Why is Dynaudio so much cheaper in Europe?

Zavato: I know what you mean. That is exactly right and exactly my point as well. And no nothing illegal with doing that at all. The tricky part is with electronics and different voltages from say, Japan and Europe however. Some companies have a switch right on the back, but many require that you rewire the damn thing. It's not the hardest job in the world, but if you know what you're doing, no problem. If not, kaboom. Yes, there are transformers, but those are said to degrade the sound. Some disagree with this however.

I suppose you could take it to an independent tech and have him or her rewire it, but if they don't know what they're doing and or don't even do the job, forget it.

Never did a direct import of anything that needs to be plugged in. But other stuff- sure, and I've never bought into the scare tactics that some US distributors use. Other than a phono cartridge direct import, I did a tonearm and cables. All were entirely hassle free. And even after paying my local store for a new arm board and to mount the arm, I still was ahead over $700.

Bottom line to everyone- it's your money. spend it how you want.

I see. No, I don't buy into it either. That stuff is a safe bet. Exactly, it's a free market.

I'm all for saving money. The problem is when you have a problem with the speaker and the U.S. distributor doesn't want to help you because it's a grey market product. Then where do you go? Dynaudio makes their own drivers. There is no where else to get them. A couple of years ago I blew a tweeter in an older Dynaudio speaker. My dealer called the distributor in Chicago and ordered it for me. He told me I should replace both tweeters so they would match. It took about 3 months but I finally got the tweeters.

Another thing is resale. I don't think most consumer want grey market products. A lot of people will call the manufacturer and make sure the product was destined for the states. They are also concerned about service and parts.

So off the bat you might save a couple of thousand but when you go to sell you are also going to get less for the product and it's going to be hard to sell.