Does anyone know it the Sim Moon i3 100w into 8 and 160 into 4 ohms is enough power for the difficult Focus 140's. Has anyone heard how they sound together? If I want one of these I have to decide fast as there is deal going on at a local store (a discount) must be a better one comining in.
The Sim is a very smooth sounding amp. Probably mates well with Dyn's. The i3's power seems lighter than its rating, or at least it did when I had it home for a demo with a pair of ProAcs.
There is nothing like a home demo to get the full picture. The Sim is going inexpensively here as well. Last week a dealer here tried to talk me into buying one. I believe they are coming out with a new version though I'm not sure.
If you buy one make sure it was manufactured fairly recently as the older ones had a very light weight bottom plate which bowed under the weight of the transformer. Good luck.
I tried out the I-3 this weekend and it was stout despite it's relatively small size. The fact that they publish power output into 2 ohms should tell you a little about this amp. As Art mentions, if you want to pick one up, now is the time as a lot of retailers are slashing prices making room for the new stuff. I am seriously considering getting one as well, with a local place knocking approximately 35% off the sticker.
I told myself I would wait, but after reading your post and knowing that it is true, I think it may be wise to pick one up under these circumstances. I really wanted to wait until tax time to go shopping, but the current deal may just be too good to pass on.
Wait a sec. My local store only said that it was 20% off dropping it from 2000 to $1600. Frosty what price are your local dealers selling for if it is 35% off. This may not be such a deal.
Retail mark up should be a good point of discussion. I hear it is 100%
100%? Not on your life! At least, not in the UK, even with local product. Not even close (and not in a good way from the dealer's point of view). Accessories have higher markup than main components and even they aren't 100%. Distributors get a better deal typically and if they deal direct, they still don't get 100% markup, at least not for the good brands.
And don't forget that the dealer has to pay the rent, the staff, the shipping, the demo stock, etc. Once you add that lot into the profit margin, his end of year bottom line is likely to be lower than you'd think.
Quite frankly (pun intended), I find it amazing that so many HiFi dealers have survived. I'm a Saturday 'lad' at a specialist HiFi retailer in the UK and have been so for 10 years. My wife and I had considered setting up a business of our own but in the end the numbers were just so close to the line we decided we couldn't take the risk. Very sad, since I finally saw a way out of the IT industry.