Ordering a Bokrand Tonearm

[Kjetil]

Alfred was answering from [ alfredbokrand (at) yahoo (dot) de ] as recently as the 23rd. Try that. Your order might have slipped through the net. There are reports of similar circumstances earlier in this thread.

...
A comment to what @adrianywu wrote: A heavier shell closer to the pivot is "better" if you want to reduce the arm's effective mass. One upside of having a lighter counterweight on these arms is that it is easier to fine tune the downforce. I haven't seen any measurement supporting the "closer is better" argument.

 

[christoph]

First post. Been lurking and reading this thread since July.

Ordered a J-bend 230 15. august through ebay.
A neighbor friend ordered a banana 309 plus a Garrard 401 for it (exactly...) and we agreed to bundle the shipments. The 401 is ready, but the arms have had several delays.

The most recent deadline Alfred has given us is today.

Here everything is ready for the arm. A Thorens TD 125 Mk. II with an Andyjay control board that does 78 rpm, Konne Design corian SME arm board, an SME/20 mm Sorane style arm base, one threaded an one unthreaded Audio-Technica 13 g headshell, and a Mogami mini starquad based arm cable from Y. Tomé

Hello Kjetil

Welcome to the What's Best Forums.

Cheers,
Christoph

 

[Bjorkvald]

Alfred was answering from [ alfredbokrand (at) yahoo (dot) de ] as recently as the 23rd. Try that. Your order might have slipped through the net. There are reports of similar circumstances earlier in this thread.

Thanks, i tried using that now. weird thing to hope for, but lets hope you are right. I’ll keep you posted

 

[MarcusD]

Did you order direct or through eBay?

Ebay

 

[Walter66]

I have been using Alfred's arm for about 6 months now. I must say it has very low distortion, and the bass is clearly better than my SME3012; more extended and has more weight. I have been doing comparisons between my LPs and tapes, and some LPs are holding their own against master tapes.

Thats no wonder. This tonearm uses good arm bearings instead of the edge knife style the Ortofon uses. Once I came about a 3012 and didn't had the need to use it. In those cases, the object often becomes part of my interest to deconstruction.

What I saw with it was very thin arm aluminum and all parts looked like toys, so small and fragile. But to lead an Ortofon it need an iron hand in velvet gloves. And that was it with the famous 3012 for me. It went to the garbage after deconstruction. Never understood why this tonearm is so hyped. It has many parts audiofools can play around with and frickle around with no ending but its design IMHO is ill fated from the core.
But it worked OK with the mediocre sound of those outdated audio gear oldtimers. Today it's sonic limits are clearly audible.

Only trust your own ears and never any other audiophile legends they spin around products that were consumer sh**t in the early days of hifi.

 

[Bjorkvald]

Thanks, i tried using that now. weird thing to hope for, but lets hope you are right. I’ll keep you posted

Alfred reached out to me through eBay, seems like the arm is soon to be sent . Lets hope he will be ok

 

[Lars]

Hello everybody! This is my first post here and I wish I didn´t have to write it. Before ordering I made a google search, found this thread and thought "well most of them don´t seem to have any major trouble receiving their arms" so I took the chance. Guess I´m one of the unlucky ones! I ordered a tonearm from Alfred on April 14. In mid July he sent me a mail asking what colour I wanted. Then nothing happened so in early October I tried to contact him. He answered very nice and politely and said that he would soon send my arm. Everything went fine and the arm was to be picked up by the courier on October 18. He sent me tracking number and everything seemed ok but on the 18th the tracking page was updated and the package was not ready for pickup. Since then I can´t get an answer from him. Now I want some advice from you guys since you have recieved your arms. What would be your next move? I´m really concerned about his health!

Thanks in advance

 

[Walter66]

Alfred is a retired person, he does this for his hobby in spain, don't know if he even has a business there.
Once I had contacted him some years ago, needed a very long, 16 incher tonearm. He said, that it's hard to make those.
Later, he offered them to order on internet. Some people are lucky with him, some had difficulties to contact or with the goods they received.
In the end, this is a hobbyist's hobby to produce tonearms. You can't deal with them as you deal with a pro company. They think different, so if you've paid already in advance, it's only negative feedback that could be given on any ebay purchase. But I think he is a reliable and trustfull person, it's just that he hasn't this prompt and fully satisfaction for any customer care behaviour, he is an older man with a solitude behaviour. I would say, give him more time, it's a very good chance to become in the end what you paid for. But for a person who counts every day of deliverance, it must be a pain to deal with him.

 

[djsina2]

I heard from him on Oct 26th then he disappeared.

 

[Kjetil]

Oct 30 is the most recent communication report.

