SVS SBS-01 speakers shipping now?

Guys,


Sorry, it's been a busy month! We're still working this hard but are on the cusp of a slight slip to the right. Perhaps only a matter of a couple days. We'd targeted 28/29th as our first shipment months ago and we'll come close.


Still too early to call today but while there's a chance we'll squeak some out on Friday it's looking like next week is more likely now. Even that will require overtime this weekend (and salaried guys working this project don't GET overtime ;^) but we'll do it if it means we can get some of the pre-orders out a couple days earlier.


We've got an entire team dedicated to the QC process line and it's just a matter of the goods showing up now (they're painfully close but US Customs, like God, works in mysterious ways).


While a slip of some days might be bad news to some, it's good news to others since we're true to our word that pre-order prices remain in place till we ARE shipping in quantity.


Ron

SVS

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"Hype"? What hype? ;^)


I just got back from 10 days with Dealers in Europe (partly so I could hear the 5.1 rigs we sent them... I don't even have one since I had to return all but a stereo pair from my photo sessions.). I'm pretty sure the hype will get worse before it gets better man.


Anyway, I tend to agree that people having had them is the key to people making intelligent choices. Especially with main speakers, which are an intensely personal and subjective product choice.


Quality is (relatively) easy to assure when you drive in every screw and check every amp seal as is the case with subwoofers. We'll probably go totally overboard on a product like the SBS-01 system, which is the first we've ever sub-contracted out for assembly. We know that a zero tollerance for defects is the only way to proceed. As it should be. It'll perhaps mean they don't flow out of Ohio as fast and as soon as we'd wanted but no one (or nearly no one) wants it fast, at the expense of having it good. We'll spend nearly as much time testing these as it would have taken to build them but it's a necessary thing.


As we clear the decks for that effort, it's a full court press, all while we have a separate team (with some shared members) headed off to CES. No whining allowed though, we choose to kill ourselves with all this overlapping stuff ;^)


We've heard the hype, and as always aim to make sure it's not hype at all.


We'll have a couple sets in Sin City for people to beat on even as they are leaving Ohio for the first time . Thanks to all for their patience. After 18 months of near continuous effort on this full range project we should probably just accept a week slip, but we're not, it's being worked very intensely.


Ron

SVS

Grey,


That's a bit cynical, but there's a fine line between being a realist and a cynic ;^)


We've offered up everything short of the honor of women we haven't even met to entice every driver, inspector, loader, and paper shuffler between us and our subcontractor to pull out all the stops so we can load in a full crew at the factory on New Year's Eve to help with the QC process. So far so good. We'll at least RECEIVE them (if all goes well) late tonight and start our side of production checkout tomorrow.


That's the plan. We're not sure how many will get thru the process, and till we actually DO have them at our Ohio factory it's impossible to say if any of ya'll will ship for sure next week. Suffice it to say there are quite a few orders and ALL orders we have as of 1 JAN are going to be handled as expedited pre-order situations. The fact the slip pushed us and many of our factory team right against CES preparation and travel has just complicated it a bit more.


As long as our mid-night delivery and subsequent New Years Eve processing goes well, I'm sure at least some folks will get shipping notices NLT Tuesday. We have to work around an auditor for year end inventory too while this is going on (the tax man care'th what ye hold on 1 JAN, it's more funds for the king's treasury).


So, all that's a long way of saying a lot of people are pushing on this from several directions but guidance from all the owners in a conference call yesterday was simple: Do all you can, as soon as you can. Don't compromise QC one bit.


I'd rather explain why a speaker is a bit late than why it's got a quality/performance problem after all. Doubly so since I'm just over the 10 days of jet lag as I get ready to drive with a boatload of sensitive stuff 14 hours to Las Vegas (that's just the stuff we don't want to UPS the other truckload is already there waiting for us to decend on it on Tuesday).


No rest for the weary (or is it wicked?) OEM. Thanks for your patience. We'll come well within the usual padding figure Grey2112 outlined for all pre-orders I'm sure. By 15 JAN all current orders should be met and we'll be looking at a 24 hour turn on new orders. Sales have exceeded our expectations though so our next challenge is to make sure more are already coming (they are, but an outage is all but certain).


Head down, back to that solid work ethic I've been advised on (vacation enters into that too right Sub'd Out?? ;^)


Too bad 31 Jan was supposed to be my day off this year.


Ron

SVS

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That's me, the proverbial "turd in the punchbowl"


Seriously, though, I don't mind waiting a little longer to make sure I get a quality product that is QCed properly.

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LOL, Ron - I know how you feel, believe me. I always found caffeine helped resync the body/mind with the current timezone, but I'm sure you've tried that already. I also know that there's a fine line between working to exhaustion and killing yourself


I concur with grey though, I'd rather wait than risk a return and if it saves lives then it's a bonus


Now if only I could get myself to Vegas next weekend......

Latest response from Tom on another forum - looks like tomorrow is the day!:


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Hi all,


We were looking for a late December ship date for these...but we missed by one business day. I apologize for the (very) slight delay. We did receive them on Friday...but we weren't going to ship them without opening every box for a complete inspection---including various electronic QC checks with LMS and Praxxis. That's right, every speaker is visually AND electronically tested before we ship them to you. There will be a *lot* of speakers being shipped on Tuesday...we had our engineers work most of the weekend QC-ing them all.


Tom V.

SVS

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