They'll find a buyer because they are fairly unique in that no other American brand makes a speaker like theirs. I also don't believe that the sale is just because they aren't doing well. John Strohbeen is getting old and probably wants to get some rest!

@roxy54 yeah agree on all points. Will be interesting to see what happens. It’s not just the uniqueness of the product but the customer service including repairs upgrades and parts for most every model ever made over ~ 50 years or so. I don’t know of any other vendor who does that especially in this day and age.

I had seen/read about the "Up for Sale" a couple of days ago, and figured there would be a thread on it at some point.

I am sure John is probably looking forward to spending a bit more time maybe with his other interests in art, etc., and not having to man the Ohm ship. Maybe he will still continue to have some input, who knows how the sale will go down.

I am certainly hoping the best for Ohm though, and maybe there will also be some improvements brought about along the way with the new owners too. Hopefully, they will retain what has made Ohm what it is in all the good ways too!

Sorry to hear that. I've been on the fence for more than a year about buying a pair. Not being able to audition has held me back a bit. I hope they continue in business until something is worked out.

If I could get my wish I’d vote for whoever owns KEF these days to acquire Ohm and use their proven R&D resources to take the Ohm products to the next level the same way they do with current KE products. I think Ohm speakers would supplement the existing KEF line very nicely! Many others too perhaps mainly because they are battle proven and completely unique and not just a new brand name for basically the same old box speaker design approach.

Note: I run both smaller  KEF meta (with subwoofer added) and larger full range Ohm speakers in my main system these days, each in a different room. KEF has creeped up in my speaker company rankings in recent years greatly. If Ohm went under and my current Ohms bite the dust someday before I do, KEF would likely be where I would look to for practical replacements.

Map, your Ohms will be pretty much serviceable for a long time, with a bit of DYI or someone else doing it for you! All will be good!

I think its worth noting that John Strohbeen is a long proven business man with a lot of industry connections,  not merely a MIT trained technical guy/engineer.   HE started and owned Tech Hifi which had many outlets in teh Northeast for a number of years before getting out of that business and focusing on Ohm.

So both my hope and prediction is that the sale goes to a company that can take what it buys and continue to move it forward. I have nothing but confidence that is what JS has in mind.   We will see.

@jstrohbeen if you are out there,  maybe give us a sign?

@frazeur1 I’ve had my current Ohms since ~ 2008 and not looking to jinx anything but no doubt when the inevitable day comes where they need something, I will do whatever it takes to keep them going.

Good on you Map, nice when something just works and sounds so good, and has been a part of your system for so long. Nice to be able to keep things going! 

I imagine John will do everything he can to make sure things are in good hands with the handoff, if/when the time comes. 

When I went to buy my Ohm 1000s four or five years ago, I asked them about their business continuity plans since I knew John was getting up in years. I was told that Evan was the next generation of management. I last heard from Evan this past February, just a few months ago, when he answered a question I had.

I'm guessing that John wants out but Evan doesn't have the needed money to purchase the company himself, hence the search for an outside buyer or investor.

While I'd be sad if they can't arrange a suitable sale, I'm not too worried about my speakers. I don't listen loudly enough to burn them out, and any manufacturing defects would have shown up long ago. My speakers are pretty certain to outlive me.

I also wonder how this might affect the German distribution, Audible Emotions. It would also be a shame for that to go away. Mathias Ertl at AE is a good fellow, and does what he can do to see that Ohm goodness is brought to Germany. Time will tell, and all will play out. 

I think we will see this kind of thing a lot in the coming years the market is changing and getting more competitive. That said Ohm makes a pretty unique product and has a great track record the right owner could make it a winner again I'd imagine.

I’m interested to see how this pans out. 

On one hand, OHM’s are a pretty unique product with a LARGE established customer base.   So, from that perspective there is appeal.  

From my own perspective, I think there probably is a lot that could be done to streamline and improve new product production, shipping, grills, and some additional standardization of quality.  While I would HATE to see it, offshore production would always of course be an option.  

But the flip side to that is that much of the established customer base is that because of the support for 50 year old products, that is VERY, VERY hard to maintain.  I also get a feeling that OHM in many regards is mom and pop in it’s operations and so much of the magic is John, and what has been handed to Evan at this point.  I know they want old parts back when you upgrade, and a big part of that is supporting the older products in one shape or another.  

It’s a very unique sale/company even in the world of loudspeakers.  Salk recently tried to sell his company for a pittance of a price also but the speaker business is hard, real hard particularly with US production and what I assume to be an aging primary customer base.  

I’d love to see someone take a shot here and move OHM forward in many ways that are needed, while somehow maintaining the unique product, and value proposition they have.  Very unique opportunity within the speaker industry.

There was a video tour of the Ohm shop in Brooklyn done several years back. The focus was on how small, meager and blue collar the shop was. Brooklyn is not a cheap place to do business but Ohm managed to deliver so much with so little, practically nothing on the grand scale of things. Amazing really. That was all John and his very tiny crew. Lots of personal know how seemed to go into John’s products. That is NOT something that is easily transferred and scaled up, but I am sure if he is in good health that JS is up to the task of planting the seed needed somewhere where things might really take off. Transfer of knowledge would seem to be the key. Also a willing buyer. I suspect that will be a matter of who makes the best offer rather than if. Hoping! We will see.

Time will tell the tale, as goes with most things....

Meanwhile, I'll keep plunking along with my diys'; don't have the $ and wouldn't live in or next to NYC.

Hope for the best, cringe at the worst...

Against the backdrop of potentially bad news for the Ohm brand, the comment from the author of the article that "Devore Fidelity...might be one of the few [high-end speaker manufacturers] actually growing in a shrinking market" was encouraging to read.  As Devore is a privately held company, I suspect the author doesn't know this for sure, but it validates the general environmental sense that indeed Devore is growing.  I hope this is true because in addition to being a happy Devore customer, I also appreciate the entrepreneurial story of the company John Devore built.  If Ohm does indeed fade away, the founders of Ohm can always have the satisfaction of knowing they had a great company that built terrific products - and that others like Devore are following in their footsteps.

John Henry Strohbeen III