Importing Mics (and other gear) from the USA

G

goldfish

New member
Ok, so I heard of a friend who got a whole load of pro audio gear for recording from the USA at a fraction of the price that us Brits would pay for it. Particularly he was proud of a Marshall mic which he paid around £400 for which apparently normally costs over £1,000 in the UK. Myself, I never even KNEW that marshall made anything but fantastic over-priced guitar gear, therefore I have no idea how good this mic actually is. The guy who bought it was a mug (to be painfully honest) and probably paid more than he should have for it.

Anyway, I'd like to hear from people who have got stuff imported from the US or other countries to the UK, and how big the savings were, and whether its worth the trouble. And I'd also like to hear about this fantastic Marshall mic :rolleyes: . I'm not holding out for great things :D Gimme a Sennheiser any day ;)
 
Marshall Electronics is not associated with the amp maker in any way, to my knowledge.

FYI, we sell a lot of headphones and mics to Europe, Canada and other countries for the exact reasons you state (higher prices in other countries).

War

Warren Dent
www.frontendaudio.com
 
Warhead said:
Marshall Electronics is not associated with the amp maker in any way, to my knowledge.
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AHHHhhhh!!! that makes sense! He just said Marshall and I assumed the amp manufacturer. But do they makie good mics? :p
 
They certainly make a few gems. I know Harvey Gerst likes the V67 and the MXL603's. I've used a V67 a little and with my limited use it seemed like a nice mic. Harvey knows his stuff I might add. :)

My buddy had a few of their models (I think they all started with V including that V67) and they all sort of had that bright Chinese capsule sound.

War

Warren Dent
www.frontendaudio.com
 
Warhead said:
My buddy had a few of their models (I think they all started with V including that V67) and they all sort of had that bright Chinese capsule sound.
Click to expand...

That's pretty much my experience with them.

I think most of them are garbage, but I suppose that's just personal taste.
 
goldfish said:
AHHHhhhh!!! that makes sense! He just said Marshall and I assumed the amp manufacturer. But do they makie good mics? :p
Click to expand...
Well, I think the Marshall MXL603S is one of the best cheap Chinese made budget mics on the market today.

Oh, and here is their web page http://www.mxlmics.com/
 
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I've imported a few things to New Zealand from the US (and other places) because of savings to be made. One thing to note is that most of the online superstores will not ship outside the US - probably to avoid stepping on local distributors toes. So I've gone via ebay from the US.

I bought a pair (unmatched) of MXL603's from abemusic's ebay store. The 2 mics cost me US$140 for the pair, plus they threw in a couple of cheap cables. The shipping cost was $30US. They arrived safe and sound and very well packed. This all at the time came to around $330NZ. There's no NZ Marshall Electronics dealers. There is an Australian one, and their price at the time was around NZ$300 per MXL603, without including shipping etc.

I recently bought an M-audio Ozone from the US. It cost me around NZ$430 including shipping (US $249 + 29 shipping) compared to a list of NZ $849, which the local shops would discount to $800 (maybe $750 if I pushed really hard). So even including buying a new power adaptor I saved NZ$300.

To be fair, looking at UK-based online stores (digitalvillage etc) you guys get a better deal than we do down here. But it's still worth thinking about.

The problem we have in non-US countries is that generally the products go through another layer of middle man who needs to be paid, and therefore the prices are often much higher. Also, with the rise in many currencies compared with the US dollar, many of these people are keeping their prices elevated to either clear stock bought when the exchange rates weren't so good (for those wanting to buy from the US) (if I'm being charitable) or they're just grabbing extra cash off us because their supply monopolies mean they can.

Of course, we need to support local dealers so that we can have somewhere to go to try out all these great bits of gear. And I do. But where the price differential is so great, and the prices are being kept artificially high, I'm quite happy to import.

Steve

P.S. Check local customs and import duties etc. before you do any of this! You can really get stung (though I haven't, because I've been aware of the regulations). Don't expect just to slip through.
 
I've bought a lot of gear in the US before, in fact I am currently waiting for a Les Paul bought on US ebay.

I have found that on the whole it is a worthwhile venture in terms of saving, but can be a bit of a hassle. However, with my limited student budget it is well worth it for me.

As Steve said though, most places (zzsounds for instance) won't export, which sucks. If you can find one that does, you're onto a winner.
 
Look into these things carefully as the dreaded customs/VAT bill could be added onto the package.

German mics can be bought much cheaper direct from Germany ie BeyerDynamic/Microtech Gefell/Brauner etc; if you are in England.

No VAT/input duty & 25% or sometimes much more cheaper!

Why buy a rubbish chinese mic when you can a great quality German products?

Geffel 930/940 £390 Beyer M130 £250 Beyer M201 £105

London prices £670/350/155 US probably more?

Plenty more to chose from as well!

CheersJK
 
do yall think that the mxl v67 imporoves and shines with a more expensive pre-amp....say the rnp? because my use with it on vocals seems to be a bit muddy. lacking clairty almost. tell me what yall think.
 
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