Källa is now shipping

[FairPlayMotty]

The UK/EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement should ensure parity for products manufactured within the UK/EU region.

Not true. The Brexit vote had far reaching economic consequences. Covid is undoubtedly playing a small role but it's being used as a cover for Brexit. The courier cost increases are largely a consequence of less EU HGV drivers being available in the UK and higher competition for UK HGV drivers.

[Kantata Audio]

UK: £2800

https://www.kantata-audio.co.uk/lejonklou £2650 ?

Sorry for the confusion everyone!

Website now updated with current prices.

John.

[lejonklou]

The UK/EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement should ensure parity for products manufactured within the UK/EU region.

Not true. The Brexit vote had far reaching economic consequences. Covid is undoubtedly playing a small role but it's being used as a cover for Brexit. The courier cost increases are largely a consequence of less EU HGV drivers being available in the UK and higher competition for UK HGV drivers.

Brexit caused chaos in my shipments to and from the UK. I no longer ship or receive anything directly to/from the UK, because each time I did during 2021, the shipment was handled by customs that didn't read the correctly filled out paperwork and instead charged me a random tariff, VAT and various handling fees. Sometimes they refused to let the shipment through and returned it without explanation. It's nearly impossible to correct the mistakes and get the money back, you need a full time guy to handle such things.

Marco at Hexagon does all the exporting to the UK. He's developed routines that seem to work just fine. That the products end up slightly more expensive is expected. I should perhaps also mention that I don't decide what retailers charge for my products. That's not legal.

[lejonklou]

Källa 015 is now on its way to Stockholm, Sweden.

[FairPlayMotty]

The UK/EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement should ensure parity for products manufactured within the UK/EU region.

Not true. The Brexit vote had far reaching economic consequences. Covid is undoubtedly playing a small role but it's being used as a cover for Brexit. The courier cost increases are largely a consequence of less EU HGV drivers being available in the UK and higher competition for UK HGV drivers.

Brexit caused chaos in my shipments to and from the UK. I no longer ship or receive anything directly to/from the UK, because each time I did during 2021, the shipment was handled by customs that didn't read the correctly filled out paperwork and instead charged me a random tariff, VAT and various handling fees. Sometimes they refused to let the shipment through and returned it without explanation. It's nearly impossible to correct the mistakes and get the money back, you need a full time guy to handle such things.

Marco at Hexagon does all the exporting to the UK. He's developed routines that seem to work just fine. That the products end up slightly more expensive is expected. I should perhaps also mention that I don't decide what retailers charge for my products. That's not legal.

The economic effects were easy to predict and more economic misery will come to the UK. A huge free market is always better than a smaller, restricted one. I doff my cap to Marco!

[matthias]

The economic effects were easy to predict and more economic misery will come to the UK. A huge free market is always better than a smaller, restricted one. I doff my cap to Marco!

+1
Thank you, Boris :-(

Matt

[lejonklou]

Källa 016 is now on its way to Michigan, USA.

[Spannko]

Fredrik,
When will the second batch of Källa’s be coming through?

[Spannko]

Not true. The Brexit vote had far reaching economic consequences. Covid is undoubtedly playing a small role but it's being used as a cover for Brexit. The courier cost increases are largely a consequence of less EU HGV drivers being available in the UK and higher competition for UK HGV drivers.

Brexit caused chaos in my shipments to and from the UK. I no longer ship or receive anything directly to/from the UK, because each time I did during 2021, the shipment was handled by customs that didn't read the correctly filled out paperwork and instead charged me a random tariff, VAT and various handling fees. Sometimes they refused to let the shipment through and returned it without explanation. It's nearly impossible to correct the mistakes and get the money back, you need a full time guy to handle such things.

Marco at Hexagon does all the exporting to the UK. He's developed routines that seem to work just fine. That the products end up slightly more expensive is expected. I should perhaps also mention that I don't decide what retailers charge for my products. That's not legal.

The economic effects were easy to predict and more economic misery will come to the UK. A huge free market is always better than a smaller, restricted one. I doff my cap to Marco!

