New Esoteric P02 D02

Eli, at RMAF in Denver Esoteric was live.... and doing very well, I should say. Tim Crable is the new Esoteric US sales and marketing manager. Tim was previously manager of technical services, and is incredibly qualified to head Esoteric sales and marketing.... He has deep technical and user knowledge of the product line, is extremely respected by consumers and dealers... and has a true flair for getting visitors excited about Esoteric at shows.

It is not particularly relevant whether Esoteric continues to operate as an independently run division of TEAC, or only as a brand within the TEAC umbrella. From the wealth of TEAC/Esoteric products being featured at RMAF, and the general public excitement at the show, I could see no evidence of the Esoteric brand and products going away any time soon. G.

Guideo,

Have you looked at TEAC's financials lately? They are losing big bucks. I have also heard that Tsuda and Ohmachi, the heart and soul of Esoteric worldwide are now retired and were never replaced. Tascam Japan and Tascam USA run all CE and all Esoteric now. My freind in Japan told me they laid off over 140 people in the Japan and USA operations combined, maybe more. I was told the remaining R&D guys now report in to Tascam management. Tim Crable is an OK guy but he is really a service manager they recently "dumped" Esoteric on. There are major doubts, even as far as Japan, if they will stay in the USA, maybe get sold, etc. Their stock in Japan has fallen from 51 yen in one year to about 25 yen. So, 50% of it's valus is gone in a year. Check out their declining chart value at: http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?ticker=6803:JP. Like we all agree the products to date are great but for the future, I still say buyer beware. (My friend works at Luxman so he is in a good position to know).

If you type in "TEAC Japan Stock Value" into Google search it will come up with the information I mentioned from your choice of Business Week, Bloomberg and the Tokyo stock exchange. Business Week and Bloomberg even let you switch between English and Japanese and you can directly select their financials from tabs. For their last fiscal year end they lost about $17 million dollars. Rumor mill says Panasonic looked at an aquisition but then decided it is not worth it. I still own and love Esoteric but my friend at Luxman tells me after the P02, D02 and K series, they will only update their DACs. No other new hardware planned. Some of their DACs are still 16-48 and 24-96.

Thank you Topofthelineaudio , your friend at Luxman is of course completely unbiased about the future of his competitors.... And thank you for the subtly condescending remarks about Mr. Crable's credentials..... So exquisitely professional of you.

Topo, was wondering,

Are you in the audio business or audio electronic business, or have any economic related interesr?

Thanks
Eli