Instant feedback

Back in "the day" a manufacturer would launch a new product to waiting Audiophiles and the first reviews of it would generally start to emerge perhaps 6 months later. In the meantime, many units were sold without benefit of other people's opinions save those of the dealer. Now that dynamic is changed. Today the internet ensures that within a few moments of launch, opinions start to fly and reviews are out there before most of the product hits the dealer's shelves. So we've gone from months before public opinion weighs in to minutes. That's a really interesting dynamic because if you make something people don't like it may never get to the dealer's shelves. For example, when we launched the MarkII upgrade for the PerfectWave DAC, the first units were received and within less than an hour opinions were posted. Interest levels on this feedback are greater than I would have imagined and not just from potential customers either. Consider this: an upgrade to a product is only interesting to those that own the product being upgraded and there are slightly more than 3,000 PerfectWave DAC owners. Yet if you go to our community forumsyou'll note that more than 15,000 people have viewed the opinions on the product, a startling 5 times the number of people who own PWD's. This is one interesting dynamic that's changing the face of high-end audio and forcing manufacturers to get it right straight away.