ESOTERIC D-02 DA............Wheres the love??

[FRO]

I've been a happy owner of the D-02 for a few years now.
Incredible build and sounds wonderful.
Thought I would try to sell it now, and move on to something newer.
WOW - never thought selling this unit would be so difficult.
I believe Retail was $23500, but I cannot get any interest even at my asking price of $8200.
That's getting close to 70% off the new price?

Any thoughts besides the obvious, lower the price??

[myjazz123]

Say thank you to esoteric that releases new improved products very often. This along kills the value a lot.
Month ago I bought new esoteric k-01x and last week they announced new K0-1xs.
Also competition from the other brands that provide with less costly products that sound great as well.

[TheOctopus]

Bringing new, more expensive models to the market too often does nothing but erode resale value and brand worth/recognition long term. It's not just Esoteric but quite a few others that are no longer thinking along the lines of protecting the brand values and pride of ownership of a not so inexpensive investment.

[audio.bill]

Unfortunately in the eyes of many prospective buyers a few years of age in digital gear is considered to be a lifetime. Despite the rapid advances in digital circuitry there are some vintage DAC designs that are considered classics. However the used market for digital gear over a few thousand bucks is further limited since there are now new options in that range which many believe outperform older models.

[nicoff]

Digital components, unfortunately, will always have worse resale value. Technology is always improving and what was SOTA 3 years ago can be offered today by some other brand at much cheaper prices.
If you are willing not to be at the leading edge of digital technology, you can find great sounding (used) digital components at a mere fraction of its original cost. That’s a lesson I learned after being burned a few times for being a first adopter.

[mep]

Unfortunately in the eyes of many prospective buyers a few years of age in digital gear is considered to be a lifetime. Despite the rapid advances in digital circuitry there are some vintage DAC designs that are considered classics. However the used market for digital gear over a few thousand bucks is further limited since there are now new options in that range which many believe outperform older models.

Agreed. I have said this before numerous times, but digital gear ages in dog years.

[brodricj]

A good old DAC is still a good DAC. Forget about the resale value of the D-02, just keep it.

[SCAudiophile]

It is a fantastic DAC, I own one for several years now....resale value if lucky seems to be $7500-$8000.