C300.2 - Why the price drops?

Dizzy_124dvc

Anyone one knows what's up with the prices of the C300.2? At first I thought Crutchfield just ran out of them, then Cardomain dropped it to about 50% of retail, then, when I looked in E-Bay, they were going for around 150 bucks...but the 500.1 and 400.4 were consistently above $250.

Why the dirt-cheap (well, relatively) prices of the C300.2 on E-Bay? Do people just prefer the 400.4 for the Pre-EQ bi-amping and the 500.1 for its Class D? Or was the market flooded by stocks from unauthorized dealers (most of the stuff on E-Bay were labeled "brand new", "sealed", "still in box"?).

ND13

Fry's had them for $99, NIB not refurbs, a couple of weeks ago. I should have found the time and went over a bought everyone they had left.

denim

I just checked ebay and saw a few for $126

PoweredByDodge

500 x 1 at 4 ohms -- for 99 bucks????? ****, i would have gotten 3 or 4 of them just to "keep for future use"

MacLeod

They havent gone down on Sounddomain yet which is weird. SD is usually the first one to start lowering prices and usually go lower than anybody else. The 500.1 and 400.4 is still at $400. The 300.2 is at 200 though.

I cant wait to see the new line.

Dizzy_124dvc

$99???? :eek: :eek:

I could have gone full-active with $300! Enough savings on the amps to get two 8" subs for midbass drivers, a pair of 5.35 MMC's on the kick pods, then one 12" at the rear...why God whyu didn't I check at Fry's......

MacLeod

Man I wish I had a Fry's near me. They practically give away Polk gear all the time.

Of course they do have a website:

http://shop2.outpost.com/%7BQoeduWsJMK5Jvvcdj1DpNRLcL3gDxs710YQFEmTRtt4Ou5oaWyKa|-2641051994590595341/184095266/6/7001/7001/7002/7002/7001/-1|7177857730346014005/184095267/6/7001/7001/7002/7002/7001/-1|1116183993539%7D/

wlrandall

MacLeod wrote:

Man I wish I had a Fry's near me. They practically give away Polk gear all the time.

Of course they do have a website:

But you don't see them there, do you? Polk Kim has told me that they're not being discontinued, but we see the fire sales and drops form product lines. I can't figure it out...I got two for $150 each so I'm happy!!

MacLeod

I wish the 400.4 would go down to $150!!!

PoweredByDodge

compare it to an mtx 8302 / 502 / whatever... when those were on closeout the cheapest you could get them was 199... anybody who gets a 300.2 for $150 is getting a friggin GIFT. that's a beefy amp... i love 500 w 2 channels...

Dizzy_124dvc

BTW, forgot to mention this on my initial post, but I won a bidding on E-Bay, and got a C300.2 for $99 plus shipping. Haven't received the amp yet, but hte reason why I suddenly asked here, aside from those observations, is that I suddenly thought that those might be from unauthorized dealers. Dirt cheap, but what if my amp had it serial number filed off?

neomagus00

then you got shafted on ebay...

PolkThug

Don't worry, Ebay is a great place to get gray market goods. First, an authorized seller buys a huge bulk quantity to get a lower cost per unit from the manufacturer/distributer. There is no way the authorized seller could possibly move all of those units, so they dump them off to secondary sellers (or their own ebay storefront under another name), and we end up with a bunch of NIB stuff at half the price.

You lose the warranty, but at the price you get, you could just buy another one if the first is defective and still come out even.

Dizzy_124dvc

Im just hoping the serial numbers haven't been scratched off...I sure want to keep this amp for the next ten years.

Can't wait for the amp to arrive, but this is what I get for something that cheap. ground shipping.

MacLeod

Or you get a bunch of remanufactured or repaird junk that a reputable dealer would sell.

Or you get an outright knock off with the word Sparkomatic scratched out with a Sharpie and Polk Audio written in.

PoweredByDodge

sparkomatic - making your life more sparky, everyday.

