Hello!
Had a few changes to report. First the bad news.... I have had to raise pricing on the NOH a bit. The US$ drop combined with strong currencies in the countries I buy some of my more expensive parts in (the UK and Japan) has eaten into margins the last year (actually pretty much cut them in half). I have bumped the NOH pricing about 10% (or a bit less on the more expensive versions) but made another change that helps out a bit for the average order.
This other change is that I now use Vampire CM2F-CB connectors as standard on all builds. Most customers were ordering with the expensive WBT's and the new Vamps are less money so it tends to lower the total price of a typical order a bit even though the base price looks higher. The new Vamps are considdered at least as good as the WBT's - many feel they are better and more in keeping with the new trend to avoid bulky metal in the signal path.
For anyone who has e-mailed in the past about a NOH or MU I will keep old pricing and I will do what I can on pricing for the next few weeks - I don't want anyone who was close to contacting me to get stuck with a surprise increase. MU pricing bumped just a bit and for now parts prices have stayed the same. I did have to bump LO410 line outputs. I was working of an old buy from S&B at a lower price but the latest stock I brought in was costing more than my sell price..... I had to bump those from $45 to $65.00.
Now some news about other changes comming up soon. First I will be changing from the Seiden switch to the Shallco. The Shallco is the only other switch I have considdered to be the equal of te Seiden but Shallco's have had a really evil detent that makes them feel a bit indutrial by comparison. I have been happy with the Seiden and customers have too but latest pricing (currencies again...) would put my landed cost for those at the current sell price - maybe a bit higher. This would mean a likely sell price approaching $200. The Shallco will likely land at about $100 sell price. The US made Shallco is every bit as good a switch and I am working with the detent spring to make the detent feel nicer than the stock shallco. Also part of this change the remote motor will fasten direct to the back of the switch like the DACT remote mod making that an easier install. Depending on final pricing I may be able to lower the kit and pre-built prices a bit when this change happens - likely on units ordered from now on. I will have this pricing sorted out very soon.
Further out I will also have remote control source select comming. The proto boards are done and tested so I would say that I can take orders now for that if anyone is into it and it will become the standard setup in about a month or so. I will be able to still do manual source selects (likely Shallco's or the curent Seiden model we use for source select) but the price for remote select will be the same or a bit less so....
I think that's it for now! I always feel bad about raising prices and will try and keep them as low as I can - adjusting best I can is costs go down or currencies change.
Many Thansk!
John Chapman
www.bentaudio.com
