#66

Fair enough, it would be more precise for me to say that the latest monthly average is also the historical maximum monthly average.

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#67

curious to see how anyone can explain away/be cool with this kind of huge price hikeā€¦ eeesh

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#68

20 chars of Yikesā€¦

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#69

i heard the original screen was discontinued? i imagine if they had to manufacture their own screen to fit the existing units the costs would be really high.

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#70

Something is fishy in new pricingā€¦

#71

Screen tech and production has come along way since 2011.

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#72

Itā€™s likely a combo of the cost of the new OLED screen and an acknowledgement of the perceived value of the instrument in the market.

I thought it was expensive for what it is before, but I know how unpopular that opinion isā€¦

But the price may be entirely justified given the amount of work that went into it, and the cost of materials given the scale of manufacturing theyā€™re engaging in. I really have no idea.

As to whether itā€™s a worthwhile ā€œinvestmentā€ Iā€™m not sure Iā€™d ever choose that word to describe a musical instrument. A more pointed question might be ā€œis it a worthwhile instrument for my personal musical goals?ā€

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#73

I must admit Iā€™m waiting for the kind and informed people of lines to give me a rational explanation for this price bump of a magnitude I have never seen in my lifeā€¦ And if there is one, Iā€™ll also need an explanation for why they donā€™t publicly provide this explanation. This seemsā€¦ Iā€™m at loss with words here, really.

Edit: price indexation on resale value (in a period where the product was out of stock and rumoured discontinued) is NOT an explanation, it would just be cynism as a business model and I canā€™t imagine a firm like TE doing such a thing but maybe Iā€™m just naĆÆve and the world is that bleak.

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#74

this is a pretty big bummer! Iā€™ve been wanting an OP-1 for years but havenā€™t been able to justify the expense (not due to it being or not being a good value, it would just be the most expensive single piece of equipment I would own), and recently I have been scaling back the rest of my hardware in favor of a few things I really like, and I planned to get an OP-1 to fill that outā€¦and then the scarcity issue came up, so Iā€™ve been waiting. Now, I canā€™t help but think that theyā€™re just taking advantage of the inflation issue they openly denounced.

oh well! definitely first world problems, but a bummer nonetheless. maybe theyā€™ll find that people will only pay $2k+ when they think itā€™s gone for good, but will balk at $1300 if itā€™s in production. if that ends up being the case, perhaps weā€™ll end up back around $900-1000 in a few months.

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#75

It would probably be nice if TE would be more open in communication with what has been changed and why the price hike. But even with the old price it was rather expensive for me.

Also I am not a fan of treating instruments/music gear as ā€œinvestmentā€ for one I donā€™t think that it allows to earn that much in a short time compared to other forms of investment and also it makes harder to buy stuff for people like me that almost always buy used stuff.
I donā€™t know maybe I am more sensitive to such things than before but I feel that a lot more people treat synths now as investment. For example the day the that Moog announced that moogerfoogers are no longer in production they almost instantly disappered from shops stocks and used stuff portals and then started to reappear with price much higher than even the new ones.

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#76

Iā€™ve always thought TE was a little weird on price ā€“ just look at the accessories. Soft case $59, straps for the case an additional $49. ā€œAccessory walletā€ for the $15 or $20-a-piece plastic knobs is another $20 (it looks pretty similar to the kind that come free with $10 earbuds). Their audio cables are $19. Their wireless speakers are $999.

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#77

TE makes luxury goods for rich people. Definitely not a charity.

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#78

Yeah to be clear itā€™s not that I think they have ethic, their whole marketting aimed at rich cool kids convinced me otherwise, but I thought theyā€™d avoid bad publicity by at least not doing things that I findā€¦ in lack of a better word, disgusting and unjustified. So yeah, I thought they valued their image to some extent but maybe they really did not and as long as thereā€™s people buying their stuff theyā€™re just gonna sell them at whatever price they want depending on the cash they need.

PS : do we agree thereā€™s a gap between not being charity, being a company that produce expensive goods for people who can afford them (monome and mutable instruments certainly tick those boxes too I think) and what weā€™re witnessing here?

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#80

I honestly wonder to what extent they are trying to keep sales low with the price point.

(I donā€™t know the business well, but somehow Iā€™m guessing there would be also be a good money making move in slashing the op-1 price for a company that is setup to do very large production volumes. (Eg I wonder how Korg would price the op1 if it was their design.))

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#81

I agree that TE makes goods for ā€œrichā€ people if weā€™re considering the relative wealth of residents of the entire world, and I think we can all agree that there is an amount of privilege that accompanies being able to consider buying a $800 synthesizerā€¦

ā€¦but the only two folks I personally know who have/had OP-1s in my city are a teacher and a dude who works in a bar. hardly rich!

not to mention the PO series, which is very accessible, and their new modular line is pretty affordable, as well. I simply think saying that TE only makes stuff for rich people is a bit of an oversimplification. itā€™s not like weā€™re talking about a $400 toilet flush lever or something even crazier.

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#82

And the manufacturing techniques for the PO line reflect this emphasis on affordability. None of them have custom OLED screens.

#83

And on the other hand where I live the OP-1 is at least a few months of savings for most of the people (the mode of earnings where I live is around 394 dollars after taxes and you also need to subtract from this costs of living etc.), so I would still categorize their products as luxury and people that can afford them as rather well of. But this probably a part of a bigger problem when living in different countries with different wealth etc. we are exposed to the same products and the price is almost the same for any country in the world. There was a nice case in the past when for examples PC games could be sold cheaper in my country than everywhere else because they were localized and there were no option of english language so this made it impossible to buy it cheap in my country and sold them for more anywhere else, but I donā€™t think that this kind of localization could be done for hardware so it could be sold for prices relative to country wealth.

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#84

I can empathize with those who are shocked at the price increase, but after months and months of thinking that it was discontinued forever, at least theyā€™re still making them?

Also wondering if global manufacturing has been negatively affected by US china tariffs. Maybe that plus a custom screen added up.

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#85

i think thatā€™s a safe bet

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#86

I always thought the OP1 was a bit expensive for what it is (I mean, it does a lot of things but does not play well with the rest of the world), but $1300 is just ridiculousā€¦

If they had updated it to have better sync options and an external effects loop, etc. then why notā€¦

1 Like