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In Reply to: RE: B&W speaker prices soared posted by George S. Roland on May 29, 2025 at 10:37:41
I was this past week told by an importer that audio gear from the UK is now about 20% more expensive across the board than it was at the beginning of the year, because of tariffs and the (DUUH) Weakness of the Dollar as a currency, vis-a-vis the UK Pound.
Sounds about right to me.
Those economic impacts are completely in the form of "taxes," and therefore, while the Widget costs you more, none of that price increase is available to be dedicated to making the product better, so: don't expect that.
Follow Ups:
Actual figure is 10% for non-steel/aluminum and automobiles.
Manufacture has a part they used for 5 years now has a $30 increase, but the industry has its well defended by industry "5 times markup to support import and dealers", the cost is increased to end buyer to $150. Someone in the chain is making a $120 profit off that tariff.
So price increase is not solely "taxes", but subject to well established industry greed.
Yes, they might be using the tariffs as a cover for unjustified price increases, but we're still going to pay that much more because of them.
Mark in NC
"The thought that life could be better is woven indelibly into our hearts and our brains" -Paul Simon
The UK loudspeaker I speak of in particular was introduced in the US early this year. It was single-tier, direct from importer to consumer, only.
Retail at first was (I am rounding up by five or ten bucks) $2,000/pr. Importer cost was $1,200/pr. I was told that the new tariff was 10%, so that is $120 extra on the importer cost. Also, he told me that the fall of confidence in the dollar made it more expensive to pay in Pounds, by an equal amount.
So, Importer Cost went from $1,200 the pair, to $1,450 the pair. That makes the marked-up (by 1.66X)consumer price $2,407. Whereas the importer increased the price to $2,490. So, yes he padded by $83. Which also could have been an attempt to recoup shipping, in, out, or both.
The importer considers that speaker a Loss Leader, because he claims that the competing European small monitors are in the $3K to $4K price tier.
As far as I know, Steinway dealers mark up their pianos 2X. That is, the dealer pays $50,000 for a piano, and then you pay $100,000, for the same piano.
The Steinway dealer has to pay rent in a classy area with good demographics on the foot traffic. The Steinway dealer has employees, inventory costs, and overhead.
Both in the case of Made-in-UK loudspeakers, and analog hammers-and-keys pianos, there are cheaper alternatives.
Unfortunately, she's not on the piano, if ya know what I mean.
:)
Hey, btw, I'll be posting something in 'General' that I think you'll like.
*********
We are inclusive and diverse, but dissent will not be tolerated.
I dated a young lady once, and her answer, which I hope was at least a bit self-deprecating, to the "What Do You Really Want Out of Life?" question was:
"I want to watch soap operas all day, while eating chocolate-covered cherries."
I immediately conjured a mental image of her, with an extra 80 pounds on.
sj
My understanding is that design takes place in the UK. Top-of-th- line speakers are still made in the UK. Their less costly models are made in China.
As far as I know, B&W loudspeakers are still designed in England. I am somewhat confident that their more expensive loudspeakers are built in the UK, but I assume that their least expensive loudspeakers are built in Asia.
Case in point: JBL's L100 Revival large 3-way is, I have been told, entirely built in Indonesia, even though the cabinets might come from Malasia.
The ownership situation is different. As I understand it, even though this announced deal might not actually have "closed" yet, B&W was part of Sound United, which was acquired by medical devices company Masimo, which got cold feet, and sold the bundle to Harman International at a $600 million Loss.
Harman is an operating unit of Samsung.
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