MacLeod

Do they even sell these anywhere anymore?

My 1986 Ford Ranger I bought used in 88 had a set of Sparkomatic 6.5 coaxials behind the seats. No box or mounting, they just stuck em to the frame with the magnets.

I drove it around like that for a long time. Then bought a Sony 25x2 "power booster" 5 band EQ to really push em! Drove it like that for a while to til I got my MTX Road Thunder truck boxes with 8" subs and piezo tweeters!

neomagus00

if that's vintage audio, what's the big fuss all about?

PoweredByDodge

*scratches head* - anybody have any ideas on why sales of 2 channels across the board would be dropping?

my personal preference in audio has been 2 channels.

ND13

Polk wrote:

answer to the original question as to why the C300.2 price dropped:

Sales of 2 channel amplifiers have plummeted in the past couple of years - for all brands, not just Polk. That left us with way more inventory than we could sell in a reasonable amount of time. We did what all business people would do in such a situation - we dropped the price to reduce our inventory. C400.4 and C500.1 sales remain strong.

Thanks for the truth and clearing this up for all of us.

MacLeod

I believe the reason is most people run front and rear speakers and so 4 channels are more practical. Another bunch car like me and bi-amp their components. In that sense a 4 channel is still the best way to go. Less installation hassle and the same results not to mention a 50x4 amp will generally be cheaper than 2 50x2 amps.

Im glad to hear the sales are still strong of the 400.4 and 500.1.

neomagus00

MacLeod wrote:

Im glad to hear the sales are still strong of the 400.4 and 500.1.

i'm not, that means i can't get any at a discount :mad:

Thom

Just think of it as Polk employee pricing for everyone. Just like the car dealers, we'll give you a great deal on the model that we need to move. Not that our products are as bad as GM's...

PoweredByDodge

Thom wrote:

Not that our products are as bad as GM's...

and all the GM redneck's in the board say "YOU GANG_DANG_SON_A_MA_SHANG_A_LANG!"

... while the mopar proud just keep trapsin along, trapsin, trapsin along.


insert image of little guy in polk momo t-shirt peeing on a GM logo.

Thom

We've always done Fords here at Polk, so I have to take a shot at GM every now and then. Although our first GM truck install is around the corner...

ND13

Thom wrote:

We've always done Fords here at Polk, so I have to take a shot at GM every now and then. Although our first GM truck install is around the corner...

You should look at doing an install in the 2006 Dodge Ram 1500 "MEGA CAB".
The largest cab "ever" in a mass produced light duty pickup. FREAKIN HUGE!!!
Plenty of places to install some Polk gear :cool:

MacLeod

Cant do that cause then the little cry babies in ricers wont be able to see around it on the road.

The one downside to the Ram, the ONLY downside I should say is there is NO FREAKING PLACE TO STICK A SUB! Oh and the door speakers are too high up on the doors.

ND13

MacLeod wrote:

Cant do that cause then the little cry babies in ricers wont be able to see around it on the road.

The one downside to the Ram, the ONLY downside I should say is there is NO FREAKING PLACE TO STICK A SUB! Oh and the door speakers are too high up on the doors.

Custom Install, DUDE!!!!!!

Dizzy_124dvc

MacLeod wrote:

The one downside to the Ram, the ONLY downside I should say is there is NO FREAKING PLACE TO STICK A SUB! Oh and the door speakers are too high up on the doors.

Isn't it a god thing to have the speakers higher up on the doors, that way the soundstage would be higher? Or is it because people's knees get in the way?

Thom

Our crew cab, long bed F- 350 is pretty big. Too much of a pain to drive everywhere...

neomagus00

higher speakers means a greater difference in their distances... i.e. if they're at the top of the doors, the left could be two feet from your head but the right is six feet, a path-length-difference (PLD) of four feet... stick em in the kicks, and the left is 5 but the right is 7 feet away, then the pld is only 2 feet. this helps in imaging, and the tweets define the stage height, so, yeah...