I’m struggling to understand the link between economic misery, a huge free market, and Marco.

Would you care to elaborate?

[tokenbrit]

Källa 016 is now on its way to Michigan, USA.

That was quick: only a day after 015 - I guess 016 behaved itself / didn't fight you :)

[lejonklou]

Fredrik,
When will the second batch of Källa’s be coming through?

If you mean past Källa number 025, 25 new cases were delivered to Mitac this week.

Next week I'll be visiting Mitac to oversee their assembly routine. Before I've tuned and shipped Källa 025, I'm likely going to have 25 more assembled ones on my shelves.

[lejonklou]

Källa 016 is now on its way to Michigan, USA.

That was quick: only a day after 015 - I guess 016 behaved itself / didn't fight you :)

Yes it did. Some just behave and some need a lot of work before they do.

The final tuning is unpredictable. After tuning one software and two hardware parameters, I let it play overnight to see if anything drifts. If anything has drifted, I open and disassemble it, then desolder and replace either the Tinker Board, the main regulator, or both. And then I let it play overnight again.

So far 20% of the Tinker Boards don't meet the standard. They're fully functioning but I don't know what to do with them. The regulators are pre-measured when delivering high current for 3 minutes and 30 were selected from the first 250 measured (yes, lots of rejected ones that can hopefully be used for something else one day). But then I found that they can still drift slightly when running for several hours, so some of them need to be replaced anyway. I haven't figured out a way to pre-measure this burn-in phenomenon.

My intern Måns has another 600 regulators to measure when he returns in November.

[Spannko]

Fredrik,
When will the second batch of Källa’s be coming through?

If you mean past Källa number 025, 25 new cases were delivered to Mitac this week.

Next week I'll be visiting Mitac to oversee their assembly routine. Before I've tuned and shipped Källa 025, I'm likely going to have 25 more assembled ones on my shelves.

Excellent! I wondered if there might be a delay between all the Källa’s which have already been ordered, and the next batch coming through. Has the waiting list gone beyond Christmas yet, and do you have a Boazu available for delivery too 🤞

[Azazello]

SO HAPPY I managed to get one from the first batch!

[lejonklou]

Källa 017 is now on its way to Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

[Spannko]

The price differences are in short a consequence of Brexit regulations that have considerably driven up costs to now export to the UK.
This is not just a matter of bare costs but also an increased administrative workload that accompanies it.

When the UK was still part of Europe we could simply ship as if it were to Belgium or Germany - in some occasions we could even arrange direct shipping from Lejonklou HQ in Sweden to the UK. As we all know, that boat has meanwhile sailed.
Now every order destined for the UK has to be sent to us in Amsterdam and then exported to the UK.
With UK upgrades that require to be returned to Sweden this route has be followed back and forth.

Although delivery times have bettered now, the costs of shipping have also increased and probably not only because of Brexit but also Covid-19 playing a part. The fact that this pandemic has lead to more online shopping and shipping only seems to have encouraged courier services to increase their tariffs as we all have become more dependant upon it.

While there's a global tendency of individual parts becoming increasingly difficult to source and component suppliers seem to increase their pricing simply because of current demand and availability, we hope to be able to maintain our current price level for some time to come.

Marco,

Is it still possible to buy from the two remaining Lejonklou dealers in England; Anthony Lockwood and Hidden Systems?

[mrco99]

Hi Spannko!

Thanks for your inquiry, yes off course you can.
Both have one on order but I'm not sure when exactly they will be receiving their example.
Although Fredrik is dedicated to making these almost 24/7, the introduction of Källa has been such a succes that leadtimes are queing up.

[Hermann]

Looks like this is good news and bad news. Good for Källa, bad for Tundra monos. Or is there a timeline for the monos? (sorry for ot)

[lejonklou]

Looks like this is good news and bad news. Good for Källa, bad for Tundra monos. Or is there a timeline for the monos? (sorry for ot)

Regarding Tundra Mono, I'm currently spending one day per week on them. There isn't really any timeline, because that's not how I work. It needs to be good enough and it simply isn't possible to know beforehand exactly when that is accomplished.

