Sugden back dated price rise and lead times.

[Aspro]

I ordered an A21 Signature at the end of last September and was quoted a 32-36 week lead time.

Last month Sugden announced a 10% price rise which was not surprising but unusually this applies to previously received orders which I was not expecting and seems to be out of line with general practice in the industry.

That was the bad news. The good news was that my arrived last week - a wait of 23 weeks.

Happily Lynn and Kevin at Definitive Audio kindly agreed to hold to the previous price so a good result at the end of the day.

Definitive Audio are also the manufactures of Living Voice speakers. The A21 is probably the cheapest item they sell but some customers use it to drive their £7k speakers.

 

[hifinutt]

Thanks for update . Yes the a21se was utterly superb driving the 6k tannoy eatons , easily suitable on any range of speakers

Everything is going up . A loft conversion here was 50k just before covid and is now 90k !! Cost of materials rocketing

 

[myles]

I have an A21 Signature arriving on Monday. I'm looking forward to seeing how good it's going to be with my Turnberrys - my older A21a is no slouch.
How are you getting on with it?

 

[narabdela]

Back dated price rises on orders already received is very poor form.

 

[linnfomaniac83]

Back dated price rises on orders already received is very poor form.

I thought that, Phil at Cheshire Audio said in his video that he was honouring the price at the time of ordering for his customers too.

 

[Gza]

I placed an order for the a21se with audio affair last month, hopefully they'll honour the original price.

 

[Muttley2]

This is a sign of the times. Lead times on components are so long that by the time they are delivered prices in many cases have risen at least once and not by a small amount. In an ideal world you wouldn't want to pass this on but on the other hand if you don't companies may well go out of business.

 

[gavreid]

10% is quite a small price rise compared to others just announced! Enjoy the new amp @Aspro

 

[myles]

This is a sign of the times. Lead times on components are so long that by the time they are delivered prices in many cases have risen at least once and not by a small amount. In an ideal world you wouldn't want to pass this on but on the other hand if you don't companies may well go out of business.

Any business needs to control their order book. You balance appetite for losing a bit of profit against volatility of the supply chain. If Sugden can only forecast how much it costs to man an unit for up to the next two weeks (for example), that's how big their order book should be.

Quite simplistic I know.

 

[Woodface]

10% is quite a chunk for a retailer to absorb, especially after such a long lead time

 

[gustav_errata]

Back dated price rises on orders already received is very poor form.

Off-topic but I've been hit with something even worse: retroactive pay cuts (thanks to being a publicly funded PhD student in Spain perfectly coinciding with the financial crisis)

 

[myles]

Off-topic but I've been hit with something even worse: retroactive pay cuts (thanks to being a publicly funded PhD student in Spain perfectly coinciding with the financial crisis)

Wow! How are they even going to implement the money grab?

 

[gustav_errata]

Wow! How are they even going to implement the money grab?

All of my salary payments for the rest of the year were severely reduced to accommodate the actual pay cut plus whatever I "owed" for the retroactive cuts going back several months.
(Sorry, my wording wasn't clear: this was ~2012-2013, in the depths of the crisis. I'm doing fine now!)

 

[Mike Reed]

Surely, one's contract is with the retailer and, unless there is a specific clause re. manufacturers' increases when you ordered, you are liable only for the price in your contract; not something further down the line.

Have to say that everything I've read (here, mostly) about Sugden amplification has been very positive since I hunted for a class A replacement when one of my valved amps went down 18 months ago. Not sure if big ESLs would present a problem (even with the 40 w.p.c. power amps), but I'm fast coming to an age when I'll need to simplify my system and even possibly go back to moving coil speakers (pros and cons).

 

[myles]

All of my salary payments for the rest of the year were severely reduced to accommodate the actual pay cut plus whatever I "owed" for the retroactive cuts going back several months.
(Sorry, my wording wasn't clear: this was ~2012-2013, in the depths of the crisis. I'm doing fine now!)

You were clear enough. That's pretty low isn't it? I'm glad you managed to work through it.

 

[Mike Reed]

retroactive pay cuts (thanks to being a publicly funded PhD student

Wow! A cut to the D (dinarius) leaving you Ph (philosophical). I assume this is a cut to the student grant?

Okay, just read your last post, but just a bit of analytical humour on my part.

 

[pocketkitchen]

Surely, one's contract is with the retailer and, unless there is a specific clause re. manufacturers' increases when you ordered, you are liable only for the price in your contract; not something further down the line.

Have to say that everything I've read (here, mostly) about Sugden amplification has been very positive since I hunted for a class A replacement when one of my valved amps went down 18 months ago. Not sure if big ESLs would present a problem (even with the 40 w.p.c. power amps), but I'm fast coming to an age when I'll need to simplify my system and even possibly go back to moving coil speakers (pros and cons).

You’re quite right with the contract stuff from the customer to the retailer. However, what the manufacturer has done here is take orders from retailers at the old price and then say that they’ll only supply at a higher price. I’m aware of one retailer that has issued a refund to a customer and ended their relationship with Sugden as a result. There’s never much dissent about the quality of Sugden product. Their interactions with people are sometimes a bit different!

 

[Aspro]

I have an A21 Signature arriving on Monday. I'm looking forward to seeing how good it's going to be with my Turnberrys - my older A21a is no slouch.
How are you getting on with it?

I think it's pretty special - well worth the wait and the cost especially if it's the antidote to box swapping. I'm hearing more from my records even with the modestly priced onboard MC/MM phono stage (£165). it's very detailed, dynamic and engaging and provides effortless volume to my 87db Pearl Acoustics Sibelius speakers in my 6x5m room. It proves Mr Arkless is right about there being no class A sound.

 

[hifinutt]

wow ... pearl sibelius .... thats an exceptional speaker . thats on my bucket list to listen to having been entranced by frugalhorns