Chronosonic XVX.

redandgold

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Jun 3, 2018
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Just a few points based on all the comments in this thread

As for used values, Wilson has for about 4 years now (officially, ad hoc for years before that) had a comprehensive trade in program in North America designed to treat the customer fairly as well as offer Certified AuthenticTM Wilson products to those who are interested. Certified AuthenticTM offers a used Wilson buyer a new buying experience with a used Wilson speaker. Since Wilson is willing to pay the dealer for a trade in based on actual retail market value, our used speakers not only reflect the market but insure that if the dealer does not wish to keep the trade in, Wilson will take it. Based on history ( we have been taking X2 and XLF in trade on WAMMs for a couple of years now), I would expect XLF trade ins to be in the 50%-65% of original retail range. Remember too that unlike a single retailer taking a trade in, Wilson Audio has a world wide network of established distributors and dealers who will happily buy a Certified AuthenticTM pair of Wilson speakers to sell to a client in their market.

Just a few points based on comments of metaphacts:

WA is operating worldwide in marketing and sales. So for earning money, there is no barrier outside USA. But showing service with your upgrade program you think national. Not very consistent.

Bad enough the prices for new WA speakers are 30% higher in europe (maybe taxes, but also sales policy of distributors). But if you want to upgrade to the new series, you are a second time the silly one.

In USA you get financial support by WA and dealer. Asking e.g. my local dealer in germany for trade-in, he laughed and offered me second hand marked price minus dealer spread.

So outside USA you are two times f...ed. In my opinion WA is still national focused. Sorry. If you want to operate worldwide, you should act globally and not divide in two classes. Even if your distributors are only business partners, WA has enough influence to install a general policy.

For myself I decided to spend my money in a huge amp upgrade instead of burning money in a new speaker.
 

XV-1

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May 24, 2010
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Just a few points based on comments of metaphacts:

WA is operating worldwide in marketing and sales. So for earning money, there is no barrier outside USA. But showing service with your upgrade program you think national. Not very consistent.

Bad enough the prices for new WA speakers are 30% higher in europe (maybe taxes, but also sales policy of distributors). But if you want to upgrade to the new series, you are a second time the silly one.

In USA you get financial support by WA and dealer. Asking e.g. my local dealer in germany for trade-in, he laughed and offered me second hand marked price minus dealer spread.

So outside USA you are two times f...ed. In my opinion WA is still national focused. Sorry. If you want to operate worldwide, you should act globally and not divide in two classes. Even if your distributors are only business partners, WA has enough influence to install a general policy.

For myself I decided to spend my money in a huge amp upgrade instead of burning money in a new speaker.

same in Australia except price is close to double. Not sure Wilson can offer the same program outside of North America. WA products are very large and bulky.
In the USA, the speakers can just be put on a truck and moved quite cheaply and refurbished by Wilson if necessary.

Overseas there is that thing called the ocean - so everything has to be air freighted around - extremely expensive and subject to all sorts of export and import charges.

you are comparing bananas with pineapples.
 

bonzo75

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Feb 26, 2014
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same in Australia except price is close to double. Not sure Wilson can offer the same program outside of North America. WA products are very large and bulky.
In the USA, the speakers can just be put on a truck and moved quite cheaply and refurbished by Wilson if necessary.

Overseas there is that thing called the ocean - so everything has to be air freighted around - extremely expensive and subject to all sorts of export and import charges.

you are comparing bananas with pineapples.

In EU, I often wonder why people buy anything American (and vice versa). There are so many local things that are awesome whether speakers, amps, phonos, TTs, carts, etc.. It just shows what marketing power can do. And no one globally does that better than the country of coke, Pepsi, McDonald's, Burger King, etc
 

spiritofmusic

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Jun 13, 2013
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Once we leave the EU, no point buying European either.
 

jeff1225

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Jan 29, 2012
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In EU, I often wonder why people buy anything American (and vice versa). There are so many local things that are awesome whether speakers, amps, phonos, TTs, carts, etc.. It just shows what marketing power can do. And no one globally does that better than the country of coke, Pepsi, McDonald's, Burger King, etc

It is relatively inexpensive to import things into the USA, with import duties being 1/2 of what they are in countries like Canada. I bought my Acoustic Signature Ascona from Elberoth in Poland.
 
