[Photon46]

Mike, in May of last year you mentioned that ACi was working on r&d for a new floorstander. Just curious if this is still an ongoing project likely to bring a new product to market soon?

[Mike Dzurko]

Mike, in May of last year you mentioned that ACi was working on r&d for a new floorstander. Just curious if this is still an ongoing project likely to bring a new product to market soon?

Sorry for being so tardy here, yes there is news, just a lot of busy stuff going on, I'll try to get to it tomorrow

[griller]

Hey Mike, tomorrow has come and gone, any word?

[ajayrav]

Mike, in May of last year you mentioned that ACi was working on r&d for a new floorstander. Just curious if this is still an ongoing project likely to bring a new product to market soon?

Sorry for being so tardy here, yes there is news, just a lot of busy stuff going on, I'll try to get to it tomorrow

A floor-stander?????  What....where....

[Mike Dzurko]

We've done the large bulk of R&D for not one, but two really nice towers. At this time, we are in a holding pattern as far as proceeding with production. Our current building processes work great with small and medium sized speakers. Large speakers present some increased challenges and costs. Add to that the cost of bringing out new models, and yes, right now we are being very cautious. We've been on a big kick to evaluate and cut our costs wherever possible. We've done quite a bit of streamlining over the last 1/2 year or so, or you would have already seen some hefty price increases.

So, while the majority of development work is "in the can", we are not planning on releasing either of these models in the near future. We continue to explore how we could do it in a cost-effective way.

[griller]

Oh come on. It's only money! I think if you market it right, and it performs as well as other ACI products you'd have a winner. They just said today that the recession is over, so get this one in motion for when everyone's pockets start to loosen up soon!

[Eric]

Mike,

Looking forward to seeing what comes up as well

[vdejulio]

If you have the design worked out, and it sounds good why not build it to order.  If they start to sell and demand is high I am sure you will figure out how do build this as a standard production model.  I have been interested in an aci floor stander for a while.  Just constantly following the threads in this circle. Now a mention of a possible new design and it's already sqaushed? 

[Mike Dzurko]

If you have the design worked out, and it sounds good why not build it to order.  If they start to sell and demand is high I am sure you will figure out how do build this as a standard production model.  I have been interested in an aci floor stander for a while.  Just constantly following the threads in this circle. Now a mention of a possible new design and it's already sqaushed?

It's a good idea, however, the real issue is that building "custom" is roughly twice as costly as production building. I doubt that most folks would be willing to pay that pricing premium . . .

[vdejulio]

Mike,
You would know better than me.  This is a hobby for me not a livelyhood, with that said I completely understand.  However,  if you have a "template" for what you would build as a production model I would think the costly portion is done.  I can understand the finishing process costing more if it is not a bulk production model, Im sure you get a better deal having someone spray x amount of products rather than just one.  However if you build the cabinets yourself and have everything to build them and someone who knows how, I am sure people who really want an ACI stander would be willing to wait for a longer build time and would pay a higer premium for the cost of finishing process.  Just to clarify, when I say longer build time I mean someone who wanted the product would have to understand these are "custom" and they would be built when there is spare time with your regular production.  These are just my thoughts Mike, I think you would be suprised!  If someone really wants something especially in this hobby, more often then not they are willing to pay a premium (within reason) and are definately willing to wait.  I know I did this very thing.

[Mike Dzurko]

Mike,
You would know better than me.  This is a hobby for me not a livelyhood, with that said I completely understand.  However,  if you have a "template" for what you would build as a production model I would think the costly portion is done.  I can understand the finishing process costing more if it is not a bulk production model, Im sure you get a better deal having someone spray x amount of products rather than just one.  However if you build the cabinets yourself and have everything to build them and someone who knows how, I am sure people who really want an ACI stander would be willing to wait for a longer build time and would pay a higer premium for the cost of finishing process.  Just to clarify, when I say longer build time I mean someone who wanted the product would have to understand these are "custom" and they would be built when there is spare time with your regular production.  These are just my thoughts Mike, I think you would be suprised!  If someone really wants something especially in this hobby, more often then not they are willing to pay a premium (within reason) and are definately willing to wait.  I know I did this very thing.

I agree that if we built the cabinets on site, it might be feasible. However, we haven't built cabinets on site in probably 25 years. Insurance regs are part of that . . . IF we were to have the saws etc. on premise, the insurance is FAR higher than for final assembly. So, we've sourced cabs out for a long time. All the cabinet makers I've worked with, and there are a lot, all want not a little, but a LOT more to build in small numbers. It's all a matter of setup time. Another factor that enters in is packaging. Box companies will not do numbers under 25-50, and 100 is hardly any more costly.

We have thought long and hard about doing a semi-custom flagship model . . . but now we're talking about something that is likely in the $10K-$15K range on up. And yes, that would be a lot of fun for us.

I appreciate your ideas!

[Photon46]

Mike, all your explanations for caution undertaking the marketing of a new floorstander are entirely reasonable and logical. We live in a scary economic environment and a business wants to survive. Hopefully, better times will allow more breathing room for undertaking riskier ventures. I would imagine that a direct to consumer business finds it more difficult to convince consumers to part with big piles of green for a $5K and up truck shipped speaker as opposed to a $2K and under UPS/Fed Ex shipped product. I know it was a leap of faith for me to buy the Talisman SE from you. All this talk of ACI floorstanders does make me curious as to why ACI chose to discontinue the Talisman series? It occupied a unique market niche. Not too many sealed, partially active floorstanding systems for competitors that I knew of. It was, and is still is, a superb product at it's price point.

[Mike Dzurko]

Mike, all your explanations for caution undertaking the marketing of a new floorstander are entirely reasonable and logical. We live in a scary economic environment and a business wants to survive. Hopefully, better times will allow more breathing room for undertaking riskier ventures. I would imagine that a direct to consumer business finds it more difficult to convince consumers to part with big piles of green for a $5K and up truck shipped speaker as opposed to a $2K and under UPS/Fed Ex shipped product. I know it was a leap of faith for me to buy the Talisman SE from you. All this talk of ACI floorstanders does make me curious as to why ACI chose to discontinue the Talisman series? It occupied a unique market niche. Not too many sealed, partially active floorstanding systems for competitors that I knew of. It was, and is still is, a superb product at it's price point.

I apologize, I missed your question! The Talisman SE is a very cool speaker. What it comes down to is that to make adequate profit, we would have needed to raise the price by somewhere around 30-40%. Why? 1) It was underpriced to begin with based on our cost estimates before we had actual production costs. 2) Our cabinet vendor wanted a major price increase on the next batch of cabinets. 3) Our amplifier OEM raised the price approx. 30%. 3) The cost of all European built drivers and crossover components was going up significantly. Sure it still would have been worth the higher price, but we felt we probably would not sell the numbers needed to make it a go. So those, (like you), who bought, got a tremendous value, but you already knew that

[Eric]

Mike,

Any thoughts on ever bringing the Jags back

[Mike Dzurko]

Mike,

Any thoughts on ever bringing the Jags back

Eric:

I've learned to be careful with the word "never". Right now I don't see it happening anytime soon. Large, heavy speakers just cause all kinds of production issues for us. BTW, if we were to just build the Jag/LFM/LE the same as we used to, it would need to sell for around $10K to be profitable.