PS Audio Revises Marketing to a Direct Sales Only Model

More and more consumers are recognizing the benefits of easy ordering on the internet and in-home evaluation. For high-end audio products in particular, it makes a lot of sense.

I run a cycling e-commerce business and also a large brick&mortar bike shop. I can tell you that the e-commerce business is significantly more efficient. With increasing building lease costs and payroll costs, it's harder and harder to make any profit in the B&M business.

PSA has been migrating toward a direct-to-consumer model for a while. Their trade-in policy is brilliant in my opinion. They are already giving up more margin selling through dealers than they are giving up by taking trade-ins (at full original MSRP I might add) since they limit the value of the products you can trade in. Any revenue sharing they get with The Music Room is gravy.

By selling direct, they can provide benefits such as a generous trade-in policy and returns policy which is a lot more difficult if you are sharing half your profits with someone else. I'd much rather do an in-home audition in my own system of an audio product than listen to at a dealer. Granted, better dealers will let you take a product home (if they have a demo unit), but I think this is not always the case, and many customers don't have a local dealer anyway.

It's pretty tough to start out with a direct to consumer model although some have been able to pull it off successfully (look at Schiit and Tekton), but now PSA has an excellent reputation and I think they will do quite well. 

I bought my Power Plant 3 from their website because I got a great trade-in on my 20 year old Monster HTPS 7000. But even with this trade-in, I'm sure PSA made more profit than if I had bought it at a dealer.

This makes me happy on levels I wish to not discuss 😁.

I wish PS Audio the best and hope that this new business move helps PS Audio receive more of its profit.  They make nice products! 

I hope this works out well for PSA and their customers. I was lucky enough to find a one year old pair of Stellar Monoblock 700s on eBay for half price. The original owner used the PSA warranty transfer process and PSA gave me a full warranty as if I had just bought brand new from them. Those amps are truly amazing, by the way. They are a solid company founded on the principle of treating people right, whether they are customers or not. Many companies use this direct sale model successfully. I just hope they are well known enough to keep up their success. 

PSA offers annual Black Friday sales (usually runs 2-3 weeks) every year where they provide 30-40% discounts on select equipment.  I bought their BHK PreAmp (2 yrs ago) and the P12 Generator (last yr) that way.  They also offer a very friendly trade-in policy on new purchases, usually 30% of the MSRP.  That trade-in discount is up to the list price of the equipment you're trading in, no matter how old, up to the 30% of the piece you're buying.   You can do very well with their trade-in policy.

Their service is very good.  I've had Paul, CEO, personally write to say PSA was giving me an added discount because of a screwup by a 3rd party dealer in ordering PSA equipment.

The downside is their equipment can be quirky.  I've had to send back for service my DS Junior within the first month.  Software upgrades are problematic at times.  You can read endless war stories on their Forum of people having issues with new purchases.  However I've rarely seen anyone throw up their hands and request a refund.  Through it all they are always there, LIVE on the phone with great patience to help you get through it.  Once the equipment is settled, it has been very good.

All in all they're a very good company that could be great if they had a better QA department.

Everything is cutting edge in high end audio (yes, this is true, think it through), and no reams of support staff (location with 1200 people on the phones, 7000 in R&D, etc), as high end audio companies are just too small to cover it all.

I’m not saying you want cutting edge products, low prices, with personals service and the support levels of a multi billion dollar corporation.

But, that some actually do expect that and get upset when it is not that level of perfect.

The other thing is that when things go wrong...lots of people get brushed off by those major corporations.

Direst sales also has the advantage of the producing company being in direct contact with the end user. Usually at least a few times, for each major sale. This is a very good thing for the company and ultimately, the customer.

I’ve seen up front and personal...I’ve seen dealers mess around with manufacturers and mess around with the buyer, as they are in control of both ends of the relationship of people - to the the equipment they buy.

Dealers can be a good thing but they can also be a bad thing.