I did a calculation on mean delivery time from what’s been reported in this thread and came to 87 days. But I removed the ones that had been misplaced before doing it.

I propose a toast to Alfred’s health.

 

[mtemur]

I didn’t order anything from Bokrand but according to what I read on this thread it’s not a pleasant experience.
IMHO under these circumstances it’s better to stop ordering tonearms from Bokrand and warn people not to. Not delivering a product in promised time or selling more products than you can manufacture are not inline with decency. Even if he is doing this job as a hobby he still needs to fulfill those requirements and answer customer e-mails immediately. If he is busy with manufacturing orders he should stop taking more. While manufacturing tonearms if he couldn’t answer e-mails and manage his business then he should hire someone to deal with them. This way he can concentrate on manufacturing tonearms only. Another option is manufacturing a number of tonearms and listing them afterwards and stop taking orders in advance.

I know it sounds harsh but if you can not finish the job in time you pay a certain amount of fee according to any business contract. Not delivering a product right on time equals to delivering it incomplete.

 

[djsina2]

Needs to raise the price 2-3x to limit demand. A quality tonearm for under $1k USD makes no sense.

 

[bonzo75]

Needs to raise the price 2-3x to limit demand. A quality tonearm for under $1k USD makes no sense.

wow it’s that cheap? Have been reading about it forever had no idea about the price

 

[djsina2]

wow it’s that cheap? Have been reading about it forever had no idea about the price

550 GBP if you buy direct from him for the 12” J shape.

 

[christensenleif@msn.com]

Needs to raise the price 2-3x to limit demand. A quality tonearm for under $1k USD makes no sense.

tha DaVA story all over again
no street cred if too cheap

 

[djsina2]

tha DaVA story all over again
no street cred if too cheap

It’s not that, but he clearly can’t keep up with demand by essentially giving them away. I mean it’s a wonderful charitable offer but then it leads to threads like this.

 

[Walter66]

Alfred is a private seller and producer in one person. It's a one man show, all done by a retired old man. He can't hire anyone else, that would lead to a different business model, more pro-like. The same tonearms would cost 2-3 times then. There are people in the business that don't reply every email immediately, that's an ideal not every pro- company can deliver, too. Maybe he has health issues and don't want to frighten his customers.
We don't know, I watch his business since years, he is a good person, although not the most reliable one. You have to deal with that when doing business with him. I never did for some reasons.

 

[Artnet]

I have the fortune of having a Bokrand Arm.
In terms of delivery I did wait more that 90 days for it to arrive and was very happy with the item when it did and slightly relieved also.

My desire to have one of Alfred's tone arms was and is about his Artisan approach, a renovated classic that can deliver great music.

Alfred's rationale to supply a great quality and very affordable tone arm is not known to me but am going to assume its because he can.

I am cautious of consumer business models in Audio that can become dislocated from the Music experience and attracted to builders with this hands on approach that I can afford. Would I buy it at twice or 3 times the Price? For the experience possibly yes.

All power to those that can afford to buy in the higher end. Undoubtedly its worth it again for the experience. Its all valid but some custom made items take 6 months or more so if you are ordering be prepared to wait.

Another business approach maybe to limit supply. As in not taking any orders at the moment thank you. One of the greatest learning experiences for me in business is and was the ability to say No. In order to preserve what you love about what you do and a quality of life that doesn't turn you into a machine No is a good response.

Under promise and over deliver. I received a free head shell with mine (more than a year ago), but dont count on gifts this time of year.
This wont help those currently waiting but its worth it

 

[Lars]

Thank you for your views on this!
Waiting more than six months I wouldn´t recommend anyone buying a tonearm from Alfred. Paying for one and not recieving it makes it very much not worth it! In this thread one can find people that ordered later than me that has got their arms delievered. I´ve pretty much given up on this and I´m thinking about getting a Groovemaster instead. Any thoughts?

 

[Artnet]

Waiting more than six months I wouldn´t recommend anyone buying a tonearm from Alfred.

Absolutely, my comments are not helpful for your circumstance. Reading further I would assume it has not been sent.

on the 18th the tracking page was updated and the package was not ready for pickup. Since then I can´t get an answer from him.

I would approach him on this basis and ask for clarification. That you are happy to wait if you know that it is being made. You may have already done this so I wont pretend to help.
I ordered mine through fleabay for the purposes of redress if it didn't work out. After 60 day's it doesn't do much but it is a contract of sorts that all parties enter into.

While you may not wish to recommend buying from Alfred I would suggest keeping in contact with him every few weeks, even if no reply. I cant comment on his health but in my experience this worked and if he is well I am sure he will emerge.

I hope this works out for you Lars. I would add that when mine was sent there was a communication that was was not intended for me. I recieved the right package however.