Out of curiosity I emailed a hifi shop who was suggesting to contact him for a special price on the Saturn. In his response he said there was one left and it would be about 2 mths before he could get anymore Rega cdp's. The Apollo has (or is) going up $200AUD in price here (from the rrp of $1499 to $1699). Not sure about the Saturn.
My Rega dealer confirmed this. We were passing his shop the other day and I thought I'd call in and listen to a Saturn (just for interest sake mind you) if he had one. He didn't. He confirmed the Apollo price rise and said it was a case of demand exceeding supply and a rise in base metal prices. He said Gandy refuses to use overseas manufacturing to address the problem. Good on him.
He did say that when he gets a Saturn, he'd let me have it for the weeekend to have a good listen. He's a very decent dealer.
Hmm, the distributor seems to be making a bit of cash there.. The retail price of an Apollo here is the equivalent of $1000. Even if you take into consideration the shipping and insurance costs, 70% seems a heck of a hike.
Then again, American gear is usually 100% more expensive over here!
M.R.'s prices are in Australian Dollars. I just checked and £500 is today equivalent to Aus$1,230 and US$1,009.
The increase M.R. mentions is 13 %.
I used to depair of the mark-up someone was getting if I bought in Scandinavia, and tried to find ways around it. There were always impenetrable layers of protectionism, despite the EU. I think Aus and US are probably not getting ripped off so much.
No price rises on this front. Then again, the British Pound is so strong at the moment, that could account for the rise in price, as well as demand of course - Rega have been working flat out to meet orders.
Thanks Frank, our dollar is much stronger and well up against the US (not sure about the pound or euro) that makes me think it is our distributor here who might be wanting a bit more in its piggy bank. Maybe I should email Rega.