No,it is new.
This used to be a place where the objective performance matters,regardless the price.
Explain the h - sorry, strong dislike of the Marantz SA-10 when it was reviewed. It was short of the blue category admittedly. Or the recently released Model 10 amplifier, which actually has the darling-of-the-forum Purifi modules and input from that company and is a high powered integrated amp. That's purely on price, isn't it?
Explain the fuss around the review of the Wilson TuneTot (recommended here), which was mostly about the price. There are other examples if you go look.
So it's not "new". Maybe it's only the last few years. But it's been there for as long as I've been here. Some products (McIntosh, Accuphase) have had new products supported at high prices by some on here, without measurements - but few and far between.
Even electronics at the $1000 mark have seen negative comments. Some people reckoned the A6 heavily overpriced. What do you think such people will make of this one?
Part of the reason I've referred to build quality, software, ergonomics and feature sets as being subjects that reviewers should mention more is that they are actually reasons why some higher priced products may be worth considering.
I get the reasons - companies still have websites and ads full of "it sounds better" stuff rather than giving us actual reasons why their products are worth considering, but that is the state of the market today.
As it happens, I know some A6 owners who have unresolved issues with the software: that puts me off the A10. We don't get detailed reviews of how a lot of products work, as opposed to long fanciful descriptions of "differences in the sound". If a magazine digs deep into HEOS, BluOS, bespoke control applications and whether it actually does work with AirPlay and Bluetooth, I'd be tempted to start buying it. I'll even watch YouTube videos that actually go in depth on such stuff.
As it is, with this product, I haven't the faintest idea if, for example, I can put a radio station preset on the screen on startup, or how long it takes to search and get to play a track from a collection on an internal drive or a NAS, or how well it integrates with Alexa et al (the last not being important to me personally, but it will for a lot of potential buyers).
I know that such things aren't part of the ASR mission, of course. It should be somebody's.
...please reply if you know someone who actually is doing some of this, thanks.