Dreadbox has announced that it’s killing off the recently introduced DIY version of its Hades synthesizer:
Unfortunately, we decided not to make any more DIY Kits.
The demand is very big and the time we need to prepare the kits does not let us focus on other projects.
We are really sorry about this… We hope for your understanding 😀
The prebuilt version of the Hades continues to be available.
A company ceases to produce a product due to high demand? I assume they run their business based on idealism, and not for profit.
Supporting a high-demand DIY project is time-consuming, therefore making them more expensive to produce.
They clearly said not to offer support (as most DIY-companies do). I don’t think absolute beginners would buy this kit (although it’s not that high demanding).
They must have their electronic components arranged sorted already. Is it really that hard to have them put in a plastic bag by some cheap helping hands (it’s said unemployment is high in Greece)?
They don’t want to do it anymore. Big deal. Private company, can do what they want. Don’t owe you anything.
I thought that they meant there were more people wanting to buy than their current production capacity could cover. I guess by demand you/they refer to customer support after selling it?
Either way it makes me wonder what their production/pricing calculations might look like.
I understand this commercially but I hate the fact I wasn’t fast enough to grab one (yes I want the diy one)
Probably the margins were too low?
Bad customer service. First they offer a good deal and then they are not able to deliver it. I tried several times to order a kit, no success. Shame on You Dreadbox! Btw. How about a subfactory for preparing the kits?
Oh no! Poor you. You missed out. You’ll live. Assembled Hades is still a great deal.
Here’s the dirty little secret of kits: It takes more labour to kit and hand label bags of parts than is required to get boards assembled by a contract factory in China. So kits *should* be more expensive than mass-produced runs of synthesizers. However, everyone expects a massive discount because they’re assembling it themselves.
So this is a margin problem. Not enough money, too much time to kit each unit.
So… why is the assembled version more expensive than the DIY version ?
Probably its not worth answering all the customer questions when people cant get it working
Nobody really really wanna build anyways ? its all good
More cool products in the works am sure
Yeah I also think based off what Dreadbox said and I’m just speculating that it took up a decent amount of their time and $ to have people put all the right parts together in a kit and then be obligated to answer everyone’s questions. VS. Proffesional assembly and a higher price tag but no questions as to why they built something so awesome
that comes fully put together.
Good move for Dreadbox. I’m sure there are lots of happy DIY hades customers out there.
I think it was the same thing with Mutable Instruments, the customer support for DIY took up a lot of time he’d rather spend on new exiting products.
-m
They just offered it for 1 month. Bad commercial calculation, if they did not think of the effort before.
It’s unfortunate more people wont get a chance to enjoy this kit. It was a good price for a synth voice (complete with power, knobs, etc) , the instructions were good and the eventual product very satisfying. Comparing it to other eurorack kits really shows that their margins must have been too slender after factoring the time to bag and tag all the components, the shipping and inevitable support requests. . It was great value for money while it lasted
There’s no need to tag the bags. Any DIY’er knows the difference between resisters, capacitors, semiconductors, connectors etc.
There’s really only need to separate the passive components, the semiconductors, PCB’s, the hardware connectors, hardware box.
You say that but separated resistors is really handy. . In this kit the the part identification was a lot easier. Personally I wouldn’t fancy trying to pull 4 of a specific value out of a big single bag of 150 mixed loose resistors. There were plenty still on their strips, but plenty more were just “one of”.
Likewise for those little tan coloured non polarised caps, the writing on those things is totally microscopic and illegible. Even with the bagged separation I spent a while squinting through a magnifier.
It was a good kit. Much care and attention.
> It was a good kit. Much care and attention.
Considering the quality of their other products, this probably says it all.
i must say – it never gets old watching those electric arcs across the the inputs and outputs of ye olde peanut gallery… its so wondrously fascinating and yet so intensely educational at the same time – and thats what makes learning fun!
remember kids: stay in school and just say NO to drugs!
when you are some you can chose to be a DIY maker or full product maker, it takes a bit to run 2 lines. You can see with some DIY makers you can get fully assembled but at a higher price.
Also depends on how management is set up it can be tricky for some to do. That i have seen quite a bit
Crap. Wanted to buy me one for christmas.
🙁
why don’t sell just the pcb and instruction building with part list ….?…
just like music from outer space
Got mine on friday, seems to be one of the last ones or maybe the last one <3
did a marothon assemble weekend and i also handcrafted a nice wooden standalone case …
you can check my blog in a few days when i´m publshing my process …
https://ecolabaudio.wordpress.com/
actually i´m scared of powering it because of some different cap values and a different pcb print than in the manual …
the eurorack powering stuff seemed to change slightly….
hope this guy is doing the job i´m expecting and what they promise.
i´m sad about the fact that they discontinued this piece, but makes me more proud to earn one …
thx to synthtopia for being always on the cutting edge 😉
Who needs a kit, I’d take 2 PCB/Panels and a schematic on github. Then you’re knee deep in the party.
It’s Back on sale for Black Friday only!
Get ’em while they’re hot!!!