I have not been in the loop here for a while but at one point I happened to check the PSA website and thought I saw the DSD DAC with a major price drop down to the mid-$3K range. I have not really been following along anything audio related at all, but at the time it kind of bothered me because if indeed at some point that was the new price, it drastically undercut any of our ability to resell or trade in our DSD DAC on the after-market. It might have coincided with PSA’s decision to go direct (no dealers) but like I said it didn’t really register much concern to me at the time. Might have even happened right before or after the “negative” review on Audio Science Review, but I’m not sure.
Can anyone refresh my memory or correct me on this? Was I imagining things and has the DSD DAC always been priced above $5K in base form? If so, never mind, but if not could anyone walk me through the price variations on that model over the past year?
Best advice is to call them up and check to see what specials are currently running. They have better margins now that they sell direct so depending on time of year and how things are selling you may get a deal you like. No harm in asking.
We’ve done a number of promos on the DAC. Typically around the time new firmware is released, but it’s never been marked sub $4,000. There may be one offs where someone bought a gang load of stuff, and the package brought the DSD down lower, but the listed price of the DSD on our website has never dropped below $4,000.
Yeah, me either… never cared about resale value on anything I buy.
It does surprise me that there are so many that do care. I don’t get it but maybe if your hobby is rotating equipment… then I guess.
Hmm… now that I think about it, there is one case for me… camera lenses. I found it actually “pays” to buy the highest quality as those really do don’t fall much making them cheaper to own and you actually get better photos. Canon L come to mind. But even still, I buy what I want as the primary decisioning driver.
If I’m at all unsure of how long I might hang onto a component (e.g. buying an item w/o the ability to hear it first), then I’m in the used market. Rule of thumb is late or current model gently used usually can be had for 50% of the original MRSP, after someone else ate the depreciation.
You rang?..DMP was just sold for ~ %60 off what i paid… ~one week before warranty expired…still in mint shape…with mostly no replacement parts! especially the Drive unit…so of course, no replacement parts only leaves PSA as a source of trade-in?..
Better than nothing, i guess?..
wait…no trade-in here if broken?..so, guess what?..
Sometimes PSAudio will extend the warranty when you register a product out of warranty as a courtesy to the new owner. I was surprised a few years ago when this occurred.
Not really realistic to assume you’re going to be able to hang onto a component forever, kind of like any investment or big purchase. I think resale value has to be a data point for this kind of item, especially buying new. You just never know what’s going to come along, both in terms of new technology, lifestyle (bigger, smaller house), financially (may have needs that require you to liquidate some assets including audio gear), or you may just want different functionality down the line.
For me it’s usually the lifestyle thing (have a small house now, was in a bigger place before - so form factor becomes important, as does being able to accomplish more than one function with a single component) and the functionality (example, I found a great universal disc player that also functions as a top tier DAC and pre-amp, so I have to move on from a large standalone DAC/preamp given previously mentioned space constraints).
To each their own, I guess, but resale value is definitely a factor for more people than is assumed, maybe even the majority of purchasers. Having that undercut drastically doesn’t help when you have to move a piece of equipment out that is not yet obsolescent by any means (in this case the DSD DAC). If we’re talking about an obsolete or soon to be obsolete item, sure - resale value be damned, but I’m with the guys who say that if they’re not sure, I just buy used to begin with.
Resale has never been a data point item for me. This drives me crazy though. I find this happening in a lot of different aspects in life. Someone gets a good deal - and someone wants to try and kill it because they didn’t get it. If you feel that way - shop harder.
PS Audio has (according to them) laid in an inventory of the Oppo drives used in the DMP to support repairs for the foreseeable - but undefined - future.
That said, it does kind of cheese me off to have traded in my PWT for the DMP ($4k net of trade-in allowance) only to have the model go out of production in a relative heartbeat, albeit for unforeseen circumstances. At least PS Audio was running a special deal on a DSD/PWT bundle at the time. C’est la Vie, I guess.
