I am confident the company will still be named PS Audio.
I will be able to sleep tonight.
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It would great if he would actually directly address the question. I honestly donât care how he answers it. He can say the discounts are over, he can say whatever, doesnât matter to me, so I have no desire that he answer the question in any certain way.
Also, these are questions directed to Paul. They are not directed to anyone else. So I donât see the need for anyone on this forum to answer for Paul. Paul ought to answer for himself - directly - not cagey. If he had done so, it wouldâve saved oodles of wasted speculation for those on either side of this issue⌠just saynâ
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In lieu of Paul actually answering the question about whether or not the big 50% discounts will continue, we could deduce that his lack of response means that they will, but he just canât say so publicly. If one of the reasons for eliminating USA dealers was to eliminate all deal making beyond the trade in program, then Paul would proudly state as much. Instead @Paul has danced around the core concern.
And thatâs the problem with not dealing with issues directly. Its left to strangers on the internet like myself, essentially like all of us, to provide our own tea leaf readings 
If thatâs the case Iâm hosed
Thanks for the under standing. No, deep discounts as you refer to will not happen anymore.
Hope thatâs clear.
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Iâm not sure Paul has properly gauged the âinertiaâ that the external sales team generated for PS Audio. Thereâs no easy way to measure this force, but itâs real and the company will feel itâs loss. Consider this same âinertiaâ that PS Audio once harnessed will now by itâs very nature start working against their interest with the equal but opposite force. They will need require 2X DSD to overcome it.
May the force be with you.
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Thanks @Paul, thatâs perfectly clear. It makes total sense. I also understand why some are disappointed, that makes sense as well.
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Itâs not a war itâs a hobby and if youâre grown up enough to buy audio gear at this price level you ought to be grown up enough to deal with the company that sold it to you first and not complain on the internet first. The latter seems to be the first course of action lately.
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Disappointed? Letâs see, with the old dealer/direct model here in the USA, I could buy a DirectStream DAC all day long for $4000. Maybe even less. With the new direct-only model, the price is $6000. As far as I am concerned, that is effectively a 50% price increase.
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Yep, and no portion of this is going to the dealer, and ALL of it to PS Audio.
I was on the fence about selling off all of my PS Audio gear to get (much) better measuring equipment for less money, and I think I just might do that now.
Is the chassis quality going up? Better quality control? Better anything?
This stinks of a greedy cash grab.
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Sorry to disappoint you even more, but under the old system you could buy a DS DAC for $3500 
But donât despair, there are always other ways to work the system! Iâll send you a PM explaining my theory.
There will always be chronic gear flippers.
Shiity make profits by asking you ship the DAC back for upgrading. So no Shitty here.
Except that the trade-in discount available from PS Audio on the Directstream DAC is $1800. So, IF you have a suitably priced and depreciated piece of old audio gear to trade in, you can get most of that $2000 discount direct from PS Audio. Since I tend to keep my audio equipment for a very long time, I have been able to take good advantage of this offer twice, trading in pieces with very little current market value at their original MSRP. Admittedly, this is a PITA compared to just getting a substantial discount from a dealer over the phone. On the other hand, it felt good to clear out the audio closet and get so much more than current market value in return.
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This thread has ran its course, IMO. Hereâs the info in a nutshell
-
PSA going direct in the US
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Prices the same
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Trade in program the same
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No more deep discounts
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You have two weeks to work thru your dealer
Really, this is all there is. No sense debating whoâs wrong here and this or that is not true.
There is no reason to continue to go back and forth. Iâm sure Paul will be the first one to announce anything different to the above.
If I am correct, as long as the warranty period has not expired, if you buy used, the warranty transfers ( correct if I am wrong).
Am I disappointed that The discounts will no longer happenâŚsureâŚnobody, however, is forcing me to purchase from a particular company.
Letâs get back to talking audio.
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And that about sums it up.
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Actually Paul, if youâd bothered to read what I wrote itâs very clear that I did NOT speculate that the change is because the company is in financial trouble, but rather clearly favored an explanation that the increased margins would serve to raise additional capital for the projects youâve taken on and are projecting. Moreover, I pointed out that that is a meaningful strategy, however risky.
Beyond your outright misrepresentation of what I wrote is your continuing failure to address the crux of what many have written here. Namely that the dealer discounts and the used market have over the past several years served as a vehicle that allowed many of us to get involved with PS Audio gear, and then continue to build on that, sometimes even at the full retail level, as well as then participate in the user community youâve created, and in effect become ambassadors for your products.
Is the failure to address that a matter of insensitivity? A failure to sufficiently think through the implications of the move? Or is it driven by decision to throw down the gauntlet about who you want your customer base to be (that sure seems to be implied in what you wrote). OrâŚ? In any case, recognizing that you are a businessman in a capitalist economy, itâs hard to miss how attractive the prospect of the company being able to hold on to a greater share of revenues must be.
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@ Paul: Thank-you Paul for your frankness. For those considering a PS Audio product in the near term, now is the time to act. Personally I have done just that and made a purchase I had been considering. Those who have no intent to purchase are merely poking the bear. Nothing good every came of that other than getting people stoked. Put on some âChillâ music and put the laptops away.
I couldnât have said it better myselfâŚ
Territories! Good times.