Here's my candidates, some are closed, some are brand-engineered into oblivion:
Proton (screwed by Circuit City, run into the ground by their parent company, and gave up on having any presence in the USA)
Sumo (long gone - James Bongiorno was an audio genius, but not so good in business)
AR turntables (Acoustic Research is just a name now, on bluetooth speakers, I think)
dbx used to make some really amazing hifi gear. Not just EQs and noise reduction stuff, but amps, preamps, CD players, even speakers. BSR and successive owners wrecked that.
Superphon (Stan Warren was a freaking mad scientist, but like Bongiorno and even Nikola Tesla, not good in business. All he cared about was the next cool design, but any repairs and upgrades people needed, well, check back in about 5 years.)
@arichison - you posted some good ones. Let me add a couple of comments to your list if I may:
ADS, and the a/d/s car equipment (probably the best amps ever made for the mobile environment, IMO) got bought out and leveled by DEI, didn't they? That group has wrecked quite a few original brands.
Nakamichi used to just exude an aura of awesomeness, but missed the digital revolution. Sad because they'd probably own the whole retro hifi movement currently happening. Now, Nakamichi is nothing more than a name owned by a Chinese company, and they turn out middle of the road home theater. Whomever owns the rights to the name for the mobile audio market seems to be putting out interesting stuff though.
Hafler, along with Acoustat, wrecked by Rockford Fosgate. Now they're yet another name, owned by some company up in the PNW. If you don't have schematics for any gear you own that was produced after the Hafler kit era ended, good luck with having that stuff fixed.
Proton (screwed by Circuit City, run into the ground by their parent company, and gave up on having any presence in the USA)
Sumo (long gone - James Bongiorno was an audio genius, but not so good in business)
AR turntables (Acoustic Research is just a name now, on bluetooth speakers, I think)
dbx used to make some really amazing hifi gear. Not just EQs and noise reduction stuff, but amps, preamps, CD players, even speakers. BSR and successive owners wrecked that.
Superphon (Stan Warren was a freaking mad scientist, but like Bongiorno and even Nikola Tesla, not good in business. All he cared about was the next cool design, but any repairs and upgrades people needed, well, check back in about 5 years.)
@arichison - you posted some good ones. Let me add a couple of comments to your list if I may:
ADS, and the a/d/s car equipment (probably the best amps ever made for the mobile environment, IMO) got bought out and leveled by DEI, didn't they? That group has wrecked quite a few original brands.
Nakamichi used to just exude an aura of awesomeness, but missed the digital revolution. Sad because they'd probably own the whole retro hifi movement currently happening. Now, Nakamichi is nothing more than a name owned by a Chinese company, and they turn out middle of the road home theater. Whomever owns the rights to the name for the mobile audio market seems to be putting out interesting stuff though.
Hafler, along with Acoustat, wrecked by Rockford Fosgate. Now they're yet another name, owned by some company up in the PNW. If you don't have schematics for any gear you own that was produced after the Hafler kit era ended, good luck with having that stuff fixed.