Thanks, @mwinkc . And I really have positive feelings about PSA — mostly from watching videos and reading reviews. My sense is that they realized that there's this price point that they're not fielding a full enough set of products; they realized that they were on to something with the Sprout in filling the all-in-one niche, but needed to do it at a more mid-fi or audiophile-attracting price and quality point.
From my perspective, just getting into the hobby, I realized that once one goes above about $2.5k, there are some very good reasons to separate the streamer from everything else, or, perhaps the streamer and DAC from the power sources. This is due to upgrade-ability.
But perhaps they have a good point — which is that this will be a really good piece of gear that will hit the swath of the market that would likely never buy, say, a deHavilland preamp or a Pass amp (etc.) and that folks will be happy with it — and will feel safe to try it with their 30 day money back and their trade-up/trade-in program.
And what about the audiophiles, then? Well, for those who *really* want/need to keep the price point at $3k or under, well, where are you going to find 200 wpc of good quality with all that other stuff? You'd likely be hard pressed. (Though I do wonder who really needs 200 wpc and also what Parasound might be doing with the HINT line.)
From my perspective, just getting into the hobby, I realized that once one goes above about $2.5k, there are some very good reasons to separate the streamer from everything else, or, perhaps the streamer and DAC from the power sources. This is due to upgrade-ability.
But perhaps they have a good point — which is that this will be a really good piece of gear that will hit the swath of the market that would likely never buy, say, a deHavilland preamp or a Pass amp (etc.) and that folks will be happy with it — and will feel safe to try it with their 30 day money back and their trade-up/trade-in program.
And what about the audiophiles, then? Well, for those who *really* want/need to keep the price point at $3k or under, well, where are you going to find 200 wpc of good quality with all that other stuff? You'd likely be hard pressed. (Though I do wonder who really needs 200 wpc and also what Parasound might be doing with the HINT line.)