Wondering if any of the folks in the UK have had good experience with a dealer of ATC speakers that would ship to the US. The price differential is crazy. For the SCM40v2 it is $6999. In the UK it is 3750GBP which when you take out VAT and add in the current exchange rate it is $3900 + shipping (3750 x .8 x 1.3).
I have reached a dealer (edited dealer name out; no reason to get them in trouble) in the UK, and they would clear it with ATC but didn’t see a problem, but I have never bought from them before so I am wary to purchase internationally without having someone who has experience with a dealer.
Same thing with a number of famed British speaker brands.
Eventually, I suppose, we will achieve globalization, but we seem further than ever from it these days in the US, so I’m not holding out for it in my lifetime. My studio monitors are ATC - the SCM25A (internally tri-amped), which the SCM40A’s are sort of the tower version of ($13k for the Towers of Power vs. $7k for the monitors). If you’re thinking of the studio monitors for home stereo use, I wouldn’t necessarily suggest it. The towers are a better configuration for home, and the newer ones have the new tweeter - which mine don’t have : (
I was fortunate enough to be on Paul’s Posts when Stevensegal put his Harbeth SHL5+ speakers up for sale, and I ended up getting a gently used pair for approximately UK price, all told. The problem these days is finding someone on the effing internet you can trust, as you could find yourself out of thousands of dollars with no recourse.
Thanks for the suggestion for towers, I was leaning that way and its good to know from someone with experience with both.
Yeah, the internet trust issue is huge. I did try talking with Musicdirect as they carry them, and are just awesome to deal with (Jon Schulman is at any rate), but he said that as they get them from the local distributor they cant even come close.
Also bear in mind that if someone is claiming to be a legitimate UK dealer who will sell to you, they are publicly (on the internet) outing themselves as someone who will sell outside the country, outside the dealer channels, so that right there should tell you something.
The price differential doesn’t entirely make sense to us in the US, but it is what it is at this point.
The price differential for in-country v. someplace else is difficult to understand and unfortunately prevalent. The prices asked for PS Audio kit outside of the States is depressing, even if fully justified.
Purchased my SCM40A’s from here and all my PS Audio gear, although he no longer stocks PS Audio gear. Stocks or can get the full range of ATC speakers. My SCM40A’s cost £6300. Bargain of the decade.
Veneet, totally agree with you, have noticed the same pricing model with Proac, Harbeth and now Spendor speakers. Interestingly, B&W charges about the same in the US and UK which brings me to my point. I work for a German car company and we are in essence the US importer. We pay less for parts than European dealers but not by much. We of course need to make a profit so we mark them up same as US distributors of UK made speakers. B&W distributes directly in the US and Canada so they skip the middle man markup.
Some more food for though, you should look up the US duty on speakers imported from the UK. Some are upwards of 10 to 20%. And, some states also add on their sales tax rate to imported items. Lastly, if you buy active speakers be sure to ask the UK dealer if the can get you the 120V version. Some can and some can’t.
Reading this, bear in mind ATC need to be switched internally to 110v. There may also be warranty issues. The higher prices in the US are likely to be as much due to higher dealer margins.
Eventually I ended up getting them by buying and shipping them myself from the UK it was definitely the best way I could figure out how to save on the total cost. UPS was expensive but if you have a company account it was 450 or so instead of 1800 they quoted for a personal account. Crazy…
Well done! I sent badbeef’s using a shipper that specialises in Audio by giving consumers fully insured corporate shipping rates. It makes all the difference.