Fractal Audio Price Increases

FractalAudio said:
Price did not increase. The standard Axe-Fx III is still $2299. The Turbo version is $2499. We've held our prices fairly steady considering inflation is running around 8% and we've had to pay premiums, sometimes over 1000%, to get certain chips that are in short supply.

The Axe-Fx III is still the premier modeler and, considering what you get, is a bargain. Our direct sales model cuts out the middle-man and passes the savings on to you...

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People generally have no idea at all about running a business and how a business works. They've never had to make a payroll or deal with upstream vendors or anything. They just click "buy" and put in their credit card information.

A lot of things in business are a LOT more than 8% more expensive and I can't think of many things that are less than 8% more expensive. Only things that were locked in on a contract and a lot of those got busted anyway...
 
Leaving prices where they are has been smart. Discretionary spending is slim for most families right now unless you‘re fortunate enough to have an income high enough that you don’t really feel the cost of survival putting a drag on your finances. You don’t want to price what is essentially a luxury product for 99% of folks, beyond the affordability of your core customers. And being positioned where FAS is with the QC playing catch-up and charging what they do, and L6 not as expensive but not as refined, is a nice spot to be sitting in the current market.
 
I am a new Fractal customer. I was at the crossroads trying to make a decision to continue with amp/effect modelers or return to analog amps, cabs and effect boards. Why, because I had poor luck with modelers holding up to the riggers of gigging and sounding authentic. My last devise was a Headrush Pedalboard that sounded good but was not mechanically and electronically reliable. I had moved to a smaller studio a number of years ago and made the move to emulators wherever possible because of space limitations and sold essentially all of our analog gear. So, if I was going to make the move back to analog for my guitar rig, it was going to be very costly.

I did a substantial amount of research about modelers and new analog gear. The long story short, after all was said and done I spent a little over $4K moving to the Axe Fx III Turbo, FC-12 and EV-1. This cost was small compared to purchasing analog gear that could provide the range of tones that the Fractal gear could. Time will tell if the Fractal gear will hold up as my research said it would…but today, unless you go with hand-wired amps and premium cabs you can’t expect too much reliability…so, hopefully my decision will turn out to be a good one.

So far, I am absolutely loving my Fractal gear and am very pleased with the sounds I am getting and the quality of the hardware.
 
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I heard of Fractal some time in the late 2000’s, browsing videos online related to Zappa and checking out Dweezils equipment. I remember thinking “this looks really good but kind of expensive for me”. I had just come back to the hobby a few years earlier after some time off during college. My search for tone was just heating up. Before this, the focus was more on jamming, practice and trascribing songs. But now the music and artists I was listening to were encouraging me to consider tone and I could tell that the better the sound was, the better I’d play. So I embarked on the journey for better tone and developed gear aquisition syndrome quickly. Fast forward to last year where I was getting disanamored with patch cables, noise and the limitations with the equipment. Tried a digital modeler and thought the convenience was cool but the sound wasn’t there. Only thing left to do was to go to the top of the line to see if this digital thing will work. Hey, “whats this”? A compact Fractal unit with a nice price tag (Fm3). The endless discovery, flexibility and availability of sounds on this machine is staggering. The price tags were/are more than justified! Nevertheless, I trust the FM3 has opened up the customer base. So, some of us may be late to the party but we are gladly here now. Spreading the word too. Thank you FAS!
 
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Lettuce said:
I heard of Fractal some time in the late 2000’s, browsing videos online related to Zappa and checking out Dweezils equipment. I remember thinking “this looks really good but kind of expensive for me”. I just had come back to the hobby a few years earlier after some time off during college. My search for tone was just heating up. Before this, the focus was more on jamming, practice and trascribing songs. But now the music and artists I was listening too were encouraging me to consider tone and I could tell that the better the sound was, the better I’d play. So I embarked on the journey for better tone and developed gear aquisition syndrome quickly. Fast forward to last year where I was getting disanamored with patch cables, noise and the limitations with the equipment. Tried a digital modeler and thought the convenience was cool but the sound wasn’t there. Only thing left to do was to go to the top of the line to see if this digital thing will work. Hey, “whats this”? A compact Fractal unit with a nice price tag (Fm3). The endless discovery, flexibility and availability of sounds on this machine is staggering. The price tags were/are more than justified! Nevertheless, I trust the FM3 has opened up the customer base. So, some of us may be late to the party but we are gladly here now. Spreading the word too. Thank you FAS!
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Your story sounds similar in part to mine. I too first became aware of Fractal through Dweezil. I was a diehard tube amp guy, but when I saw Fractal had a unit that claimed to have the same ability where it mattered as the flagship and was at a price I could justify I decided to take the leap. I’ve said it here before, the FM3 is the best piece of gear when considering the bang for the buck I have ever purchased and I have purchased some pretty nice and expensive stuff in the last 40+ years.

I should give Brit Floyd, Trans Siberian Orchestra and Larry Mitchell a shout. And then Leon Todd for making the transition and learning curve much easier. AND of course all the great people on the forum and those who spend what must have been large amounts of time compiling the Wiki site and all those at FAS and Cliff.
 
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