@BrianT
The K30 gets the full treatment of upgrades…
There is one thing that bothers me and I haven’t seen being clarified here:
Why should we, your baseline clients (in my case since 2017 and 4 models purchased), pay usd$2000 more for a K50 G4, than a brand new client?
(usd$ 15000 + 6000, against usd$19000 for a new client)
What was Antipodes strategy on this?
I wonder if has anything to do with original customers having extra parts new customers never had to pay for. It seems like just about everything in the original K50 except the chassis gets upgraded.
Kenny, yes and indeed having owned a gen 1 and a gen 2 K50 and having had a peek inside to look at the differences just about everything in a gen 1 K50 is replaced including the bulk of the casework.
@LGA:
Judging from the above excerpt from Mark Cole’s earlier post there’s actually going to be very little of an original MkI K50 left after an upgrade to MKIII status. It’s pretty obvious that the reason it costs more to upgrade a MKI over a MKII is because upgrading a MKI to MKII requires considerably more parts & labour. That’s largely due to the internal layout of the MKII having been so heavily revised over the original model.
Why is it that you seem to think that Antipodes should bear those additional costs? You’ve still got exactly what you originally paid for. Nothing more & nothing less.
I’m sorry LGA & no offence intended but I think you’re being extremely unfair & Mark Cole explained exactly why there was additional cost as the excerpt above was in answer to your previous query on the same subject, which you then deleted.
Nobody is forcing you to upgrade & it’s simply an offer. However I’m absolutely positive that if you part exchanged a MKI K50 for a new MKIII K50 it would cost you considerably more than what’s on offer to you from the manufacturer.
Honestly I think it was a fair question, but it could have been worded a bit differently. I think other original K50 owners may wonder the same thing. Antipodes might want to consider enhancing their messaging to address this.
Given your argument as well as Nick’s, it seems to me that original K50 owners are getting a sweet deal with the upgrade. I think it says something very positive about Antipodes that they are not leaving original K50 owners behind.
As a contrasting example, I was really disappointed that Shunyata didn’t provide an upgrade to Denali v1 owners, such as myself. It turned out that all the internals plus the front panel were changed so the upgrade didn’t make financial sense.
Nearly 2 weeks ago I posted I most likely would upgrade, but intended to wait to digest feedback from others. Well, I have decided to go ahead and pursue the upgrade for my K50, First Release and submitted the online form.
@MarkCole, the form when submitted just indicated Processing in greyed out and did not show it had completed with Antipodes. I am noticing today that several different web sites are acting oddly, so there may be some problems going on with the web today. Mark, I would appreciate confirmation back to me the form did indeed process to Antipodes.
Mark
Thank you for clarifying
Brian
Hi @MarkCole
Is the clock in the Oladra upgraded…in the new upgrade.
I thought is was the player engine (MB) and just ghe USB?
No, Re-Clocker not upgraded It is the current version
It does appear that the forms are loading slowly, I’ve advised our developer and hopefully we can rectify it quickly.
It is a public holiday in New Zealand today however.
@worknprogress sent you a PM
Mark Cole has previously addressed that same question though & from exactly the same individual, he also did so in quite some detail. The question was deleted, but the answer still remains…
3
1/ The reason they aren’t renamed is because they aren’t new products they are upgrades.
2/ For the original model K50 to come up to new spec, it has to have a new back plate, and bottom plate, new internal case work, it gets a new Re-Clocker a new USB a new power supply, new isolation footers, upgrades to the server engine and player engine.
It has to be pulled apart put back together again, tested, it gets a new 3 year warranty, extendable to 5 with product registration, and freight is included.
Other benefits include an increase of 200% to 400% in system resources to improve system responsiveness, and enterprise-level OS resilience against data loss in unusual AC power events.
No one is forcing any one to upgrade, if you feel that the opportunity Antipodes gives to keep your purchase current is not for you, then honestly, that’s your decision.
We have tried to keep prices down, there are many factors that influence a price increase, not only the upgrade costs, but freight costs, and procurement costs etc.
3/ Upgrades to all K Series and OLADRA are the same as current production.
4/ Customs and taxes are on a per country basis, we do not have control over that, we simply state we have a global price, there is nothing new in this statement, our pricing always states this.
For upgrades we have stated that the freight and taxes if applicable are included in the price, you pay the upgrade price that’s it.
5/ Pre-Upgrade prep instructions are in progress, I have a month to complete this as no upgrade will be undertaken till August.
6/ There are no user upgradeable fuses in the power supply.
7/ The K50 and OLADRA get a dedicated ground connection.
…
Personally I think the upgrade path for both MkI & MKII K50’s look to be a bit of a bargain. I’m not sure I’d feel the same way if I owned an Oladra though. Just my take.
I think that if I was looking to get a Mk3 K50 and did not have an earlier one to upgrade then I would hot foot it over to eBay and pick up a bargain Mk2 K50 (currently about £9k in the UK) then get it upgraded to Mk3 status. One would then effectively have a new Mk3 K50 for £13k which is an absolute bargain.
As an Oladra owner yes I do feel that we have got the worse deal. We have all supported Antipodes by having the faith and confidence to buy their significantly most expensive model to date only to find that it is almost instantly superseded which will heavily impact on the second hand value of the Oladra. It does feel rather like a punch in the teeth and only time will tell whether the loyalty of Oladra owners will extend to the next new model or whether they would rather hang back a year and wait for it to be superseded and buy the Mk2 version of the new model.
