Bought the Sapphire speakers last night

[allengarman]

<font color='#000000'>I bought the Sapphire ST2 fronts, Sapphire center and surrounds last night. &nbsp;sapphireaudio.com

The cost of the five speakers at $1,700 was way over my original budget. &nbsp;I hope that I don't experience &quot;buyers remorse&quot;.

I was surprised to discover that the center channel speaker is very deep. &nbsp;When I saw the center speaker at Tweeter it was sandwiched between two speakers with larger fronts (taller and wider). The small front gave it the appearance of being lower in quality and I was concerned that Sapphire had skimped on its design and materials. &nbsp;However, upon opening the impossibly large box, my build quality concerns were allayed when I discovered that it is actually deep and heavy. &nbsp;The center also has a handy adjustable strut that enables the speaker to be tilted down toward the listener when placed on top of my Mitsubishi projection television.

My second trial of the Boston Acoustics VR950s and the Sapphire ST2s revealed the richer full range sound of the Sapphires. &nbsp;The Boston VR950s were an incredibly good speaker, with nice rich tones, but ultimately I wanted front speakers that could produce lower frequencies (30hz – 20khz) for home theater listening. &nbsp;The 10” side-firing woofer produces some nice rich bass.

I connected the front ST2s to my Onkyo receiver last night and listened to a classical and a jazz CD. &nbsp;The violin music on the classical CD was incredible, but the older recording of the jazz CD was less impressive. &nbsp;It is interesting to have speakers that reveal the lower quality of some CD recordings. &nbsp;Tonight, I will connect the center-speaker and wall mount the surrounds. &nbsp;It will be most interesting to try a DVD movie and a DVD audio. &nbsp;I was originally going to spend $300 on a pair of the Sapphire bookshelf speakers, but ultimately splurged on the Sapphire specialty “dipolar radiation” surrounds at $500. &nbsp;The cabinet on the surrounds is shallower and wider, which will look less obtrusive when mounted on the wall.

The ST2 fronts, being very tall (44”), narrow (6”), deep (15.2”) and heavy (54.1 lbs) were extremely awkward to unpack. &nbsp;But that attractive and quality design was one of the contributing factors to my decision.

My thanks to everyone who enjoyed reading or responding to my posts in the last few days. &nbsp;It is nice to have a community of people who enjoy discussing A/V equipment, as virtually everyone I know has virtually no interest in a subject that brings me great pleasure.</font>

 

[Unregistered]

sapphire audio is a very limited distribution brand with big profit margin as its chief inducement (to the retailer)
historically Tweeter has run at 38% margin and needs exclusive brands to compete with 20% margin retailer like best buy

currently tweeter is the exclusive sapphire retailer. no wonder at that margin, insiders call it "CrapFire"

hates ripoffs

 

[Grey Ghost]

Tweeter Markups

I have some friends at tweeter who spilled the beans about their Mark ups.
They go like this:
TV's 25-30%
Recievers amps dvd players 50%
All speakers 60%

Its a crual world...

Grey Ghost

 

[Bravo16]

Thanks

Good of you to share .I was just at Sound Advise(Tweeter) .Got a quote for Polk speakers 2200 dollars.1100 + THAT THEY WILL NOT MAKE OF MY HARD EARNED $

 

[RLA]

Hi
There are no dealers or major chains that make 50% on receiver/DVD Players
or 60% on speakers that I can assure Your sales friend does not know what he is talking about I have seen Invoice for Tweeter and know what cost is on most equipment Most dealers/Major chains operate on a 10-22% margin on a good day with cables providing the most proffit and DVD Players the least
10% markup on DVD players is the norm
Cheers

 

[nm2285]

RLA:
I have to disagree...I worked at Circuit City and received items at cost. Some examples were polk rm6700-retail $599, i pay $270. velodyne cht-8- retail $499, i pay $212. HK AVR-225, retail $499, i pay $260. These are approximate numbers...I don't remember for sure, but they are close.

Entry level Monster Cables were 67% off.

 

[RLA]

RLA:
I have to disagree...I worked at Circuit City and received items at cost. Some examples were polk rm6700-retail $599, i pay $270. velodyne cht-8- retail $499, i pay $212. HK AVR-225, retail $499, i pay $260. These are approximate numbers...I don't remember for sure, but they are close.

Just because you received a perk for working at CC does not mean that that
is what they are making on products Its not as black and white as that It costs the store from the moment the doors open and that comes out of there proffit Take a customers Credit Card costs 1.5-3.0 % overhead,insurance,utilities. returns,freight, employee pay,advertising and general operating costs all add up to about a 10-20% proffit margin if they are lucky speakers generally have a 35-50%markup before freight and before overhead ect... dvd players 6-10% receivers 15-35%

 

[Monkey Me]

A 50% mark up for operational cost and profit added is normal for any businese.Everyone's right here,just talking about different things is all.

 

[nm2285]

You're right, Monkey Me. I read RLA's post as "no store has a markup that high." RLA is correct in saying they don't make that much, and everyone else is correct in saying the markup is at that level.

 

[Shinerman]

I bought some Boston VR965 towers about a year ago. Tweeter sold these speakers for $1000/pr. Due to a discount program through my company, I was able to buy these speakers from a West Coast dealer for $298 each. My discount was 5% over cost. So based on this, the cost would be about $570 or so? That's 43% below cost.

Granted, every speaker brand is different but I bet these kind of percentages are fairly normal.

Shinerman

 

[Unregistered]

It is obvious from these posts that there is very little knowledge of finance amongst the authors. It is no wonder the people get burned by the stock market.

Gross Margin = Net Sales – Cost of Goods Sold

Operating Profit Margin = Gross Margin – Selling, General & Administrative Expenses

Some industries have higher gross margins than others. For instance electronics retailers like Tweeter and Best Buy have very high gross margins, but very low inventory turnover. Conversely, grocery stores have very small gross margins but very high inventory turnover.

High gross margins are not the most relevant function of profit or a good investment. Inventory turnover plays a significant role in understanding the value of a company.

Just because an industry has a high gross margin, does not mean that the retailer earns a large operating profit, nor does it mean that the company is earning an unreasonably large profit. This is because other expenses are quite large, and are not offset by high turnover of inventory.

In the case of Tweeter Home Entertainment, the 2003 gross profit margin was 34.3%. However, after subtracting “Selling, General & Administrative” expenses, the company actually experienced an operating loss of $16.74 million, or a negative 2.13% operating margin. In 2002, Tweeter had a positive operating margin of 3.79%.

There is no need to speculate based on invoices reviewed by stockroom workers, the financial statements of the company are publicly available.

AG

 

[Shinerman]

Thank you, O master of finance. We now, have seen the light.

Off to make some bad investments!

Shinerman

 

[Unregistered]

sapphire audio is a very limited distribution brand with big profit margin as its chief inducement (to the retailer)
historically Tweeter has run at 38% margin and needs exclusive brands to compete with 20% margin retailer like best buy

currently tweeter is the exclusive sapphire retailer. no wonder at that margin, insiders call it "CrapFire"

hates ripoffs

So you want companies to be un profitable? Force labor and parts to come from China. Quality to go down ya think? Ya These speakers are not the best in the price range, but I trust the guy @twtr more than best buy, & cc

Besides untill you get out of economics 101 and get back to music 101, whose paying attention to your rambling