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Gear / Technical Help => Battery Boxes, Preamps, Mixers, ADCs, and Processors => Topic started by: acidjack on December 05, 2012, 04:17:53 PM

Title: Did SD just raise the price of the USBPre2?
Post by: acidjack on December 05, 2012, 04:17:53 PM
I haven't kept much track of this since I got mine, but I thought it was $650 when they introduced it.  It's $50 diff from the price of the MixPre-D now:  http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/USBPre2?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=PPC&utm_campaign=none&gclid=CNjjlpGThLQCFQHonAodyFcA9A (http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/USBPre2?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=PPC&utm_campaign=none&gclid=CNjjlpGThLQCFQHonAodyFcA9A)  How long has that been the case?
Title: Re: Did SD just raise the price of the USBPre2?
Post by: hi and lo on December 05, 2012, 04:25:02 PM
Yes. I got a Facebook message from Gotham Sound last week saying prices were going up across the board.

Quote
Earlier today Sound Devices announced a price increase to audio and video products for US Dealers effective immediately. Price increases for 7 - series products will not go into effect until January 1, 2013.
Sound Devices now offers a 2 year warranty on their products.
Title: Re: Did SD just raise the price of the USBPre2?
Post by: Todd R on December 05, 2012, 05:09:51 PM
Wow, 30% price increase! :o

Glad I finally decided to pick up a USBPre 2, got it a couple months ago -- seems like a bargain of a price in comparison.
Title: Re: Did SD just raise the price of the USBPre2?
Post by: F.O.Bean on December 05, 2012, 05:19:44 PM
Damn, even the 7xx units ???
Title: Re: Did SD just raise the price of the USBPre2?
Post by: NOLAfishwater on December 05, 2012, 07:23:06 PM
Hello Sound Community!

Earlier today Sound Devices announced a price increase to audio and video products for US Dealers effective immediately. Price increases for 7 - series products will not go into effect until January 1, 2013.
Sound Devices now offers a 2 year warranty on their products.
Here's the breakdown:

Effective January 1st:
  New   
702: $1,975.00
702T:   $2,595.00
722: $2,595.00
744T:   $4,195.00
788T:   $6,395.00
788T-SSD:   $6,649.00

Effective Immediately:
302: $ 1,595.00
552   $ 3,295.00
664   $ 4,595.00
MixPre-D   $ 899.00
USB Pre 2 $849.00

PIX 220i    $2,295.00
PIX 240i    $3,295.00
PIX 260i    $5,625.00
Title: Re: Did SD just raise the price of the USBPre2?
Post by: F.O.Bean on December 05, 2012, 08:06:59 PM
Thats CRAZY!!!! Who do they think they are? Schoeps :P
Title: Re: Did SD just raise the price of the USBPre2?
Post by: H₂O on December 05, 2012, 09:23:41 PM
This makes the Aeta 4minx that much more attractive  :P
Title: Re: Did SD just raise the price of the USBPre2?
Post by: page on December 05, 2012, 11:17:13 PM
Wow, 30% price increase! :o

Glad I finally decided to pick up a USBPre 2, got it a couple months ago -- seems like a bargain of a price in comparison.

yeah, but we all thought it was a crazy deal at 650 too (for most intents and purposes it's basically a 702 without the recorder element at 1/3rd of the price). Guess they finally wised up.
Title: Re: Did SD just raise the price of the USBPre2?
Post by: DigiGal on December 06, 2012, 12:00:56 AM
Whoa, the MixPre-D just went up $150 overnight, glad I purchased well before this price hike.

Their power supplies went up to $98.40, if you're looking for an alternative I've got two in the YS that are better than SD's.

http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=158860.0
Title: Re: Did SD just raise the price of the USBPre2?
Post by: acidjack on December 06, 2012, 02:44:57 PM
This makes the Aeta 4minx that much more attractive  :P

Yeah, it certainly doesn't make me want to look at competitors less....

