Yes they ship overseas. I have a pair of Double Impacts,and they are just killer good. And Tekton´s customer service was also spot on for me. Happy customer,but looking for upgrade to bigger Tekton´s 
Took about two weeks to arrive in Finland and to my doorstep unharmed. And if I remember correctly,shipping was 200€ 
It costs me more to ship them to next town here…
So i´m sure PS Audio too can handle US shipments easily with big speakers 
I’m a guitar/mandolin player, and this is VERY TRUE and VERY APPRECIATED.
I do buy mostly used, and off guitar forums. And most of the forums require the seller to allow a 3-day return window.
But even if I buy new, and even if it’s a brick & mortar shop, I prefer to have the guitar shipped to my house, so I can play it on my own time, in my space, in a relaxed atmosphere. Fresh strings if needed. And I make sure I can return it if it’s not what I want.
It’s impossible (for me) to audition an instrument during a relatively short spell at a dealer. Too much pressure. Acoustics are different. Dead strings.
Often times if you buy AT a guitar shop, they don’t allow any home-review period – they do that only if they ship it to you.
Now, for musical instruments, I don’t expect them to cover return shipping if I simply don’t like the guitar. However, if it’s not as described, or if there’s a defect with the instrument, then I would.
Anyway, carry on.
Seems to me most of the positive and negative things have been said and Paul himself has said what his plans are and how his sales have been in the past. Granted, any listen not in your room in your system is not an absolute indicator of how any of it will sound “at your house” but, since it appears the new speakers are going to be high four or mostly 5 digits in cost, anyone able to afford these should be able to afford a flight or drive to a place to listen to them in person.
Considering the shipping being included in both directions during the trial period, I’d be ok trying them at home without auditioning them in Boulder. A trip to UPS is cheaper than a flight to Colorado…
What surprises me is how hard a lot of folks seem to be trying to make this into a problem ; )
I am not surprised you are surprised.
Some people like to look at and listen to products BEFORE they buy them or trial them at home. Why is that such a surprise???
I’m not surprised you’re not surprised I’m surprised.
As you’re fond of pointing out, where did anyone say you couldn’t try stuff out in your home?
Never mind - I’ll stay out of it. Back to the Sky Falling.
–Apologist-in-Chief
Huh?? My post had to do with the fact that some people like to hear stuff in a showroom BEFORE they buy it or trial it at home.
Oh - sorry. I didn’t actually read your post.
I bought my system at Overture in Delaware too! Great store and amazing customer service!
I loved the fact they wheel in any speaker you want to demo with any pre amp and amp combo and leave you alone in the room to listen to whatever music you bring. Spent a total of 2 days around 4.5 hours each day listening until I made my purchase. Walked in wanting a pair of B&W’s… Walked out with a pair of Focal Aria 948’s. Blew the B&W’s that were at the price point out of the water!
From what I’ve personally heard and understand, room issues exist mainly under about 150 - 200Hz, usually peaks, in my case a small dropout. Whilst that is annoying and can only be sorted out in the actual listening room, it is (usually) nothing to do with the quality of the speaker and is not the frequency range where most musical information resides, which tends to be the upper bass and midrange.
So I think you can tell if a speaker is basically good or not in the key listening areas in a dealer demonstration. Some dealers have a range of rooms to approximate customer room sizes, but that does not take account of wall construction. Even so, I think the good or bad decision is relatively easy and quick to make at a dealer, some aspects like fatigue may take more extensive listening, but can be accelerated by the right choice of sample sounds. Being able to say “NO” to a speaker is very easy and no hassle for you or the dealer.
I read today one of my two dealers sold a pair of superb $75,000 speakers based on a demo and the installation was a nightmare because of the room construction and available locations. It could not be solved by damping. It was solved by DSP. The point being, if your room has a problem, speaker A, B, C or AN3 isn’t going to fix it, but it mostly probably can be fixed some other way.
I’m glad I have no desire to change speakers, but the point about dealers is that you can contrast and compare. A home trial of a single item is almost a commitment to buy unless the thing sounds awful. There is a dealer here who does it and he told me he has very few items returned. The only time I did a home trial was with 4 different DACs, all supplied locally and transportable by car. I chose one and a few months later we refurnished and I reorientated the stereo and the acoustic changed, all a bit ironic really.
I recall a chap posted here a while back about having purchased a pair of $100k+ speakers and the bass overpowered his room, so he applied a high pass filter and installed a couple of subwoofers, which seems rather to defeat the purpose of the speakers. I’ve heard the speakers he had and I had to leave the demonstration it was so painful. Paul mentions that there is DSP in the AN3 so I would hope that will allow easy tuning of speakers.
Interesting. Certain that I wanted B&W 803D3 loudspeakers, I listened a total of 6 times (over 5 hours total) at 3 different dealers through a variety of high end electronics. Something not quite right about the midrange held me back. Went to a 4th dealer to hear Audio Research LS28 (which I already owned)/VT80 amp combination which happened to be connected to Focal Sopra No.2’s. After 50 minutes of listening to a wide range of music, I bought the Focals. 2,500 plus hours in system they just keep getting better.
Count me into that crowd. I am uncomfortable buying an item with the possible intent to return right from the get go. If I am buying something - I’m all in. Speakers I have to hear. Everything else I do extensive cross checks on reviews both professional and non. Usually there is commonality that most all point to. I have had luck doing this with my pre/dac/cd player of old.
In the end - the return policy although good - is something I just don’t think would be a difference maker for me. The hassle of returning and my time and effort becomes the prevailing difference maker
The Focal Sopra have been a huge success and my dealer highly recommends the No 1 and No 2. They hosted the Kanta launch and at the other end have the whole current Utopia range on demo. Apparently Focal had a team of half a dozen people developing the No1 and No 2 for about 3 years, which is an awful lot of development time. They were launched at Munich 2015 (as were my Harbeth SHL5plus) and the demand for both was huge, and still is. (Try selling these mail order!)
Which one is the ‘2’?
Those are the Evo range. The Sopra 1 and 2 are below, there is also a 3 but the 1 and 2 seem to be the more popular. Focal have a vast range with Utopia at the top. The standmount Utopia (far right above) is about the same price as the floorstanding Focal 2, the next level down.
I am sure Focal sound excellent, but as you mentioned their broad catalog has kept me away. They just have so many products and product revision designations it is difficult [for me] to tell what the hell is going on.
Completely agree. I’m the same with restaurant menus.
I’m sure you can get your brain around it. Utopia is the top range and Aria the budget range. Sopra came in under Utopia and now Kanta between Sopra and Aria. All ranges have a bookshelf/standmount and then a number of floor standing speakers.
Aria is good but budget, Kanta much more hifi, Sopra is serious stuff and Utopia state of the art. My budget would be Sopra 2 or a Diablo Utopia, possibly with a good subwoofer in a larger room. They do of course make a whole load of other built-in, pro and AV speakers and headphones, and lots of car audio. They used to sell OEM drivers, not sure if they still do.
The 2-channel ranges are quite coherent given they range in price from $1,000 to $120,000. It’s taken 40 years, not something that happens overnight.
I don’t have a problem with restaurant menus. I do have a problem with wine lists.
Yeah but then you have Utopia, Grande Utopia, Utopia Evo, Utopia EVO EM, Grande Utopia EVO EM iii. I took a stab in the dark with name combinations and probably had a 75% success rate at actually naming their real Utopia products LOL
Upscale Audio has these Stella Utopia EM for 50% off and I don’t even know where they are/were in the Utopia line-up. I would like to see a product release history for just the Utopia line, it has to be pretty ridiculous.
