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Audio Marketing Reigns Supreme

arancano

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Following Amir for some time I have a number of takeaways. #1 is that Marketing, not Performance rules the audio world. His recent review of the PS Audio P12 is a case in point. It shows that it is a product without a valid purpose. Simply put, there is no need to clean up AC since audio gear runs on DC and devices already do that. Further, PSA has not demonstrated that cleaning up AC has any effect on audio performance.

Yet, PSA is quite proud of its power regenerators, claiming they invented the category. Power regenerators are the first thing you see on their landing web page. The very second line on that page reads “Regenerate the magic”. What magic? It is never explained. It is hyperbole at its best.

Consider this:

“A P12 gives you greatly improved performance and safety from just plugging into the wall socket and far better dynamics, bass, and a much bigger, open soundstage than any passive power conditioner on the market.”

I can understand why power regenerators take center stage at PSA. With prices ranging from $2,500 to $10,000, the profit margin must be significant. The hyperbole is understandable. So is the attempt to defend the new P12 regenerator against Amir’s claim that it is a product with a misdirected mission.

PSA’s intention is sales, but is the company using deception which is believed and relied upon by others? If it is, the same might be said about the marketing of other audio products by a number of manufacturers. Cables come to mind. If it is, its marketing comes close to the literal definition of fraudulent behavior. What I think keeps it from crossing the line is that the purchase of an audio product is a voluntary act. Companies may truly believe that technologies in their products make an audible difference. However, to Amir’s point, where is the proof?

I don’t ever think of myself as a victim. I chose to buy a P15 regenerator as my first PSA device. Other than being influenced by an excellent salesperson, it came without pressure. Over the last two years, I have tried hard to hear a difference between my gear using the P15 and no regenerator. I failed. Fortunately, the P15 can still play a role, albeit as probably the most expensive power strip I’ve ever owned.

I once drank the PSA Kool-Aid. It was hard not to. Besides the P15, I owned a DSD DAC, BHK 250 amp, and BHK preamp. Getting those devices was part of my effort to see if the considerable expense would have sonic payoffs. The same applied to my purchase of fairly high-grade Audioquest cabling and $12,000 Focal speakers. The hard and expensive lesson to learn was that, in the end, I would find exceptional performance without the high cost.

Fortunately, I sold all my PSA gear, except for the regenerator. Why I'm not sure. Perhaps as a reminder never to make that mistake again. I had enough money left over to get a whole new system, bank a few bucks, and pay for more than a few fine dining experiences. It was not hard to let go after acquiring a pair of Klipsch Forte IV speakers, a Denafrips Pontus DAC, Decware Zen single-ended triode amp, Schiit SS preamp, and Blue Jeans cabling throughout. I now have the high-fidelity sound I wanted, at a fraction of what PSA gear cost me.

I wish I had discovered the world of high-sensitivity speakers and low-powered amplifiers a lot sooner. I wish I had learned that price and performance are not necessarily correlated before spending considerable money on all the high-end gear I’ve had over the years. I wish I had used my critical skills much earlier and saw marketing hyperbole for what it is. I wish I had discovered Audio Science Research sooner.

But if I had, I might not now appreciate firsthand the brilliance of much of today’s audio marketing. However misleading it can be, it is brilliant. If I had a “Brilliance in Marketing” award to give, PSA would most definitely get it. There is a lot that is good about it. A 30-day home trial with PSA-paid returns is hard to fault. Trade-ins that give you the full retail price of whatever is traded against the purchase price of PSA gear (up to 30% of the retail price) are hard to beat.

To be sure, customers pay for the privilege with the unnecessarily high price of PSA gear, which does not reflect its true sonic performance value, at least not for those who do not return the product or trade their unwanted components.

I would rather trade-ins were eliminated and prices lowered. Still, since I am no longer a PSA buyer, I am glad the program exists for those folks who find Paul McGowan credible. It can be difficult after seeing chronic, fundamental mistakes in videos and posts. However, there is some value in his pronouncements, and there are many who find his folksy charm genuine and compelling enough to overlook the flaws and reward PSA with their hard-earned dollars.

