The thing that I hoped wouldn’t happen has happened. The news has just arrived from MWM that Phase is delayed yet again, and you’re not going to see your alleged needle killer until the end of March.
There’s a press release with all the reasons why:
PHASE SHIPPING DATE – MARCH 2019
Hello All:
We have definitive news direct from our factory regarding Phase production and shipping:
PHASE DELIVERY SCHEDULE
- FEBRUARY 25: the factory reopens, and production starts again.
- MARCH 8: Phase production finishes. Package preparation and shipment to the warehouse.
- MARCH 22: Start of Phase deliveries to customers (everyone who pre-ordered will receive their Phase in the following days).
Why is it delayed to March?
As mentioned in the previous update, there was a slight chance we would be delayed to March due to the factory closing for Chinese New Year. Unfortunately, this is the case for Phase’s production which means it will resume at the end of February when the factory reopens.
Many apologies for this last delay. We are as eager as all of you to start shipping Phase. This news is hard to receive, but encouraging now that we have official dates from our factory. We are getting closer and closer! This is the final stretch and soon everyone will be able to enjoy Phase.
Many, many thanks for your continued patience and support. We will look to update you with more news over the coming weeks.
Best,
Phase Team
LESSONS TO BE LEARNED
Here is my own perspective on how products are launched. Pioneer DJ for example designs, develops, manufactures, and ships with barely a murmur that they’ve got new product. At 8am, PR goes out, we media types all talk about it, and you can be sure that it’s in the shops next week, or sometimes even today.
But Pioneer DJ is a large and very well-oiled machine with decades of experience, an established manufacturer, distribution, and supply chain, and a boatload of cash. MWM however is relatively new, small, and lacking in all of the above traits that are necessary to deliver products to market in a timely manner.
They have a product that is with, no sense of hyperbole, revolutionary in more ways than one. But they had no idea if traditionally conservative DJs would embrace the concept of wireless DVS, especially given the hate that wireless technology gets from our ironically technology hungry horde. So they had to put it out there as an idea, and then a prototype, and finally have enough confidence to start pre-orders.
And then the lack of hardware manufacturing experience kicked in, and has been the defining story of Phase ever since. I’m being very forgiving, as I genuinely want Phase to be delivered and find a natural place in the DJ gear food chain. But this further delay knocks my confidence even more, especially having lost a solid amount of cash after a similar stream of excuses on a Kickstarter project.
I would hope that any clever sorts wanting to put new hotness out into the market will learn lessons from this. After a monumental amount of support from DJs for Phase, the failure to deliver is negating any feeling of good will. Again, it’s all about the people and how you treat them.
AND WHEN IT ARRIVES?
I haven’t even touched it yet, or seen anything outside of carefully controlled demos, so I have no real idea if this will work for the masses. Once it gets delivered, I hope it really does plug and play with all software without issue, otherwise late delivery will feel like a minor bump in the road in comparison from an end user perspective.
So fingers crossed for delivery at the end of March. But I suspect the floodgates for refunds are about to be forced wide open.
They should reopen pre-orders then.
That is kind of weird, innit? I am guessing, if they have already slipped these many months, they don’t want to take on additional workload.
I pre-ordered a Phase Ultimate set last summer. I was not a jump the gun post NAMM announcement pre-orderer, so much as I had a set I had been invited spin back in August for the Halloween season and I thought it would be fun to try pushing the edge technologically again. (To wit, I was also the first DJ I ever knew who actually owned a TTM57SL and thanks to me sharing my gear prodigiously, it was used by a lot of other DJs in the SF Bay Area and presumably helped popularize its adoption a bit?)
Phase, obviously, didn’t ship in time for my October set. The set happened without a hitch because I still have more traditional DJ methodologies and vinyl and DVS software. I also bought something like five turntables and two mixers last year? I had my bases covered. (two of the turntables have since been sold, they weren’t up to my standards to my ears. For that matter, I still want a better mixer and am still looking but can’t afford it an haven’t sold the attempts at replacing my TTM57SL, both of which were failed attempts as they sound significantly worse, with audible noise even when doing simple fades.)
I look forward to March, but as Mojaxx stated explicitly in his DJCity preview video (deliberately broken URL here so that bloody preview doesn’t embed itself: https: //youtu. be/yL46Uw8M6HA?t=528 ), this is a product for those who wanted to be part of something more like a Kickstarter campaign to get something new off the ground. I had no expectations it would take flight on time, and am not severely disappointed it is delayed so much as looking forward to receiving it eventually. Perhaps those who believed Mojaxx that a pre-order was the only way to potentially get one in September are disappointed? Life sucks, then you die. Get used to disappointment. Particularly if believing things not from the vendor itself?
