The opsix was $329 (plus tax) in the US.
Appreciate that info, @lowph but my confidence in electronics repair isn’t strong enough for me to put in the time and money for a screen replacement. Sweetwater confirmed that they’re plum out of stock, which rules out any possibility for an exchange… so it’s back for a refund.
Mildly disappointed but wasn’t meant to be, I suppose. It definitely wasn’t something I needed so I’ll let this be a dual lesson in impulse buying and GAS and learn from it. 
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I would be bummed and I think it is ok to be bummed. 
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Anybody in the US want to bid on Flood’s broken OPSIX ?
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Don’t think that thought didn’t cross my mind… 
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wtf! people in the US have enough opsixes now! i want one, too!!! grrrrr
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I received an opsix with a broken screen from Sweetwater, and I think I’ll just send it back to them to fix. Since this seems to be a display problem, and those displays seem relatively standard, I wouldn’t think it would take them long to replace the screen and send it back.
Sweetwater received my opsix, and I heard nothing for a few weeks. Today, my rep got in touch with me and told me that someone in Repairs that I’d never spoken with was under the impression I wanted a refund. I guess that’s fine, but I’m not understanding why the screen swap that people online are doing couldn’t be done in a Korg Authorized Repair Center like Sweetwater.
More seriously, I don’t understand what the hell happened with the opsix as a product. It seemed to be appreciated by reviewers and musicians alike. The blowout and the dead screens are just weird, and while I’m still interested in Korg, this has made me think I should be careful with them in the future.
I read somewhere that the screen parts are out of stock at Korg, so maybe that’s why they won’t do the replacement(?)
I was reading more on Reddit last night, and that seems to be the case. But wow. The whole thing just seems like a colossal waste, though I’m happy for everyone who was able to get a fully working opsix.
I hope this tech and synth engine make a return to hardware someday, either in an opsix SE or as part of another product. Korg did some great work. It’d be a shame for it to just disappear.
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Same deal now with the SQ-64. Korg warehouse in the USA is selling them at 40% off. They had marked prices down for a while on these during the OPSIX clearance, though not this much.
Think this is also same in that they won’t ship outside the USA. Who knows if this will also go on sale in Europe or elsewhere, and no idea what the story is.
By the way — can you still buy the OPSIX in Europe and other places ?
Just to say something outrageous here, that i don’t believe. Is Korg closing up their US operation ?
This is a useful piece of information, but I want to highlight that region locking is very common in international sales / distribution agreements. Publishers are very particular about region-locked rights in music, movies, games, books and probably other media.
Thoman.de lists the OPSIX as in stock in their UK store.
That would seem a little crazy last year, and nuttier than a squirrel’s winter stash right now, with many non-US currencies dropping like a rock, including the JPY, which is quoting at an almost unbelievable 144 JPY to the USD. The last time the JPY was this weak was back in 1998.
It would make more sense for Korg to cut back on warehousing costs by liquidating inventory that just isn’t selling as fast as they expect. If that’s the case, I’d expect more “discontinuations” to follow within the US while support continues and limited manufacturing may continue as well. This would allow Korg to minimize costs incurred in USD and maximize sales booked in USD.
If Korg can figure out how to run Korg US entirely from Japan, I could see them shutting down US based operations while continuing to sell as much product as possible.
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I’ll keep adding them to the thread title.
Thanks for taking me seriously, though i am just being an outrageous poster. None of this makes sense to me.
Is the SQ-64 on sale in Europe ? Thomann USA has it at the same $199, but that might only be their US price.
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When Dan Phillips stops posting on Gearspace, then we know Korg R&D in San Jose, CA is no more.
Korg USA in Melville, NY is a distributor. No idea how much money Korg the parent company would save if they axed Korg USA and went with a 3rd party distributor.
Latest post by Dan appears to be 2 weeks old on a Korg Wavestate thread.
I don’t monitor Gearspace regularly btw
Yes, Gear4music as well (Europe). No particular discount at g4m or thomann.
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If anyone in the UK is still looking for one, Juno has a few left at £212.
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Yeah, I think you’ve hit the nail on the head here. We’re going to see a lot more of these kinds of price drops/liquidations in the US as a result of the wacky currency exchange environment we’re in. It’s not just synths, there’s a lot of products that are “inexplicably” dropping prices. Especially JP<=>US businesses.
I’m currently planning a vacation to Japan in January, and it’s shocking how cheap everything is compared to my last trip there in 2019.
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I don’t see how the currency changes is causing Korg to discontinue products in the US. Especially why dump them with an enormous mark down, rather than ceasing their import and letting them sell off gradually, with maybe a small mark down, to capture a higher income ?
Plus the OPSIX selloff preceded the latest currency shift. And currency shifts go back and forth, and usually you just ride them out. The pound vs the dollar has been up and down recently for example.
I also have run some numbers, on my own, and can’t see any way to have the current warehouse costs justifying dumping high value per cubic foot non-perishable items like synths. Bags of rice or cat litter, yes, synths — no way !
I’ve not yet seen a convincing explanation for the US OPSIX dumping.
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Perhaps free up warehouse space for more profitable lines ?
Did Korg ever fix the many things that many people complained about the SQ-64? I don’t even remember what they were as they seemed so many I stopped paying attention…