B&C dealer - prices too good to be true?

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I've seen a lot of interest in B&C drivers for subwoofer designs here in the last few years - Danley seems to like them, and they seem to be just the ticket for many tapped and front loaded horn designs, among other things. There are a lot of great subwoofers that use these drivers, and they are very nice to design around so there will probably be many more.

In an attempt to find the best prices for these drivers I ran across this website.
B&C SPEAKERS 18", CelectroniUSA.com

These prices seem way too good to be true. B&C does not list them as an authorized distributor.
B&C SPEAKERS
And their website doesn't look very professional.

So I have 3 questions.

1. Has anyone bought anything from this site?
2. Is this site an outright scam?
3. How important is it to buy from an authorized distributor?
3a. Where do unauthorized distributors get their stock from?

I realize there may be no warranty unless the dealer is authorized, but unless the unit arrives DOA you don't really need a warranty. If it works out of the box, any subsequent failure is almost always due to abuse that won't be covered under warranty anyway.

(At the bottom of the page I linked to, there's a logo that says they are the exclusive distributor for North America. This is clearly not true, B&C lists several distributors for North America, and doesn't list these guys at all.)
 
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Well they aren't giving them away. These could have been purchased from a dealer going out of business or someone with to much inventory needing to move merchandise out of a store or warehouse. If they were really cheap I would suspect a counterfeit but that doesn't appear to be the case. The easy way is to make a phone call and just ask what is going on.
 
2 Is the site recognized by Symantec?

I don't know what that means.

2 Not important as a warranty is a warranty. The onus however, is with the manufacturer.
3a Any Bona Fide company can purchase fron a wholesaler, sometimes at a cheaper rate.

I don't know much about authorized distributors, but if this is true, what is the point of having authorized distributors at all?

(I'm not questioning you, you clearly know more than I do about this, I'm just wondering.)
 
Well they aren't giving them away. These could have been purchased from a dealer going out of business or someone with to much inventory needing to move merchandise out of a store or warehouse. If they were really cheap I would suspect a counterfeit but that doesn't appear to be the case. The easy way is to make a phone call and just ask what is going on.

I'm primarily interested in the 18tbw100. It's $100 cheaper here than anywhere else, and everyone else lists almost exactly the same price.

Your advice does make sense, but if they are less than honest on the website I wouldn't expect straight answers over the phone, that's why I'm looking for 3rd party references and opinions.

The site actually looks better than it did a couple months ago, it used to look even less professional and ask for a username and password for some reason.
 
If you look at the bottom of the page it does say and authorized dealer right there. Just because someone is authorized does not mean they are the only dealers a company would sell through, these may just be the heavy hitters who sell lots of merchandise, ones that get free advertising, it is really a worthless statement unless it is someone like Microsoft who won't stand behind there product unless you buy a product through one of there dealers, this is a way to keep control of prices and warranty problems with resellers or repackagers.
 
If you look at the bottom of the page it does say and authorized dealer right there.

I know, but anyone can make (or copy) a logo and stick it on their site. I'm asking because B&C specifically lists their US authorized distributors on their website, and these guys are not on the list. They are certainly not the exclusive distributor for North America, as the logo claims.

B&C SPEAKERS NA LCC
220 W. Parkway, Unit 11
Pompton Plains, NJ 07444 - USA
973-248-0955
Fax: 973-248-0956
Info.usa@bcspeakers.com
B&C SPEAKERS

or Contact an Authorized B&C Distributor directly:

Pro Sound Service
Braintree, MA - 877-776-7631 (or 781-849-1285)
Pro Sound Service AV Sales Service Install 877-776-7631

Parts Express
Springboro, OH - 800-338-0531 (or 937-743-3000)
Parts Express: the #1 source for audio, video & speaker building components

Thunderball Marketing (Dealers Only)
Avenel, NJ - 212-645-5600
Thunderball Marketing Inc. Electronics, Digital Cameras, DJ Equipment, Stereos, Mp3 Players, Distributors

US Speaker
Freehold, NJ - 877-732-5374 (or 732-308-4670)
US SPEAKER PARTS - Speakers, Speaker Cabinets, Guitar speakers, Bass speakers, , Woofers, HF Drivers, speaker upgrades and replacement speakers. Eminence Speaker, JBL speakers, 18 Sound, B&C, EV, Tannoy, Peavey, Celestion, RCF, Jensen, Beyma, Fane, P
 
Dealer and distributor are two different categories. This may be what is tripping you up. It does not say distributor, I think it said dealer. The distributors sell to the dealers. It is the normal structure for sales down the line. Look at what the Thunderball listing say, only dealers can call them, they won't sell directly to you, you have to go through a dealer to get the product.
 
I've bought from Pro Sound Service a lot and they are really great.

I've heard good things about everyone on the distributors list (except thunderball, who I have never heard of at all). Unfortunately they are all quite a bit more expensive than the site in question.

You could contact B&C directly and ask them if this is an authorized dealer.

I'm going to, but since I'm not ready to purchase yet I didn't want to bother them. I'll probably contact them tomorrow though, I'm really interested to find out now.
 
Dealer and distributor are two different categories. This may be what is tripping you up. It does not say distributor, I think it said dealer. The distributors sell to the dealers. It is the normal structure for sales down the line. Look at what the Thunderball listing say, only dealers can call them, they won't sell directly to you, you have to go through a dealer to get the product.

The logo says "exclusive distributor for North America".
 
I don't see how that's possible since Pro Sound Service gets stuff directly from Italy... I've had stuff on back order with them, and that's what they told me.

It isn't possible, that's kind of the main reason I started this discussion.

Anyway, I'm really interested now, so I've sent an email to B&C SPEAKERS NA LCC (the first on the authorized distributors list), so I'll wait for a response from them. If that doesn't work out, I'll try to contact B&C corporate head office directly. The last thing I want to do is call the company in question to ask if they are legitimate, it's kind of like asking a used car salesman if he's honest. He might be, he might not be, but either way he's going to say he is, and that doesn't really help.
 
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It isn't possible, that's kind of the main reason I started this discussion.

Anyway, I'm really interested now, so I've sent an email to B&C SPEAKERS NA LCC (the first on the authorized distributors list), so I'll wait for a response from them. If that doesn't work out, I'll try to contact B&C corporate head office directly. The last thing I want to do is call the company in question to ask if they are legitimate, it's kind of like asking a used car salesman if he's honest. He might be, he might not be, but either way he's going to say he is, and that doesn't really help.

I have contacted B&C in Italy before and they do respond.
 
And the answer is....

These prices are from our Puerto Rican distributor. They are an authorized B&C distributor, but not in North America.

Being Canadian, I knew Puerto Rico is not part of the continential US, so I had to research a bit to find the relationship between PR and USA (commonwealth). Despite the answer quoted above, they do seem to be in North America, but they are clearly not the exclusive distributor for North America (as the logo claims).

So... CelectronicUSA is not in the USA. But they are authorized.
 
When I converted the prices into GBP they look about right to me.

You can buy cheap 18 inch speakers from £120 upwards.

It depends which model you look at. For instance I'm interested in the 18tbw100. Prices as listed from a few distributors:

prosoundservice.com - $439.44
loudspeakers.ca - $420.47
usspeaker.com - $379.95
celectronicusa.com - $299.90

That's a pretty dramatic difference. I don't know what they sell for on your side of the world, but to me that is inconsequential due to shipping fees.
 
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