A post was merged into an existing topic: Is PS Audio going direct sale only?
Of course Paul isn’t going to give up on them, but he also isn’t going to release them until he is 100% satisfied with them (or any other product in the works). If it takes 4-5 years, so be it. He always hopes it will be quicker, but is willing to take as long as it takes.
And Chris’s ears are pickier than Paul’s I think. As they should be.
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Hey guys, thanks for chiming in. Yeah, it’s hard not to share everything with you folks. Recently we received the first full production-ready prototypes for examination. I cannot tell you the excitement that was running through PS Audio. Finally, after only seeing CAD drawings and mockups, here was the real deal. In the flesh. You could touch them. Run your hand over their finish, stand back and admire them from multiple angles.
The purpose of the prototypes is to make sure about every aspect of the many pieces that make up the speaker. These are not off-tool samples, but handcrafted to exacting dimensions. If we’re happy with the way everything fits together, looks, works, etc. then the next phase is to actually order the tooling. Once tooling is made then every part is identical - so you better hope they are right! The tooling is expensive. Like on the order of $100K so we best be right (and that’s just for the FR30).
We’re close. Chris found some things he didn’t like and we’re tweaking the drawings to reflect the changes. One good piece of news is that though we didn’t approve the prototypes outright, then changes to be made are small enough that we can go ahead and approve the ordering of tooling for the baffles and radiators and drivers (all drivers are custom designed by Chris and are nothing short of extraordinary. I’ve never seen woofers with this much extension capable of such low distortion. Hell, I’ve never seen drivers of any type with this low of distortion).
Of the small handful of lucky people that have been able to see the speakers and their new aesthetics, we’ve had nothing but swoons, oohs, and awws. They are remarkably beautiful.
Tooling takes months. From tooling we get Alpha samples. These are like the prototype samples only they are truly an exact version of what we will be delivering. Following approval of the Alphas we move to actually production with the first beta run. It’s at that point we’ll be ready to pull back the curtain and show you what I hope will be the most exciting new speaker in decades.
I know it’s hard to wait. Believe me. It sucks. I have been convinced that showing snapshots and little glimpses of the speaker, while exciting, is not the right way to let people see where we’re going. Sigh.
I am not a patient person.
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I am exceedingly impressed.
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An important and encouraging milestone, for sure…
Again, best of luck to you during this semi-final stretch to production.
SEE
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I have tried to clean up this mess of a thread.
Please stay on topic and be respectful of other’s views and opinions.
Thank you!
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From your post the first Alpha units are many months away (though could still be this year), will you display the prototype units at RMAF? I’d love to go to that show, though it will involve a flight and I’m not excited about that. I have been planning on going to AXPONA, I know you won’t be displaying there, but at this point there is no list of exhibitors which is not a good sign. If I skip AXPONA, RMAF would be an option but want to make it worth my while too.
I believe Paul said the speakers and the new streaming device will be on display at RMAF. I also agree AXPONA is not looking good for us in the Midwest.
@Paul172, have you heard anything recently? There seems to be very little information regarding exhibitors etc. on their website. I did email them and asked when a list of exhibitors would be available, and what their cancellation policy is should COVID impact the convention. I have yet to get a response.
I have not reached out to anyone with Axpona. I know they screwed a lot of people last year so I’m not expecting much of a show if any. The timing is terrible IMO two weeks after RMAF is not a good decision.
Agree the timing of the two shows, basically stacking them one on top of another is not a great move. RMAF in the past was in early September, at least the one I attended. Based on 2020 it will be interesting to see who exhibits at either show. But you are right, the AXPONA promoters will need to earn my trust. I sure won’t be purchasing advance anything from them. Being that there is a strong dealer network in Chicago, Milwaukee and Madison, as well as Music Direct, Elusive Disc and Acoustic Sounds my guess is it will happen albeit scaled down.
I too recall him saying that. What prompted my question was he said they recently received the prototype enclosure and were getting ready to order tooling. To me this meant only the prototype would be available for RMAF. I wanted to verify that is what he was expecting to display.
As an aside, he said last year they were expecting a prototype enclosure last December. Nothing more was said until recently. Don’t want to read into that other than COVID has messed up a LOT of plans …
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Agree with your assessment. I would think the folks putting on AXPONA (I think it’s JD Events) have money on the line with the hotel so they would want to recover whatever they could. One unknown is if visitors/exhibitors from outside the US will be able to attend (this applies to RMAF as well). Right now they can’t, but the future looks better. It’s a crap shoot if they were to make arrangements hoping for an easing of travel restrictions. I bought a three day ticket for last year and have carried it over so I may go no matter what.
The sad part of this whole mess is the hotel refunded all of JD Events money, yet JD Events did not then refund the exhibitor’s money. They kept it so they could continue paying their people’s salaries. I believe most of the ticket holders got a refund. We manufacturers got left holding the bag. We’re out $10K (as an example).
We won’t be doing business with them again. They are not honorable.
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I believe what I had hoped to convey was that we should have the streamer on display and maybe the speakers. Hopefully the speakers but time will tell.
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Thanks Paul, that puts it all in perspective. Several folks have said this in fuzzy terms so I wasn’t sure if it was totally accurate. So now I know …
That clarifies it for me, now should I stay or should I go now …
This is interesting. From what I can tell they didn’t receive any PPP money. So at least they didn’t double dip…
They were encouraging ticket holders to NOT ask for a refund, but to wait, use the purchased tickets at the next Axpona, plus be able to bring another person for free at the next Axpona for keeping the ticket money in their system.