For auld lang syne, ..high-end companies you really liked that are gone....

Montgomery Ward's coolest line was "Airline".

DeKay

@adweller  I don't recall Allison speakers at Pacific Stereo.  However, I know they were really great speakers.  That dome midrange driver was excellent.  We also sold a ton of Infinity but they are still alive so I didn't mention them above.  The proprietary "house brand" was Quadraflex.  For the money, they actually sounded pretty good.  My favorite were the AR speakers.  Really nice tweeter.

dekay,  My parents had a "Wards" charge account, so our home had washer-dryer, range, lawnmower, mixer, my "3-speed" bike, and many of my early clothes and other things from there.  I am not sure if it was just the local store or passed down from my grandparents, the Wards loyalty.  The first shopping center in Iowa City was/is the "Wardway Plaza"....much of it is still there, but no Wards.  In my youth most towns seemed to have a Wards, a Sears and a J.C. Penny....before the days of K-Mart and the like...which are all gone or nearly gone now as well.  It is simply sad that after GM killed better car companies, like Packard..etc. Americans just filled that gap with Toyota, Datsun, Mercedes, BMW...and many more.  If anti-trust laws had been enforced and politicians had not been bought off, perhaps the best cars in the world would still be made in America?  Packard was called "The Car of Kings", and they were.   The film "Tucker" still didn't go where the truth was about "the big three" and anti-trust laws being ignored. 

I am very pleased that so much of great high-end audio is made in this country.  I wonder if it is because of the high-end still being a niche market..now that most former U.S. brands, like RCA, et.al. are from Taiwan or the like?

 

Yes, Wards/JC Penny/Sears as well.

I recall my mother buying some double knee jeans from one of them in the early/mid 60's and adding/sewing a 3rd knee patch to the outside.

I was tough on clothes, and it's no mystery as to why both of my knees are toast.

DeKay

VMPS speakers, Tube Research Labs, Grace arms and cartridges, Dayton-Wright speakers, Dahlquist speakers, Design Acoustics speakers, Ariston turntables, Beveridge speakers, Maplenoll TT/arms...I owned a few of these at different times and still have the first 3 items mentioned.

Bob

“Chizek” - they were stellar.

Spica - I owned a pair of TC-50s and later upgraded to Angelus'.  Great mid-range, soundstaging, and realistic reproduction of timbre.  Traded them in for B&W 804Ns, as my then-wife hated the form factor.  No surprise, we later divorced.

I'll add my name to the California Audio Labs.  

@dweller ....+1 Kyocera....Apogee...and the original Ohm Walsh' of course....

I wonder what would Rabco would be up to, if they'd survived....still have an SL-8.....

Merry Post-New Year...

Micro seiki 

Draco labs (micro cpu 100 FM tuner)

Audire.  I have never heard any system better than Julius monoblock towers, Diffet 5 pre-amp,  and speakers of his own design. I still use a Diffet 3, a POCO head amp, and a pair of Forte's.to push my B&W's and subs.

Amazing how many now defunct speaker brands I've owned. RTR (no big loss)  Advent ( in my first dorm room system)  IMF ( 3 different pairs of towers gradually getting bigger)  Sadly missed,  graduated to Bowers & Wilkins.
NUJonathan

Auld Langs-iety.

A second on advent, shure and nakamichi but without a doubt Jim Thiel’s speakers

Also still run a California audio labs disc spinner so second that too

ADS as well
i wish I kept the L570’s I had when I was in college. GAS   I inherited my dads Son of Ampzilla. That thing was amazing!

