It's European invasion


Gryphon, Ypsilon, Lansche, Kharma, Focal, Jadis, Mastersound, Swiss electronics etc. At the highest or close to it level they are overtaking big time. Yes, there are still competitive American brands, but it appears that Europeans are gaining more and more ground. With the help of Japanese - TechDas, Technics, Wavac, Kondo Japan, others.
What is going on, I wonder ?
inna

Showing 4 responses by trelja

Follow the engineers...

The fruit simply reflects the vision and strategy of a company. With a few exceptions, the engineering brawn in the North American high-end companies dissipated after the 1990s. As you mentioned, in Europe and the Far East (including China and South Korea) the effort continues
The aforementioned work in physics and Nobel prizes have no correlation to what's happening with today's North American high-end audio companies.

The people doing that commendable work do not involve themselves in this business.  Listen to the forums and the conversations at shows, and you can see a big change has occurred in the people involved in this realm.  Compare the companies of the past with those of today, and the brain drain becomes obvious
@inna well, I'll point back to my original post -> follow the engineers. On this continent, they've left high-end audio for other fields in order to make a living.

But to flesh those thoughts out, consider the number of companies (excepting cable companies, for simplicity) that rose up in North America in the previous generation, and achieved some measure of success or familiarity (off the top of my head - course, I'll miss a bunch): Acoustat, Aerial, Aragon, Atma-Sphere, Audio Alchemy, Audio Research, Avalon, B&K, Boston Acoustics, BEL, Belles, Bryston, CAL, Carver, Cary, CAT, Classe, Coda, Conrad Johnson, Counterpoint, Dahlquist, Dunlavy, Electron Kinetics / Eagle, Fried, Futterman, GAS, Genesis, Hafler, Hales, Infinity, Jeff Rowland Design Group, Joule Electra, Krell, Magnaplanar, Manley, Mark Levinson (the company, not the man), Martin Logan, McCormack, Melos, MFA, Mirage, Music Reference, NHT, Ohm, Quicksilver, Paradigm, Parasound, Phase Linear, Polk, PS Audio, PSB, SAE, Shahinian, Simaudio, Sonic Frontiers, Soundcraftsman, Snell, Spectral, Theil, Theta, Threshold / Pass, Totem, Vandersteen, VAC, VMPS, VPI, VTL, Wadia, Well Tempered, Wilson. Obviously, the founders of these entities have come closer to the end of the road or beyond than the beginning of it, even if they still functionally operate in these companies or went on to form new ventures.

Allowing a somewhat blurry line of demarcation (and I'm pushing the line back probably farther than I should if using the term "recent", but we'll go with pre Y2K), we come to the recent past, what companies have emerged out of the USA and Canada in the current generation? Ayre, BAT, Bel Canto, Blue Circle, Coincident (now adopting offshore production to some degree?), DeVore, Gallo, Herron, Hovland, Lamm, Magico, Rogue, YG Acoustics - welcoming additions to this list to up the count.  Even taking the position that the level of quality of design has not dropped off significantly in North America, the quantity and motivation to begin a new venture unquestionably and obviously has