Upscale Audio and Primaluna

I’ve called Upscale Audio a few times but have yet to buy anything from them. I never felt pressured to buy anything from them, let alone a Primaluna product. I think a lot depends on who you talk to on a given day. For example, when I was looking for a headphone amp, Kevin put me in touch with one of his headphone amp experts. We exchanged a couple of text messages, but as soon as I brought up another amp that I was considering (Quicksilver headphone amp), the guy disappeared. Simply stopped responding to my messages.

I called them another time to get advice on streamers. Totally opposite experience. The guy was courteous, responded to all my questions, and followed up with another call.

Based on my experience, and mine alone, I think that because they’re so busy, they put a higher premium on their time. So while I never felt pressured or shortchanged, I never got the same level of interest or the willingness to get to know me as a potential long term customer. Contrast this to a few other dealers I’ve talked to, e.g. Wolf Audio, John Ruttan, Reno Hifi, etc. They came across as folks who had a genuine interest in getting to know me, my current system, and my desired outcome. It almost felt like having a conversation with a good friend who is genuinely interested in building a long term relationship with you. Upscale Audio, while courteous and helpful, simply didn't give me the same level of attention. Of course, YMMV.

@arafiq Al my sales staff are different.  One customer might feel this salesperson is too touchy-feely and wants to get to the point, and another wants a new friend.  Everyone's different, whether customer or staff. 

If you meet one that you like, ask for them.  Nobody gets butt hurt that you bought from another salesperson because they don't get paid for selling it to you. We're implementing new software systems next month that will make it easier than ever for you to have a history with us so we know where your heads at and get right to your favorite person.  If that person is out, anyone can step in and look at your audio "medical records"

As to being too busy, yes that was true, especially during Covid.  Even the first quarter of 2021 we were up 70% over 2020.  That may sound good to you but not to me.  My employees are not machines.  They are people and absolutely beat tired.  Tough year given they had to work remotely at times and there have been so many product supply problems.    

Just last week with everything like travel re-opening it suddenly and profoundly slowed down.  Thank God. But I'm TRULY SORRY if anyone sounded rushed during the peak periods.

Also before I bag out of here I'd like to say something about tube life.  The best tube tester is your ears.  Buy a new set, run them 200 hours, then compare them to the old set.  If the old ones sound good then leave them.  Yes you can get a lot more hours than you think from tubes.  It depends on how hard they are running. 

I have a customer that was new to tubes that bought a DiaLogue Premium with KT120's and his buddy told him to never turn it off as it would sound better so he did just that for over six months before checking back with us.   I told him that's not good and with over 4300 hours he should replace them.  But because I wanted to help him out we would re-test his now worn-out tubes to see if anything could be salvaged.   

I was shocked after I tested them.  He had the original boxes with test results and after 4300 hours they were at 90% of new.  Running a low plate voltage and easy biasing works.  Regardless, it's about the sound.  Especially when tubes are new old stock or are expensive. 

About the fellow that got a bad tube and his ARC amp blew up.  We buy from where they buy.  I pay more for my KT150's wholesale than guys sell them for on Ebay, so use your noggin.  We burn them in for 72 hours, and I had custom programming done for my Ampitrex to mimic the actual ARC design, and we've had great success with that. We spend 10 minutes testing each KT150 because they have to settle down. If there was any process that could be improved, we would do it. 

But any tube can fail.  They have failures too.     KT150's are kind of a jacked-up tube because they can take a hit in shipping that changes how they measure. Rare, but happens.  I have had guys buy tubes from ARC and had shorts that broke their amps and they don't pay for repairs if your amp is out of warranty. Things simply don't work that way.  

A tube short should not break your amp if it has a plate fuse, but up until just recently, ARC did not use them.  Now that's changing. I know my stuff and worked for a very large ARC dealer (probably the biggest) way back in the day.  My Classic 60 blew up twice but I was probably asking for it dinking around too much.  Back then I had plate and screen resistors on hand to do it myself. 

Great people, nice amp but that's the way it is.   New ownership there now and I bet they do good things. I wish them tons of success.  

 

Primaluna is great gear. I am sorry for your bad sales experience. I went to a Minneapolis dealer.  Told him up front my gear which was a 40 year old Crown PL1 SL1. He never said anything to knock what I had. It held it's own against a Freya & Vidar.
I did a side by side between a Hegel H390, and a Primaluna EVO 100.  I picked the Primaluna and six months later loving it. Primaluna is a new level of audio performance. I hope you dont miss out on something good because of that experience.

@upscaleaudio Even though it takes waaaay too much time for someone trying to run a business, I know I speak for others in thanking you for your posts.

I don't know about everyone else but I wouldn't have the patience to be a high end dealer like Kevin does. I remember just shaking my head after attending an audio show and there appeared to be a great many old caucasians in dad jeans badly in need of a "manzierre" communicating with amp and speaker manufacturers why their very own amp and speakers were the best. Alot of lonely people I guess.

Keep it up Kevin and thanks for all you and your team do to keep the hobby going. Once again, @upscaleaudio takes space at audio shows, invests in his people, hosts local audio clubs, they take trades, they are both online and brick and mortar. I don't have what it takes to do what they do. The unique combo of having bottomless patience and broad audiophile shrink skills is truly rare.

Kevin;  Thanks for the insightful response.  Good to know.  

enjoy