What the Heck Is It with Amp Sets in Japan?
January 24th, 2010
I have been pricing them because we want to get one for my school; we have a lecture series and we want wireless mics that’ll be amplified through a speaker–should be a simple setup, right? But the cheapest setup I can find in Japan is priced at about ¥130,000 ($1,450), which seems ridiculously, even hideously expensive for two mics and a speaker.
I look at Amazon.com in the U.S. and I find a solution for about $350.
I know I have posted here before about price differences, but differences on this kind of scale are highly unusual, for specialty products. So, maybe I’m doing something wrong, looking in the wrong places or something.
Does anyone know what that is, or are we just going to have to shell out huge amounts of money here?
This is the typical deal with buying stuff in Japan — you have to go pro/prosumer because the retailers don’t want to sell low-margin stuff.
Amazon.co.jp has the base unit for Y40,000 off list at least:
http://www.amazon.co.jp/オーディオテクニカ-ATW-SP808-P-audio-technica-UHFワイヤレスアンプ/dp/B000GH2QOA
I’d post more links but I think your anti-spam system eats them.
ah, I see amazon’s retailer isn’t going to beat the price you got for 2 mikes + the base receiver/amp/speaker.
Note that prices on Audio Technica stuff aren’t that much cheaper here!
I’m not up on PAs, but the Azden unit you found doesn’t really compare to the SP808 . . . Single-channel VHF vs dual-channel UHF, 20W vs 60W, the 808 has 2 more wired mike inputs, 1/4″ mono out for taping, RCA input for mixing external sources.
The 808 weighs 11kg while the Azden weighs 6kg
There’s also the smaller one that comes with a mic and is considerably cheaper.
http://bit.ly/9BFKLq
Justin:
Yeah, I saw that one–in fact, I was introduced to it first. The problem: it only comes with a single mic. We need two mics–one for the lecturer, one for questions. The smaller unit can only handle one mic, even if we buy a second it wouldn’t work.
We might have to compromise and accept a 1-mic-only system, asking people with questions to come up to the front. $600 is a high price tag to allow people to stay in their seats.
> even if we buy a second it wouldn’t work.
If you take a look at the connection examples on the Audio Technica site ( http://www.audio-technica.co.jp/atj/sc/atw/index.html ), it would work if you plugged another wireless receiver into one of the two inputs on the back. You can even add another one after that in the same manner; the only problem is that the receivers cost 24,000+ yen each and the wireless mics cost 27,000+ each!!
—
You probably already thought of this, but does the lecturer’s mic have to be wireless? If not, you can plug a wired mic into one of the rear inputs and you won’t have to buy anything extra.
Oh, good idea! The lecturer could use the wireless mic for the main lecture, and then we could switch and give him/her the wired mic while the wireless was passed around the audience.
I think we’ll probably try that–though I still wish that a lower-cost solution like the U.S. Amazon listing were available. It shouldn’t be that pricey….