Hi Ted_d,
Thank you for your very long and detailed post. By the way, for the record, my ID on Audiogon is Sabai, not Sabi.
Not to worry. I'm old enough to have very thick skin. With all due respect, the issue on the table is not my posts. The issue is how I and other customers feel about SR products and the products of other audio companies -- both the quality and the perceived value. With all due respect, quoting my posts that praise SR products is a moot point.
I'm sorry if I was sloppy and inaccurate in my explanation about my own PowerCell purchase. It was a matter of only a few weeks after purchasing my own PowerCell that a new version came out. I received the upgraded PC (with the G07) but, I thought, not the upgraded PowerCell. By my count there have been 5 versions of the PowerCell out in about 3 years -- 2008 to 2011. That makes 7 months or a bit more per version, on average.
Thank you very much for this good news:
"Sabi if you have the G-07 wall plugs and twin Enigmas then you have one of a handful of PowerCell 10SE Mk IIs in the original chassis"
Yes, I received the old chassis. I was told by Mike that I had only received the new cord (G07 with twin enigmas) and that I had missed the new PowerCell 10SE Mk II by a few weeks -- that I was just unlucky. He was obviously passing on what he believed to be the facts. He apparently was unaware -- as I was unaware -- that some of the new MK II versions were shipped in the old chassis. Mike has always been a very kind and helpful person to deal with -- exemplary. You have a great colleague in Mike.
In an evolving audio system there are bound to be contradictions because what sounded good yesterday may change with the addition of a new product tomorrow -- like with the evolution of SR products. The Master Coupler may have sounded great in 2002 but I don't think you would be saying the same thing about it today given the evolution of your products.
Hence, my comments about the SR MiGs were relevant when I posted them. But my system evolved to the point where I sold the MiGs off when they were no longer useful in my system.
It was a similar case with the EVS. I have since upgraded my system to the point where the EVS are not in my system anymore.
I no longer have Gabriel Gold in my system.
I still have many Oyaide plugs and IECs in my system. One Oyaide plug can transform the sound of an audio system.
I now have an SR Hologram D in my system It is one of the best cables I have. I am still highly impressed with some of your products -- as I am with some Bybee products and some HiDiamond products. I run my cables in series now. I have found that there is not a single SR cable in my system that has not been greatly improved by an "upgrade" in series with another well-chosen cable from a different company.
Please note that the first remarks I made in my post were that this problem -- i.e. the problem of feeling left out by upgrades -- is not exclusive to SR and that SR makes some great products. I also commented that this problem *often* leaves me feeling like I have been left behind -- I did not say *always* left behind. $5000 is a very large sum of money for me to spend on a single audio product. If I spend $5000 and feel I have gotten very good to excellent value then I have nothing to complain about.
The Enigmas have helped a lot with my PowerCell. The problem I have with the PowerCell is that you do not appear to have designed it with customer upgrades in mind. Trade-up is not the same as upgrade. As I mentioned in my posts, my point is the pace of upgrades, and the feeling under certain circumstances that one is left behind after making a substantial investment.
Had your PowerCell line been designed as upgradeable you would have had the benefit of a great deal of customer goodwill. IMO it is preferable not to penalize customers with a trade-up policy that requires the purchase of a whole new product every time an upgrade to the line is made. It is preferable to reward customers with the possibility of obtaining the latest version at a reasonable cost.
Uptrade sounds good but if you look at the numbers there is a 30% loss with each uptrade. This would means 5 losses to uptrade to the latest version of the PowerCell if one did this successively. But if the PowerCell were upgradeable and one waited, there would be the possibility of an upgrade from level 1 to level 5. This would probably be a very reasonable way to go and would be a win situation for both customer and SR.
By the way, I am most certainly on record with SR. I live overseas. I bought my PowerCell through Sammy who is a great SR dealer. Over the years I have paid full retail for my PowerCell and other SR products including the Galileo Universal Speaker Cells.
