Next run

Doc B

Former President For Life
Staff member
We've been out of the Jagers for a few weeks now and I see several names on the Jager wait list. I have an interest in doing a pair of Jagers in walnut veneer. It's a somewhat involved process to switch over to walnut from the birch. Allowances in thickness may need to be worked out and edge banding materials need to be acquired as well as the veneered panel material. I am wondering if others might be interested in walnut cabinets as well. If there is enough interest we could probably include panel sets made for any current owners who might want a pair of walnut cabs as well as the new production run of kits.
 
Hello!
Any update on the next run timing?
Working from home in the pandemic times - time saved in traffic could be used for that speakers project.
And also a question - I am using Cain&Cain Abbys for last 8-9 years or so. Do you think Jager will be better/different enough to justify this investment?
Thanks!
 
We've been quite busy filling orders and writing a new preamp assembly manual so I have to admit I have not gotten any further with this. I will contact the cabinet maker next week and see what his current production situation is with respect to the pandemic.
Re the Abbys - obviously I can't tell anyone what they will like best, but I can say the Jagers will sound very different than the Abbys.
 
Sorry, we have indeed been busy as heck. I will try to contact the cabinet maker this week.
 
No grief at all, I appreciate the enthusiasm! We're just playing bop-a-mole with a number of upcoming projects at the moment. I sent an RFQ for walnut cabinets a short while ago. 
 
What I know so far -

The raw baltic plywood panel size that is veneered to order with walnut is a little smaller than the pre-veneered birch we have been using. This increases what is called the falloff, i.e., extra material is needed since not as many pieces can cut from these slightly smaller sheets. Thus it will not be as efficient a use of material. That and the cost of the custom veneer itself will mean a higher price for these cabinets than the birch ones. I don't have that price yet, but I will crunch numbers as soon as I do and let everyone know what it would run.

Once ordered it will take a few weeks to get the veneered material in at the CNC shop. So it might take 4-6 weeks to get cabinets out after we order the material.
 
Hey Doc, just checking back in. Even if you don’t have a dollar-perfect amount, do you have a ballpark?

I’m finishing up a bench for my wife so I have space coming free in the workshop again.
 
Bugging the cabinet guy for an answer has proven to be part of the manufacturing process. It's on my list today.
 
I still don't quite have a definitive price for a full Jager kit in walnut or for cabinets only in walnut. But I do have an estimated cost. Walnut veneer layup on Baltic birch is not a common material and thus it has to be veneered to order. The panel size used in the process is slightly smaller than the standard birch material we use. That means there will be more panels needed for a given production run and more "fall off" - excess material - than with the standard birch cabinets. So between the custom walnut veneer, the fall off and walnut edge banding our cost for a run of walnut cabinets is double that for birch.

Part of the determination of the price will be figuring out if we can use that falloff to create something else to sell to offset the material cost. I am working with the shop to determine how big and how many excess panels we would have so I can cook up something to do with them.

As soon as I get a better handle on this I will post some prices and see if people are interested. I think the way this is shaping up we would probably be limited to a single run of walnut cabinets, then we would go back to birch in the future. For this to be feasible at the costs I have mentioned we would need ten orders total of full walnut Jager kits and/or cabinets only. Well, nine, as I would take a pair myself.
 
Unless the cost is just bonkers I’m in. Even if you could ballpark me (email is fine if you don’t want to share publicly) I could get you a more definitive yes or no.
 
It looks like the kit price for this limited walnut veneer cabinet version will be $3499. To be clear, this is walnut veneered Baltic birch plywood, not veneered MDF. So the sonic performance will remain the same as the standard Baltic birch version.

Those who currently have Jagers in birch may purchase a pair of walnut cabinets only. Please contact me at docb at bottlehead dot com and I'll quote a price. I would appreciate your posting an acknowledgement here if you plan to buy a walnut kit or cabinets so we can determine if we have enough orders to make this happen.

As an aside it was nice to hear a mixing engineer friend of mine mention that he thought the Jagers suitable for mixing and mastering yesterday, during a conversation about PMCs and ATCs and the like.
 
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