Anyone know the reason for the price hike? 
Title: Re: Did SD just raise the price of the USBPre2?
Post by: Marshall7 on December 06, 2012, 03:48:08 PM

Anyone know the reason for the price hike?

I would guess the usual:
- rising cost of parts
- rising labor costs
- longer warranty = more repair work done for free
- greed  ;D
Title: Re: Did SD just raise the price of the USBPre2?
Post by: Marshall7 on December 06, 2012, 03:50:48 PM
This is interesting:

"While most of the items we sell ship for free, Sound Devices doesn't allow free shipping for their products."




Title: Re: Did SD just raise the price of the USBPre2?
Post by: DigiGal on December 06, 2012, 06:19:20 PM
This is interesting:

"While most of the items we sell ship for free, Sound Devices doesn't allow free shipping for their products."

Who's "we"? 

Unless it's a mistake Sweetwater is still listing free shipping on the MixPre-D and few odd SD accessories but not on most SD Products. 

B&H and Full Compass still have free shipping (USA) listed for most SD products.

Wish MAP pricing would go away.

The new prices have not been posted on the Posthorn Recording site yet, if you are quick and lucky you may be able to get the old pricing there since that is what's currently advertised.


http://posthorn.com/Sounddev_mixpred.html

http://posthorn.com/Sounddev_usbpre2.html
Title: Re: Did SD just raise the price of the USBPre2?
Post by: OOK on December 06, 2012, 07:37:08 PM
I thought 750$ was a good price for the mix-pre-D but 899$ I am not so sure now that is worth it.....    OOK
Title: Re: Did SD just raise the price of the USBPre2?
Post by: DigiGal on December 06, 2012, 08:23:22 PM
It reminds me of buying my car new from the dealer and one year later they offered to buy it from me for more than I paid for it.

The MixPre-D is a solid piece of gear, $750 was a nice deal and it is worth the new price but glad I got it when I did. One way to look at it now though is that it's only $50 more than USBPre2, when I bought the gap was larger. MixPre-D met my needs better than USBPre2 so that's the way I went. It seems more folks here went for the USBPre2 but price difference between the two could have been a big factor in that.
Title: Re: Did SD just raise the price of the USBPre2?
Post by: Marshall7 on December 06, 2012, 08:45:12 PM
This is interesting:

"While most of the items we sell ship for free, Sound Devices doesn't allow free shipping for their products."

Who's "we"? 


That quote is taken directly from the product description on Sweetwater's site.
Title: Re: Did SD just raise the price of the USBPre2?
Post by: Todd R on December 06, 2012, 09:59:37 PM
It reminds me of buying my car new from the dealer and one year later they offered to buy it from me for more than I paid for it.

The MixPre-D is a solid piece of gear, $750 was a nice deal and it is worth the new price but glad I got it when I did. One way to look at it now though is that it's only $50 more than USBPre2, when I bought the gap was larger. MixPre-D met my needs better than USBPre2 so that's the way I went. It seems more folks here went for the USBPre2 but price difference between the two could have been a big factor in that.

Price differential with the MixPre-D was not a factor at all for me getting a USBPre -- I owned the SD MP2 many years ago (pretty damn close to a MixPre analog) and didn't really care for another SD transformer preamp.  I wanted the USBPre since it is supposed to be very close to a 702/722 which I've also owned.

That said, I have a hard time with $850 for a USBPre, since that is the going rate for a Lunatec V3, and that is what I sold my optimod V3 for. At the same price, I might easily have decided just to hold on to the V3. The USBPre does make a nice piece of playback gear as well as recording gear though.

Title: Re: Did SD just raise the price of the USBPre2?
Post by: acidjack on December 06, 2012, 10:11:53 PM
I like the USBPre for the transparency and the USB powering. It's a versatile unit, compact, and didn't ship with a polarity problem [ducks]. At $650 it was a great deal, but I'm not sure it's a bad deal now.

