GIK alternatives


Last month, an audiophile colleague inquired about GIK acoustics on this forum. I shared my experiences as a longtime customer. I pointed out episodic challenges with build quality but a highly responsive staff. I have changed my impression and would not recommend them. GIK has recently changed CEO and several longtime colleagues appear to have left. Their prices have increased, especially for shipping. I’ve been attempting to place an order by phone without success. And their product lead time is extraordinary. For example, I was informed that routine scatter plates would not be shipped out for 2 months. They’re having problems. Any recommendations for alternative companies?

wfowenmd

Well, from GIK I ordered 4 bass panels and 2 corner traps two months ago. Packed perfectly well, delivered on time. The one issue was that about 3 weeks after ordering I tried to add diffusion plates which didn’t actually get shipped.

Their e-mail communication throughout the process was great and they shipped within about 4 days of the original estimate.  About 6 months before this I ordered 4 mondo/narrow traps, 2 of which had scatter plates and again, had no issues at all.

I am sad to see so many negative experiences.

Thank you for the great list of alternatives. Hopefully GIKs new CEO is listening to the unofficial market review offered here. 

I ordered a pair of bass traps from GIK 2 months ago.  The original shipping date was 3/17.  It's been pushed back 4-5 weeks.  We'll see...

Hey everyone,

 

As much as I hate to read something about my own company I am also grateful some of you posted. I started this company back in 2004 with 2 employees and have grown it to 3 plants (USA, UK and Poland). For sure we have had our ups and downs but honestly the missteps since the pandemic has been a huge mountain for us to get over. To begin with when the pandemic first started we dropped in sales but 40% then within 2 months grew by almost double. Great but we also had a lot of employees that did not want to work which put us behind pretty quickly. As 2020 rolled on the material shortages started which delayed things even more. At this time I was told the best thing to do was to hire a CEO and try to take more of a overseeing role over the company as a whole. This is where I personally made a major mistake in not only hiring the wrong person but also not putting in KPIs that where correct. By the time I figured out the mess he had made there was much more of a back log and as some of you indicated there was some quality issues. Needless to say he has left and I personally have stepped back into the roll.  At this point we are not 100% caught up but I have been able to decrease the back orders by over 50% and also take our complaint log to only a hand full.   I have implemented quality checks within the shop and also fixed some of the bottle necks.  I want each of you to know that my email is always open to let me know if you have any concerns or questions. I built GIK Acoustics to be the leader in the industry and plane on keep it that way. We have a lot of new things coming this year so please don’t give up the faith. 

 

Glenn Kuras

Owner/CEO GIK Acoustics