Emotiva ERC-1 Buy-In for demo

dane_peterson

All right, guys! Emotiva is offering PolkForum a demo ERC-1 CD Player at 30% off retail so that we can finally put this debate to rest! They would like to hear back from me by early next week, so let's get to it.

Requirements:
-Participants must be a ClubPolk member for 6 months, or have 250 posts.
-$20 Non-refundable deposit minimum. Any surplus will be invested into door prizes. (suggestions?)
-Member can have the demo unit for no longer than 3 weeks.
-Once member is finished with the player, they pay shipping (insured to $400) to the next participant. It is up to the sender and receiver to exchange appropriate shipping information.
-Demo order will be determined at random.
-I will draw a name at random on Friday, 6/12. Winner will be last in line, and keeps the player!

For simplicity reasons, please send your deposit via PayPal to dane_peterson@mac.com or PM me for alternative payment methods.

I will update this thread throughout the week. Any questions, let me know!

pearsall001

Fantastic deal!!! Kudo's to you for getting the ball rolling on this one. Definetely in. I'll send you a PM for you addy...for sending a personal check. Don't worry, it'll clear!

megasat16

dane_peterson wrote: »

All right, guys! Emotiva is offering PolkForum a demo ERC-1 CD Player at 30% off retail so that we can finally put this debate to rest! They would like to hear back from me by early next week, so let's get to it.

Requirements:
-Participants must be a ClubPolk member for 6 months, or have 250 posts.
-$20 Non-refundable deposit minimum. Any surplus will be invested into door prizes. (suggestions?)
-Member can have the demo unit for no longer than 3 weeks.
-Once member is finished with the player, they pay shipping (insured to $400) to the next participant. It is up to the sender and receiver to exchange appropriate shipping information.
-Demo order will be determined at random.
-I will draw a name at random on Friday, 6/12. Winner will be last in line, and keeps the player!

For simplicity reasons, please send your deposit via PayPal to dane_peterson@mac.com or PM me for alternative payment methods.

I will update this thread throughout the week. Any questions, let me know!

Great Ideas but I have questions about a few rules.

If a member keeps the unit for 3 weeks and let's say, shipping takes a week, so it takes nearly a month for the player to change hands. Let's say we have 20 people in the list, it'll take months before someone gets a chance to evaluate.

Even for the lucky guy who win the player at the end, it'll probably be a year or more before he gets to listen to it.

And about shipping charges to the next member? Can we raise up more funds and pays for Ground shipping from that pool? I think some member with business may have excellent shipping rates who can help organize shipping cost down?

dane_peterson

Megasat,
The shipping idea honestly complicates things. Just consider the cost to demo $20 + shipping.
This process has worked in the past. I'm sure not all members will keep the player 3 weeks. Some may keep it mere days--time enough to have a demo. I've seen some other threads suggest a 4 week timeframe. Rules stay.

lightman1

A week should be plenty of time to demo the unit. Plus if some of the member live near one another, they could just drop it off at their house or meet somewhere. All in all, it should go smoothly if everyone follows the rules and regs.

apphd

dane, thanks for your efforts on this. One thought though, the drawing sounds very fail and practical and works good for selecting the lucky winner. But would you consider taking the time to look at the list and organize it in some geographical order. Like I said thank you for what you have done already and this would be added time you may not have, or care to do...... understood.
But going coast to coast, maybe several times, adds to shipping costs, time, number of hands throwing it around etc. If it moves to the next closest one on the list in a somewhat straight line it would allow for local exchanges, half way meetings and what ever the two in the exchange care to work out.

Just a thought, also PM sent to confirm my name on the list.

comfortablycurt

Definitely count me in on this. I'll contribute $20 to the cause.

I'd like to form my own opinion of it after all the debate about it on here.

PM sent.:)

nikolas812

Sending money now.






Nick

dane_peterson

apphd wrote: »

... would you consider taking the time to look at the list and organize it in some geographical order. But going coast to coast, maybe several times, adds to shipping costs, time, number of hands throwing it around etc. If it moves to the next closest one on the list in a somewhat straight line it would allow for local exchanges, half way meetings and what ever the two in the exchange care to work out.

I like this. Hopefully those of you on the latter coast are okay with this plan.

All participants, please send me your full address with PM/payment so I can organize this.

megasat16

I am in Cali so I don't know how many members from west coast are in the plan and when the west coast guys can get a listen to the Reference stuff. You know, the excitement kills.