Also, as was pointed out to me, SD has not changed prices since 2005. 7 years seems like a reasonable time for an increase.
Title: Re: Did SD just raise the price of the USBPre2?
Post by: DigiGal on December 06, 2012, 10:26:08 PM
I considered a V3 but no headphone amp was a deal breaker. Also looked at USBPre2 but there were suggestions that it's headphone amp wasn't great, it also didn't allow for tape return to use for confidence/recorder playback or handle a matrix if desired. All set with a nice playback DAC so that wasn't a factor and wouldn't want to deal with tearing apart DAW playback setup to use it in the field but I'm sure that works out fine for some people. With the MixPre-D you can power it with external battery, AC Adapter or internal "AA"s the later is useful for redundancy when running external. Not evereryone's needs are the same though so it's nice they offer both.
Title: Re: Did SD just raise the price of the USBPre2?
Post by: page on December 07, 2012, 01:15:39 PM
At $650 it was a great deal, but I'm not sure it's a bad deal now.

This. It's not as good a deal as it was, but if I was in the market and wanted a super clean amp/adc, it would still make my A-list, but the race is tighter...
Title: Re: Did SD just raise the price of the USBPre2?
Post by: Todd R on December 07, 2012, 01:54:19 PM
At $650 it was a great deal, but I'm not sure it's a bad deal now.

This. It's not as good a deal as it was, but if I was in the market and wanted a super clean amp/adc, it would still make my A-list, but the race is tighter...

Yes, this is very true.  The USBPre is an excellent piece of gear.  I spent $1500 for my Lunatec V3 new, then spent another $200 to get it opti-modded.  With that in mind, $850 for the USBPre doesn't sound bad at all.

My difficulty even in getting the USBPre, which I debated forever, was that my V3 sold on the used market only with batteries/cables is only worth $800-850 it seems.  Switching over to a USBPre from a V3 and needing to spend money to do it (shipping of the V3, batteries for the UB2) to me seems hard to swallow as I remain a huge fan of the V3, even though I don't own one anymore.

But for a piece of gear that offers as much as the USBPre does, and with the excellent sound it has, $850 is certainly in the realm of reasonable.
Title: Re: Did SD just raise the price of the USBPre2?
Post by: kirk97132 on December 07, 2012, 03:51:56 PM
Todd, gotta be careful.  There is a USBPre AND a USBPre-2 which are completely different animals......
Title: Re: Did SD just raise the price of the USBPre2?
Post by: Todd R on December 07, 2012, 05:25:15 PM
Todd, gotta be careful.  There is a USBPre AND a USBPre-2 which are completely different animals......

Yep, absolutely -- I'm just being lazy in my typing since I thought it was clear that the USBPre 2 was the topic of conversation.  As people come back to threads and are only reading specific posts, you're right, better to be specific.  The USBPre (original) offers little that I am interested in.
Title: Re: Did SD just raise the price of the USBPre2?
Post by: hammerhorror on December 08, 2012, 12:24:40 PM
I'm happy that I got my SD 664 before the price increase. Saved $600 bucks!
Title: Re: Did SD just raise the price of the USBPre2?
Post by: rastasean on December 10, 2012, 02:59:51 PM
While the price difference between the D and usb2 is only $50, you still have to chalk up so much cash to get either one. I think  tapers should take a look at the naiant products, especially next years releases with USB and whatnot, but then again people don't mind putting some cash down on preamps like the grace v2 and v3.
Title: Re: Did SD just raise the price of the USBPre2?
Post by: DigiGal on December 10, 2012, 06:45:03 PM
This is interesting:

"While most of the items we sell ship for free, Sound Devices doesn't allow free shipping for their products."

Who's "we"? 


That quote is taken directly from the product description on Sweetwater's site.

Interesting that sweetwater still lists free shipping for MixPre-D.
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MixPre-D