I would have prefered PSA have a dealer rep, that would visit dealers for continued education and to keep the dealer qualified to provide this sales and service modo. Sad news indeed. I refuse to pay retail for gear. I don’t pay list price for my autos either. That art of negotiation is parts of the experience for me. Glad I have all the PSA gear I want already…Hopefully I am proven wrong but I doubt it. But business is business.
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I think the reason for not lowering the price is, to not upset their overseas distributors and dealers. But I’m not sure how that is any different than what has already been happening with the deep discount internet dealers here in the U.S.
The only way I was able to afford to upgrade my entire system to all PSA gear, was by going through one of the internet dealers here in the U S.
Wally is a good guy. I have purchased from him before and will purchase from him again. The only reason to be upset about his emails are if you didn’t get of good as a deal as he advertised (which falls on your shoulders for not shopping around).
If you think those are egregious discounts on PSA gear you need to see what the higher volume dealers offered on the power products (P20/P15 etc). I’ll give you a hint, it was larger than 48% off MSRP.
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You all realize that the items from Underwood are “open box” and therefore would sell as used. Also this is America and the dealer can sell for any price he is comfortable with including less than cost?
On a side note. I recently inquired at a dealer out of state but well within driving distance to me in MA for Magnepan speakers. As the dealer was working on a sales quote they came back and said they can’t deal with me, best of luck. Then a little while later, the Magnepan dealer in my state called me to offer me speakers at retail. I told Magnepan last time I had bought from this dealer years ago ( not Maggies ) and I didn’t care to work with them again. So if Magnepan is going to tell me what dealer I HAVE to buy from, I have news for Magnepan. I will buy another brand of speaker. Isn’t this the USA? Land of the free??
What a joke.
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One of the great or terrible things about the U.S. (depending on your point of view) is that manufacturers have a lot of freedom to experiment with different distribution models. There is also a lot of freedom to experiment with different pricing – witness the airlines, who are able to price pretty much based on what an individual is willing to pay (much to most people’s dismay) versus a company like Bose, that pretty much maintains a single retail price throughout its distribution chain. Manufacturers are also generally free to put territorial limits on dealers – if they couldn’t, the dealer who discounted the most would get all the sales while other dealers would just be demoing equipment.
Historically, dealers were not just about price, they were also about service and information. The internet has changed the dynamic. We can debate whether for the better or not when it comes to audio equipment – my own feeling is probably not for the better. Maybe someday you will be able to audition equipment virtually in your own room. But right now, most of us are getting fewer places to hear before we buy and less expert help in making decisions about things like reliability and what pieces work well together.
I don’t think people are upset because someone else got a better deal by 1-2k. People are upset because they won’t have the option to get a non-inflated (msrp) price without a trade in. That situation was also what brought me into the PSA ecosystem.
Reading about the big discounts you seem to get in the US, especially at dealers, probably makes some of us overseas wonder. Is PSA equipment even more reduced than others or is it the same with every manufacturer in the US that you can expect such discounts up to 50%?
My response was to steverman’s comment. He was blowing a gasket over Wally’s discount email.
I am aligned with your thoughts about direct sale and lack of opportunity to get deep discounts.
Yes some of them are open box, but not everything he sells is open box. I purchased all of my PSA gear from Underwood, and picked it up myself here in Boulder. So brand new unopened box gear.
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It varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. For example if you want a discount on McIntosh gear you can forget about it, it’s not because their product is inherently more valuable or priced correctly, it is because McIntosh has stringent controls on their dealers and what prices they may sell for. You can tell which manufacturers are hard to get deals from by looking at the used market. The closer the used prices are to MSRP the less discount dealer’s offer on new purchases.
Look at poor Veneet, he is trying to sell a new P20 that will ship directly from PSA because it is still being built and has it listed at $6500 to your door. No one has bitten on it yet. That means either no one is in the market for a P20 or more likely they have access to a better price for a new one outright from a dealer (a la Wally for $6k).
One thing is for certain, the margins in the audio industry are very comfortable for the manufacturers and we are the sickos who fuel that pricing by buying in.
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Mine were drop shipped directly from PS A, not open box.
Not sure about other manufacturers, but it seems if you purchase equipment made in the country you live, better prices are available to you. I was looking at some gear from Rega made in the UK, and it seems prices are higher here in the U.S. than if you lived in the UK. I’m sure shipping costs and import fees have something to do with the price difference.
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I think the deals at Underwood are lower than normal as he wants to move out the existing inventory, so while he may discount PSA stuff(which he can I assume) he’s doing this to clear off his shelves.
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Wally has been running those deals since his March Madness sale. The real deals now would be to make an offer below what he advertises and see what you can end up with.
I am considering some gear myself but not sure yet…
If that’s HiFiLounge don’t forget Audio Research, McIntosh and DCS. Oops, sorry, just re-read - you were talking about speakers.
Not always. It was cheaper to buy a Halcro amplifier in the US than to buy the same amp in Australia, and they are made in Australia. I actually bought one of my Halcro amps from a UK dealer and it drop shipped to me in Australia. And I bought two Halcro amps in Canada and shipped them to Australia. All up I’ve bought six Halcro amps, none of them from an Australian dealer (although I did buy my Halcro pre-amp from an Australian dealer). Odd, but true.
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See what your director wants to do? You mean to Underwood Audio? What did they do that was wrong?
These discounts have been available for years and were standard operating procedure, very sad to see them go. I bought a BHK 250 four years ago from Wally for 60 cents on the dollar. I bought BHK 300s and a P20 from another dealer for 50 cents on the dollar. It was never discussed on this site out of politeness.
There’s no way PSA didn’t know what was going on. One of the dealers offering deep discounts is very closely aligned. It’s a new business model for PSA. I assume profits per unit will go up and the number of units sold will go down. Where PSA ends on the curve will only be known by them. I also assume they are confident the new model will be better for them. Sounds like capitalism to me. Since capitalism has made my life better in every way, I’m good with that (still sad to see the easy discounts go. I’m really going to want the TSS).
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