Richer Sounds - anyone got them to discount Cambridge Audio?

peskywinnets

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Strikes me they have a pseudo-monopoly wrt the CA range here in the UK.

One thing you can sure about monopolies...the margins are huge. The second thing you can be sure about monopolies...the monopolist doesn't discount (& why should he?! He's got a monopoly after all!)

Ok, to the question in my title....has anyone got Richer to discount on any Cambridge Audio product?!!!!
 
I got a bit of a deal on the Azur 540r V1 a couple of weeks ago, but that was essentially cos it's been superceded. They were trying to make out that it "used to be such and such a price so you're getting a good price anyway" but I just said "it's old stock and i'm doing you a favour by taking it off your hands" and they did me some free cables and connectors etc. Not really a discount per se, but I think you pretty much hit the nail on the head.
 
peskywinnets said:
Strikes me they have a pseudo-monopoly wrt the CA range here in the UK.

One thing you can sure about monopolies...the margins are huge. The second thing you can be sure about monopolies...the monopolist doesn't discount (& why should he?! He's got a monopoly after all!)

Ok, to the question in my title....has anyone got Richer to discount on any Cambridge Audio product?!!!!

far as i know they are the sole distributor, which if you like can be construed as a monopoly.......

however the products in question are already very nicely priced for their performance........or are you in the 'must have a Rolls Royce for the price of a Ford Fiesta without earning it' camp?
 
Knyght_byte said:
far as i know they are the sole distributor, which if you like can be construed as a monopoly.......

however the products in question are already very nicely priced for their performance........or are you in the 'must have a Rolls Royce for the price of a Ford Fiesta without earning it' camp?

Nah or I wouldn't have CA on my shortlist! I just hate the thought of them having a pseudo-monopoly (no matter how good the value is already!)
 
Audio Partnership own several brands. Cambridge Audio is one of them, and those products are exclusive to Richer Sounds in the UK but not outside the UK.

However, other Audio Partnership products (Mordaunt Short) are not exclusive to Richer Sounds in the UK, and so it is possible to find these products in quite a few places in the UK.

I was given a discount on a Cambridge Audio product that went in for a service after nearly five years of use after Richer Sounds had delays in receiving the spare part.
 
Here in France, Cambridge products can be found in many specialised shops.......................but they cost much more than in the UK :smashin:
 
peskywinnets said:
Nah or I wouldn't have CA on my shortlist! I just hate the thought of them having a pseudo-monopoly (no matter how good the value is already!)

a pseudo monopoly on products costing a couple hundred quid that perform as well as products costing the same......omg....shock horror, stop the presses, front page stuff!!!

perhaps it would make more sense to concentrate on the matter at hand, ie trying the stuff and either buying it or not buying it based on its merits and detractions......rather than attempting to confound other potential buyers with moral panic stories of companies that attempt to take over the world by being the only supplier of a brand of amplifer and CD player :eek:


actually, wait, forget that, do me a favour, go in to the subwoofer forum and say the same thing to the guys in there about AV-Sales being the only distributor of SVS subwoofers...please, its friday night, i've had a glass and could do with watching some blood run....LOL
 
endora said:
Here in France, Cambridge products can be found in many specialised shops.......................but they cost much more than in the UK :smashin:

I'm originally from Australia, currently living in Japan. While AV/Hi-fi stuff is typically a bit cheaper over here anyway, Marantz gear goes for about half the cost in Japan.
 
Knyght_byte said:
a pseudo monopoly on products costing a couple hundred quid that perform as well as products costing the same......omg....shock horror, stop the presses, front page stuff!!

whether it's a £1 item or a £10,000 item is irrelevant - monopolies are bad for consumers. End of.


Knyght_byte said:
perhaps it would make more sense to concentrate on the matter at hand, ie trying the stuff and either buying it or not buying it based on its merits and detractions......:


I'll concentrate on the monopoly aspect thanks, the purpose of the thread was to see if anyone had managed a discount on Richer's CA gear (over & above a £4.99 RCA to RCA cable thrown in for nowt!)
 
peskywinnets said:
whether it's a £1 item or a £10,000 item is irrelevant - monopolies are bad for consumers. End of.

ok, so go start a hifi business and ask CA if you can buy their goods to sell in the UK....


