B&W Speakers - prices abroad v Ireland

[Alltheyoungdudes]

I was in Germany last week and visited a few Hi-Fi retailers - mainly to drool! What struck me in particular were the much lower prices, especially on B&W speakers .

To give just two examples:

B&W 684 S2 - €519 (Cloney price: €1,099)

B&W CM8 S2 - €949 (Cloney price: €2,000)

This is a staggering difference - half the price in Germany!

While I'm always willing to pay that little bit more here to retailers for personal attention and after-sales service etc., this kind of differential doesn't make sense. I could drive over and still save money!

(PS: I took pics of the price tags - can't seem to post here but can email them if anyone wants them.)

[jkeny]

Welcome to Treasure Island :)

[markof]

I was in Germany last week and visited a few Hi-Fi retailers - mainly to drool! What struck me in particular were the much lower prices, especially on B&W speakers .

To give just two examples:

B&W 684 S2 - €519 (Cloney price: €1,099)

B&W CM8 S2 - €949 (Cloney price: €2,000)

This is a staggering difference - half the price in Germany!

While I'm always willing to pay that little bit more here to retailers for personal attention and after-sales service etc., this kind of differential doesn't make sense. I could drive over and still save money!

(PS: I took pics of the price tags - can't seem to post here but can email them if anyone wants them.)

Seems shameful alright.
What do you think the factors are in such a huge price differential?

I would guess that the anachronistic process of distribution through the UK would account for a quite a bit of this.

Mark.

[Diapason]

That seems a bit astonishing. Um, I've occasionally noticed on websites from the continent that prices are expressed per speaker rather than per pair. Any chance that's happening here? The reason I ask is that there are some brands where Cloney struggle to be competitive through no fault of their own (details on request!) but B&W is not one of them.

[Alltheyoungdudes]

That seems a bit astonishing. Um, I've occasionally noticed on websites from the continent that prices are expressed per speaker rather than per pair. Any chance that's happening here? The reason I ask is that there are some brands where Cloney struggle to be competitive through no fault of their own (details on request!) but B&W is not one of them.

It's a good point but in these cases it was definitely per pair - that was made clear on the price labels:

"Anzahl Lautsprecher: 2" - which translates as, "number of speakers: 2"

[Diapason]

Well, that's just mad! Half price!!

[tony]

Quick look online would suggest Cloneys prices for those speakers are spot on. Any dealings I had with them in general their pricing has been equal to and in cases often better than the UK and Europe. For example Cyrus kit, Spendor speakers and Nordost cabling. Their price on a Jadis Orchestra was close to the lowest I have ever seen it advertised for. Noel is a gentleman to deal with and they will happily provide loans and demo's.Noticed at times some of their stuff is not competitive but by and large for a company operating in a small market I would regard them as very competitive.

The speakers you saw are either price per single or the shop was just selling them at cost price for some reason imho.

No doubt there will be large retailers in the European market that may better Cloneys pricing but not by the price margin suggested above.

BTW Haven't bought a thing in Cloneys myself for possibly over 5yrs! Don't think Simon has ever bought anything there he just borrows stuff:)

[Claus]

Cloney prices are spot on with Denmark as well. In Denmark speakers are most often priced per speaker... I still suspect this to be the case in the German shop... Otherwise we should be buying them with resale in mind and making a little profit... ;)

[Sloop John B]

My daughter is on her Erasmus year in Germany so if you want to email me the pictures I can ask her to translate, it really does look like the one speaker issue referenced above.

What's the name of the shop?

Do they have a website?


I wouldn't be someone in her who would defend Cloneys too much but it does really seem they may be innocent here.


SJB

[Alltheyoungdudes]

My daughter is on her Erasmus year in Germany so if you want to email me the pictures I can ask her to translate, it really does look like the one speaker issue referenced above.

What's the name of the shop?

Do they have a website?


I wouldn't be someone in her who would defend Cloneys too much but it does really seem they may be innocent here.


SJB

I can't remember the names of all of the three places I was in, but one of the stores was Saturn - at the top of the Europa Centre on the K'dam in Berlin. It seems to be a cross between Curry's and Harvey Norman. It had a separate area, through a door, with very high end Hi-Fi including top of the range B&W's. They have a website - though the only B&W's I could find listed on it was a sound-bar. I took a handful of pics with my phone of the display with prices.
Will send a PM with my email...if you want to give me yours I'll send on a few of the pics.)

Just to add that I'm a long-time customer of Cloney and will continue to be - budgets permitting...I bought my 685's and Rotel amp there and couldn't be happier with the product and service. (I still have a Sound Organisation rack that I bought there in 1988 for my Dual 505!)

Just reporting what I saw with my own eyes. Perhaps I was imagining it all.