Hifinut604.
I agree. I just missed the "cut" by days on the full PowerCell 10SE upgrade. I did receive the newer power cord but I feel that, having paid full price, I should have been given the opportunity to get the full upgrade that was just around the corner.
I also agree that this aggressive marketing on the part of Synergistic Research is encouraging many of us to wait a few months for good used deals. You may note that good used deals come up more and more frequently nowadays as a result of the 5 versions of the PowerCell that are now in circulation. It took the span of about 3 years to get 5 versions out. This means it only takes about 7 months before one can expect a new version.
I too believe it makes long-term customers think twice and three times about paying full price. Today you can pick up the next to the best for an attractive price. Soon, what is today's best will also be available at an attractive price. Like you, I have a lot of SR cables in my system. It is not as though I am complaining about their products. I certainly am not. I am very happy with them. I would just like the word "fairness" to enter the equation.
Normally, Ted Denney follows these forums pretty closely. I imagine he is probably following this from the sidelines. I note his conspicuous silence regarding this matter and also the matter of patents pending. These are 2 areas that contain a lot of quicksand for him, IMO. Frankly, I am not totally surprised not to see his comments. It is easy to avoid issues here. Just don't show up. But I must say that I do regret this situation, having spent a lot of money on his products and having supported them quite vocally on Audiogon forums.
Customer loyalty and fairness means more than what SR is doing at the moment, IMO. Loyal SR customers are in a bind because they need to spend "twice the price of the original purchase to receive the full 70 % rebate." So, for instance, if you want to upgrade a $5,000 item, let's say the PowerCell 10SE that you purchased from SR, you need to spend $10,000 on a newer item in order to get a $3,500 (70%) trade-in value applied to your new purchase.
This means that you cannot get the newer version of the PowerCell with a PowerCell trade-in. You will need to pay full price -- another $5,000 -- and try to sell off your old version in a glutted after market or you can wait for the newer version to come up on Audiogon. In effect, SR have us over a barrel with what appears to be a liberal trade-in policy. IMO.
These days, you are lucky to get much more than $2,000 for a PowerCell 10SE on the after market -- if you are lucky enough to sell it at all. That means it will end up costing you $8,000 to $10,000 if you want the newest version of the PowerCell. That's quite a lot of money to pay for a power conditioner what will probably be superseded a few months down the line by a new version. This is one of the reasons people feel that they are on an endless merry-go-round.
I solved the problem this way. I picked up a Bybee Stealth used -- at an amazingly low price -- and put it in series with the PowerCell 10SE that I deem not worth the trouble or the money to trade in. The synergy of the 2 units together is stunning. Then I added a few Bybee Quantum plug-and-play Purifiers throughout my system. The Bybees never go out of "style" -- even the old versions from the 1990s. The sound is awesome. The Bybees can be got for $300 each or a pair.
So, for a fraction of the price of staying on the merry-go-round I have found a solution that I am very happy with. It may not be totally "future proof" -- after all, what is "future-proof" in today's fast-moving high end audio world -- but the sound is so good that I am not tempted to look over my shoulder anymore to buy the latest version of what's coming round the bend. This is as close to "future-proofing" my system as I have been able to achieve.
Further related to "future-proofing" is the way I run cables. I run them in series and in parallel. I have been able to achieve a level of "realness" to the holographic soundscape that I have found impossible to achieve with any single cable from SR or any other high-end maker I buy from. Element Tungsten may get you there but I have not tried it yet.
This special method of running cables in series and in parallel -- yes it takes time and money and a lot of experimenting to see what works and what does not -- further contributes to the "future-proofing" of my system. I don't know anyone else doing this. If you are interested in trying this out get yourself ASI Liveline XLR interconnects and piggyback them together with SR Acoustic Reference from DAC to amplifier. You'll see what I mean before you get to the end of the first track.