Sherardp

Guess that means I would be last then.

apphd

Sherardp wrote: »

Guess that means I would be last then.

I think the last in line is the new owner, so I hope I'm last in line.:p

comfortablycurt

I definitely agree with arranging the shipping geographically. It'll save everyone a few extra bucks in shipping, and some of us may even be able to deliver by hand and avoid shipping costs altogether.

I think instead of the player staying with the last person in line, it should be Karma'd to one of the entrants at random, in a drawing. Just seems more fair to me that way. Just my 2 cents though.:) If not, I'd like to be put last in line.;):p

Any surplus will be invested into door prizes. (suggestions?)

If there's enough left over, we could buy some good cables and Karma them off at random to one/some of the entrants. Maybe some amazon.com gift certificates as well, or something along those lines.

apphd

comfortablycurt wrote: »

I definitely agree with arranging the shipping geographically. It'll save everyone a few extra bucks in shipping, and some of us may even be able to deliver by hand and avoid shipping costs altogether.

I think instead of the player staying with the last person in line, it should be Karma'd to one of the entrants at random, in a drawing. Just seems more fair to me that way. Just my 2 cents though.:) If not, I'd like to be put last in line.;):p



If there's enough left over, we could buy some good cables and Karma them off at random to one/some of the entrants. Maybe some amazon.com gift certificates as well, or something along those lines.

I'll let dane say for sure, but I think his intent, is a drawing for the owner, which puts them last in line. The rest, if everyone is agreeable, moves geographically, to allow easiest transfer for those close to each other and to keep as many ape hands from shippers off it as much as possible. But I think dane is waiting for some feedback by participants on how it is going to move.

Retro152

Agree with setting this up geographically, it only make's sense. Think im closest to apphd, (NE. PA) see Pearsall is in NJ, look's like just south of Philly. Like curt's idea of doing a Karma for the player, try to keep it as fair as possible. This is Dane's baby, so he will have a good game plan, im sure.:)

Pat.

dane_peterson

Kay guys, here's an update...

Payments made/on their way from: dane_peterson, pearsall001, retro152, apphd, nikolas182, comfortablycurt. Total = $125

Yet to hear from: Face, MillerLiteScott, cnh, lightman1, megasat16, BlueFox, and Sherardp. These are members who showed interest but have not yet PMed me with payment info.

I intend to have the player shipped directly to the first member on the list from the EAST coast. (we have more participants from the East, so this only made sense) A formalized order will be set up once we have enough funds.

As for the winning member... they will be drawn later this week, and will be automatically bumped to the last on the list. As of right now, I do not anticipate a surplus for add'l prizes.

megasat16

Ok! Thanks for making things clear. While I certainly want to be part of the fun but it does not seem like fun anymore.

We have a couple of guys (myself and Sheardp) in the west coast and won't it be sensible to ship to East Coast first? If you have this shipped to East Coast first, we in the west will needs to wait till 6 months or more while you guys in the East evaluate the player and may need to ship back to winning Bidder in East Coast?

I guess it would make sense you let the minority in the West Coast to evaluate the player FIRST and gives us less time like a week or two for us and have it ship to East Coast. So, it'll only take a month or so for the player to be in West Coast while it can take a year or more in the East Coast and then send it off to the lucky winner.

While grouping geographically and exchanging the player in person makes a lot of sense but I doubt anyone is up for a drive up to 100miles or more when shipping 22LBs box seems more economical and can be shipped safely with Insurance.

I hate to be the talking guy but I think it's worth discussing.

dane_peterson

There are people in the midwest too. Everyone will demo it promptly to keep anyone from waiting too long. If you're too impatient, you can certainly buy a player for full price for a 30-day trial. Someone will end up paying shipping, and someone will have to wait a while... this is as fair as it can be. The other members are right... moving across the country will reduce travel time and shipping liabilities.

megasat16

dane_peterson wrote: »

There are people in the midwest too. Everyone will demo it promptly to keep anyone from waiting too long. If you're too impatient, you can certainly buy a player for full price for a 30-day trial. Someone will end up paying shipping, and someone will have to wait a while... this is as fair as it can be. The other members are right... moving across the country will reduce travel time and shipping liabilities.

It's exactly right! There are people in the Midwest. So, if you move from East to MidWest and then to the west, it would be about a year for it to come to the West. I don't mind waiting a year and I certainly don't mind $25 to contribute to this. But this is community effort and as such I prefer rules to be discussed.

