The Ebony Quake 400 amp is a giant killer! I own 2 of them. Why? Because I'd saved enough money to get a GK 1001B. The Ebony sounded better and was almost half the price. I've currently got one of mine on loan to a friend who's Eden 400WT was stolen. He preferes my amp!
I also played through a labsystems head for 12 years. I eventually killed it but it was excellent. I would have bought another one but Lab's prices have gone through the roof in those 12 years. The problem with producing quality gear in Austr is that you still have to ship in many of the parts, and shipping is a killer! So it can often equate to a product that is as expensive as the imported models. I believe labsystems fall into this category. I also believe that non-Australians would go nuts for Labsystem's gear. It's good!
And YES we are definitely gettin screwed here in Aust. But have you ever asked yourself why the markups are higher? Simply put, we're not a volume market. We have a smaller population of bass players, so the "sell lots for small margin" philosophy of business doesn't work here.
Nowdays I'm not affraid to get things shipped in from O/S. Shipping is often as much as the item you're buying. Customs charge 5% on the sale value (the shipping doesn't count). Then add GST of 10% to the sale price+shipping+customs. After all that, it's sometimes cheaper to import yourself than buy from a store - but not always. I always do my sums before buying anything.
..thats the deal on this svp-pro anyway 
..
this year hopefully..