Folks suggesting “alternatives” such as the Rane Twelves? I do not grok. They are totally different devices and take completely different approaches. The Twelves are absolutely non starters for me, as I can’t swap out a real record as I can with even ancient DVS software. If they were a quarter of the price, if Rane hadn’t already shit over my > $1200 investment in the TTM57SL and if Rane hadn’t been acquired my inMusic (same as Denon, so who are they pitting against whom? It’s ugly market fracturing similar to the Unix fractures in the 1980s where consumers lose amid the brand frenzy mindlessness), I might care about them? I don’t. Rane, as a brand, aren’t just dead to me, they’re dead to their former engineers’ twitter profiles if you go looking. You don’t have to look very hard.
This thing is just the tip of the iceberg anyways.
No doubt that pioneer is working on one, too
This, “clunky box in middle approach” will get surpassed quickly
Until its a full piece of vinyl, with button section on it, does it really matter..nope
I’ll cut them more slack based on the reasons you outlined. This was a hard start, testing the water with an idea and when it flew, caught with no infrastructure behind it to support its outright execution. Hope it all works out, though I also agree that the big guns are, I’m sure, working on a built-in system to avoid the middle box. Phase should partner with a hardware manufacturer or license the technology quickly if it wants to survive.
I was up with you up until the last sentence?
Why do you think a sold out pre-order on a novel product would need to partner with entrenched stagnant manufacturers to “survive”?
Oh surprise…
ironic mode: off.
I told you so.
to be honest I’m asking ‘who cares’?
I love vinyl but I choose one of two options:
1) go for Rane Twelve innovative solution, without any tonearm (’cause they aren’t turntables)
2) use turntables, that are build with tonearms, that people want see on vinyl not parked on their stand on vinyl side..then I use DVS
..IMHO..
1)the Rane 12 just doesnt perform as well timecode/dvs
https://youtu.be/B90sCtC8cCI
2)who wants to listen to that timecode. Even if its not overt, do you really want it screaming into your subliminal mind.
1) They perform great in my experience (if anything I prefer them over timecode now) and there are plenty of videos since last years namm that seem to back that up
https://youtu.be/ZOe7-1Bv7PA
2) agree about that, I actually was using some timecode the other day and forgot how damn loud it is.
Hey it’s still closer to being shipped than the Fretless Fader…
The vitally important difference is that nobody paid upfront for the fretless fader.
Still give my support to this company, It’s one thing to write about it from the safety of the qwerty and it’s another to get your hands dirty and really put something together…Having Pioneer type of funds and connections is fantastic but not everyone has that…If anything maybe they should offer some type of freebies or future discounts for those that stayed loyal, the Chinese are celebrating life and companies can’t do much about that, the real story is that it’s done, a great accomplishment.
They have offered a freebie: everyone who pre-ordered and didn’t/doesn’t cancel and ask for a refund gets a pair of slip mats. It’s not entirely clear if those come at the same time as the Phase unit, or in a separate shipment.
Slipmats doesn’t seem like it’s enough imo. The people that didn’t pre-order will be able to get theirs at almost the same time so the exclusivity factor is not there…
A pair of slipmats if I get a custom design from Glowtronics will run me about $20 or so before s&h.
In bulk, Phase will doubtlessly get discounts off of something like that.
Still, s&h isn’t free. So assume that means that ON TOP of a refund, Phase is shelling out probably $10-$20 in total costs not counting credit card charge backs, lowering their credit score and upping their transaction overages.
What do you think would be reasonable for someone who took their money back on a pre-order?
That already seems more than generous.
March ? W T F? Gives the Chinese pirate companies enough time to reverse engineer Phase and sell the tech before it floods the market.
Too many delays, makes you question.
Chinese manufacturers can make a product and market it and squeeze it faster out their ass than you can say “diarrhea” . They have already done that to major companies, check for yourself.
Still I want a set for myself, if Phase was smart they would make the device like a vinyl record instead of a stick you place on the spindle. Dudes would luv that.
Why are they not doing demoes with their own dvs?
If it was me promoting this, (which i can do) I`d be showing dvs on ios and android, with the mixfader
People are receiving their Phase hardware now…