I'll concentrate on the monopoly aspect thanks, the purpose of the thread was to see if anyone had managed a discount on Richer's CA gear (over & above a £4.99 RCA to RCA cable thrown in for nowt!)

ok, i managed to get an A5 for £90 instead of £120 around 6 years ago (i think, cant remember exact date, oh and i mean Cambridge Audio A5, that ended up getting blown up by lightening a few years back....so its not the same A5 as in my sig, thats a Musical Fidelity A5...wee bit more pricey..lol)


there ya go.......

i think you'll find getting a discount has as much to do with how you handle yourself in the shop as it does the product in question.........i have gotten discounts on apparently non-discountable products in a hifi shop before now, and i'm talking products where its actively known that the manufacturer doesnt allow it, as opposed to the shop just having a monopoly and prefering not to.....

maybe if, as i say, you concentrate more on what you are talking about, the shop might recognise you have a genuine interest and are not just a bargain hunter, they might offer you a discount.....

food for thought ;)

edit: oh and even shops like Dixons actually have bargain levels they can deal with......have seen folks get up to 5% off equipment before now....plus other stuff chucked in on top....
 
I got them to throw in a Cambridge Digital Audio Lead worth £20 when i bought my DVD89 from them, big markup on the leads so discounts are easier for them to give you, worth a go!
 
Thank you all for your replies/comments....it seems that unless a CA item is end of line, the best I'll be able to pull off is some 'leads thrown in'.

As it goes, I think CA products *are* well spec'ed & great value for money...but that doesn't change things - I'm a consumer & there's a constant ongoing battle not to get stiffed by retailers! :D
 
I don't see how this can be construed as a monopoly, you can always buy another amp elsewhere.

BT, now that was a monopoly before Saint Maggie got her hambag out :)
 
damo_in_sale said:
BT, now that was a monopoly before Saint Maggie got her hambag out :)

Ah, but BT was simply a part of the Post Office known as Post Office Telephones (and other names throughout history).

That means the Post Office had a monopoly on communications because they dealt with TV and radio transmission up to a TV and radio transmitter (bit more complicated than that). The IBA/NTL/Aquiva or BBC/Crown Castle/National Grid back then managed TV and radio transmitters, though (i.e. from the transmitter to your home), but it was all nationalised then (i.e. a monopoly!). You could not even buy your own telephone because it had to be rented from the Post Office! :rotfl: I believe you could only choose a colour!!! :rotfl:

Think how lucky we are now! No choice in gas, electricity or telecoms! Imagine being told these days that you could not choose a moble phone and that you simply had a choice of colour! There would be uproar! :rotfl:
 
damo_in_sale said:
I don't see how this can be construed as a monopoly, you can always buy another amp elsewhere.

That's why I initially used the term pseudo-monopoly. Yes I can buy a different type of amp elsewhere, but if I want a Cambridge Audio amp, there's only one UK retailer...hence pseudo-monopoly.
 
peskywinnets said:
Thank you all for your replies/comments....it seems that unless a CA item is end of line, the best I'll be able to pull off is some 'leads thrown in'.

nope, you just need to learn how to talk to the folks in the shop to get a discount......its quite possible.....altho on products only costing a couple hundred there is far less margin than you seem to think exists........

dont forget, the shop does actually have to pay staff, rent, rates, plus various other overheads, oh sure they do make a profit as well, but then if you dont want them to make profit perhaps you'd be better off living in a communist country where everyone is equal and has equal economic validity......(or in other words 95% of the country is poor and the top 5% is stinking rich......compared to a capitalist country where the divide is more 40% poor, 40% living reasonably ok, 15% very nicely off and 5% stinking rich....)

personally, i'm happy with the capitalist situation whereby i have a decent chance of some kind of life even if it means handing over a little more than i'd prefer to a shop....lol
 
Recently bought samsung AV amp and HD860 DVD player along with a set of Tannoy home cinema speakers from Richer Sounds in Leeds i told the Gentleman i needed a 5m component cable for plasma install i was told they are £100 but he`d do me it at £30 and i quote "i am letting you have it at cost" which shows how much mark up is on cables i make that 210% profit not a bad days work!
 
123howley said:
Recently bought samsung AV amp and HD860 DVD player along with a set of Tannoy home cinema speakers from Richer Sounds in Leeds i told the Gentleman i needed a 5m component cable for plasma install i was told they are £100 but he`d do me it at £30 and i quote "i am letting you have it at cost" which shows how much mark up is on cables i make that 210% profit not a bad days work!
And which manufacturer's component cable was it?
 
