HiFi Expensive in the Rip off UK

Is that the retail price there?

Most people I've had contact from in Australia say that audio down there is way more expensive than here.

I wish Spain had similar prices to the UK. Everything HIFI is at least 20% more expensive here. It's cheaper (when possible) to buy from Amazon and take their exchange rate hit and pay for delivery than to buy locally. So many UK distributors seem unwilling to open up to selling into Europe. In many cases, the 'single market' seems just non-existant.

As an example, the cheapest Denon CEOL Piccolo over here (within 30 miles) is way over 400 euros (about 340 pounds). A number of places in the UK are now selling it for 90 pounds less.

And decent dealers are rarer than rocking horse pooh!

This. Seeing as it's ebay there's a chance that someone is taking advantage of the strength of the Aussie dollar and those are grey/parallel imports.

Must be amazing in Australia with all that low priced high-end gear, unbiased dealers, magazines with no advertising.

I'll ignore that cheap jibe about "paid off magazines with advertising revenue", but here's the thing: as long as I've been involved in the hi-fi business (and that's now a frighteningly long time), the price of budget CD players, amps and particularly speakers has barely budged.

Want a decent pair of entry-level speakers for £200-250? Or a cracking CD player or amp for £300? No problem. And top-notch Blu-ray players below £100 are commonplace, while TV prices keep falling as their manufacturers continue to lose money.

And as for 'average gear', well we must live in different countries as the choice has never been greater IMHO.

I don't recall any sub £100 DVD players 5 years into its lifespan...

Andy  is correct, my Sansui AU G30X Amp was £200 just 25 years ago and the Denon 720 PM 720 AE has just come down to £199 . Heybrook Point Five speakers were £109 at the same time .Scooters are definately a rip off in Britain compared with Spain for instance , so are Train fares , but not Hi Fi in my opinion .

I think it depends how you look at it. The cost of building a real quality product properly has gone up, but the price of budget equipment has gone down.

i would be very happy with the UK prices, example.....

CA351A = €499,00 in Holland -->  £299 in UK schould be € 347,43 ...........

ik know, everbody in the delivery chain needs to earn on it.

There are no UK retailers dat do transport equipment  to Holland, (as far as i know) 

In Cardiff there are two National Hi Fi chain shops.  In one the Marantz PM 6004 is £279 , the Denon PMA 520 IS £179.99 and in the other the respective prices are £229 and £149 . These are budget Amps ,while the Arcam A19 at £649.95 is the same in both shops, they are less than 4 miles apart . One obviously subscribes to the model  pile it high sell it cheap and the other, sell less charge high . I don`t know whether you would term it an Inter City rip off ?

So why is the Arcam A19 now £650 - even though is made in China - whereas the A18 was around £500 (often less throughout it's product life) despite being made in the UK ?

Surely the extra expense of any improvements would be more than mitigated by the reduced cost of cheap Chinese manufacture.

In my youth "cheap" was associated with Japan and now Japanese engineering is rather highly thought of.  The world changes and doubtless in a few years China will be viewed in the same way and people will be complaining about cheap maufacturing from Peru or wherever.

Chris

When was your 'youth'?

In my youth Japan was associated with superior build quality and reliability in electronics, cameras, motorbikes, televisions, bullet trains, ships etc. and their cars couldn't possibly have been any worse than what Rootes or British Leyland were turning out!  (Ford & Vauxhall were a bit better but they were American.) 

The first Trinitron TVs colour sets were launched before I even started school and a year before colour television broadcasting started anywhere in the UK.   Sony Trinitrons became a byword for reliability compared to the junk made over here (mostly for the rental market under many 'badges' by Ultra in Gosport).  

Almost everyone rented British made televisions because they were so expensive to fix and so unreliable that TV rental company repairmen almost become members of the average family due to the number of visits necessary to keep their godawful TVs working!

British motorbikes were legendary for unreliability and poor build quality and dated design. I was still a child when the Japanese started winning almost everything in the motorcycle racing calendar.

Name me any decent british compact camera or SLR from the 1960s and 1970s that could get anywhere near Nikon, Olympus or Canon. All of the great British photographers from that era were using Japanese or German cameras.

I don't know, you'd have to ask Arcam that. I'm speaking generally, which won't be true in all situations.

I'm afraid my youth was well before colour tvs lol.

Chris