<font color='#000000'>I originally made my opinion known to Steve in January on the Audioholics CES forums, so you don't have to go searching, I will add it below this post.
Like the rest of the folks here, in addition to its sound quality, a big part of my decision to purchase the RDC-7 was because of IR's claim of being future-proof. Now 1 1/2 years later, I find that the future is here and my upgradable pre-amp that has never been upgraded will not be upgradable.
I don't have experience with Krell's or Lexicon's upgrade policies, but IR would be wise to look into what their competitors offer if they want to play in their league. At this point, I am happy with my RDC-7, but the video switching in the new model is very tempting since I have to make some sort of decision on how to hook up my Denon DVD-5900's DVI to my Panasonic plasma; an internal switcher in my pre-amp would be ideal.
I think that the trade-in ideas presented here make a lot of sense...give us a discount to keep us "whole" on the new unit and then charge us retail for extra options.
And IR, don't take this as a threat, but if you choose not to offer a competitive trade-in program on your "future-proof" RDC-7, then when I do make a decision to upgrade, the fact is Krell or Lexicon will likely get my business since they stand behind their claims and take care of their customers.
Chris
Originally posted: January 15, 2004
I've owned my RDC-7 for about 1.5 years and got it shortly after the THX Ultra 2 and DTS 96/24 improvements were introduced, so mine has never been upgraded. I have been extremely pleased with its performance, but one of the major reasons I bought it was for the claims that the unit is upgradable.
I carefully looked into IR's claims of "upgradability" since I got burned by other manufacturers upgradibility claims (B&K's comes to mind) in the past. In the course of my research, I checked out the website (which hasn't changed a bit in the last 1.5 years!) and I saw that there were at least two upgrades already offered for owners of the RDC-7 so I bought one.
I have to admit that I am getting that feeling of being burned again...
Yeah, stevied4him, I know what all the other manufacturers do, but I felt that IR was different. I agree with you that this unit is among the greats, but the upgradability that IR touted was important in my decision to spend $4K on this pre-amp and I am sure that many other owners feel the same way. I also realize the the upgrades that they talk about in their press releases were intially software upgrades, but their last upgrade press release states things like:
"04/30/02 - When Integra Research first introduced its RDC-7 audio-video preamp-processor two years ago, it featured a revolutionary ""future-proof"" upgradeable architecture that protected consumers from having their processor rendered obsolete each time a new home theater processing technology was introduced." and "This gives our customers and installers the ability to keep pace with state of the art technology, without having to buy a new preamp-processor every six months." see the whole release here:
http://www.integraresearch.com/press.cfm?id=59
IR set the bar on upgrades in the industry and now I feel let down by them. Then to make it even more irritating, the "new" model looks exactly like the old model and it isn't even a new model designation. Using software speak, the 7.1 designation indicates an upgrade, not a new version.
Yes, IR is in the business to make money, but if you are going to claim that a model is upgradable, it seems reasonable to me that if it looks like an RDC-7 and just adds a .1 to the model number, it is still the current model. Next time, make a clean break and bring out a new model, then they won't confuse the issue.
In the meantime, since this is just a more extensive upgrade, if they can't or won't upgrade the models out in the field, they should seriously consider a trade-in policy for current owners since they obviously can re-use the case!</font>
