I can understand the elimination of the Select but why the Reference? It’s a big jump from Premier to Cascade.
@Bcurtis, valid question. We would still be selling the Reference currently, but it is discontinued for the same reason as the Select. As a 10 year old architecture, we are no longer able to source the components for more productions. We also like to support our products for a minimum of 10 years, so if we started new productions moving forward with limited parts… you can bet we would not be able to source parts 20 years after the original designs.
We could rev and bring it up to date with newer components, and some day, we will fill the space between the Premier and Cascade I am sure. But until we have developed something new and special to fill that void, we are happy to leave some breathing room. We never develop for price alone, the products need to stand on their own.
Our current priorities are on the Sentinel DAC, which is a herculean task to develop. When that is completed, I am sure we will take what we have learned and design something new, innovative, and as iconic as the Reference DAC that preceded it. We work in a long lived industry and love getting to make these products. Keep in mind, our entire company is 15 people with only 3 engineers… product development takes its time, but is worth the wait.
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This makes the Reference DAC more valuable on the used market . Add a Reference Director to get a bit closer to Cascade .
For sure. Every refurbished Reference DAC that has come as trade in for the Cascade has already been snapped up! They have a niche spot and the second hand market is a great/only place to find them now.
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Can’t wait! Congrats for the great opportunity offered!
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