kawo wrote:

To make it easer for you to pull the plug on the Halo, just learned the B&O increased the price for the BeoRemote One dramatically (at least in Germany, new MSRP is 300 Euro!!!

Same here in Sweden. BR1 is now 3000 SEK ....

Noted on B&O webpage that Essence remote is shown but there is no way to order. Discontinued?

poodleboy wrote:

Probably little different from EU. What you seem to be calling import taxes, we call sales and use taxes and are paid on one side of the border; not both, and I have lived on both sides. Depending on which state, province, or commonwealth you live in, between US and Canada, it's probably a wash on consumer goods. Autos is a very different story. At the end of the day, Halo costs a whole lot of dollars, Canadian or US.

Mikipidia wrote:

The US has an import tax on luxury goods and B&O products come through B&O USA(company) to Canada

Back in 2016, Trump "floated the idea" but I could not find anything at the US CBP website which says that luxury tax was actually implemented.  Besides, although the Halo is priced very high, it's still under $1000 and there is unlikely to be any specific "multiple of non-luxury price" method of calculation.  (Just imagine if such were applied to B&O's charging pad!-)  More typically, luxury tax is expressed as, e.g. "a single item of clothing valued more than $1500" or somesuch, with broad categories of goods.

Recently a threat was made on French luxury goods specifically, in retaliation for threatened "GAFA Tax" on American multinational tech titans.  But not Denmark -- Trump must have a soft spot for Margarethe.  All of which matters not, because the Halo comes from... China.  Import tariffs on remote controls used to be zero, but there is recently a 4.9% import tariff (8526.92.50, "radio apparatus for remote control, not used in video game") plus any overriding tax on goods assembled in or composed principally of components from China, which, until recently, has excluded most consumer electronics, but that either just changed, or is about to change, or who the ƒu¢k knows, because this administration just keeps making $h!t up as they go along.

For a very long time, there has been a roughly-30% B&O-levied markup applied to prices in North America.  I used to sigh and accept that it supported a full distribution & support team in Deerfield, IL.  But they are all gone.  My dealer is gone too -- therefore clearly *they* weren't keeping the lion's share of that 30%.  Now the markup just pays for a sales rep in New York or New Jersey somewhere.  Shipping of website orders in NA has been outsourced.  Obviously their support has been outsourced.  New Beolab 18s are costly: over $10,000 with wood grilles, plus the 19 is $4500.  Plus sales tax of ~6% most states.  (For those who wish to compare with their local shop, 20's here are priced at US$15,000, 50s cost 40,000-plus, and 90s are about $85,000.00.  Compared to the Danish Prisliste, that's between 20-40% markup, but for example, the Stage & Beosound 1 are only ~10% at US$1750.  By way of comparison, Revel (USA, luxury good) Ultima2 Salon2 speakers are $22,000 per pair, about the same price as B&W 802/D3s here in the USA.)  

But back to the Halo: not tariffed exceptionally by the US (this week!), MSRP $900, which is not as far above Danish prices as most B&O products!

All of that is pretty usual thing I guess, just compare the price of a (new) iPad Air in the US vs Europe. And any other Apple product, btw. So the Halo, being the EU product, probably gets priced the other way around.

I usually include the VAT in my "emotional calculations" because, just imagine you ship an entire cargo container of B&O gear, how much of it arrives damaged?  (The high-end stuff I mean, probably the earphones arrive unscathed.)  So I reserve my outrage for retail pricing in excess of that.   But back to the Halo again: Might one reason for price parity (approx.) B&O has chosen, be that otherwise it would be an ideal candidate for gray-marketing?  No power supply differences, no shipping damage worries, no configuration / support hassles for the in-country dealers to moan about...

Rudi Pedersen wrote:

Hi Thomas

Do you know why the Halo shows local sources that is unchecked in the product and not shown in the App

Best regards Rudi

I've just set up my new HALO and I've got two problems now:

- the software updated is shown in the App (red light), but I cannot start the update in the app (the button is light gray (currently: 1.0.2635)

- the multiroom button (double window) for touch to join is not shown in the HALO (only the four favorite symbols are shown)

I appreciate any support,
Wolfgang 

I've just set up my new HALO and I've got two problems now:

- the software updated is shown in the App (red light), but I cannot start the update in the app (the button is light gray (currently: 1.0.2635)

- the multiroom button (double window) for touch to join is not shown in the HALO (only the four favorite symbols are shown)

I appreciate any support,
Wolfgang 

I've just set up my new HALO and I've got two problems now:

- the software updated is shown in the App (red light), but I cannot start the update in the app (the button is light gray (currently: 1.0.2635)

- the multiroom button (double window) for touch to join is not shown in the HALO (only the four favorite symbols are shown)

I appreciate any support,
Wolfgang