Good enough when it comes to Tundra Mono means it betters the latest version, 2.2. I had what I thought was a really good idea that I tested in practice in early October. It borrowed parts of the circuit of Giella Pi, which is powered by a linear transformer (as is Gaio, Slipsik and Entity) and I thought that powering this circuit with the switch mode power supplies of Tundra/Tundra Mono/Boazu ought to be a formidable success. But it wasn't a success at all.

The new design sounded rather spectacular; sparkling with energy, powerful and alive. But something felt a little off. I found that while it turbocharged the finer details, the emotional message wasn't as convincing. Nuances were all there, but somehow a little fake. I made some variations and tried tuning it, but the pattern that emerged was that this circuit works great with the linear transformers but not with the switch mode power supplies. And I think I understand why.

So nature must approve, otherwise there's no progress. I have a new idea that I will test in November. Hoping for the best.

[Hermann]

Thanks for the insight Fredrik.

Until now I thought the delay was a new (modified) case for the monos you were waiting for. Good to know, a new version of the circuit design is being tested. When I consider the musical performance of the Tundra Stereo, a rise should not be easy to achieve.

Regarding Källa, all that remains at the moment is curiosity and the promising experience reports in the forum. However, I understand very well your focus on the new device.

Nevertheless, one day a week for Tundra Monos and 6 days for Källa has something ...

[mrco99]

Hermann, I do hope that last remark was meant to be a bit tongue-in-cheek, although.......

....it's no understatement that since its introduction, Källa proved itself to be quite a game-changer for Lejonklou.
As a result of its great receival and subsequent demand Fredrik now has a quite an order file of Källa - while all other products remain to be ordered as well.

Each product that leaves Lejonklou HQ goes through Fredriks hands and ears and only after approval find their way to the market. Maintaining a very high standard of quality control has put Lejonklou products where they are today.
While we may have become accustomed to Lejonklous high level of musical playback it may be easy to forget the actual archievement it takes for such a small company to be compared against industry giants as Linn and Naim.

It seems rather unendurable for Fredrik to be working 7 days a week on production alone so I hope he finds a healthier balance between production, development, testing and his private life....!

So indeed lets hope his experiments and execution of ideas may lead to new insights and musical improvements that find their way into his upcoming amplifier designs but lets not put too much pressure on an anticipated deadline or timeframe.

[Defender]

agree with you Marco - I am not a fried of rushed things. And Fredrick needs to have the right balance because stress causes error and we dont want this.

Marco do you had a chance to look into your demo time schedule … with respect to be able to hear the Källa in my environment?

[Hermann]

Of course, this was meant ironically Marco. Fredrik's achievement cannot be praised highly enough and in the end I too have succumbed to his developments as you know. As I myself was a self-employed lone fighter until I retired, I am well aware of situation like his.

By the way, the final decision for the Tundra is the fastest I have ever made in the audio field. Entity 1.1 and Sagatun's Monos took much longer. But it seems the decision for Källe will be a very short one.

[lejonklou]

Thanks for the insight Fredrik.

Until now I thought the delay was a new (modified) case for the monos you were waiting for. Good to know, a new version of the circuit design is being tested. When I consider the musical performance of the Tundra Stereo, a rise should not be easy to achieve.

Regarding Källa, all that remains at the moment is curiosity and the promising experience reports in the forum. However, I understand very well your focus on the new device.

Nevertheless, one day a week for Tundra Monos and 6 days for Källa has something ...

The production of cases is slow, but the quality of the cases from my new manufacturer is great.

The trouble of sourcing the right quality of aluminium sheet is still around. I had to wait many months before getting the specified annealed copper blocks for the latest pair of SINGularity that are on order from the United States. Aluminium started becoming scarce at about the same time. Apparently the really big companies have doubled their orders compared to pre corona, so it's a tough market. Prices have almost doubled as a result, but this has had no effect on the demand.

I think my rather small scale production will pass through this period relatively unharmed, but as mentioned, the production is slow.

[lejonklou]

Källa 018 is now on its way to Michigan, USA.