123howley said:
Recently bought samsung AV amp and HD860 DVD player along with a set of Tannoy home cinema speakers from Richer Sounds in Leeds i told the Gentleman i needed a 5m component cable for plasma install i was told they are £100 but he`d do me it at £30 and i quote "i am letting you have it at cost" which shows how much mark up is on cables i make that 210% profit not a bad days work!

Personally I wouldn't believe a word of what he said...he probably took a loss on the cable (rather than give you the pleasure of a straight discount on the amp, DVD player & speakers)...anything to avoid the word being put about that you can haggle a good discount there!

BTW: Anyone paying 100 big ones for an AV cable must have Soros as their surname or (more likely) be inhaling '100% neat' Angel dust.
 
peskywinnets said:
Personally I wouldn't believe a word of what he said...he probably took a loss on the cable (rather than give you the pleasure of a straight discount on the amp, DVD player & speakers)...anything to avoid the word being put about that you can haggle a good discount there!

BTW: Anyone paying 100 big ones for an AV cable must have Soros as their surname or (more likely) be inhaling '100% neat' Angel dust.


more likely he still made a profit on the cable if it was one that richer sounds carries..lol

oh and it depends what AV cable, if you need a long digital cable, personally i'd rather spend enough to make sure its properly shielded and well made so the signal gets there, rather than fork out a bit less and find i get breakup/sparklies then have to buy another cable...lol
 
Have always dealt with Richer Sounds and never had a problem getting some sort of discount, and customer satisfaction always seemed to come first, Quote "" You can try at home has many speakers has you like until you are happy" i think i brought home 4 sets one at a time until i found the best speaker for my setup, they also give me 2 weeks satisfaction guarantee on my DVD89 and Azur 540R V2, now i call that a good service.
 
Are you saying you got them to discount something in the current Azur range?

I'd be surprised if they did - why would they....you can't buy the CA Azur range anywhere else in the UK!
 
Monopoly
A situation in which a single company or group owns all or nearly all of the market for a given type of product or service. By definition, monopoly is characterized by an absence of competition - which often results in high prices and inferior products.

I.e. microsoft windows, If you don't own this product then your ability to run and use other software could be reduced. (not that i'm saying MS has a monopoly)


also check out the RS website and stores.

640a (249.95)
640c v2 (£249.95)
902 i (149.95)

All selling for (£499.95)

my word, discount on CA gear.
 
That's fine if you happen to want Mr Richer to choose all three items for you (& *if* you want all three products)

But to my cynical, jaded eyes, it simply defines/represents a RRP price for the 'package'...ie they're still happy with the mark up at this 'package price'.....would they then discount on this package price? :D

I still doubt they'll discount any *one* single item of the current Azur (V2) range, however if you buy two CA items they might chuck in a cable they paid 45p for!

Re Microsoft.... well, Microsoft are the manafacturer & I can choose which retailer I want to buy any Microsoft product from (ie there's competition). With CA products, Richer Sounds are the retailer *but* are my only option in the UK...hence they have pseudo-monopoly.
 
peskywinnets said:
That's fine if you happen to want Mr Richer to choose all three items for you (& *if* you want all three products)

But to my cynical, jaded eyes, it simply defines/represents a RRP price for the 'package'...ie they're still happy with the mark up at this 'package price'.....would they then discount on this package price? :D

I still doubt they'll discount any *one* single item of the current Azur (V2) range, however if you buy two CA items they might chuck in a cable they paid 45p for!

Re Microsoft.... well, Microsoft are the manafacturer & I can choose which retailer I want to buy any Microsoft product from (ie there's competition). With CA products, Richer Sounds are the retailer *but* are my only option in the UK...hence they have pseudo-monopoly.

so, just as a thought, when sainsburys buy up a stock of a manufacturers wine so they are the sole reseller, do you then go in sainsburys and ask for a discount at the till? no.....yet they have a monopoly on that wine....(and before you say but you can buy lots of other wines, what if you like that wine? after all, there are plenty of other amps and CD players, but if you like CA gear, then cough up the cash or take a course in bartering, as unlike sainsburies, RS will discount if you do it right!)

remember, they might have a monopoloy (as you put it), but each store to get its bonuses still has to hit targets, if they are close but not quite, go in at the end of their working month and i bet you'll get £20 or so of a couple hundred pound amp......
 

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