candy from sweetwater?

  • Thread starter Thread starter tc4b
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JTC111 said:
Well since you asked....
A Mac Pro 2.8 GHz 8-core with 6 gigs of Ram, two internal hard drives (320 gigs and 750 gigs);
a Digi 003 rack system;
an external 500 gig Glyph drive;
an Apogee Rosetta 200;
a PreSonus Central Station;
the MP toolkit which gives me some plugs and also expands Protools LE to 48 stereo tracks;
the UAD DSP/PCIe card Expert plug-in package;
Native Instruments Komplete 5;
Auto-tune 5;
and a few other little things. :D

It should ship tomorrow so I'll probably have it on Thursday. :D

Now add that to the two preamps I bought recently, a two-channel John Hardy M1 and a Demeter VTMP-2c ....oh yeah, I'm gonna have some fun. :):):)
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HOLY CRAP!

You bought a $7500 computer! Wow! :eek:
 
I've only had one experience with Sweetwater. I was looking to purchase a Korg PA80 arranger. I found a good price at MusiciansBuy and called Sweetwater to see if they would match the price. I don't remember the name of the sale's rep but he was an ass. He got all huffy and said I guess we can sell it for that price but you won't get "the service". I asked, what do you mean by "the service"? He said well if you have a problem with the keyboard and call up one of our experts that won't be allowed to talk to you.
I told him to go to hell and purchased the keyboard from MusiciansBuy.
That is my one and final dealing with Sweetwater.
 
sajs said:
I've only had one experience with Sweetwater. I was looking to purchase a Korg PA80 arranger. I found a good price at MusiciansBuy and called Sweetwater to see if they would match the price. I don't remember the name of the sale's rep but he was an ass. He got all huffy and said I guess we can sell it for that price but you won't get "the service". I asked, what do you mean by "the service"? He said well if you have a problem with the keyboard and call up one of our experts that won't be allowed to talk to you.
I told him to go to hell and purchased the keyboard from MusiciansBuy.
That is my one and final dealing with Sweetwater.
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I don't buy blindly from Sweetwater, but if all things are near equal, I'd rather spend my money there than most other places. I believe earlier in this thread I gave an example of Sweetwater getting me a conference call with two techs from two different companies to work out a software issue. You're NEVER going to get that kind of service from Musician's Fiend.

Had that keyboard arrived damaged, you might be singing a different story. There are plenty of horror stories on this board and others about trying to return damaged goods to MF. If the difference in price for a high end piece of gear is low enough, I'd rather go with the people who are going to stand behind me down the road rather than the people who are going to tell me it's no longer their problem.

PS-Tip of the hat to Mercenary (where I bought my John Hardy M1 pre) because from everything I've read hear, they also stand by what they sell.
 
JTC111 said:
PS-Tip of the hat to Mercenary (where I bought my John Hardy M1 pre) because from everything I've read hear, they also stand by what they sell.
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Mercenary is top notch. Not the cheapest, but incredible support.
 
I am not knocking Sweetwater, I am sure they are a great company but I was only stating my personal one time experience with them.

I happen to live about 15 minutes from MusiciansBuy.
I don't have to deal with shipping since I just go and pick it up myself. They also have gone out of their way on one product I had an issue with and they resolved it. All of their sale's people are musicians and pretty much know their stuff.The only down side is that I have to pay the Florida 6.5% sales tax but they lower the price for me so it ends up being competitive.
I also like doing business with American Musical Supply as well. I purchased a Korg D3200 and it had a small blemish on a corner. I called them up they sent me a new one right away even before I returned the old one. They are a pleasure to deal with as well.
 
MOFO Pro said:
The manufacturers are trying to prevent price wars from devaluing the percieved quality of their product... If the sales price goes too low... audiophiles loose repect for the brand
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I could say god forbid folks know what these things actually cost to produce... but I also know in these niche markets where you sell only a few items, you have to have incredible markup and perceived value or you are out of business. 30% margin may be fair in some circles, but 30% margin on a boutique piece that you sell 20 of in a year may be impractical.
 
NL5 said:
Mercenary is top notch. Not the cheapest, but incredible support.
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Yeah, I wanted the John Hardy for a session I was doing on a Thursday and I contacted Fletcher via a pm on the GS board on the Saturday before. By Saturday night he had checked the stock for me and told me they had one on the shelf. I ordered it first thing Monday morning and it was in my hands the next day. That's some good service and damn speedy delivery. It's nice to know that if I order from them, ground shipping from their place takes just one day (of course the one-day ground shipping is just my geographic luck, but it's still nice to know).

Anyway, the point is at Mercenary they take a personal interest in the customer. That's what I get at Sweetwater too. It makes a difference to me especially if I'm buying something that might have features with which I'm unfamiliar.
 
The thing about Sweetwater is yes they have good customer service and all. And they have fairly quick shipping too. But there have been several times I have gone to their site looking for a specific piece of gear only to find they don't carry it. Behringer comes to mind.

And some of the stuff they sell is horrendously expensive. $7000.00 for software? Not.

Plus at times you will see the sign "Oops, we are temporarily out of stock, but we have been assured that we will get it...and you will have it..."

He he. There is no way I believe that if I place an order with them for something they don't have, when they get it I will have it faster than the competition. That is just a pitch.

But those things aside, they are a pretty good firm to work with. They got a new building for themselves, and it must have cost big bucks to build, cuz I took a tour of it online.
 
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