I know some of you might find this…tempting.
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I thought this was going to be an early april fools joke, better start counting my coin jar though…
in korg’s defense it looks like they still make plenty of money off selling you raw components and letting you solder your own fingers together. so at least there’s that!
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The NTS-1 was weird enough (I never understood why it was a “kit”) but this is something else.
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Oh… no soldering. Just a final assembly kit.
Not as interesting.
I’m really starting to think they call it DIY to hide the fact that they pass the manufacturing off on the consumer to save labor cost.
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I can’t stand SM, but am cool with thru hole. The boards have a grip of SM, so I’m cool with not having to.
But there’s almost no work involved. For someone on an assembly line, it would be a minute or two. The benefit to the company is minimal. It’s just odd.
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I’m the opposite: after doing a bit of SMT assembly, I never want to bend & snip resistor legs again.
Glass half empty: DIY things don’t usually carry warranties. Warranty insurance and return cost could have been a significant issue for the OPSIX and SQ-64.
Glass 90% empty: many minimally “DIY” things are that way for tax or import duty reasons. But this seems to be a global product so that doesn’t seem like a very good explanation.
Glass half full: Maybe Korg sees evidence that musicians want to dip their toes into DIY, but need an easier entry point than a few PCBs and bags of components. Also, the process of screwing things together may create a stronger emotional bond between musician and instrument.
The Ody isn’t very high on my GAS list to begin with, so I’ll probably let this one pass. A 2600, or better a 2500, though…
Edit: Korg has released so much low cost gear over the years that is far better than it has any right to be that I’m much more inclined towards positive and charitable explanations. Of course they need to be profitable like any other corporation, but they knock it out of the park far more than they swing and whiff.
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When will Uli make a better version for less than half price (fully assembled)? LoL…
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I’m not fully in belief that it’s the reason they’re offering these easy to assemble DIY kits, but in a market economy, a penny saved is a penny earned.
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It’s a bit weird hey. I’m trying to work out where they get the ‘unique’ part of the blurb from.
I would enjoy assembling one for the same reason I like building lego sets or PCs, but not specifically to scratch a synth building itch.
Actually kinda makes me wish the synth market would go a bit the way of the PC market. Some kind of synth motherboard that you could drop all sorts of different voice and i/o cards into. All sorts of different cases (with keys/pads whatever you want), encoder/slider modules.
Edit: and before anyone suggests it, no I don’t mean modular, haha.
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Bloody ridiculous Korg.
But hey, some people buy camping tables for a similar price.
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I don’t understand one thing and nobody seem to care.
Why should one want to buy disassembled for 1900 Euro, while the assembled one is being sold for 600 Euro?
Or is this one is somehow else different from the assembled unit?
The assembled version is the smaller model, this is the Full Sized or FS version. They did the same a few years ago with the MS20, offering it as an FS kit while only selling the smaller versions assembled.
My take is it’s a money spinner for them. This is speculation as I’ve not been inside the MS20 mini or the FS but I’d guess they share a main PCB. Even if they don’t it’s can’t be that expensive for them to increase the size of the PCB and rework it? Like wise the extra steel and plastic can’t add that much more to the overall price? Plus they leave final assembly to the end user so must make a small saving there too
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Aah, thanks for the explanation. Hm, for me smaller is better. I’d have bought the “module” version then, because this FS version probably has no components in common with the one from 70’s so it’s size doesn’t make it more or less original anyway.
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I think the main selling point would be the full sized keys vs mini keys of the assembled version. But yeah, for a lot of folks the smaller footprint is better
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Reminds of KFC nowadays. Spin the job to the dude who wants to pay.
Well, the thing is, Korg sold an assembled FS Odyssey
(sometimes including a sequencer) for about 1200 to 1300 €
a few years back.
I nearlly bought one but then found
a used mini in mint-condition for less than 400 €.
The Odyssey is one of my favourite synths ever
and when i saw the headline of the DIY kit I thought
wow, I´ll order that immediatly - expecting a price like 600 to 900 €
I´ve read somewhere the real reason for the high price is
the fact that the DIY parts are manufactured in Japan…
Would be still interesting if there is a technical difference
between these FS models.
Edit: The FS Odyssey incl. the SQ-1 was introduced
2018 and also was promoted with “made in Japan”
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I hope Korg finds their way back on track again. They really can make neat and fun stuff. But stuff like this and duds like the SQ-64 and what’s looking like a dud in the Drumlogue as well as the questionable experiment they did with those poorly built 3-Octave synths… They just seem a bit lost to me.
for those that don’t pay for Attack Mag:
well I think the key words there are “a few years back.” inflation and war and pandemic and all that in-between… on the flip side of that reasoning: the 2600m is available now for only a bit more than this, fully assembled, with a case, and a lot more features than the Ody.
so yeah, the price is weird.