What you have described is just a fact of the retail market. Most salesmen are just that, salesmen. They take the job to make a living and their job is to sell. They are interested in meeting their sales quota so they can keep their job.

Many salesmen are not enthusiasts and the well educated customer probably knows more than them. This situation is not only here but also overseas (if you read the US forums you will hear similar complaints about the salesmen at Best Buy or Circuit City, etc).

Finding a knowledgeable salesman is not easy but they are out there. If you expect all salesmen to be hi-fi/HT enthusiasts and be very knowledgeable then you will be disappointed.

So the prices you quoted include shipping or not?

If it includes shipping, then I think the question was: does it cover shipping anywhere in MY? Or certain places got extra surcharge?

Thanks for the clarification.

The poison keeps flowing...

My only concern is whether SB12 has enough depth and output for HT use. I did consider it before when looking for a sealed design but from reviews it might not be powerful enough for HT. Hence my search led me to the Rythmik F15.

If can wait, wait for the new 13" or 16" sealed models then decide although I think they will be quite a bit more expensive.

Please do scan and upload the brochure. First time I'm seeing the price figures for the SB13 and SB16.

Unfortunately no one near me has the SPL1200 or any SVS sub so I've not been able to compare. Hopefully in my next trip to KL I'll be able to listen to the SPL1200.

Yes the price on the F15 is not bad considering it is 15" and servo driven. Some more, Rythmik was willing to lower the declared value. I saved a few hundred RM due to this. After dialing in the F15 I can say it goes very deep, and the bass lines are tight and fast. Like during Monsters Inc, in the "23-19" chapter where they detonate the sock - the explosion is very sudden and can make you jump. Similarly in Valkyrie, when Tom Cruise returns home and there is an air raid and the family goes into the basement - the bomb shaking the house is deep and impactful. Also will make you jump since it was so quiet then suddenly BOOM! I'm very satisfied using it for movies and concerts like the Michael Buble and David Foster BDs.

I think only the Plus and Ultra versions can run in sealed mode. The NSD versions have ports but not designed to run sealed.

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Added on August 12, 2009, 12:12 pmYeah, would be good to do a comparison between the SB12 and the SPL1200 since they are in the same class. So, when's this happening and where?

This post has been edited by jchong: Aug 12 2009, 12:12 PM

If you compare the price $1249 vs $749 then the SB13 estimated about RM7.5k

I thought it was earmarked for Tun Mega already...

You're getting more low bass signals from the SVS compared to your previous 12R. I think the 12R rapidly falls off below 30Hz so you're not hearing much of the bass below that. With the SVS you're getting down to 20Hz or lower.

Why don't you run it at 16Hz tune?

Mostly the bass activity in movies are in the 20-40Hz region. But some movies do go below that.

I just looked at the waterfall graphs for Master and Commander, somewhere around 10:52-11:00 seems to have signals at 5Hz!! Iron Man (around 39:40 time) gets down to 11 Hz apparently.

See the AVS thread here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=755493

I'm calculating based on PB12-NSD:

Sub - $569
D2A shipping - $240 (based on a quote they gave me last time)
Tax - $214 (26.5% x $809)

RM equivalent = $1023 x 3.55 = RM3,631

But don't forget customs clearance and transport to your house (Klang Valley), which will add another about RM500 (based on quotes I received when I did my Rythmik). So, all in delivered to your house is about RM4,131.

Buying from htkaki is RM3,815 so you save about RM300.

Let's see:

Sub - $949
D2A shipping - $200 (I assume slightly cheaper than PB12-NSD)
Tax - $304 (26.5% x $1149)

RM equivalent = $1453 x 3.55 = RM5,158. Add RM500 for customs clearance and transport (Klang Valley) and the total is RM5,658. A little over RM100 cheaper than htkaki.

So that means on some models you gain, some you lose...

This post has been edited by jchong: Aug 16 2009, 04:43 PM

Same here. RM100 is a small difference, not enough to justify your own hassle.

However, I was more trying to see if lightning69's claim of under 5k was possible or not. It seems not, under normal circumstances.

One thing everyone should be aware of is that you cannot buy direct from SVS anymore for Malaysia and Singapore. Since the new distributorship took effect SVS no longer sells directly to Malaysia.

I was comparing the price based on door to door. htkaki's price is to your door, so should compare against SVS price to your door (or calculate using SVS door to door quote, which I don't have).

Of course to save costs a buyer can choose door to airport shipping and do the clearance and transport himself. This is up to every individual to decide and balance between the cost vs convenience. Of course, depending on location some forummers might not live close to an airport and thus the option to DIY is less feasible.



This doesn't always work as the Customs will impute the shipping cost even if you leave it out of the invoice. I heard about this before and it happened to me when I imported my Carada screen. The invoice was just the screen price but Customs imputed the shipping cost and included it for tax calculation.

Furthermore, the Customs are no dumb-dumb either, even if you under declare the shipping cost they can adjust it. From your airway bill they would have your item volume and weight and they can do their own estimation of the shipping cost.

There is risk with any kind of shipping, by sea, air or land.

Cargo can be roughly handled; even boxes marked "fragile" can sometimes be kicked around. Read many of the threads in US about the stories on UPS, Fedex, etc. Cargo can get wet, usually due to rain. My friend has seen cargo being unloaded from the plane when it was raining heavily. Thankfully these are isolated cases and the vast majority of items arrive in good condition. Also, valuable shipments ought to be insured.

Why do you think duties are calculated based on CIF - Cost, Insurance and Freight.

That 3.8k price is super special since SVS gave further discounts due to the circumstances that happened. I believe that it didn't kena tax also. Even lightning69 said before that cannot use that price as a benchmark.

Actually the benchmark should be 5.1-5.2k and even this presumes you pick it up from the airport and do the customs clearance yourself.

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Added on August 17, 2009, 5:32 pmYup, the shipping and taxes add quite a lot. Those US fellas don't know how good they have it over there...

Earlier I also did consider the Hsu VTF-3 Mk 3. US price $699. They quoted all in door-to-door to MY (incl shipping, tax, customs clearance) was almost $1362 or about RM4,835!! Like that the multiplier is about 6.9x (4835/699).

This post has been edited by jchong: Aug 17 2009, 05:39 PM

Wah, sub can also be erotic one ah?