Waldorf Iridium (16-voice, duo-timbral Quantum desktop)

That is a very nice price!

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Yeah, as Dstepatl says a bit less than $3000. :grin:

Unfortunately they won’t ship to my address. I just checked :joy:

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A bit less? Like 1/3 less :laughing:

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Rolf in the video pointed out they decided to name this Iridium rather than Quantum Desktop (or Quantum X, Y, Zed as he says) – given all the differences between the two. He also said whatever they decided to do they knew they’d get comments favoring the other decision.

I think Iridium is a good name. It calls this out as being distinctive from the Quantum which it is.

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Next time I should watch before posting :upside_down_face:
No real news here. Just a copy of the sound demo videos with an overlay showing the specs :woozy_face:

Thomann US is still a German company located in Germany. They are not a US retailer. It ships from Germany, you pay import tax, and if it arrives defective you have to ship it back to Germany. There have been horror stories about their customer service if you find yourself in this situation.

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Ok, how much did it cost then?

2k is more reasonable.

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It will be around $2,700.

There are always horror stories, which there are plenty of for US retailers, like B&H, Adorama etc.

However Thomann who is seated and operates mainly within EU is bound by the consumer right laws of EU. Laws that are a lot more favourable to the ends consumers than they are in the US.

Thomann is a reputable dealer and most likely the largest one in EU, and in my experience dealing with them over the decades they have always come thru.

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Yes. But I know I am good with sweetwater, and if there is an issue I won’t have to deal with sending it back across the ocean. Or playing email tag trying to get the situation figured out. I will happily pay for peace of mind.

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Of course, makes no sense going overseas for neither of us.

My point was merely that for us in EU Thomann is one of the largest most reputable dealer and they offer overnight shipping as well as free returns.

I wouldn’t dream of buying gear from Sweetwater, would take forever to get here as well as costing a lot more. :slight_smile:

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Yea. I think ordering from Thomann definitely makes sense if you are over there. Some people in the US try to get lower prices and avoid tax by importing, and to me it’s just not worth it due to the nightmare of trying to sort things out without international phone calls and international shipping if something goes wrong.

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Aha used to be the other way around LOL, but most of us stopped that many years ago when our customs caught the parcels 99% of the time which added both custom and VAT.

Since I’m a business i do not pay any VAT (tax) at Thomann. :slight_smile:

What’s the topic again?



I find it interesting that they’ve changed displays between the Quantum and the Iridium. (See Rolf video starting at 24:04.) The displays are very close to the same size, but the pixel resolution is a little less on the Iridium, meaning the pixels are a little larger. This meant that they had to make a change in the code – but as Rolf says they took a lot of care to make a pixel perfect transformation between the two. (So if a line is two pixels wide on the Q, it will be two pixels wide on the I, and the physical width of that line will be ever so slightly wider.) So that sounds to me that on the I they had to carefully reduce the blank space on the screen to make everything fit. This must be a software challenge, though doable, to have one code base that makes these small changes depending on which machine it is compiled for. All this has to be followed by the touch screen response grid too.

It’s hard to be sure but looking at various videos, leaves me with the impression that the display on the I is just a little bit clearer, or richer. Anybody else see this ? It would make sense that the display might be clearer, one reason to switch displays is to move to better technology. You might change display parts too, based on price. Part of the decision, would be influenced by wanting to hold to the screen used on the Q, for volume purchasing and replacement parts – stock-piling. Stock-piling spare replacement is very important for a thing like displays that move pretty quickly to being obsoleted with changing technology. Other parts are very easy to source in twenty years, displays will not be like that.

So i think the display is a little clearer on the Iridium. I wonder if the touch screen system, changed as well, and if there was improvements with that too.

I have to keep telling my Hydrasynth not worry about that other synth; its nothing serious; just jokin’ around you know

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:smile:

It’s my Hydrasynth that keeps telling me. (I hear it talking all the time.)

But i’ve always liked the Quantum and the Iridium is that step closer to what could be. And the Iridium understands poly-aftertouch – the HSK is currently the best thing going as a poly-aftertouch controller. At least as far as i know.

Interested to hear what others think they might use to control the Iridium ?

This was posted by someone on FB. as you can see the Iridium touch screen has fewer pixels in height. it was noted that the Iridium screen slightly better response.

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