Interesting questions being asked here. Ok I'll throw one in the hopper and see if it stirs up the hornets nest at all...So MacIntosh was bought out by my favorite company to bash, Bose. How does that impact their products and viability for the future. Is this another brand that will be diluted and rendered impotent because the parent company wants to milk it dry? I don't have a good feeling about this and, for me, it has removed Mac equipment on the list of not just unobtanium, but not desirable because the parent company's reputation is not good. I KNOW there are those here that like specific Bose products, but these products are few and not generally well liked by most audiophiles. I remember hearing bose 901 series IV speakers driven by a phase linear amp and liking them, then I heard shortly after that a pair of upscale Klipschorns and LOVED them driven by an equivalent amp...Citation 16. The Klipsch killed it...such a dynamic and efficient speaker driven by a very powerful ( for the day ) amplifier. Totally blown away. Do I want Klipsch today, well, not really. Nor the Bose 901 but at that time they both sounded good to my ears. We all travel this path where we hear this and that and something triggers one of those " OMG this is it " moments and we jump in with both feet. And this repeats itself over and over again if we stay interested in the equipment and the experience. one of my peak musical experiences with recorded music and a system to reproduce it was a pair of Ohm A's driven by a Crown DC300A - it melted me down into a puddle with its presentation. But I had a college buddy that a pair of JBL's a 50 wpc amp and a turntable. One day we were inhaling some reefer and there u go, it was a concert on the jbl speakers that presented a convincing illusion that i was THERE at the venue where this was happening...needless to say, I allowed myself to absorb and believe the illusion. I loved it...once in a great while it happens.
Is it O.K. To Speculate Re: Company Stability Here?
Today I read a thread a poster wondering in Mytek was still in business. A couple of replies were critical of the poster for asking.
Owners of Krell products started a few threads when the company didn’t answer queries about repairs. Some criticism ensued due to alleged insensitivity to deaths in the family ownership.
I mentioned that I heard a rumor about Sim Audio due to the demise of one of their founders and was told that I was on a mission to destroy their company.
I fully understand that the Internet is the leading source of information, good and bad . I also realize that it is the medium of commerce for audio companies . I also realize that company margins are small and that misinformation can be very harmful to their bottom line.
However the fact that these companies sometimes have precarious stability means that their customers, potential or otherwise, have legitimate questions. Look how Thiel Audio, Krell, Audio Research, and Mytek have done over the past half decade or so. If a creative voice at Sony leaves the company for whatever reason, chances are Sony will still be here for the next several decades. With the companies Agoners tend to favor, it could be disastrous.
That is a long winded prelude to my question, namely: Can we question the stability of companies here? I don’t want to be a troll and hurt any manufacturer. However where do we few tens of thousand aficionados get to ask legitimate questions? This is a Forum for hobbyists, not God’s Writ on Absolute Truth.
If anything I think that the quashing of rumors benefits the manufacturers more than seeds of doubt in the minds of consumers. I speak as some who has previously bought Mytek and AR gear, and who has seriously considered SIm Audio. Personally I am not going to spend thousands of dollars on something if I think the company may not be here in 6 months. YMMV. However I think this space should be a legitimate place to ask questions.