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redandgold

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Jun 3, 2018
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In my case not really marketingpower (although WA is here really good). I compared for three years several speaker options. After release of the Alexia I was fallen in love with their sound and forget my plans with TAD Ref One.

In my opinion Wilson is still national focused „america first“, just count the number of dealers. But if you have the intention to tread all customers equal, you would find a solution together with your distributors. The market power of WA is in my impression strong towards their distributors.

Sometimes you get the feeling that in mind of Wilson it is fine if customers in asia, australia or europe want absolutely buy their speakers, but the efforts are to satisfy their home market.
 

microstrip

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May 30, 2010
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In EU, I often wonder why people buy anything American (and vice versa). There are so many local things that are awesome whether speakers, amps, phonos, TTs, carts, etc.. It just shows what marketing power can do. And no one globally does that better than the country of coke, Pepsi, McDonald's, Burger King, etc

Well. as far as I know, IMHO people in this forum ( I refer to those, not to the general public) buy what they prefer independently of marketing. And even after the distribution, shipping and VAT addition many US goods are highly competitive.

I have owned equipment from Japan, the EU and US and can not find any strong correlation between value for money and country of manufacture. But in general I have found that for equivalent price US and Japanese equipment shows better built quality than that manufactured in EU and I am sensitive to this aspect.

US manufacturers can benefit from an extremely large market and scale - most EU high-end is still not global. Although manufactured in EU, most times an EU country still has a local distributor and a dealer network.
 

metaphacts

Industry Expert
Feb 1, 2011
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Just a few points based on comments of metaphacts:

WA is operating worldwide in marketing and sales. So for earning money, there is no barrier outside USA. But showing service with your upgrade program you think national. Not very consistent.

Bad enough the prices for new WA speakers are 30% higher in europe (maybe taxes, but also sales policy of distributors). But if you want to upgrade to the new series, you are a second time the silly one.

In USA you get financial support by WA and dealer. Asking e.g. my local dealer in germany for trade-in, he laughed and offered me second hand marked price minus dealer spread.

So outside USA you are two times f...ed. In my opinion WA is still national focused. Sorry. If you want to operate worldwide, you should act globally and not divide in two classes. Even if your distributors are only business partners, WA has enough influence to install a general policy.

For myself I decided to spend my money in a huge amp upgrade instead of burning money in a new speaker.


You make some good points.

While the US is our largest single market, Wilson successfully exports Wilson loudspeakers to 45 countries.

Wilson Audio acts as the US distributor. However, the program which we have developed can be made to work, based on differing market eccentricities, by any distributor who so chooses to embrace it. We have modeled, encouraged, tutored, assisted to help them start their own versions of it. Some have, some have not as you have seen. Worse, some have never understood the actual math, which is the only way that the sad offer you received should ever happen. However, that has not stopped distributors from sending speakers back to Wilson for credit or from purchasing Certified AuthenticTM speakers from us to sell in their markets.

As for pricing, a distributor has local costs that he must bear that can and do raise the final price, including substantial freight, duties, VAT, etc depending on market. This is not unique to Wilson Audio, but certainly large, heavy loudspeakers offer more costly challenges than electronics do. We count on the distributor to engage the right dealers to create a successful, service based network. Our expectations are very high. Some are more successful than others.

While it would have been very nice to have another Wilson owner in the fold, congratulations on your new amp. I'm sure you are enjoying it - which is what this is all about in the first place.
 

spiritofmusic

Well-Known Member
Jun 13, 2013
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Was that Jeffrey_t in the video??

I noticed that Daryl said several times this is not the finished product or still a prototype when he discussed the lights
Is Jeffrey the impossibly handsome one? Not that I can judge such things myself.
 

sbo6

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May 18, 2014
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I g

i guess this begs the question, “ in what order of priority everything in a system contributes to the overall sound effect. Some say speakers. Some say amps. Some say Room. Etc etc
Speakers without a doubt. Power, source, amps, cabling all ultimately deliver an electrical signal to 2 speakers which gets converted to a physical representation of the original recording.
 

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