USD vs Yen who is cashing in! TechDAS

All prices for luxury items are crazy, if you’ve lived long enough. And most of us have. I certainly did not intend to start another round of kvetching and finger pointing about prices. That bores me.

Manufacturers and distributors have to smooth out their prices over time. I never see anyone complaining that prices haven't gone up when exchange rates move the other way.

Go to Germany and buy yourself a new Porsche for the cost of the TechDas! That's how crazy the pricing of the ultra-high end turntables has become!

The SP10R Motor Unit only and Power Supply is a £11K purchase in the UK.

Using the Japan Recommended Retail of 1 Million Yen, and using the Yen to GBP exchange of 0.0057, the SP10R is coming in at just shy of £6K prior to added shipping and Import Taxes.

That would still leave funds for a personal choice for a very respectable Plinth, Tonearm and Cart'.

Using the above exchange rate the MSL Platinum has been found at £4K. 

If choosing this Cart', £12K would get a serious set up inclusive of Plinth and TA, it would certainly be a set up that might need another £50K spent if using other Competitors Brands models to attempt to surpass it.

Sorry, 1.8M yen after deducting VAT, not 1.6M.

I saw a model 4 Premium for sale in a high end store, but did not take note of the price. I forgot to mention that another factor increasing USA prices is the distributor markup, which is justified because that guy has to be responsible for warranty work. If you buy in Japan, you still get a warranty but you’d have to ship your TT from USA to Japan, and back, in order to take advantage of it. I did note the price of an SP1000R (SP10R + plinth + tonearm) in one of my favorite stores, ~2000000 yen. We would get 10% off on that, because this store would deduct the Japanese VAT from that number, if you show US passport. So, 1.6M yen. You can do the conversion probably based on ~135 yen to dollar. Then you’d have to figure out how to schlep the big heavy box back to the USA. They won’t ship but you may be able to find an independent shipper in Tokyo.

What are the costs of TechDAS tables in Japan?

I’m in Tokyo now. We recently gave our son a bit of our US dollars for him to buy an apartment, at 147 yen to dollar. We are reaping those benefits by staying with him in his new digs. I’ve done a bit of audio shopping, at the present rate of exchange, ~137 yen to dollar. Yes, you can save cost over the typical exchange rate, but not 30 to 40%.

@chauncey , Buy American and get a Basis Inspiration, a much better looking turntable at a better price! If you are defending the Crown get a Dohmann Helix. IMHO both are better than the Air Force turntables. 

Full Air Force Zero setup will still be a chunk of cash, just not so much.