The pride of ownership is often a factor in our purchases and there’s nothing wrong with it. But I don’t see that factor coming into play with PS Audio. They certainly make good products, but I can’t picture anyone sitting back saying "I have the best thing PS audio makes". I bet the dac will sound great because I know it will have a huge outboard power supply, which makes a big difference. But at 25k, they’re coming up against Audio Note, Metronome, Playback Design... Good luck fellas. Who knows? I’ll tell you one thing - if I were spending big bucks on a dac, I want a company that’s going to be around to service it. I would hate to end up with a Vekian or a Balabo or one of those great but unserviceable dacs. And to those who think a 25k dac is crazy in absolute terms, you should hear a Naim CD555. In the right system you can hear every penny. As you well should. There are others I'm sure.
PS audio new 25K dac and the psychological effect of owning a company's best.
I was purchasing some hi-res files from NativeDSD today and found mention of PS Audio’s Obsidian Ted Smith Signature Dac ($25K) in their compatibility excel table scheduled to be released in 2021. I am the owner of their Direct stream DAC and DSD memory player and I immediately thought that I would never spend 25K on a DAC. I also thought that now I can have their best so why to stay with the brand. This might be my personal bias but I was wondering if this has an effect on anyone else. Is owning the top-of-line of any brand important to you and would you leave a brand if you were priced out of the market?