In my mind, absent proof of concept, misleading the audio community about regenerators throws doubt upon PSA assertions about other claims in its product line. I just hope that folks at least consider, many times over, the purchase of a PSA regenerator. There is far more than reasonable doubt that purchasing this type of product is like throwing money into one of those infamous Florida sinkholes.
 
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Cbdb2

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BSaudio is one of the worst. Paul is a moron or a liar, probably both. He knows nothing about electricity and its obvious, his claims are all BS. And he was self admitted a used car salesman and still uses what he learned there. His smarmy act makes my skin crawl. And what an ego. He wrote a autobiography (who the f would read that) .
Instead of getting an EE degree like most audio designers he was " always running from something: the law, the Feds, the draft. Flight took me over the border to Tijuana for contraband, inside a county jail, into the hands of the Secret Service, onto the streets of Haight-Ashbury. I visited the armpit of Munich and the shame of bankruptcy court. I failed at just about everything I tried." His book should have been called 99%BS.
 
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voodooless

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PS Audio is just one company. It however needs a whole network of deceit to pull off what’s going on here. It’s other companies, dealers, magazines, forums, reviewers and many more cogs in the machine that is the audio industry. Rotten to the core, running on make belief, greed and a false sense of belonging.
 
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valerianf

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I remember in the 80's, the Japanese audio companies were rivaling technically improving their gear. Measurements were published to justify the claims.
Nowadays, with iPhone and Earbuds used daily, who is trying to improve the audio technical performance?
Only new "gadget" features are permanently popping up to justify the marketing department work.
 

clearnfc

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I didnt read your thread but marketing reigns supreme everywhere.. its often more important than the product itself. The amount of money a company spends on marketing its products is often even high than the research and development.
 
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arancano

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I didnt read your thread but marketing reigns supreme everywhere.. its often more important than the product itself. The amount of money a company spends on marketing its products is often even high than the research and development.
Please read the post, but you are correct.
 
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arancano

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Right. I'm uncomfortable with the PS Audio pile on. They are one player in the game. The goal isn't to take down PS Audio, it's to expose the corrupt game that allows PS Audio and others like them to thrive.
You are right. I mentioned that the problem is more widespread. PS Audio is just an example a lot of folks here know about.
 
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arancano

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PS Audio is just one company. It however needs a whole network of deceit to pull off what’s going on here. It’s other companies, dealers, magazines, forums, reviewers and many more cogs in the machine that is the audio industry. Rotten to the core, running on make belief, greed and a false sense of belonging.
Amen!
 

Waxx

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PS is not even the worst, outside this forum the most bashed company (with reason) is Synergetic Audio Research, that sells the biggest bullshit in audio land and made the owner very rich: https://www.synergisticresearch.com/

PS sells a lot of bullshit, but their amps are at least quiet decent (but way to expensive), and the ego of the owner does not help...
 

Jim Shaw

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Expensive audio gear is just one of many markets where the truth may take the back seat.

If you go to a carnival with a wallet full of money, finding a little fraud shouldn't be a surprise.
It often is, but it shouldn't be.

And if you leave behind a wad of your money at the carnival, next year's carnival will be even brighter and the barkers even louder. ;)
 
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FrantzM

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I remember in the 80's, the Japanese audio companies were rivaling technically improving their gear. Measurements were published to justify the claims.
Nowadays, with iPhone and Earbuds used daily, who is trying to improve the audio technical performance?
Only new "gadget" features are permanently popping up to justify the marketing department work.
And as you would also remembered those magnificent products were vilified by the High End Audio press.
I see people making this mistake over and over. They are not poor engineers. They are brilliant marketers or BS artists depending on your point of view. They know the basics or even more of EE. Repeating and stressing it, they know, at least enough to sound plausible to those who don't. While our societies are at ease with marketing as a selling tool, marketing is for the most part based on deceit. It doesn't exist to sell the truth... Its existence is to derive a profit from manipulation. And BS Audio uses it, they (And other companies of the sort) are helped, condoned, cajoled, encouraged by a large segment of the audiophile press.. perhaps the larger.. this is changing, this forum and similar are proof.

