Aries Cerat DAC Review: Helene
- Thread starter Mr. Miyagi
- Start date
The Kassandra would be more appropriate to compare with the Poseidon as they share the same RRPIndeed … I thought it rather weird that for some reason the Aries Cerat Helene was showing up on a google search as $19.000 on a leading US web site and yet considerably less on most European and UK dealer web sites Viz :
Aries Cerat Helene DAC
Aries Cerat Helene DAC | Trade in Available | Interest Free Credit | Nationwide Installation Service Available | Aries Cerat Authorised Dealer + Stockistnintronics.co.uk
Hence @Stef ‘s post previously indicating a much wider RRP disparity between these two DACS that I myself seemed to recall ?!?!
North American distributor markup?Indeed … I thought it rather weird that for some reason the Aries Cerat Helene was showing up on a google search as $19.000 on a leading US web site and yet considerably less on most European and UK dealer web sites Viz :
Aries Cerat Helene DAC
Aries Cerat Helene DAC | Trade in Available | Interest Free Credit | Nationwide Installation Service Available | Aries Cerat Authorised Dealer + Stockist
Hence @Stef ‘s post previously indicating a much wider RRP disparity between these two DACS that I myself seemed to recall ?!?!
It's interesting how people always seem to forget the added expense of shipping to the US (usually requires air freight) plus import taxes/duties are different in different countries countries.
The concept that something should cost the same in all the different countries and regions where there are different costs of doing business in different countries is an uniformed notion.
Some larger companies choose to adjust their pricing to make it more consistent, but many companies don't. If a country is more expensive to do business in or more expensive to ship to that is no fault of the company.
True. Living down here at the arse end of the planet, international freight is a killer.
The other thing people forget is they do a conversion of exchange rate at the one moment in time and they expect it to be exact and constant.
The change rates can wildly fluctuate so typically distributors will price it a bit "safe" to account for their currency fluctuations.
That way there is more room to absorb the exchange fluctuations and not need to change the retail price on a near daily bases.
Companies budget an exchange rate for the year in their business plan and then their bottom line might be up or down at the end of the year based on that budgeted amount. Futures trading was devised with the intention of smoothing the fluctuations. Look what that got us.
But perhaps Musk will develop a rocket drone that can drop ship products to Australia in a few hours someday.
But perhaps Musk will develop a rocket drone that can drop ship products to Australia in a few hours someday.
I guess that the initial point was only to compare the prices of the Heléne and the Poseidon DAC. Since they are both European DAC they should land in each country with the same price difference. The Poseidon being more expensive it should be compared to the Kassandra.
Having said that, I really think that those 2 brands build gorgeous DAC with incredible sonic abilities.
Having said that, I really think that those 2 brands build gorgeous DAC with incredible sonic abilities.
What do you think about Audiodrom’s review of the Kassandra? Just a quick note: the review was done at Dream Audio, which sells Lampizator( Horizon was the part of the review), Pilium, YG Acoustics, and Stage Concept cables. They tuned the system to play at its best in harmony, and the results were still great.
By the way, there was another test in a home studio in Slovakia, where five people (including the owner) preferred the Kassandra over the Horizon. I just want to point out that the environment can make a big difference when reviewing.
So my other question is: is it standard practice to do reviews like this in a room that’s unfamiliar to the reviewer?
https://www.audiodrom.net/en/digita...es/895-aries-cerat-kassandra-ii-reference-dac
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Doing a "review" in a room that is completely unfamiliar to you is akin to making a purchasing decision based on walking into a strange unfamiliar hotel room at a show and basing your purchasing decision solely on that.
In other words - in my personal opinion - completely useless.
It's not standard practice. However, if you have enough time in front of the system and you can compare the component under review with other components in the same system, then you're basically describing the differences in sound that you hear. Which shouldn't be problematic.
Especially as every single review is just someone's opinion on what they do and don't hear in comparison to other components in their system. They're all just opinions that you can take or leave.
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