I asked about this before preorders even opened up. Vinnie's response:
This seems fair to me. LIO punches way over its price point. It sucks, but this is the case with most tech. We're at the point where everything is pretty great, yet there's always something newer and greater on the horizon. Vinnie has committed to continuing to support (inc. batteries) RWA equipment for the foreseeable future - so what you have is still as good as what you bought. If you think LIO will be a significant improvement... sell your RWA. It's still a great piece of kit (and, likely offers some advantages over LIO - I know with Sig 16 at least, it's smaller and quieter for desktop use, and the battery brings an advantage if you're trying to test speakers or whatever with minimal breakdown/setup), and buyers should still be able to source batteries from Vinnie. If you're still happy with your RWA gear, I wouldn't worry about losing support or technically being obsolete or anything. I'm likely going to sell my RWA soon to recoup some costs, being sure to explain the situation in the process. We were lucky to ever have the upgrade path in the first place (how many other high-end audio companies offer this?), and if we lose that but gain better upfront costs... Seems like an understandable tradeoff.
Edit: Vinnie beat me to it!
Hi brh and Red Wine Audio customers:
Thank you, and I also want to mention that over the 10 years with Red Wine Audio, I have always tried my best to make the 'next design' something that our previous customers could upgrade to if they wanted to do so.
To properly execute a modular system (where we would have the internal space needed for our ultracapacitor power supply design), we could NOT continue to use the smaller Red Wine Audio enclosures (except Signature 57). We needed to go 18" wide, and deeper. We had to design from the ground up with a whole new way of thinking (i.e., modular, backplane, optimized routing, detection of modules, control, etc) that we simply could not add into the RWA products without a total redesign of the entire RWA line.
Sure, we could of done that and called it a new RWA component/platform, and continued to sell via distributor and dealers. But as I mention above, the pricing would
at least double (no matter what configuration you choose with LIO). Being that LIO is quite the evolution beyond battery via the new ultracapacitor power supply, beyond the complex way of upgrading (needing to send in your unit and waiting) due to the modular nature, and because I decided to offer it at the highest value possible, I decided that all of this called for a new brand... a fresh new beginning. It was time!
But we will definitely continue to support our RWA customers and appreciate all their business over the last 10 years! While LIO is new and the way we'll be going forward, we are still very proud of RWA's product line.
Thanks again!
Vinnie
