Fuck You, Australian Distributors
I have a pair of the fantastic Mackie HR824 MKI monitor speakers. They’re great, easily the best midprice monitor speaker on the market, in my opinion.
So naturally I was interested when the MKII was announced, especially since my MKIs are sitting thousands of kilometres away! And with the , surely the price would be reasonable, right?
WRONG!
Price in America: USD$599 = AUD$625.23 each = AUD$1,350.46 for a pair.
Price in Australia: AUD$2,999 for a pair.
The speakers are identical save the localised power cable. Voltage is switchable on the back. The Australian price is 220% of the American for the exact same fucking thing.
Fuck you, Australian distributors. The only way I’d pay you more than double the proper market price for a pair of these is if it included a free kick right in your useless, greedy faces.
UPDATE: annoyingly, on the mk2 the voltage is NOT switchable on the back, locking us into the Euro or AU model. I don’t know any good EU online stores but the list price is EUR€599, about AUD$995 each. I wonder what they cost in China - where all this stuff is made.
Anyway, the price difference with the US model would easily cover a huge stepdown transformer.
It infuriates me that these power compatibility issues even exist! It all just gets turned into DC internally anyway. Why isn’t there a range of standard interchangeable transformer modules on all electronics? Then they could just make the same thing a million times, and slot the module in as required. Methinks the savings gained by doing that would be outweighed by the arbitrage-style profits lost by being able to segment the markets, DVD Region style.
Tags: ARAT, australia, mackie, motherfuckers
December 5th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
That reminds me of recently when I went to Allans to buy something else and asked them why their damn Mackie HR624s cost more than AUD2000 when I could get them for $US420 or something each on the Internets. Apparently the price difference is due to their having to maintain staff and a bricks and mortar establishment. They also alluded angrily to the inferior quality of things bought on the Internet, risk of credit card details being stolen… at that point I broke off the ridiculous conversation.
I haven’t bought any new speakers yet, but I would go for the HR624s + HRS120 subwoofer over the 824s.
December 5th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
Well, that conversation is ridiculous, as we both well know!
Hm, I wouldn’t get the 624+subwoofer combo. Here’s why:
1. Too complex
It requires a much more complicated setup.
Instead of having to provide two audio feeds, a task easily accomplished with any OS and any standard audio interface, you now have to provide 3. This leads to more fucking around, more incompatibility, more leads, more power supplies, setup problems, etc etc etc .. I just don’t want any more of that kind of problem.Instead of 1 software (or hardware) volume control for the combined stereo signal you now have 2 for the stereo and sub feed, probably unlinked (or, worst case, you have to use the built-in attenuator on the sub - have fun walking across the room again and again to balance levels when you’re trying to watch a movie with friends).You need to use floor space for the sub (with all the wires), clean it all the time, place it properly so it doesn’t resonate .. god, too complex.I am rapidly reaching a point in my relationship with Technologickal Things at which I rank convenience and ease of use above pretty much any other factor; this holds true here also.
2. I don’t buy the aural theory
In theory, humans can’t tell where low frequency sound is coming from, or derive any stereo information from it. In practise the subwoofer kicks in well before this theory may come into play and, in my opinion, stereo information is definitely lost. In movies a low-frequency sound often emanates from a single channel, in music a low beat may come from the left or right. With a single subwoofer you kiss that goodbye.
3. I don’t have anything like the right environment for a subwoofer to improve anything
I live in an apartment with neighbours. I’m likely to for at least the foreseeable future. I can’t use the subwoofer properly, ie. loudly, anyway - making the preceding two points a pretty high price to pay for pretty much nothing gained.
A properly installed and set up subwoofer can make a great positive difference in the right, highly specified environment - a dedicated studio or a club or a cinema. For a room in an apartment it’s useless overkill, making it a totally needless bother IMO.
Furthermore, the whole point of buying these expensive studio monitor speakers is to provide excellent definition, tight response, and as flat as possible frequency curve. The addition of a subwoofer, in anything other than a highly tuned and calibrated environment, will completely wreck that - you may as well save yourself a couple of grand and pick up some JBLs.
And so that’s it.
The 824s have pretty good bass - I won’t bother saying it’s as good as a sub, because it’s not, but it’s excellent for their size, convenience factor, and other strong points - namely their excellent definition and flat response. The 624s are also good for their size but way below their bigger brothers - I’ve done extensive listening tests (though not of the new ones yet!). So, I’d get the 824s, and I’d probably import them from Europe, though I haven’t researched the cost of that yet …
December 5th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
Hm, upon looking into the HRS120 further it seems that it takes both channels and then thru’s them, negating most of my points about difficulty of setup. That does make it a lot more attractive.
But the other points stand!