I can’t believe people are still moaning about this. There are way so many high quality options to spend your dollars, I find it hard to believe some are predicting doom before anything has even started. PSA makes high quality gear… however so does many others at all price points.
I say enjoy the wide selection while you can, many super small makers ( Decware, etc) will probably fade away as the baby boomers die off.
Let us look at the bright side, there are 482 posts here. Compare that to the What are You Spinnin’ Right Now? Thread where across two threads there are 19,200 posts.
In my opinion this hobby is about listening to music, not equipment, much less business practices. The equipment provides a means to that end. I thank PS Audio for a small part they play in my enjoyment of this hobby. There must be some agreement based on the aforementioned thread. My comment is not directed toward any one individual, just a general observation. Now back to my regularly scheduled program - Les McCann/Eddie Harris “Swiss Movement”.
This is an interesting point. Personally I hate apple stores as they are chaotic stress-inducing places. My local apple store is in a large shopping mall and next door to it is a major department store that also sells apple products. I get my products from the department store if possible, where the service is impeccable.
Sony had a huge global chain of own-product stores and closed it down, preferring to sell mostly on Amazon. It’s worked well for them.
Devialet use a combination of flagship stores and authorised retailers. They use national sales managers, effectively employed distributors. There are no independent regional distributors.
Lecia Cameras have also gone the flagship store route with great success, but they are taking business away from their authorised retailers, of which there are many and some very long established. The first Leica dealer I used, R. G. Lewis, closed down a few years ago, they’d been in business selling cameras since 1881 and Leica since the 1920s, so almost 100 years. I use a camera bought from them in 1935 with the original bespoke case and light meter.
So there are different ways of doing things, but I don’t think anything beats a strong and experienced dealer network.
Yes distributors ought to do be doing that, but their stock is absolute minimum if they carry any stock at all, my unit and many others are built to order and individually shipped, not bulk shipped.
Indeed the distributors control the dealers, more so the prices which, deducted from our tax and reasonable allowance for shipping converted to US$, are higher than the US MSRP price.
So we pay more than MSRP, in Europe, without having the benefit to get full retail on our own equipment, or 14 days free of cost return shipment, ie. Home trial, and yet we have to travel to pick our gear up.
Regarding marketing: In my entire life I have never seen PS Audio in any EU store, neither banners or advertisements in magazines, nor reviews of PS Audio in EU magazines. There may be but they’re presence compared to other similar sized companies is slim.
After learning about PS Audio through WEB site research I visited the distributors WEB site. It has a PS Audio section next to other brands on their WEB site, that’s it.
And regarding responsibility, yes according to the EU free trade laws (regulations and directives) they are. But reports on this forum proof that in case there are issues that customer is smashed like a ping pong ball between the dealer and PS Audio without getting their case fixed at the end. That is not according to the intent of the EU Law, but it is way too cumbersome for that customer to get its right so the distributor gets away with putting units on the market that do not work as advertised.
Hence my conclusion that the distributors are not providing much, if any benefit to the customers. Comparing that to the PS Audio US direct model. From the customers point of view the distributor model in Europe is there to get much more money out of our pockets.
Then just don’t pay and move on. There are hundreds of quality EU based brands to choose from.
I don’t know where you shop or what stores you visit. In Denmark, the PS audio products are tested in our hifi magazines. It is also announced. They are also demostrated for hi-fi fairs in this country.
Of course, I often do a demo of my PS audio equipment in my own home.
Those were just a few examples
The Danish importer of PS audio with an excellent service -
https://high-performance.dk/
A P20 costs in Denmark 13.620,08 USD - We have 25 percent VAT and extra luxury tax on such goods in Denmark…and they come at whatever country you import from or whether it is used.
We probably have the world’s best customer protection in Denmark - This means that we will never have to pay VAT and taxes on repairs or parts. So does our importer.
More Love Michael/ Denmark
A P20 costs in Denmark 13.620,08 USD
And normally sold 6000$ in US as we have learned. Soon to be ending though.
Here in Finland i don´t even know it´s retail as our importer doesn´t even carry that line so far,it ends to P10. Not even BHK pre is listed on their site,neither are BHK 300 monos…they are so expensive/don´t sell here. I don´t know a single local high-endist with top PS Audio gear fully implemented. But I intend to get there some day,hopefully before I am grey and old 
Ferrari will always be more expensive than Skoda…such is life.
I wish PS Audio all the best with direct sales and whatever they do. This forum is top notch,and mainly i see people ranting over discount prices going up,not much else,with PS future plans going US direct.
Compared to many,they are cheap and SQ is usually better. What´s the problem?
Hi Michael, those pictures look nice. But I can not recall seeing something like that in the places I have been to. Neither dealers, nor shows.
I klicket on the link you posted and this is what I got to see:
The only thing I recognise from the PS Audio WEB-Site or forum are The Magico M series speakers from Brodrics Magic thread. By the way, where is Brodric? Haven’t seen a post from him for some time hope he is well.
Sure you can scroll down and click on buttons or menus to get to see at some point a PS Audio product, but apparently not at the moment you access the PS Audio distributors home page. I hope you see what I mean. Even for the PS Audio distributor him self, marketing PS Audio products does not seem to be on the top of his list.
The magazines I regularly buy and read and refer to are Stereo (German), Audio (German), Stereoplay (German), What HiFi (UK). If somebody can help me and point out to articles or reviews I would certainly be interested to read those as I am not able to find those.
Nevertheless I really like what you guys do in Denmark though. Keep up the good work Michael.
He was superpuffed into never - never land…!
Half a year ago, I would have agreed with you.
Even though PS Audio products were more expensive in Europe they did compete on a sound quality and/or price level and offer some unique features.
