Denon Parent Sound United buys Onkyo/Pioneer

Yep, Samsung is another ruthless acquisition company, for example, killing Boxee products and support within months of acquisition. With their Harman purchase, they own these brands:

• AKG - microphone/headphones
• AMX - video switching and control devices
• Arcam - high end home audio - amplifiers and audio components
• Becker - car infotainment
• BSS Audio - signal processing
• Crown International - pro amplifiers
• dbx - signal processors
• DigiTech - guitar products
• HardWire - guitar pedals
• HiQnet - control network for digital audio, based on Ethernet
• harman/kardon - home/car audio
• Infinity - home/car speakers
• JBL - home/car speakers & amplifiers, professional speakers
• Lexicon - digital processing
• Mark Levinson Audio Systems - home/car audio
• Martin Professional - stage and architectural lighting and effects fixtures
• Revel - home/car speakers
• Selenium - home, car and professional speakers, amplifiers, sound tables/mixers
• S1nn GmbH & Co.
• Soundcraft - mixing consoles
• Studer - mixing consoles
• HALOsonic - Noise Management Solutions

Missing from Wikipedia is UREI, Allan & Heath, Orban...

They basically bought customers for their circuit board, chip, and component fabs.

 

Before its acquisition by Voxx International (formerly known as Audiovox), Klipsch purchased Canadian speaker manufacturer, Audio Products International (API). API was the parent company to Energy, Mirage, Athena Technologies, and Sound Dynamics speakers.

Klipsch announces its acquisition of API

And now, all those Canadian brands are gone.

 

Sherwood has been owned by Inkel since the late 80s.

Is Sherwood brand still active? Haven't heard them being active in quite a while.

 

Reading a few other comments indicates that the Inkel owned factories are looking to get out of AVR production, leaving a large chunk of Denon / Marantz AVR's without a factory in which to be bolted together... suddenly the acquisition makes more sense.
Utilising Onkyo / Pioneer's (henceforth known as POnkyo) factories to make all the AVR brands is common sense to me, however I would believe that there's other ways for a private equity firm like Sound United to cut costs and maximise profits.
1: Drop Flare Connect / PlayFi / Works with Sonos licensing and adopt their own HEOS technology through out all brands in order to:
a) reduce licensing costs
b) increase HEOS footprint to gain more momentum and become more attractive to control companies like RTI / C4 / Elan etc + be higher on the list of priorities with companies like Apple / Google / Amazon for integration of their tech.
2: Sell the same SKU with different brands. Already under Sound United we have seen this with a soundbar model that's labelled as Polk and an identical bar labelled as a Denon. This enables one bar to be sold 'exclusively' to a retailer, while the other bar can be sold 'exclusively' to a competing retail / online chain.
3: Drop a non-performing brand all together.

Note - the deal did NOT include Pioneer car or DJ, they were both sold on by the previous owners in an effort to cash up... it also does not cover the licensing deal where TCL can use Onkyo as a named brand on their soundbars and headphones.
It's all about licensing these days... as sad as it is.

Will it work for Sound United? I'm guessing - probably.
Will it work for customers - I'm picking it will actually decrease options / competition and potentially see less price based competition - meaning we lose out.

 

Wow. I didn't realize Klipsch had been gobbled up. Interesting.

Yeah, I was totally bummed that API got devoured by Klispch, which in my opinion makes garbage except at the very high end (and even there, don't care for the sound of them). Energy and Mirage made incredible speakers, and Energy was by far my favorite of the mass market / lower end speaker manufacturers out there. Near as I can tell, they haven't released many new designs since Klipsch took over, and I don't see them in the stores anymore.

Of course, there hardly are any stores anymore, so...

 

The future of Sound United....

Audio Powerhouse Sound United Previews Future Plans

Return of Polk Audio SDA??

 

Yes indeed Danny, yes indeed.

 

I doubt if the future of Polk and other similar companies includes anything that I would identify as a decent audio speaker.

 

I am skeptical as well. The above article didn't mention that Boston Acoustics is no more while under the parentage of Sound United.

 

Quite true. Even before that BA was shut down, I bought a Pair of M-350's, M-340's and an M-Center.

They are like smaller versions of the Polk LSiM707's.

I knew that we would never be seeing speaker's like them again.

It looks like I was right.

 

I bought some Energy V-6.2 Tower Speakers about 7 or so years ago on clearance (online - Vann's). I doubt they still make them.

https://www.energy-speakers.com/tower-speakers/?sku=V-6-2-T

 

Energy is long gone. Mirage as well. I will be holding onto my pair of Energy Connoisseur C-3 bookshelf speakers (last of the made in Canada Energy speakers)

SoundStage! Equipment Review - Energy Connoisseur C-3 Loudspeakers (6/2002)

Some have suggested that the KLH Cambridge series is descendants of the Energy V and RC series.....

Cambridge Floorstanding Loudspeaker

 

On the Energy website it indicates their products are available at H.H. Gregg

 

Wow - they certainly look similar!

 

Works for me! I lusted after those things back then.

 

The ribbed surrounds on the Energy speaker was proprietary. I remember Bob Carver, of Carver amplifiers fame, suing API (parent to Energy, at that time) over the driver design....

Sunfire Loses Subwoofer Lawsuit Against API

 

I remember those ribbed surrounds. Thought they were very cool.

I'm still rocking my old Energy eXL bookshelf speakers. I've auditioned a slew of speakers costing between 3-10 times as much. Several of them have been better, but amazingly not that much better, with a few notable exceptions. Nothing that's made me want to pull the trigger, but then I'm CAF.

 

I had Polk sda 1a and others from the 1984-90 era and loved them. Also had/have the big and small Def Techs from 1999- present. B&W in between. I love the Polk/DefTechs from those eras. If the SDA lines and technology are indeed revived it would be a fun listen and a possible reason to buy Polk again.
Never forgot listening and then buying the SDA Polks from Gary Merson at Audio Breakthroughs in Huntington NY in 1985. Also picked up a Thorens td 160, Adcom 555 and matching preamp.
Crazy Eddie in the 1970s and boutique stores in the 1990s and 2000s. Most all gone now, damn. John M.