Hello everybody,
since time flies by and it has been a long wait until now, I'd like to
give some information about the current status and progress of the
RE-909 project, I'd like to ask you to read through this longer info
mail where I try to provide all details I can provide at this point.
As many of you might have noticed, Paul from Dinsync will receive the
PCBs within the next couple of days. Everything is basically organized
then to start building RE-909s, but there are still some open positions
which I have to wait for, to offer completely built RE-909s.
This is mainly related to the custom made parts like the case, knobs and
buttons etc., getting these made involves quite a lot of work from the
initial design until the finished product, it starts with mechanical
details and ends with the selection of the best suited material. There
are several steps involved during this process, which include samples
after every step, which have to be checked, maybe improved and the mold
has to be corrected, this all takes its time considering shipping lead
times, time resources at the manufacturer etc.
The good news is, that we aren't far away now to the final products, we
have a prototype case which worked flawless with the prototype RE-909,
but before ordering a high quantity of cases, we want to make sure, that
everything is perfect with the latest revision PCBs.
The last samples of the knobs/buttons have been nearly perfect too
already and only need some minor improvements and as the cherry on the
cake we've also decided to get the side panels made with injection
molding. The quality of injection molded parts is way better compared to
3d printing, and what we'd like to deliver IS quality.
So, now about the things which you all might be interested in the most,
availability and pricing of fully built and plug and play ready RE-909s.
As stated before, some crucial parts are still in the making,
availability is highly depending on how flawless the last steps will
progress and then it's depending on the delivery conditions / lead time
for the "mass production" at our manufacturers. So the bad news is, that
I can't provide a date yet, when I can start to supply fully built
RE-909s, and since the case and further custom made parts make a big
part of the total material cost, I'll also have to wait for the final
total costs to provide a price info for the RE-909. Since I can't base
the price calculation solely on the material cost but I've also to take
the time into the equation which is required to build a complete RE-909
which apart from the actual solder job also includes calibration,
testing and final assembly into the case, I'd like to build one RE-909
from start to finish. Based on the total material cost + the time
involved for building the 909, I'll set the price. Since I've been asked
about pricing already which is of course understandable since you all
have also to calculate your expenses etc. I'll provide a quite broad
price range in which the Re-909 will be located, which will be somewhere
between 1200-2000 Eur. I know that's not very accurate and leaves space
for speculation but people have already been worried that it might cost
close to a TR-909 and this definitely won't happen, I hope that this
will give a rough idea until I can provide more accurate pricing info.
I hope that I'll have all info available within the next 2 weeks, but
I'll definitely send another info mail as soon as I've all details at
hand. At that point, when everybody knows about pricing/lead time and
conditions for an order, we can take the next steps and you can decide
if you'd like to place an order or skip it.
Thank you for your patience and interest,
best regards,