But the last half year or so I found out they do not compete on built quality, reliability, and with some consequences of that, I have seen pictures on this forum, that even indicate safety issues. All features by which “High End” for those costs should be defined as well.
One unique feature of PS Audio, for which I did buy it my Stellar Gain Cell DAC not too long ago, was the I2S HDMI interface. PS Audio did offer the NuWafe Phono converter with I2S and the Direct Stream Media Player with I2S interface at that time. Now mid 2019 there is hardly any source with 100% guaranteed compatibility to my Stellar Gain Cell DAC available, certainly not from PS Audio. Thus, the I2S HDMI unique feature has become obsolete.
Now there is similar or lower priced equipment on the EU market utilising the AES EBU balanced digital interface, superior to the remaining optical or coax.
The other unique PS Audio feature are the power plants. They are unique and certainly useful in areas where people are in remote areas or areas’s with poor power supply quality. But in central Europe EMC regulations are about immunity AND dissipation of equipment to electro magnetic interference. So even switching power supplies and LED lighting equipment has to comply with strict requirements.
EMC market access requirements in the US are primarily about immunity only.
Central European powerlines and power distribution are sophisticated, well monitored and maintained. Ie. the power supply is rather reliable and clean. Therefore power plants are not high on my wishlist, especially when I am still thinking about upgrading speakers, phono stages and amplifiers.
This might be different to people living in remote areas or at the end of power lines where clean is an issue.
But, competition is catching up fast now. With ELAC having a very comparable product line to the Stellar line at more attractive cost and easier upgrade paths. At EUR 9000 for BHK components, a plethora of alternative high end amps are available.
Therefore the PS Audio mark up price strategy on European products will be a disadvantage for PS Audio’s competitive situation in Europe, now and in the future.
I do care about this, I am brand loyal, like this forum and like the Sound Quality of the Stellar Gain Cell DAC, which is why I put these posts on the forum.
Best regards, Rudolf
Sure has been comparatively civil around here lately. Remarkable the negative effect one person can have on the internet.
Rudolph is a very bright person and we certainly listened to what he had to say to us in regards to distribution and our sales model in the EU.
Exporting and importing goods and services is an art unto itself. It has taken us years to learn how to manage it efficiently to best serve our Hi-Fi Family.
And, like in the US, it’s forever changing. Europe is no less impacted by the “Amazon” effect than anywhere else, it’s just slower to take hold. But it’s coming.
It should be no surprise that commerce and distribution of goods throughout the world is moving from a time honored system of real-estate protected bricks and mortar shops to something more efficient.
Our world is steadily changing day-by-day.
The only constant is change itself.
We do not sell to individual dealers in countries outside the US because dealers are neither equipped nor set up to handle direct importation of goods from another country. Further, we have to ensure service for our equipment. How many individual
dealers are set up to properly service our products (and the products of every other brand they sell)?
Just imagine the impracticality of a dealer directly importing all their brands (or even one). The importation rigors of shipping, customs, declarations, taxes, regulations, and communications with the factory are not for the lighthearted—and
then there’s our side. We don’t often ship just one unit to a country. To prepare a shipment and all the documentation necessary for a single shipment outside our country takes a lot of work. It only makes sense when we can ship entire pallets of equipment
to another country—and then there are freight costs. Air freight is expensive so most of our distributors arrange sea freight.
Distributors serve a valuable function individual dealers cannot match. They inventory products, service them, act as a single point of contact for our people, speak the language, drive to customer’s homes when needed, market in the country, display
our products (at their expense) at audio shows, know the territory.
There’s no way we would consider direct selling into another country from Boulder. Perhaps it might work for some smaller boutique audio manufacturers, just not us.
In conglomerate areas like the EU, where numerous smaller countries are tied together, a common European distributor might someday be worth looking at, but there’s plenty of problems with that model too (remind me how many different languages
are spoken within the EU). No, for now, this model is working well and I suspect will be in place for quite some time.
That’s not suggest it won’t someday change.
The only constant is change itself.
Direct selling of speakers is indeed a challenge, but it’s not one we intend to tackle with adding retail outlets from 3d parties. I know this might sound odd and it is certainly venturing into new territory, but we believe we can build a model that really
works for folks.
Paul, can you give the information of the percentage of your US sales compared to the rest of the world? No problem if that’s a secret, I’d understand.
Come on Badbeef, what is it, you think, I have said that is not civil?
I was not referring to you, believe it or not.
Thank you for the clarification Paul, as you could tell I had some difficulties seeing that.
Regarding languages, there are many talented people speaking multiple languages especially in conglomerate area’s of Europe. Many people in the Benelux and Switzerland speak so many languages. Not hard to find.
The reason we have European directives and regulations is that once you set it up for one country you are in the free trade zone without inter country custom fees or trade barriers like this. They were taken away by the EU which is of benefit to both EU manufacturers but also to those importing to our diverse continent.
I love driving / flying a couple of hours and experience different cultures and land scapes, yet knowing I can take any any good from one country to the other without customs bothering.
OK, then please excuse my comment.
Hmmm, you mean we are never going to know where @Brodric is going to put his Magico Subwoofer?
For those curious what I mean please refer to:
Magic Magic and unrelated matters
That is a shame, I enjoyed following the setup of the pinnacle of audio systems although I could never afford it and it is way above the PS Audio price range, Brodric makes it easy and fun to follow.
@Rudolf_Appel - No worries - sometimes it is easy to mistake which comment is about what, or in reply to whom. I get pretty lax about which “Reply” button I push sometimes, assuming mine will be the next post in the cue (not a safe assumption). Also, starting replies with "@"followed by the person’s handle as I did above insures everyone knows who you are responding to. They also get an email - which is not always good ; )
