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Madrigal Mark Levinson out of business.

This sucks. Dunlavy now Madrigal.

Madrigal shuts doors

By JIM HICKEY , Middletown Press Staff 07/02/2003

MIDDLETOWN -- Madrigal Audio Laboratories, a producer of high-end audio and video equipment that has been based in this city for several years, announced Tuesday that it will be going out of business.

A spokesman for Madrigal declined to comment on Tuesday, stating that there was nobody at the South Main Street offices who could handle media inquiries.

However, the city has received a letter indicating that the company will be shutting down for good on Aug. 30, according to Mayor Domenique Thornton.

A source close to Madrigal, who asked not to be identified, told The Press that employees showed up for work Tuesday morning as usual, and were told that they had been laid off.

They were then toldto collect their belongings and leave the building, according to the source.

Madrigal manufactures high-performance audio and video components under the brands: Audioaccess, Mark Levinson, Proceed, Madrigal, Imaging, and Revel.

The company is a subsidiary of Harman International Industries, a manufacturer of high-quality, high-fidelity audio and video products based our of Bedford, Mass.

According to the company’s Web site, Harman International was formed in 2002, and manufacturers products for the consumer and professional market. The company’s stock is traded on the New York stock exchange.

A public relations official for Harman declined to return a phone message on Tuesday.

A receptionist at Harman’s Bedford, Mass., office said that several of the company’s department heads "were in meetings" on Tuesday, and would not be able to comment on Madrigal closing.

Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce President Larry McHugh said the chamber been told earlier this week that Madrigal would be shutting down. He also said that he had heard employees had been laid off.

Although Madrigal or Harman were unable to confirm the total number of employees, McHugh estimated that the company employed around 100 workers.

"It’s a real blow. We’re not talking about a company that employees four or five people here. They employ a substantial number of residents from Middlesex County," McHugh said.

McHugh said he was surprised that officials for Madrigal or Harman hadn’t given more notice that the company would be closing down, especially since Madrigal is a member of the chamber.

"Usually we receive more notice when a company plans on shutting down or leaving. It allows us to work to lessen the blow on the employees, and the community," said McHugh.

The mayor said she had already contacted the state Department of Labor about establishing a crisis career center for laid-off employees to help them transition into new jobs.

The center will be established in conjunction with the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce, and would be similar to the one established last year after the Old Saybrook manufacturing division of R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co. closed down and laid off about 500 employees.

A federal program established in 1998 called the Workforce Investment Act will also help unemployed workers find jobs. Through a program called the One Stop System, employees can have their skills and educational level assessed to help them find jobs.

Thornton said she planned on contacting U.S. representatives Rosa L. Delauro and John B. Larson about the availability of federal grants to help laid-off workers find jobs.

"We want to act as quickly possible to implement any programs that will help these people as they search for new jobs," said Thornton.

To contact Jim Hickey, call (860)347-3331 ext. 221 or email him at jhickey@middletownpress.com.
twilo
mhubbard
86 posts
 
Is it totally out of the question that these guys will still put out a good product? Maybe I'm reading responses wrong, but since when was Lexicon considered mid-fi?

I'll pass judgement on the quality of a companies product only after I've seen and heard it.

I guess what I'm saying is you should give them a chance before you assume their going to make crappy equipment.
johnk's avatar
johnk
1,975 posts
 
I feel for all the folks who lost there jobs without notice. harman international can kiss my balls they will get none of my cash .Sure they knew what has going on ,just dont care enofe about the workers and there families to give them a fair and proper termination .If this is how harman runs there buisness whats next? .JK
mlev09de
1 posts
 
Mhubbard , you also missed or overlooked the point I was trying to make.
Regardless of a companys "reputation" (Lexicon)
Assuming responsibility for a new product line (levinson) without keeping any of the minds or people who have the KNOWLEDGE of the product is a shaky proposition at best.
What do these people truly know of the product itself?
You can only read so much from books, prints and notes
If I gave you a ferrari shop manual could you become an expert mechanic in a very short period of time?
I think not.
What makes Lexicon any different?
I have called them several times and each time they have skirted around this question ..Who is manufacturing and servicing these products???
Even jfrost's post as a company rep neatly avoids this issue. It just states that the FACILITY has moved.
Ask jfrost where are all the people going? WHO will be there? Upon contacting a former insider at levinson, I found that only 5 out of 150+ people were retained!!! I guess that their knowledge and skill was not necessary?
Maybe I am going into too much detail here but the main reason I purchased ML/Proceed for my stock was the fact that it was hand-made in the USA with great care and devotion. Not to mention the fact that if I had a problem I knew I could send my service and sales Dept. to Madrigal for answers and I knew WHO to talk to in order to get satisfactory results. In fact on rare occasions I could even speak to the very engineers who designed the product (usually overseas related issues)
Do they even work for harman anymore ? I think not.
Who do I speak to now? Someone who must try to fill those shoes ??? Good Luck.........
A company that will farm out , mass produce and probably send overseas most work (read: asia)
Nothing wrong with that but, most of that type of product does NOT fit the description of a hand produced painstakingly cared for product.
It fits the profile of mass produced middle-of-the-road comsumer electronics. That is where i get "Mid-Fi" from.
Ask Lexicon exactly where they will manufacture. I am sure you will recieve the same "smoke screen" I did.
No matter what Label you put on the front of the unit what is inside is what counts.
A Lexicon sticker alone does not make something a viable product.
Especially when the original product was crafted to such a high standard.
Not to say it will be junk, I just have a hard time believing that the product will be held up to the same standards. (Especially with the vague answers provided by Lexicon)
A good example of this is musical instruments,
See what a pre-CBS fender stratocaster goes for and how it is revered compared to the "corporate versions"
In a great way it makes me want to go and buy the pre-CBS version. You can have the mass produced, corporate,inferior version.
I will hold onto my personal ML pieces as collector items until I can get some tangible answers.
Enough said. Watch and see..........
pmwoodward
94 posts
 
I think the way Madrigal Audio Laboratories has handles this situation is terrible. As was stated before, the people that made the product great are no longer. They were given no consideration at all. The company has also left us (the consumer) with no explaination. I personally have a problem doing buisness with such a company. Shame on them! What makes a company great is a combination of the quality of its' products, customer service and the reputation of the company. The latter has suffered greatly from this.
midnighmoth60e5
1 posts
 
I am from Connecticut and used to work for Madrigal Audio Labs. It was a great place to work and there were many dedicated people there.

My last project for the company was the operating software for their No. 32 (and '383 integrated) preamplifier. Those pieces, among others, represented the epitome of the care and craft that went into the design and manufacture of the Levinson products, all to the credit of the employees in Middletown.

I think what killed them in part was moving too far away from what they were good at, and developing some extremely complex products (No. 40 & DVD players) that they really didn't have the engineering manpower to design in a timely fashion. Their no-compromise design philosophy demanded that a lot of the software for the software-intensive products be written from scratch, and that represents a major engineering effort.

The company was not perfect; no company is-but almost everyone in Middletown was unusually dedicated to the company mission, both the employees and the state of Connecticut have suffered a great loss with the closing of Madrigal Audio Laboratories.

Another late great American consumer electronics manufacturer, which Harman will most likely exploit the good name of and then discard when the interest and revenue dry up...
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