And not to make it an easier pill to swallow, BS Audio is not one of the worst. The list of companies that produce things that do absolutely nothing is long. I insist on the fact that some of these violently expensive items do nothing.. They don't amplify or transform or .... convert. They sit there, in the victim, listening rooms, and do nothing.. Stones, Earth frequency resonators, I mean you have gear that are supposed to be there and change the sound like Stones. Antennas, pebbles you attach to cables, Grounding boxes, cable elevators!! Ok! Here are some resonators....
layout.jpg


and .. for a laugh or a river of tears .. the size of those gizmos...
car.jpg

They are made of platinum and another..
m_1144.jpg


This one made of pure platinum cost $3000.oo ...
They sell these and this is based on .. you guessed it: Marketing.

Marketing allow people to sell these for > $1000.oo :
balenciaga-triple-s.jpg


Peace.
 

sarumbear

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Nowadays, with iPhone and Earbuds used daily, who is trying to improve the audio technical performance?
Apple mobile devices are certainly improving the audio performance. Compare the in ear headphones before iPod and now with the latest from Apple. Compare the inbuild speakers before MacBook to a Windows laptop. Compare the inbuilt speakers on displays to an iMac. The examples are there to see and they are all confirmed with 3rd party tests.
 

sarumbear

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He wrote a autobiography (who the f would read that) .
From the excerpts you shared with us you or a friend seem to have read it :)
 

dorakeg

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Following Amir for some time I have a number of takeaways. #1 is that Marketing, not Performance.

This applied to almost everything.... Marketing is #1. If you are not able to market your product/services well, no matter how good it may seems to be, its not going to sell. Marketing is even more important in audio industry since its extremely niche. You have to rely on margins and not sales voume to survive.
 

sergeauckland

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This applied to almost everything.... Marketing is #1. If you are not able to market your product/services well, no matter how good it may seems to be, its not going to sell. Marketing is even more important in audio industry since its extremely niche. You have to rely on margins and not sales volume to survive.
Especially so when much of audio equipment is now a commodity. All amplifiers, DACs, DAPs etc etc are essentially the same, what distinguishes one from the other apart from cosmetics, (like D'Agostino) is Brand Values, and that's determined by Marketing. Loudspeakers are about the only items remaining that have some distinguishing features, but even then, there are few differences between the good ones, and only the bad stand out. Marketing's job is then to make people believe that their bad sound is actually better, that's why it's different. Boenicke and Zu have made a business out of this.

S.
 

Axo1989

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Apple mobile devices are certainly improving the audio performance. Compare the in ear headphones before iPod and now with the latest from Apple. Compare the inbuild speakers before MacBook to a Windows laptop. Compare the inbuilt speakers on displays to an iMac. The examples are there to see and they are all confirmed with 3rd party tests.

Apple certainly built world class audio development and testing facilities, and I agree their audio products (and audio systems in their computer products) have very good sonics for products of their type. As do the non-audio sonic characteristics of their computer cooling systems and the like.
 

FrantzM

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Hi

I do at times take a dim view of marketing in general but have also to concede it is a necessary evil.. or one could remove the "evil", and call it "necessary".

The process of finding ways to sell anything .. is that: "Marketing". There is no other way and no other name. Just sending to reviewers.. is marketing... and that has a cost. Finding to whom you should sell it is part of marketing, the so-called target market. How to sell it, is also marketing and is necessary for a successful product? How much ? Marketing. Pricing is not as easy as it sounds but is an essential aspect of marketing... How does it look? Marketing. How should it perform? Marketing.
...
It is not only in Audio that Marketing reigns supreme, it is in our capitalistic societies, perhaps in any socio-economic system.

Peace.
 

Snoopy

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I remember in the 80's, the Japanese audio companies were rivaling technically improving their gear. Measurements were published to justify the claims.
Nowadays, with iPhone and Earbuds used daily, who is trying to improve the audio technical performance?
Only new "gadget" features are permanently popping up to justify the marketing department work.
That's why most music remaster releases have a Dynamic Range of 5-7 in 2022 that was easily a 10-12 in 1985.
Because it needs to sound loud on everything without popping the tiny driver in these things.
 
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