It makes me wonder why you say other members are right? Because there are people in number in the East and Midwest in the game?

I would certainly want to be part of this but I think I am going to order the ERM-1 to take advantage of their 30 days trial. Who knows, I might end up keeping it and selling my other Reference player.

dane_peterson

Requirements:
-Participants must be a ClubPolk member for 6 months, or have 250 posts.
-$20 Non-refundable deposit minimum.
-Member can have the player for no longer than 10 days. Please send sooner if you've had the opportunity to listen.
-Once member is finished with the player, they pay shipping (insured to $400) to the next participant. It is up to the sender and receiver to exchange appropriate shipping information.
-I am establishing the demo order geographically.
-I will draw a name at random on Friday, 6/12. Winner will be last in line, and keeps the player!
-Winner will pay shipping to receive the player from the previous member.

Please send me a PM when you are shipping the player to the next participant. I will send reminder PMs to any members who are overdue to send. I need to receive payments by this Friday. Any others interested in participating after Friday can still do so with $20, but will not be eligible to win the player.

apphd

Thanks for the update dane.
Sounds good to me. Good Luck to all involved with the drawing.

comfortablycurt

Dane,

A $20 postal money order is headed your way. Let me know when you receive it.:)

dane_peterson

Thanks Curt.

Come on guys! We need at least another 5 participants to break even on this. I'm not exactly in a position to throw extra money at it...

megasat16

Dane, I am still in! Now, let's see how many more will come forward.

Come on guys! We need a few more to make this happen. Everyone will get a chance to listen since the Demo time is shorter now.

comfortablycurt

If we can't find any more participants, I may be able to chip in another 20 bucks.

Do people that contribute extra money get an extra chance at winning it?;)

Retro152

comfortablycurt wrote: »

If we can't find any more participants, I may be able to chip in another 20 bucks.

Do people that contribute extra money get an extra chance at winning it?;)

Im willing to throw in another $20 also, if need be. Yes curt, you will probably be even more of a lock to win it if you put up say, $399?:D

Pat.

pearsall001

I can't believe that more guys aren't all over this demo. For a mere $20 & a little to ship it to the next in line, & the chance to win the player, it doesn't get any better then this. Hell, a lot of guys think nothing about dropping $1k or more for a pair of speaker cables yet aren't curious enough to drop $20 to give the player a whirl in their system (what are they afraid of???) Maybe the "golden ears" are insulted by the mere mention of anything from Emotiva. I'm open to give anything a try. This is well worth my $20 for sure.

Face

I was interested, but instead of shelling out money, I was hoping they'd let us borrow a unit like MIT has done with their cable demo. Plus, the raffle thing seems a little silly.

shack

pearsall001 wrote:

I can't believe that more guys aren't all over this demo. For a mere $20 & a little to ship it to the next in line, & the chance to win the player, it doesn't get any better then this. Hell, a lot of guys think nothing about dropping $1k or more for a pair of speaker cables yet aren't curious enough to drop $20 to give the player a whirl in their system (what are they afraid of???) Maybe the "golden ears" are insulted by the mere mention of anything from Emotiva. I'm open to give anything a try. This is well worth my $20 for sure.

I have no interest in this particular piece of gear. I have several CDPs that I'm perfectly happy with and not looking to change. There are probably quite a few people in the same situation where their $20 (plus shipping etc.) is better spent elsewhere.

LessisNevermore

Dane, paypal payment sent!

I'm also in agreement about the geographical trial order.

apphd

pearsall001 wrote: »

I can't believe that more guys aren't all over this demo. For a mere $20 & a little to ship it to the next in line, & the chance to win the player, it doesn't get any better then this. Hell, a lot of guys think nothing about dropping $1k or more for a pair of speaker cables yet aren't curious enough to drop $20 to give the player a whirl in their system (what are they afraid of???) Maybe the "golden ears" are insulted by the mere mention of anything from Emotiva. I'm open to give anything a try. This is well worth my $20 for sure.

Got to agree with you here. I have room for it in my set up, and am sure no matter what it will be a step up from what I have. What are we talking, $35-$40 for a 1 in 20 chance to win something that if not your cup of tea, you could probably flip and make $50 to $100 very easily. Plus the opportunity to participate in conversations on the product with hands on knowledge of the product instead of needing to use past experience with similar products, or specs only to quantify its performance. But things are tight for many, and the $$ for something you have no use for could be a little hard to swallow right now.

Just one of those "to each their own" things.