As the adverts says, that unit has been replaced by the EVO version. The Stella is one of two models below the big mutha Grande Utopia.
Upscale Audio mix everything up on their website. The Focal website is much better organised.
Direct model works, if the company is present in a specific country. Otherwise, it is really difficult to deal with it as a customer. I prefer a ātrustedā dealer setup, where I can listen to multiple configurations and combinations from multiple vendors. For highend equipment, good dealers here in Switzerland do lend out some gear for the possibility to test a product (or combination) in your own environment at home. Also, when having problems (after sales support), it is much easier to deal with a local entity than having to ship stuff back overseas by your own. This simply does not make sense.
Direct model will work and PSA will be fine. As long as any company is on board with quality and service (assuming the products people want are offered), people will purchase. Paul said earlier that most of their sales are direct anyway. So people must be fine with their direct prices.
The only way I could see things going south if a plethora of quality issues start to arise. Word getting out that many owners are having to send back 80 lb $8000 amps ( or huge heavy speakers if owner cannot swap drivers themselves) will spread like wildfire on the various audio forums.
So far that has not been the case with PSA.
1 Like
Just about all of the factory direct companies main selling point is claiming to save the consumer money by cutting out the middleman (Dealers). According to @Paul PS Audio will not be lowering the MSRP. So no advantage in this respect.
1 Like
Uhhhh - go into one of those Salons, chat up the Salesperson or Owner, listen to all or some of the Speakers, and thenā¦if you Turn Out To Be one of the Wankers who Never Actually Buyā¦?
Let me know how that turns out.
5 Likes
Iām a wanker, and have been shunned from most local audio dealers in the Denver area, because Iāve failed to meet their minimun purchase requirements.
1 Like
Almost as bad as the guy who goes for the demo and then searches for a better price online. Canāt really do that in the UK, if you want to save money you have to go ex-demo or used.
1 Like
Thatās some mission statement, Gary.
Is this how you introduce yourself in all hi-fi establishments 
Usually not, but thatās how I feel sometimes when visiting certain local HiFi establishments. I remember one owner telling me, āyou know you havenāt purchased anything here in a whileā, then giving me a look of disappointment. At which point I replied, guess I best be leaving now.
1 Like
The local shops here donāt seem to react when I do buy. Someone else always buys more I guess.
Thank you for your business said no one ever.
Actually, PS Audio said that to me many times. Hmmmmmm.
1 Like
Whatās interesting to me is that I had a long conversation with Paul and Kevin at RMAF regarding this and they both told me how it wouldnāt happen and was so difficult etc. So strange that they choose to do it how they did after-all. Personally, I think itās being done wrong and Iām confident they would destroy the competition if they did what I proposed when I was asked āHow do we make everyone happy?ā Whatever. Not my problem as I spoke my mind in person. The only people Iām concerned about are the ~ 50 employees and families that make up PSA.
Yes, everybody tells PS Audio something. I proposed that they should go direct in Europe and guess what! Over here they do the opposite to what I say too, at least that is some consistency. They remain to divert EU customers money to their distributors. Those sell to dealers, meaning: a third party wanting an extra piece of the cake. With dealers Iād have no problem, they are far away, but the people in those shops I walked into they were very friendly.
Since the distributors keep hardly anything in stock and the boxes are direct shipped to the dealers, I have trouble understanding what good the distributors contribute. But one is never to old to keep learning.
Obviously I can tell PS Audio all day long, but I do trust they know more about their business then we do and that they are old and wise enough. Well at least they were polite enough to listen to what we had to say. Not everybody does that either.
Correct me if Iām wrong, but I suspect the PS Audio pricing model anticipated 100% of in house customers would avail themselves of the 30% discount via submission of used equipment worth, maybe, a few dollars in the wholesale market. In other words, the company priced itās equipment to sell at 70% of list. Therefore, while also supporting a dealer network, the margin offered to dealers had to be at least 50%, and maybe more like 60%, vs the more typical 40% in the high end trade. Hence the big discounting and poor resale value.
The effect of this policy was to encourage consumers to think they were getting something for their used equipment, while putting pressure on retailers to discount heavily from list, which only a few very large, internet based retailers could afford to do, without destroying the pricing model on the rest of their business. So, logically, the next step was to move entirely in house, especially considering that no retailer could afford to carry and demonstrate high end speakers that would be heavily discounted immediately.
I get all this, and donāt think itās any worse strategy than selling increasingly expensive high end gear through a dealer network to a shrinking audience of old farts with diminished hearing, of which I proudly include myself. Itās just another way of slicing the pie. If the product is good and offered at decent value, PSA will be fine.
3 Likes
Suspect this is temporary. Purging dealers, for one reason or another, they no longer want, intending to later reinstate select dealers they do want representing their product. There is no way around the fact that they will need dealers to successfully market large loudspeaker systems.
3 Likes
Maybe a good idea, BUT, it needs a few things to be successful:
- Prices MUST come down! If youāre now saving 50% dealer markup, MUST share some of that savings
- If not a dealer, WHY not have a local PS Audio rep? This person could help setup, advice, etcā¦ This might be beneficial with all new audiophiles who are not great at setup and room treatment, placement!
- In-home audition, is good, BUT with larger products itās next to impossible! How the HECK do I get an AN3 speaker, get it out of the box, carry it up, set up for a few days, THEN decide itās not good enough and TRY to pack it back up and send back? Or even any BHK Amp, or Power Plants, theyāre HUGE, HEAVY, not easy to carry, setup or auditionā¦ So, there MUST be a way to demo products somewhere close by. Maybe a demo room at dealers? They get a fee? Not sureā¦
Overall, good luck with this, it may work with your social media reaching people instead of dealers, but to me, this is in general will NOT help audiophile industry move forward. I think one reason Apple became insanely successful was the Apple stores, ppl could go in, feel and touch devices, get advice and purchase them. We need something like that in the audio business.
And itās only been two weeks since the announcement so how this ultimately plays out is yet to be seen. Itās still probably almost a year until the speakers are ready for sale.
Maybe part of the speaker shipping will include in home set up and take down? The margins must be large enough to cover that?
1 Like
Overseas distributors usually do most of the marketing in their territory, attend exhibitions, deal with warranty issues and do bulk shipping and try to keep all the retailers in line. In the UK at least the legal responsibility for the product lies with the distributor, not the retailer.
The problem in the USA seems to be that the retailers have gone rogue and are undercutting each other and PSA. Maybe thatās how it works in the USA, bot not in the UK where the price is almost always the same whoever you buy the product from.
Boils down to this: The sky is falling!
1 Like