Thank you for your very long and detailed post. By the way, for the record, my ID on Audiogon is Sabai, not Sabi.
Not to worry. I'm old enough to have very thick skin. With all due respect, the issue on the table is not my posts. The issue is how I and other customers feel about SR products and the products of other audio companies -- both the quality and the perceived value. With all due respect, quoting my posts that praise SR products is a moot point.
I'm sorry if I was sloppy and inaccurate in my explanation about my own PowerCell purchase. It was a matter of only a few weeks after purchasing my own PowerCell that a new version came out. I received the upgraded PC (with the G07) but, I thought, not the upgraded PowerCell. By my count there have been 5 versions of the PowerCell out in about 3 years -- 2008 to 2011. That makes 7 months or a bit more per version, on average.
Thank you very much for this good news:
"Sabi if you have the G-07 wall plugs and twin Enigmas then you have one of a handful of PowerCell 10SE Mk IIs in the original chassis"
Yes, I received the old chassis. I was told by Mike that I had only received the new cord (G07 with twin enigmas) and that I had missed the new PowerCell 10SE Mk II by a few weeks -- that I was just unlucky. He was obviously passing on what he believed to be the facts. He apparently was unaware -- as I was unaware -- that some of the new MK II versions were shipped in the old chassis. Mike has always been a very kind and helpful person to deal with -- exemplary. You have a great colleague in Mike.
In an evolving audio system there are bound to be contradictions because what sounded good yesterday may change with the addition of a new product tomorrow -- like with the evolution of SR products. The Master Coupler may have sounded great in 2002 but I don't think you would be saying the same thing about it today given the evolution of your products.
Hence, my comments about the SR MiGs were relevant when I posted them. But my system evolved to the point where I sold the MiGs off when they were no longer useful in my system.
It was a similar case with the EVS. I have since upgraded my system to the point where the EVS are not in my system anymore.
I no longer have Gabriel Gold in my system.
I still have many Oyaide plugs and IECs in my system. One Oyaide plug can transform the sound of an audio system.
I now have an SR Hologram D in my system It is one of the best cables I have. I am still highly impressed with some of your products -- as I am with some Bybee products and some HiDiamond products. I run my cables in series now. I have found that there is not a single SR cable in my system that has not been greatly improved by an "upgrade" in series with another well-chosen cable from a different company.
Please note that the first remarks I made in my post were that this problem -- i.e. the problem of feeling left out by upgrades -- is not exclusive to SR and that SR makes some great products. I also commented that this problem *often* leaves me feeling like I have been left behind -- I did not say *always* left behind. $5000 is a very large sum of money for me to spend on a single audio product. If I spend $5000 and feel I have gotten very good to excellent value then I have nothing to complain about.
The Enigmas have helped a lot with my PowerCell. The problem I have with the PowerCell is that you do not appear to have designed it with customer upgrades in mind. Trade-up is not the same as upgrade. As I mentioned in my posts, my point is the pace of upgrades, and the feeling under certain circumstances that one is left behind after making a substantial investment.
Had your PowerCell line been designed as upgradeable you would have had the benefit of a great deal of customer goodwill. IMO it is preferable not to penalize customers with a trade-up policy that requires the purchase of a whole new product every time an upgrade to the line is made. It is preferable to reward customers with the possibility of obtaining the latest version at a reasonable cost.
Uptrade sounds good but if you look at the numbers there is a 30% loss with each uptrade. This would means 5 losses to uptrade to the latest version of the PowerCell if one did this successively. But if the PowerCell were upgradeable and one waited, there would be the possibility of an upgrade from level 1 to level 5. This would probably be a very reasonable way to go and would be a win situation for both customer and SR.
By the way, I am most certainly on record with SR. I live overseas. I bought my PowerCell through Sammy who is a great SR dealer. Over the years I have paid full retail for my PowerCell and other SR products including the Galileo Universal Speaker Cells.