Hi Nrenter,
(a) I've been on the road 4 days/week on average since this past July
(b) The normal catch-up process after the Audiofest (audio shows eat up some 5 weeks in a small manufacturer's year)
(c) I started up my own support forum to build a knowledge repository for Galibier owners
In early December, I'll begin fulfilling the first round of Seracs orders. I'm most appreciative of those who have patiently waited on this project, and your patience will be mightily rewarded.
My apologies if the following sounds like a sales pitch, because it's the polar opposite of what I'm trying to do, which is to reduce demand. I think it's important however that I give you some insight into what's going on, in no small part because of how long the Serac project has taken to clear the trees.
The Serac we took to the RMAF (http://www.avguide.com:80/news/2007/10/19/rocky-mt-2007-galibier-designs-affordable-serac-turntable/) was the pre-production base. This is the one with paint that was a bit too fragile for my tastes. The first day of the show, my painter delivered the bases for the first production run, BTW.
Shortly after the show, we selected Discovery Cable Plus-4 tonearm cable for the Artisan tonearm. What you heard at the show will be tonally very similar to the Discovery, something I didn't think would be possible with the price target I set for the Artisan. I won't bore you with the details, but if you're interested, you can read more about this decision process at the bottom of this thread: http://www.galibierdesign.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=6.
This first round of Seracs is accounted for, and I'm now going through a self-evaluation of how best to handle the Serac moving forward. I'm coming to understand how difficult it is to build and support a more affordable 'table.
This is the first time (apart from Schröder tonearms) that I've felt unable to appropriately set expectations and deliver on them in what I consider to be a timely fashion. Moving forward, I have a much better idea (and hopefully control) of production lead times, but I still have to get smarter with the manufacturing and personal support side of the equation.
It's unrealistic for a Serac owner to expect the same level of hand-holding that a Gavia or Stelvio owner receives. At the same time, a Serac owner needs to have a real opportunity to get the best out of his turntable. This support issue played a large part in my decision to set up the Galibier Forum, and the expanding community of Galibier owners will certainly help to a certain degree.
Unfortunately, the forum will accomplish only so much, and my current focus is on the remaining time constraints.
The labor involved in building and testing a Serac is the same as that of a Gavia. The Serac benefits from the same QC standards as every other Galibier leaving my shop does (receiving a thorough, multi-day break-in and audition). The manufacturing time, support requirements, and price increases in the PVC required for the Serac platter have all combined with the expiration of the introductory pricing to the price increase.
As I consider setting realistic of delivery expectations, I may well suspend taking orders for all turntables for a short period of time later this Winter. I'd much rather catch up, sell fewer 'tables and know that I can deliver support them.
Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier
What's going on with the Serac? I see the pricing has increased by about $1k. Any updates?I just caught your question from November 10th. You might have noticed the diminished frequency of my posts over here, due to several factors:
(a) I've been on the road 4 days/week on average since this past July
(b) The normal catch-up process after the Audiofest (audio shows eat up some 5 weeks in a small manufacturer's year)
(c) I started up my own support forum to build a knowledge repository for Galibier owners
In early December, I'll begin fulfilling the first round of Seracs orders. I'm most appreciative of those who have patiently waited on this project, and your patience will be mightily rewarded.
My apologies if the following sounds like a sales pitch, because it's the polar opposite of what I'm trying to do, which is to reduce demand. I think it's important however that I give you some insight into what's going on, in no small part because of how long the Serac project has taken to clear the trees.
The Serac we took to the RMAF (http://www.avguide.com:80/news/2007/10/19/rocky-mt-2007-galibier-designs-affordable-serac-turntable/) was the pre-production base. This is the one with paint that was a bit too fragile for my tastes. The first day of the show, my painter delivered the bases for the first production run, BTW.
Shortly after the show, we selected Discovery Cable Plus-4 tonearm cable for the Artisan tonearm. What you heard at the show will be tonally very similar to the Discovery, something I didn't think would be possible with the price target I set for the Artisan. I won't bore you with the details, but if you're interested, you can read more about this decision process at the bottom of this thread: http://www.galibierdesign.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=6.
This first round of Seracs is accounted for, and I'm now going through a self-evaluation of how best to handle the Serac moving forward. I'm coming to understand how difficult it is to build and support a more affordable 'table.
This is the first time (apart from Schröder tonearms) that I've felt unable to appropriately set expectations and deliver on them in what I consider to be a timely fashion. Moving forward, I have a much better idea (and hopefully control) of production lead times, but I still have to get smarter with the manufacturing and personal support side of the equation.
It's unrealistic for a Serac owner to expect the same level of hand-holding that a Gavia or Stelvio owner receives. At the same time, a Serac owner needs to have a real opportunity to get the best out of his turntable. This support issue played a large part in my decision to set up the Galibier Forum, and the expanding community of Galibier owners will certainly help to a certain degree.
Unfortunately, the forum will accomplish only so much, and my current focus is on the remaining time constraints.
The labor involved in building and testing a Serac is the same as that of a Gavia. The Serac benefits from the same QC standards as every other Galibier leaving my shop does (receiving a thorough, multi-day break-in and audition). The manufacturing time, support requirements, and price increases in the PVC required for the Serac platter have all combined with the expiration of the introductory pricing to the price increase.
As I consider setting realistic of delivery expectations, I may well suspend taking orders for all turntables for a short period of time later this Winter. I'd much rather catch up, sell fewer 'tables and know that I can deliver support them.
Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier