regardless of where we sell (i.e. the US prices do have an added cost based on US office costs, etc.).

Is there an official announcement yet on U.S. upgrade pricing? I don't get the $11k vs $16k disparity between UK and presumed US pricing, and also don't understand why there would be a different program for v1/v2 vs v3/v4 units there and not here. And I agree that paying an extra $5k to support Meridian America is absurd. I highly doubt Meridian America is run as a profit center. Its a distribution and service center, and certainly shouldn't be passing on its costs to U.S. customers. I recall also that my 861v4 was assembled in the UK and shipped directly to my dealer in California (at no cost to Meridian America).

i think Meridian sells cheaper on the UK market.
Tranport costs to NL cannot be to high. Yet comparing UK and NL pricelist you see that the exchange rate is around 1.38 (Euro to pound)
The official exchange rate is 1.15.
So either they calculate with the though the exchange rate might change, or the product is simply cheaper sold to UK dealers.

Everyone,

Meridian announced the trade-in program today officially to all their dealers. Here is the gig:

861
- v1 or v2 upgrade to v6 $17,995
- v3 or v4 upgrade to v6 $15,995

808
- v1 upgrade to v3 $14,995
- v2 upgrade to v3 $12,495

Based on reading some of the comments in this thread I know some people will be unhappy about the cost to upgrade, but remember that Meridian is heavily discounting the new units to support all of you, so they are not making money on this. People's speculations about the cost to build these units is not realistic. Meridian is not Apple Computer making millions of iPods in China. It costs money to design and build these units, it costs money to operate a business, it will cost money to support the units with warranties for the next two years (which must be factored into the cost), it costs money to distribute products, etc.

And speaking of Apple, when was the last time they let me trade in my old MacBook Pro I bought three months ago for the new one that just came out?

If you purchased an 861v4 very recently, you should talk to your dealer and see what you can work out. Meridian really goes out of their way to support people, and there are a lot of good dealers out there who do as well.

If you have any specific questions about features/functions or anything else, please feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer them. It would be easiest for me if all the questions could be compiled somehow so I can just post one reply that answers all the questions (or at least most of them). I won't be checking the board for a few days. You are also welcome to email me questions directly at michael@audiohigh.com and I will reply and also post those answers on this board so everyone can benefit.

Thanks,
Michael

www.audiohigh.com

I understand.

If Meridian is nice enough to do this against cost, is it reasonable to ask your dealer to drop his profit also to cost level ? So ask for a 20% discount ?

Thank you Michael and good point. I am less than enamored with the fact that my cost will be probably around $19k (figuring the cost of 4 AC12 units). BUT-- Ill never forget when I bought an Apple Computer in 1983 and a few weeks later the next revision was out and I went back to see if I could get an upgrade and they said I was out of luck. Welcome to technology. An interesting point about how long our gear has held up- in some cases- and in mine for sure, I just walked by what looks like an ancient piece of equipment: CRT computer monitor made in 1999 by Sony. Its big, bulky, ugly. State of the art back then. Now many computers couldn't even drive it! Yet my 861 which was bought the same year is still working great. Yes I've had to support it over the years but the point is Meridian set out to build as upgradable as possible a processor and I think they succeeded. Now its time for the next architecture. I don't expect it to last in perpetuity, at some point, hopefully in the range of 10+ years they might move to a new architecture or something else all together. Technology marches on!

Jaco, I think that's between you and your dealer. I have a long standing relationship with mine and I think we will figure something out.

Funny, I actually just had an entirely different experience with Apple. I bought a Mac Mini last year and after they dropped prices shortly after my window for a refund expired they still gave me a rebate of most of the difference (I recall something like 75%).

Jerry, right.
I bought my 861 from dealer 1 where i lived at that time
Dealer 2 for the upgrades V2.5 to V3 and V3 to V4
Dealer 2 is not longer dealer due to to less sales

Dealer 3 sold me 7 DSP speakers, and is happy to help me, so i will see what deal he will do for me. They like to sell for list prices though..