May
2022

Fear mongering?

Denafrips Terminator Plus at Munich HighEnd 2022.

This isn't that. This is simply a reality check heard from many manufacturers. But first, some great news from Denafrips. "Ares II R-2R DAC is getting ready to ship. Here's a sneak peek of the new production floor with dozens of Ares II undergoing the 100-hr obligatory burn-in process. Oh yes, we have moved to a very large factory in early April. It's a huge 5-storey building with a total floor area of ~6'000m² in Guangzhou where many other high-end audio manufacturers work."

So what's the bad news? "We plan to start shipping out Ares II progressively in ca. 7-10 days. If you ordered earlier and waited on your shipment, we thank you for your patience and support. If you're on the fence contemplating to buy one, do consider. We’d hate for you to miss out when stock is selling fast and we can’t guarantee it will be around long. The parts shortage is hitting all industries badly. If you are looking to buy some tech/electronics product, please get it sooner while it's still available.

"We anticipate that the lead time of electronic products will become longer, not to mention that prices will increase further. For instance, we ordered hundreds of thousands of electronic chips from a Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer. The initially lead time was 30 weeks. This just got delayed to 92 weeks (?!) and the parts cost increased even though we placed our order much earlier.

"Such changes will force us to soon adjust our pricing should parts costs continue to rise. Please be assured that we do not take this lightly. We will do our level best to keep things under control and see a price increase as our very last resort. Bottom line, we consider ourselves lucky that we can still supply products to our customers right now. Get it while you can. This is real."