Apt-Holman (great pre-amp)

Green Mountain Audio (terrific speakers; RIP Roy)

Accoustat
Apogee - really miss the entire line: I owned the Centaur Majors
B&K - loved the amps and the price point/value for dollar
Boston Acoustics -when Andy Petit was around
Carver Corporation (and Phase Linear); later, Sunfire
Crown
Hafler
Heathkit (!) 
Nakamichi -loved their tape decks; turntable Dragon was out of reach at the time.
Philips (turntables)
Shure Cartridges - I have V15 type IV, Type V, type III, and even an old M97e, all with orifginal styli ( i bought some replacements from Shure, and they had the best customer service ever when I lived in Evanston)
Tandberg (!) - great looks, fantastic performance, and I could never afford them...:-(
Thiel

CM Labs
North Creek speakers 
Audio Concepts

Rectilinear 
CAL
Apt-Holman
Snell
Apogee
PSE

The Apt-Holman pre-amp and something else Mr. Holman is known for:

Tomlinson Holman - Wikipedia

Yes, I owned the Apt-Holman as long as any high end item.  Mr. Holman has had further success with something called THX

Apt Holman Preamplifier Review (kenrockwell.com)

Ah, the Dahlquist. I had a pair of DQ 10’s back in the day. Before that I had some Frazier’s, likely defunct now as well. 

Dynaco PAS-3X tube Pre-amp and other kit gear.
Harman Kardon HK505 DC Coupled Ultra Wideband Integrated Amplifier (1979)
Magnepan SMGa panels 

             Snell Acoustics

EAD Enlighten Audio Design
ESS Speakers
McCormack
Yankee Audio Speakers
Weber Wire
Fisher, Dynaco, Leak, Pilot and etc.
Garrard, Lenco 
Advent, Phillips, Tandberg, Roberts
Eumig, Akai

Micro Seiki, Alphason, ...
G

Fisher 

Fisher, Sherwood, Scott and Kenwood. These were the first "High End" receivers I saw upon entering Allied Radio store on South Western Ave in Chicago (around 1967). Kenwood is the only one still in business and it looks like they've stopped making Home Audio.

Dual, I use a 1229 idler driven turntable every day with a Grace 747 tonearm, it’s amazing. 

Advent, for their excellent speakers and cassette deck.  I still use a 201A cassette deck.  I think they have the best midrange of any cassette deck ever.
 
EPI, excellent speakers all of them pre 1980.

Nakamichi, loved the 1000, but the model 500 was my favorite.  That focus gap tape head was incredible!

The original Altec Lansing, they made of the best sounding speakers ever.

The original JBL,  same as above.

Phase Linear,  some of the best sound I’ve ever heard has been from Phase.  I love their amps.

Ariston, the original LP12.  Nice table.

Empire, great turntables and cartridges.

SUMO, GAS,  James made great amps and preamps. 
Harman Kardon  Citation, Pre 1980.  There was a time when this was spoken of in the same line as McIntosh, Audio Research and Threshold.

GRACE, excellent tonearms  and cartridges.

Counter Point, wonderful preamps and power amps 

Marantz pre 1975

Sansui pre 1978

Garrad 

Acoustic Research, that AR9 can still compete today.

KLH, the 9’s sounded fantastic if you could find an amp to drive them.

Apogee, loved there speakers.  Same as above.

Thanks for making me flash back! 
N

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. 

@whatjd , I know this thread is a bit dated, but Straightwire remains in business.

Dunlavy Audio Lab
Oppo
Thiel Audio

@unsound

The brains behind Striaghtwire was David Salz, the actual designer. They split up ~ 1990. David is WireWorld

@tweak1 , Steve Hill a significant contributor is still at Straightwire.

he still owns the company, but is not in Davids league

It's funny I see this stuff from time to time out here in Northern California at flea markets or garage sales and I SNAP it UP FAST
also ACOUSTAT  didn't make RIBBONS, their panel design was made with Dupont Mylar film ( Electrostatic Design ) I see all the names but one is very rare SETTON AUDIO always featured in PLAYBOY MAGAZINE for the playboys.

Electron Kinetics and the amazing Eagle 7a amplifier. Built by the very eccentric John Iverson*.

Fidelity Research moving coil phono cartridges.

* seriously, Google Iverson for a very strange and mysterious story about him. His disappearance is still unsolved. He was working on some US Military top secret stuff at the time of his disappearance...allegedly. 

Cain&Cain. Met Terry at a 'Vegas T.H.E. show. He told me he was a furniture builder before getting into audio. BEAUTIFUL cabinets on his Single-horn BEN speakers. Sound was colored as hell (IMO) but colored the way I like it. Regret not buying a pair. RIP Terry.