Prepare your wallets folks, drop's making landfall tomorrow. 1000 units, drop starts at 9am EST 6am PST Tuesday the 26th, shipping by May 8th
Yup, that's May 8th, four months from now.
Preemptive Q/A:
Q: Shipping by May 8th, WTF?! Massdrop had tons of time between now and the previous drop to plan, what gives, why aren't these ready to ship like last time?
Short Answer: Great question! It's a really hard time of year to have things produced, this is the soonest we can promise a delivery date with confidence.
Long Answer: After the success of the first drop, we immediately reached out to Fostex to see when we could schedule the next drop. Sadly, it turns out that December and January are impossible months to find manufacturing capacity. Factories manage their staff the same way retail stores do. They have a manufacturing schedule (months of orders, placed many months in advance) they need to hit, and they staff accordingly.
After the Christmas manufacturing rush (August through November) is over, factories staff down, people go on vacation, etc. When the first drop finished and we reached out... nobody had capacity, staffing was down and the factories were only producing enough to meet their pre-defined plans.
Then there's Chinese New Year, which is essentially a mandatory two week vacation for all Chinese manufacturing employees, which ends with sizable factory turn over (new year, new job, decent link: http://www.thesourcingblog.com/effects-of-the-chinese-new-year-on-manufacturing-part-1/) and additional delays to production plans.
Believe me when I say, if we could have these delivered sooner, we would, and I'd replace my office chair with a Fostex based version of the Iron Throne, but alas, May 8th is the soonest we can promise, and even that's a bit of a risk (boat could hit a typhoon, get pirated, w/e).
Q: Alright that's a reasonable explanation, but why 1000 instead of 2000 or 5000!? You guys know it's going to sell out, look at the last drop, how are we supposed to get any?
A: We've capped the drop at 1000 units because that's how many are available to be produced, once they sell out, we'll take all possible steps to increase the available quantities. As mentioned above, production capacity is hard to secure right now.
Glad to answer any other questions, I'll be around this thread tonight and tomorrow morning.
In the meantime, tend to your posts and man the harpoons, we sail at dawn.
DDTRRHey, that's actually mine! :P
More details here, but I had them re-terminated with dual 3.5mm plugs (similar to the Sony Z7), and also had adaptors made with mini-XLR for my Audeze-style upgrade cables:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/779584/peterek-formerly-ccaspertfg-mod-cable-thread/30
(Scroll down to post #40, I'm also echineko on headfi)
Contact Peterek (the guy who posted literally above me), he's the artist who modded 'em
Edit: Here's a picture of the mini-XLR to 3.5mm adaptor he made as well:
search
Keep one thing in mind: I'm quite sure this VOIDS the warranty. I didn't mind because I knew I'd be keeping these, but might want to think it through before making any mods. Caveat.. modder?
And hey, I was right, they're awesome, and love them even more with the removable mod and adaptors
Yup, that's May 8th, four months from now.
Preemptive Q/A:
Q: Shipping by May 8th, WTF?! Massdrop had tons of time between now and the previous drop to plan, what gives, why aren't these ready to ship like last time?
Short Answer: Great question! It's a really hard time of year to have things produced, this is the soonest we can promise a delivery date with confidence.
Long Answer: After the success of the first drop, we immediately reached out to Fostex to see when we could schedule the next drop. Sadly, it turns out that December and January are impossible months to find manufacturing capacity. Factories manage their staff the same way retail stores do. They have a manufacturing schedule (months of orders, placed many months in advance) they need to hit, and they staff accordingly.
After the Christmas manufacturing rush (August through November) is over, factories staff down, people go on vacation, etc. When the first drop finished and we reached out... nobody had capacity, staffing was down and the factories were only producing enough to meet their pre-defined plans.
Then there's Chinese New Year, which is essentially a mandatory two week vacation for all Chinese manufacturing employees, which ends with sizable factory turn over (new year, new job, decent link: http://www.thesourcingblog.com/effects-of-the-chinese-new-year-on-manufacturing-part-1/) and additional delays to production plans.
Believe me when I say, if we could have these delivered sooner, we would, and I'd replace my office chair with a Fostex based version of the Iron Throne, but alas, May 8th is the soonest we can promise, and even that's a bit of a risk (boat could hit a typhoon, get pirated, w/e).
Q: Alright that's a reasonable explanation, but why 1000 instead of 2000 or 5000!? You guys know it's going to sell out, look at the last drop, how are we supposed to get any?
A: We've capped the drop at 1000 units because that's how many are available to be produced, once they sell out, we'll take all possible steps to increase the available quantities. As mentioned above, production capacity is hard to secure right now.
Glad to answer any other questions, I'll be around this thread tonight and tomorrow morning.
In the meantime, tend to your posts and man the harpoons, we sail at dawn.