Goodbye to Devialet - after upgrade program

[Theatermax]

not cool... not cool.. i have a d200 and i, too, is thinking of leaving the camp.

this is how devialet marketing does their business. in our hobby, most of us tends to sell our stuff in the future to try another one.. the moment you bought a devialet, you just got yourself into a money pit. after 2 years, that is if you are lucky to use your amp for 2 years because some didn't, devialet will introduce an "upgrade program" and asks existing devialet owners whether they want to upgrade which costs 50% of what they initially paid for. funny right? would you pay for another 50% of your initial costs to get your old devialet refreshed to be on par with the current ones. well, why 50%? does the actual upgrade cost, material and labor-wise really cost that much? more on that later...

devialet wants to control the pre-owned market. so you bought a devialet and decided not to upgrade? you will be left in the dark, new firmwares may not support your obsolete set, no support, not cool, you are alone and devialet will not love you. this is when things are no longer into the audiophile's point of view. this will now be a capitalist's selfish interests.

now, why upgrade cost's 50%? why not 30%? or maybe 20% as a means of reward for a loyal customer? because the moment the upgrade program is launched, your devialet immediately lost it's value by more than 50% if you want to sell it.. no matter how old it is. that is the devaluation rate set by devialet. why? because the new current product will be priced close to how much you bought your obsolete set when it was still the current. so they want to make money on new sets sold, and the obsolete sets upgraded.. otherwise, do you want to sell your set at a giveaway price?

simply outrageous.


NOBLEWOLF - 

I have to tell you, I totally disagree with your logic here. 

Last year I bought brand new 2016 Porsche. I stopped by the dealer a few weeks ago and low and behold they had the 2017 model with tons of upgrades that mine doesn't have. They have more HP, Better Touch screen and audio system, Better exhaust system, Nicer wheels and lots more.. Sure I was like hmm this sucks but I didn't expect them to say oh Craig sorry we upgraded all this stuff so here take the 2017 for no charge and enjoy.

Why is this any different? Does it change my loyalty or make me say oh Porsche you such because you came up with all this new tech and I deserve it for free ? So I drove the new GTS version for 2017 they came up with and it handled better and was faster and the audio was better and I said hey guys how much to trade up and Voila they came up with a number and BTW it was a lot but I felt okay with that because I wanted the new stuff. This didn't make the 2016 a POS or anything, just the 2017 was better. So I plunked down 18K and drove home my 2017 GTS.

Years after Devi released the 200 they came up with some incredible upgrades and all the way down to the chassis being completely updated and made of all copper. This is a totally new machine with changes to many things and allows for better sound and more things in the future like new streaming cards etc. Your 200 was 9500 and the new machine lists for 11000. About a 16 percent price increase. My Porsche list price hardly changed and it still cost me 25% of the retail to get the new model.

The 220 doesn't diminish or make the 200 less valuable in any way. Actually we have seen a very nice bump in resale value of the 200's since the 220's launched. 

Just my 2 cents

Craig
Theatermax.com
20 Years of Audio Excellence.

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