The upgrade price being the same as the difference of retail price between Mk1 and Mk2 Oladra is of little solace because most of us will have traded in to get an Oladra and negotiated that deal to get the best price. I am absolutely sure that if I had done the trade in deal to buy a new Mk2 Oladra then I would not have paid £4k more than the price I paid to trade in my K50 and buy the Oladra only 6 months ago. I hope that @antipodes understands that.
An equitable upgrade price for the Oladra of say 3k would acknowledge this and would send a message to potential owners of the next top of the range Antipodes that they do not need to worry about being an early adopter of that new top model because Antipodes will look after them. It is not too late for Antipodes to go down that path and I am sure it would do a lot to keep a strong and loyal customer base who would be ready and willing to buy the next new top of the range model when it eventually comes out.
I have signed up for the Oladra upgrade but I admit that the main reason for doing so is to maintain the second hand value of my Oladra.
The Oladra is so new a model that it’s only just been subject to review by Stereophile & Hi-fi News, so an upgrade becoming available already is rather surprising & I’m not sure that if I owned one that I’d be particularly enthusiastic about proceeding with the upgrade.
With the K50 upgrade program be it MK 1 or MK2 it’s easy to see where the money is being spent. The list of upgrades on the MK 1 K50 is so extensive that owners submitting their servers will to all intents & purposes be getting a brand new machine back.
The MK2 K50 owners also get a fairly extensive raft of changes & it’s an easy choice for me as an owner to push ahead, though I may just end up buying a new one. I’m having trouble seeing why the upgrade cost of an Oladra is the same as a K50 MK 2 though. You don’t actually seem to be getting that great a deal if I’m being honest.
I’ll be interested to know what you think after the upgrade to your Oladra is carried out & hopefully you’ll end up delighted at the outcome & deem it money well spent, but for the moment it appears to me that Oladra owners are rather getting the short end of the stick.
As I said five days ago, purchase a secondhand K50 and fast as the price can only rise with the uprade announcement.
I feel hard done by the Oladra price upgrade quite a lot of money for what you get by comparison to a K50 upgrade.
I have two Olardas so I get double hit in upgrade cost.
If that’s supposed to elicit sympathy, then I have to say I’m not really feeling it. 
…Just teasing, very nice & good for you… 
Nick
You’re absolutely right, that is the commercial judgement Antipodes have to make, will
customers have the confidence in future to buy their next top of the line product or will they sit on their hands.
The problem us mere mortals have (Oladra is out of my league) is that for a niche player like Antipodes there are enough potential customers worldwide for whom $50k is chicken-feed and to be fair to Antipodes the upgrade costs are what they are.
For everyone else, being at the leading edge of the top-end of an emerging and rapidly developing technology is a very risky and potentially expensive place to be. I learned that lesson the hard way 20+ years ago with digital tv and resolved NEVER to be an early adopter ever again.
That is a very astute observation. Audiophile music servers are still in the growth phase as illustrated below. Innovation is driving improvements at a pace that more quickly retires previous generations than what we would see from a product that has reached the maturity phase. As a result, we end up upgrading more often and paying top dollar for each advancement. Components like turntables, preamps and amps have reached maturity so our investment doesn’t depreciate nearly as quickly.
The best way for audiophile server manufacturers to extend the growth phase is to pursue tight integration between hardware and software as I believe that gives them more opportunities to innovate. Good for us in terms of getting better sound quality from our digital files. Potentially bad for our wallets though.
Hence the upgrade program.
As a manufacturer, what do we do, sit on innovation, or release it.
Antipodes Audio is constantly innovating, and we choose to release it, and give existing users the choice to move with upgrades, we believe this is the best way forward for existing customers to enable them to keep pace with technology improvement, and one of the reasons why you should consider Antipodes Audio as your music server manufacturer of choice.
An original K50 still sounds awesome, have we improved it, YES, but the original K50 still sounds awesome, having upgrades available doesn’t change that.
I see a lot of comments here on price, and how we approach our product releases, we are obviously in this business to make money, we are also in this business to improve the music listening experience for our customers, and actually that is the most important goal, and what drives us forward.
It is a juggling act, we can’t be everything to everyone, we are just doing our best to give all our clients, an opportunity to keep pace with technology and enjoy their music.
@MarkCole : Whilst I have no iron as such in this particular fire, what is it that makes the Oladra upgrade so expensive by comparison to the upgrades available for other models? Most seem to get a very reasonable amount for their money, whereas Oladra owners on the surface get very little. Maybe I’m missing on something, but it really could do with a little more elaboration for those particular customers.
Some of them have enquired as to exactly what they’re getting for their money & on more than one occasion, but have so far received very little by way of response. You’ve previously defended the costs of upgrade on K50 MK1’s & I’m not surprised, as to my eyes, that in particular is a great deal, but you now need to provide some more information to Oladra owners.
The sceptics might be of the opinion that you came up with a very minor upgrade to the Oladra only after deciding that you wished to hike the price & this was a way to try & justify it. I’m pretty sure you’ll think I’m a pain in the ar*e for pushing the matter, but it really could do with you providing some more information regarding both the price hike & upgrade costs on this particular model.
