Harman To Acquire B&W, Denon, Polk And Marantz From Masimo In $350 Million Deal

Wow...that sounds like a fire sale for all of those brands. 

That does sound like a bargain price for those brands.  Masimo didn't know what to do with those brands, hopefully Harman can be a better fit. Though you have to wonder what kind of attention each brand gets with the portfolio that Harman currently has.

Masimo on Marantz don’t have technical support after warranty. Even if you pay on your own pocket ? Their authorized repair shop won’t do it.

I thought Harman acquired Mark Levinson as well?

Harman (Harman Kardon, JBL, Mark Levinson, AKG, Infinity, Bang & Olufsen, Lexicon, Revel, Becker, BSS Audio, Crown, dbx, AMX, Arcam, Soundcraft, Martin, and JBL Professional) is owned by Samsung

Sounds undervalued. I see a bright future for Polk and B&W, they are very strong in their own segments. Marantz and Denon are probably OK but obviously not doing as well as they could.

Sounds like Harman is doing fine, which is good since I continue to enjoy my early-adopted lifetime subscription to Roon!

Since Harman is a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics, then S. Korea must also be doing well.

and since S. Korea is part of the Planet.... :) Oh no

With the exception of Levinson, Martin and to a degree B&W it is all mid-fi brands.

Fire sale indeed.

massino also owns definitive , classe, heos and boston acoustics. i haven't seen sales figures, but i'd think only b&w (which does some car audio) and denon would have a lot of momentum--their other brands don't seem to have the same presence they once did. 

It's kinda sad to me that these brands aren't owned by people who really care about sound.

Nothing stays the same forever.  For every fading star there will be a new bright one and vice versa.   THose are fine brands but nothing all that unique or special about any of them any more   that I can think of.  All easily replaced perhaps by other items offering high quality and value.

Consolation is ongoing in all industries.  I love my Revel speakers, Denon AVR and Lexicon stereo in my car.  I have a Samsung fridge and washer.  I think everything else is made by Yamaha.  Innovation is important to stay competitive, profitable and on top.  It’s eat or be eaten in business.  When the lion is hungry he eats - cue Matthew in The Gentleman.  Looking forward new and better equipment whoever owns the company.  

The only thing in my system so unique that I consider irreplaceable are my Ohm Walsh speakers.  If Harmon buying the company were needed to keep it alive so be it.  It’s a very small privately owned company with limited production capabilities so would actually be interesting to see what a large company like Harmon might be able to do.  Regardless, I will be hanging on to the Ohms I have for the foreseeable future.

I also own gear from Cambridge Audio, Class D Audio, Schitt, Linn, Electrocompaniet, Denon, Rega, Polk, KEF, Sonus Faber, Fosi, Yamaha, Bel Canto, Boston Acoustics, Dual, Goldring.

Good. Masimo was a terrible owner

How could I forget Roon?   Harmon has done wonders for Roon.

@loomisjohnson  

Thanks for the post!  This is very important information.  I have seen nothing in the news feeds I get on a daily basis.  Might be a good idea to purchase stock in Samsung, as they now own (or soon) a large section of the audiophile equipment market!  

+1 @mapman 

When I was much younger I would have loved to have gear from many of the mentioned brands. Now I don't have nary a one.

Is all china or India now.   Most of those brands dont make anything in their home countries and the few that do make only a few of their small quantity highest end products there.  The real thing of value in those brands is the car audio.  There is millions available when you outfit a 500,000 new cars and Harman is HEAVILY invested in car audio.  ATMOS is coming and these cars will have 15, 16, 17 channels with speakers everywhere, including overhead.  The small amount of stuff B+W sells to audio dealers is dwarfed by the automotive business.   Here in Las Vegas, a purely audio store cannot make it work, they have to do home theater and video to turn any kind of profit.

And doesnt Samsung own JBL?  Harman sold that off some years ago already. Looks to me like a pure car audio play on the part of Harman. 

Personally I think Samsung/Harman has been a good corporate parent of their high end brands. I was rightly concerned when they bought JBL back in the 1990s and turned out a bunch of mediocre products. But since Samsung took over, they've allowed the consumer, high end, and pro divisions to separate and put out great stuff for each market. 

They seem to allow each brand to focus on their core customers instead of trying to be all things. Like any corporate parent, if a division hits their numbers, management continues as is. If not, things change. But it seems like there's continuity of brand identity and quality. 

And there are still plenty of boutique brands to explore. I'm more concerned about their continuity when founders leave. 

My experience with Harmon Luxury Group is that their service and support leaves a lot to be desired.   

"With the exception of Levinson, Martin and to a degree B&W it is all mid-fi brands."

Pretty dismissive and elitist attitude. 

@llg98ljk that is to be expected in a space that think it is a big thing when we’re a niche within a niche. To put how small we’re as a subset of audio, AirPods Pro 2, AirPods 3, and AirPods Max alone gave Apple almost 22 billion in revenue for 2024

Apple could’ve bought All of so-called Hi-Fi, Mid-Fi and Lo-Fi companies in our little pocket of audio and all they have to use is revenue from 2024 alone

But hey let us keep arbitrary metrics up

The only items I own in the list is some vintage JBL drivers out of some beaten up cabs.....'mid-fi' for them, LE-08's, 'empty' cabs with minimal padding, no internal structure...got the interior dimensions, everything including the ports....

No, I won't 'Walsh' them....I have some scruples...;)

I do wonder who bailed Ohm out when they went up for sale....but I've my own variants on the pedigree, and don't mind being Jack v. the Giant.....

"Practical Art Objects"....signed and limited to the versions produced.

Sue me...win Nothing.  Empty victories stink... ;)

Lifetime Guarantee....mine, but....*L*

Cue starts somewhere.....;)

Shrinking values in a shrinking universe of HiFi (and MidFi) brands. 

Even the cornerstone legacy brands are suffering. 

I think that a peculiar alchemy of lost creativity (including sucky music), lowering competencies, really cheap electronics prices, declining disposable income of those under 50 and pretty darn good sound out of AirPods, Beats and wireless boom boxes has made the last generation (or 2) of consumers unwilling to matriculate into bespoke gear. 

I read somewhere (sorry I can't recall where) that the average age of high end stereo buyers is 57 years old.  If true, the guys that buy the stuff we all love here on the AG forum are soon to be unable to hear well, and then dead. 

Anecdotally I see HiFi shops that managed to stay open moving to home theater to stay alive as their $10,000 to $20,000 separates sales are not covering the overhead. It appears that only the really large city/ rich areas have Hifi shops now. 

Additionally I see used gear on HiFiShark being marked down pretty substantially of the seller needs it gone. Overpriced gear sits on there for months/years. 

The same thing is happening to pre 1960 automobiles. The last Goodwood auction was awful for vintage Rollers, MGs, Triumphs, etc. The only cars catching a bid were early 1980s and later Ferraris and other hand-built exotics. 

There are exceptions which do not invalidate the generalization. Of course this is just 1 man's observation.

@kofibaffour + 1

some very intriguing opinions by @yesiam_a_pirate @kofibaffour and others...it does seem apparent that traditional two-channel audio is aging out and that home theater is being supplanted by sonos/wireless and soundbars (all of which have improved considerably). i recently went shopping for a new mid-tier avr and was struck by how flimsy and aesthetically unimaginative most of the mainstream models are--the current yamaha and onkyo were notably more plasticy and less substantial than their forebearers. the marantz avrs, despite a very substantial price premium, seemed like same generic product with a fancier faceplate. i do note that jbl has a newish line of visually appealing, affordable avrs, though i can't speak to their sound quality.

PS Audio & Focal, I'm good!