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Why are Roland screwing the early adopters of their gear? I purchased a JD-XA in Australia for $2800 ($2799) about a year ago, now all of a sudden the price has dropped to $2000 ($1999). Even worse than this however is that they have a special on now where you can buy one for $1300 ($1299)!

https://www.storedj.com.au/roland-jd-xa ... ynthesizer

They have done the same for the System 8, originally $2699 now $1899.

https://www.storedj.com.au/roland-aira- ... ynthesizer

What a waste, I could have held off and got 2 JD-XAs for the price of one and had $200 left over, what a con!


The System 500 looks similar, a modular that should cost about $2000 at the most is sold here for $3400!

Likely that the JD-XA is about to be made obsolete.........Bargains Ahead.

jerry_merry wrote:Likely that the JD-XA is about to be made obsolete.........Bargains Ahead.

It's quite clear that those guys have definitely decided to dump all their stock down by aggressively bashing its price. What is the story behind that? Who knows. Either their sales of one might have been not as good as expected or as you've said there is some new or updated product on the way. That's just how any business works: those who are eager about getting something new have to keep their wallet open. Although I bought my one at the top price level I'm not worried about it that much since hardware synth are no longer ultimate source of sound and I'm pretty skeptic about Roland is able to come up with something that would entirely overshadow a JD-XA.

Analog Man wrote:
What a waste, I could have held off and got 2 JD-XAs for the price of one and had $200 left over, what a con!

There's a silver lining to every cloud - I manage to pick up the last one in stock at my local Store DJ.

The Expanding Man wrote:

Analog Man wrote:
What a waste, I could have held off and got 2 JD-XAs for the price of one and had $200 left over, what a con!

There's a silver lining to every cloud - I manage to pick up the last one in stock at my local Store DJ.

How to not win friends lesson #1 :)

This is not a new concept in prices dropping. Some times I wait to purchase synths because of this and I do save money. Some people cannot wait. I see it as the price of admission to own the latest tech. In some cases I can wait. I have yet to get the JD-XA because for its original price I wanted more than 4 voices for the analog section.

Synthtron wrote:This is not a new concept in prices dropping. Some times I wait to purchase synths because of this and I do save money. Some people cannot wait. I see it as the price of admission to own the latest tech. In some cases I can wait. I have yet to get the JD-XA because for its original price I wanted more than 4 voices for the analog section.

Smart comment. I think the same way.

Oh, it's like everything else in technology: early adopters will always pay a premium. Also you can never wait long enough: something newer and cooler will always emerge. Personally I am not too worried, my JD-XA will continue to purr and tick away nicely even when Roland releases their next flagship. Heck, it will be making music just fine ten or fifteen years from now.

The Expanding Man wrote: There's a silver lining to every cloud - I manage to pick up the last one in stock at my local Store DJ.

Good for you I don't have a problem with that at all, I posted on here so someone would at least benefit.

My argument is that in order to knock a price down by that much ($2800 -> $1300), the price would have had to have been inflated artificially.

Look at another glaring example, the System 500. I was going to purchase one recently and after doing my research, it also seems artificially inflated. Roland's own circuitry just rehashed, and with the manufacturing power that they have and the current technology - $3300 for a basic system??? That is (or at least was) the price of the 'rare' System 100M Modular equivalent. Look at Arturia's Drumbrute for $600 or some of the other recent analog gear.

Roland must be losing customers as far as I can tell by talking to the musos I know, which now bypass Roland due to this inflationary pricing policy, as they have lost me!

Analog Man wrote:

The Expanding Man wrote: ....My argument is that in order to knock a price down by that much ($2800 -> $1300), the price would have had to have been inflated artificially. ...

Don't assume a conspiracy or evil intent. Roland (and many other makers) have always engaged a "tiered priicing" strategy ... releasing new products (often in short supply) at high MSRP. This gets maximum $ from "must-have, early adopters", after which they reduce prices when demand decreases, or when availability is better.

Nothing to see here ... move along.

Analog Man wrote:My argument is that in order to knock a price down by that much ($2800 -> $1300), the price would have had to have been inflated artificially.

To add to what zombietactics said, things that are also not remotely unusual for businesses of all types:

1) pricing products based on what the market will bear - not some notion of cost+acceptable profit margin.
2) dropping pricing, even below cost, to shift stock for all manner of reasons eg cashflow, warehouse space, product rationalisation, cancelled orders, product is deemed end-of-line etc

The JD-XA had a price drop in the states but it has held at $1799.00 for a while. Looks like it has not dropped lower than this at the moment.

I'm currently trying to sell off some gear to grab a demo model from a roland dealer for $1299 right now, still has full roland warranty by coming from a dealer (they say). Hate to pass it up but fear for the future value if the price drops like it did on my Jupiter 80! I paid $3500 for that, sold it for $1800 two years later after they dropped the price to $2500, then to $1999!

If its made of plastic, I can guarantee it will half in value over its commercial lifespan! :P

Also just checking, but the title of this thread is completely wrong right? They aren't inflating it, it's deflating.

Myrk- wrote:If its made of plastic, I can guarantee it will half in value over its commercial lifespan! :P

Also just checking, but the title of this thread is completely wrong right? They aren't inflating it, it's deflating.

I think it means that prices are inflated at the point when they first go on sale.