End of Snell Acoustics?

They are owned by MacIntosh now.

I should have completed my thoughts a Mac dealer shared; that Mac will use some of the Snell design team to design some of the lower priced Mac speakers. So while the Snell name will cease, some of the designs will be further refined and developed at McIntosh, not MacIntosh as I spelled it; the latter makes an i phone or something I've been told.

Snell E III RIP

IMO The type A was OK but they peaked at the Snell B. None of their speakers after that ever reached the same heights (no pun intended, it was their tallest speaker too).

Atmasphere, Not True. XA Reference Towers was the tallest at 72". I have a pair, and they are magnificent!

I had the Type A IIIi for 18 years - one of the best speakers EVER produced. I replaced them with the XA Reference Towers, and I am very happy. These will last me till the end of my days. I think the XA series was the last best series in the Peter Snell legacy. The recent Snells are Joe D'Appolito designs, and now may get merged within the McIntosh speaker family, which also uses the D'Appolito arrays. D&M Holdings couldn't justify two premier brands overlapping and competing with each other.

I will miss Snell Acoustics, but I hope they continue their 36 year tradition of supporting every speaker they ever made.

McIntosh is owned by D&M Holdings, Inc., a Tokyo based company. D&M also owns Boston Acc., the aforementioned Snell, Denon, Marantz, etc.

While the legacy of Snell won't change by the silencing of this manufacturing company, it is still another unfortunate closure of a small company where engineering, design, handcrafting and customer care were important to it's employees, customers and local community.

I am the proud owner of nine Snell speakers. Decades of owner and audio magazine reviews support the company's philosophy of fine sounding and crafted products at each price level.

Perhaps D&M will sell the Snell company rights to another entrepreneur.

Despite their demise, I'm strongly tempted to get a pair of Snell B's to replace my thiel 2.3's. Do any of you Snell guys have any experience with the B's? I need a strong corner speaker, and those things are huge..any thoughts would be appreciated..

I had a set for a long time and they worked great- the setup was easy and I found that tubes drove them quite well.

I know of a set for sale that is part of an estate. Seems to me they only want about $1200 for the pair. Contact me if interested and I can hook you up with the sellers of the estate.

What do you folks think about the Type C/i from Snell? I have a pair that I was using as my mains while I rebuilt my big Infinity speakers and I found the Snells to be quite nice sounding, with very good bass and smooth mids/highs.

I was planning to sell them now that I'm done with the Infinitys, but I have become a bit attached to them.

Anyone else know this speaker?

Too bad. Great company that was very underated. I love my E-III's. Just had them re-foamed. I'm going to try my Quicksilver V4 amps on them as I think they would be quite tube friendly. Maybe easier for the Quickies to drive than my Vandersteen 3A Sigs. Anybody out there ever use Quicksilver V4 amps with Snell speakers?

Michaeljbrown, I had Type Bs back in the day, after earlier having had Type EIIIs. The Bs have unrestrained macrodynamic ease and go deeeeeep in the bass, but I found them to be difficult to set up in such a manner that they did not overload the room in the bottom octaves (and I had them in two distinctly different rooms). If Atmasphere has a line on a pair for $1,200 it's a no-brainer, though, you should definitely try them! A great rock 'n roll speaker.

Thanks Triode--I wonder how they would compare to my thiel 2.3's which I would be replacing.

It is sad to hear that these great speakers will no longer be produced. But I am happy to hear someone comment on the ci which I have owned since 87. Ait, I have found the ci's to perform as exactly as you feel and more. Over the years of making improvements in components, cables and room interaction these speakers continue to reveal themselves to me. IMO this speaker is grossly underated.

Has anyone had any experience with the latest offerings from Snell?

Had a pair of Type D's some years back and having also gone through Spendors and Living Voice and KEFs and JBLs, the Snells really held their own. I thought the quality of the Snells was amazing too. They were indestructible.

I've been running the smaller brother of the type B, the Snell CV for the past 5 yrs. Bypassed that awful fuse and tweeter attenuator. IMO, the CV which you can buy for under 1k used holds its own against anything that sells for 5-7K made today.

Michael, the Snell Type Bs are a much warmer, ballsier choice than the Thiels, which to my ears are more clinical (a bit tipped up) in character

Thanks Triode, I have a good shot at some Type B's, and am selling the 2.3's. I noticed the B's go down to 20HZ? So I can dispense with my thiel ss1 sub?