Atma Sphere deserves praise indeed. Making affordable upgrades to existing products available to owners says volumes about how a company views its customers.
Contrast Transparent Audio's brilliant marketing plan. They introduce a new cable upgrade, say MM1 to MM2 but price it the same as the previous model. That's great for new buyers of MM2 cables but it significantly depresses the resale value of the MM1 version. So if you happen to own MM1 cables and want to upgrade or change them, you have to either sell them at their reduced value or participate in Transparent's very costly upgrade program. Not so subtle coercion.
I will only purchase equipment from companies that try to enhance or sustain their product's value and not actively manipulate it to coerce another sale.
Contrast Transparent Audio's brilliant marketing plan. They introduce a new cable upgrade, say MM1 to MM2 but price it the same as the previous model. That's great for new buyers of MM2 cables but it significantly depresses the resale value of the MM1 version. So if you happen to own MM1 cables and want to upgrade or change them, you have to either sell them at their reduced value or participate in Transparent's very costly upgrade program. Not so subtle coercion.
I will only purchase equipment from companies that try to enhance or sustain their product's value and not actively manipulate it to coerce another sale.