What’s up with Focusrite supply?

[sc1460]

Hi SOS team, I’ve been trying to buy a focusrite red16Line for 2 years - it’s constantly on back order with very long wait lists from suppliers. Have focusrite run out of chips or what? Cheers!
H

[Drew Stephenson]

Chip supply, interrupted manufacture due to C-19 lockdowns, shipping containers still in the wrong place...
Mix together and wait...

[Wonks]

It's pretty much the same for every manufacturer.

[sc1460]

Yet Antelope and UAD are shipping their equivalent stuff? Different chips?
I’m still hesitant on Antelope because of all the alleged bug issues on forums. The focusrite red line just seem superb spec, reliability and price.
Oh well….decisions….price inflation heading for 15%….tories…I won’t moan…
H

[Drew Stephenson]

Focusrite did re-engineer some of their range to use different (available) chips but I don't know if that included the product you're looking at.

[Luke W]

As mentioned, pretty much everybody is struggling with the short supply of components. I'm also planning some studio upgrades and a fair few of the options I'm looking at are either subject to long order times or potentially not going to be available at all for the time being.

Units that sell very well and were subject to larger production runs before the shortages hit are probably available due to more stock already exisiting more than anything else. As Drew says, some manufacturers are redesigning things (or replacing them entirely) where they can, but some bits of kit unforunately are simply subject to the waiting game.

[James Perrett]

If you are sure that you want it then you probably need to get in the queue. As I mentioned on another similar thread yesterday, I had a similar issue with a Raspberry Pi earlier this year. After lots off searching, I finally ordered it from a trusted supplier in the knowledge that I would just have to wait. At different points in the wait I was quoted a delivery date of 3 weeks time which then changed to 3 months time but I eventually received it after only a couple of weeks.

[Arpangel]

"It’s just the way things are" don’t ask why, because you won’t get an answer, all you’ll get is a price hike, for no apparent reason.
If I were in business right now, I'd have a whale of a time quoting all sorts of unsubstantiated reasons to put my prices up.

[DGL.]

I know Yamaha have been having issues and have tried to use other chips with mixed results, and Alan Sugar has been asking on his Twitter for help acquiring specific Raspberry Pi's (the memory style module variant) as he needs them for Amscreen and can't get them.

It's the joke now that the best deal you can get is when a website says "in stock - ships immediately"!

[Dave Rowles]

I know Yamaha have been having issues and have tried to use other chips with mixed results,

Yamaha is heavily reliant on Dante chips, and it appears that these have been hit hardest. So much live audio gear has been delayed till well into next year because of it.

[James Perrett]

Alan Sugar has been asking on his Twitter for help acquiring specific Raspberry Pi's (the memory style module variant) as he needs them for Amscreen and can't get them.

I'm sure Alan Sugar can get them but he's being greedy and wants more than his fair share. As I understand it, the various versions of the Raspberry Pi are all being manufactured but in smaller quantities than the market demands. They are trying to allocate them to different customers as fairly as possible so that the big boys don't gobble up all the supply.

[N i g e l]

Hi SOS team, I’ve been trying to buy a focusrite red16Line for 2 years - it’s constantly on back order with very long wait lists from suppliers. Have focusrite run out of chips or what? Cheers!
H

perhaps they have to use AKM A-D/D-A chips, the factory of which burnt down.

https://www.soundonsound.com/music-business/chip-crisis

or maybe AKM customers are substituting other chips in their products causing a shortage of the ones Focusrite need.

Good to see Raspberry PI have an allocation stratagey. The PI is meant for kids to learn programming & interfacing. Industry takes 2nd place.

[Hugh Robjohns]

When the US signs into law $280 billion to invest in technology, including 'chip factories', and the EU are doing something similar, it's obvious the situation is pretty serious!

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62482141.amp

If China decided to stop making and selling electronic components to the West we'd be in very deep do-do very quickly!

[Wonks]

Or a very likely scenario of China invading Taiwan and a subsequent Russia-style trade embargo (if not war).

[MarkOne]

When the US signs into law $280 billion to invest in technology, including 'chip factories', and the EU are doing something similar, it's obvious the situation is pretty serious!

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62482141.amp

If China decided to stop making and selling electronic components to the West we'd be in very deep do-do very quickly!

The issue is, that bleeding edge fabs are a) hugely expensive (I.e. $10B upwards,) and b) take a significant time to be up and running (I.e. years), so while I applaud the initiative, it’s not an overnight fix.

I do think however that with the levels of automation in modern high tech manufacturing, and the closing wage gap with the Far East the only real impediment to far more local manufacturing, is really real estate and construction costs. When you have a dozen skilled engineers looking after a thousand automated lines in a building the size of 10 football fields, it really doesn’t matter if it’s in Shenzhen, Skegness, San Diego, or St Tropez.

[MarkOne]

When the US signs into law $280 billion to invest in technology, including 'chip factories', and the EU are doing something similar, it's obvious the situation is pretty serious!

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62482141.amp

If China decided to stop making and selling electronic components to the West we'd be in very deep do-do very quickly!

The issue is, that bleeding edge fabs are a) hugely expensive (I.e. $10B upwards,) and b) take a significant time to be up and running (I.e. years), so while I applaud the initiative, it’s not an overnight fix.

I do think however that with the levels of automation in modern high tech manufacturing, and the closing wage gap with the Far East the only real impediment to far more local manufacturing, is really real estate and construction costs. When you have a dozen skilled engineers looking after a thousand automated lines in a building the size of 10 football fields*, it really doesn’t matter if it’s in Shenzhen, Skegness, San Diego, or St Tropez.

*I’ve visited a Factory of a very large consumer electronics company and it was exactly like that.

[MOF]

These two documentaries might be of
interest.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GU87SH5e0eI

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iSVHp6CAyQ8

[Sam Inglis]

I suspect that finding even a dozen skilled engineers in Skegness might be a challenge.

[Hugh Robjohns]

Harsh!

[Nazard]

Maybe not too difficult.......

https://adamsengineeringltd.co.uk/