The PWT replaced my Ayre CX5e mp, which I sold for the essentially the same reason. Ayre wasn’t sure how long the replacement drives might be available and was sounding the alarm for owners to hoard a replacement while they were available.
All that said, drive failures are relatively infrequent, although who wants to risk having a pricey piece of gear get bricked due to failure of one of the more inexpensive parts.
WTF are you talking about? Someone gets a “good deal” is fine - but when someone else paid nearly double for the same item direct for the manufacturer and then the manufacturer turns around and cuts the price in half (not what happened here, but since you’re not dealing in reality I won’t either) on a permanent basis, leaving those others who made an investment in said item in a lurch because they NEED to sell it, then we have a problem. I’m flattered that you think I might have the power to “kill” this good deal - and I would be very interested in all the examples you have from your real life such that it’s driven you crazy.
Either that item wasn’t really worth what was charged for it to begin with, or the dealer is intentionally undercutting its own product and by extension the used market. Let me know if there’s anything about that scenario that is hard to understand.
If resale has “never been a data point” for you then perhaps you’ve never shopped very hard yourself for, oh, I don’t know…a house, land, or a vehicle?
Some items or property are better investment “vehicles” than others of course. And nobody said PS Audio was selling investment grade components, but say Mercedes Benz turns around and cuts the price on the car model you just plunked $60K down for to $30K. Well too bad, right? Someone else “shopped harder” (or just waited long enough with or without insider knowledge) and the extra $30K on your note (or missing from your bank account) is just sour grapes, right? Maybe you’re a member of the 1% or 0.1% but I can promise you that 85% or more of us here are not. We actually care about the value of our purchases above and beyond whatever pleasure they are able to bring us occasionally in our wine caves or “listening rooms.”
unless you are nouveau riche, most millionaires are very frugal with their money…until i read some of these posts, I know most everyone else, advances their hobby through resale of their stuff to help afford that happening… PSA draws in good business, just based on their trade-in program alone…
cars also…or are we supposed to also not worry about affording them also?…
just like when you buy a house…don’t plan on reselling to move up??
How is this not obvious?..
Well, OK then…can i have your old equipment when you move up?..
i also could use a nice car with an audiophile system and a house to house it…when you’re done with them, of course…R N
Ok. Right. Everybody should pay sticker to protect people’s ‘investments’. When I buy a piece of audio equipment -I shop for a good deal. Either with the manufacturer or dealer or used. I find something satisfactory and work out a deal which makes me happy as well as the seller obviously - or he wouldn’t sell it.
If you are somehow implying that people that don’t care about this are rich - quite the contrary. We just do what I said above - which is way more work to protect our ‘investment’ than what anyone who pays top price apparently does. I can’t or won’t pay top price. If you don’t want to do that - well complain away. So there is nothing I don’t understand here about your point. I hope others continue to get great deals on psa equipment.
I assume everything I buy new will rapidly depreciate, especially technology and hobby related toys. I also tend to make a decision and keep my purchases a long time. The potential future value of the piece of kit used is not part of my purchase decision.
If one churns through equipment or, as already noted, are uncertain how long you will keep something, it makes excellent sense to buy used to avoid a good share of the depreciation.
Nearly everything goes on sale, is dropped from being manufactured, is no longer than darling of hobbyists, etc.
(Speaking of which and as an exemplar, new 2019 Corvettes can currently be purchased for 22% off as it is winter, they stopped making the C7 in November, and the new C8 is coming out next year. Amazing deals to be had.)
Yikes!!! Now the new and improved C8 is out, the C7 is now classified as old and crappy… a real dog. Audio equipment is like that… one day I can be loving my whatever unit and then they come out with a new and improved, and well, all of a sudden it sounds like mud. I think we are experiencing an undocumented, profound new law of physics… one where future states affect the present… spooky action at a distance.
N