All excellent advice. As Greg said I thought about Rossini as it would probably retain it’s resale value better than an obsolete Vivaldi. But would the difference be worth the constant “I wonder how this track would have sounded though the Vivaldi”? It’s “only” money and as we are all too aware these days life is ephemeral. Will we even be here in a year or two.
My dealer has discussed the situation with the (UK) distributor and I am told none are aware of plans to replace Vivaldi. However even if they did know I’m sure they would be bound by NDAs to deny all knowledge.
In the Audiophile Style podcast (excellent link thank you Pete) one of the dCS managers stated product life was 8-10 years. Vivaldi was launched in 2012 so that suggests replacement 2020-2022. This creates a very tricky situation. If it was public knowledge that Vivaldi was being replaced in say December 2021 or June 2022 how many people would buy Vivaldi between now and then. I would say a reduced number. So they cannot announce it until the replacement is available to purchase. But then they anger all those who thought they were investing in “the best sound that dCS can build” and shortly after setting it up are told “no, THIS is what you should have bought and it’s so much better than what you did buy”.
I don’t have to have “the best” or newest thing but I would get upset if dCS launched a replacement product at a similar price that was significantly better and if I’d just waited a few months I could have had it and saved a large fortune in depreciation cost upgrading. Crazy I know but from past experience of similar situations I know how I’d feel.
So what’s the answer?
- Accept that if you play with fire you may get your fingers burned.
- dCS discounts run out products (as most other consumer producers do).
- dCS guarantees that if they replace product X within 12 months of purchase they will give the buyer the option to upgrade with a full credit towards it’s replacement cost? And if replaced within 12-24 months a slightly reduced credit?
- Dealer makes some offer to ensure that buyer is “not unfairly disadvantaged”. What does that look like though? Agreement to sell used item and return full realised amount? Or take a hit and give a full credit toward the new item? That is a risk that the dealer is unlikely to be willing to take. Particularly if a smaller dealer.
“dCS will look after you”: How? The problem is they need to put the specifics of that in writing or it’s worthless and they may lose sales to a competitor who has a recently launched product.