Why so little discussion about Snell ?

Hello Snell fans.

My name is Wally Kilgore, Sales Manager for Snell Acoustics.

I just found this discussion group through one of our loyal customers. I wanted to take the time to make a few comments regarding our company. While we are owned by Boston Acoustics we have maintained autonomy with regards to design, manufacturing and marketing. Our current line was designed by David Smith, who after seven years resigned to pursue other interests. At the time David Smith was only the third Chief Engineer in Snell's history.

In January of 2003 Snell announced that David's replacement would be the renowed engineer Joseph D'Appolito. Dr. D'Appolito is famous for first utilizing a driver array in speaker design. The D'Appolito Array has been used by many speaker companies including Snell(the CV, B-Minor are two). Dr. D'Appolito has also written the only book on loudspeaker testing. Snell will introduce Dr. D'Appolito's first speaker for Snell in April, the K7. Series 7 will be built in the same cabinet shop that Snell has maintained in Haverhill, MA for over 20 years. It is built with the same high standards set by Peter Snell. The design is beutiful and the sound is unmatched.

Snell has tried to remain available in as many markets as possible but the current trend in loudspeaker distribution has made that difficult. Retailers are either being purchased by national chains or they are moving to Custom Installation.

I appreciate the fact that our loyal owners still love our products and continue to discuss them in these venues. We hope that as the current custodians of Peter's company that Snell continues to build high quality, high value loudspeakers.

Please feel free to contact me at info@snellacoustics.com
Wally Kilgore

Ah Snell Acouostics! The company name brings back fond memories of my Snell A2i's. They were such a great speaker for me, that I too wondered why they are not on of the most sound after quality speakers on the market. When I blew up a driver (pilot error, no fault of Snell) Snell, through the serial number was able to perfectly match a replacement driver for me. They took great care of me as a customer.

Good luck Wally.

Paul

Also own a pair of walnut E-III's which sound absolutely superb w/my Kora "Explorer Si-90" int. amp. (Retubed w/Telefunken's) Wonderful speakers! Wonderful Company which offers such great customer support. I wish you and Snell continued success for my years to come. Bill

My second high-end speaker was Snell Type J (15 years ago). Glad they are still in business. Hope to hear some new ones again someday.

I still have my EIV's, CC, and K's for my HT and I have no plans to upgrade them. I have been a great fan of Snell's and was very disappointed (ditto to the sentiments on this thread) after the Boston Acoustic's acquisition a few years back.

Being a marketing person in a company that acquires other smaller companies, it is not unusual to have this "step child" relationship especially on a budgetary perspective. Unless the new product/brand is that much more promising (i.e. slam dunk/a huge pot of gold at the end of the rainbow) than other products within the company's portfolio, chances of the company investing (i.e. take a profit loss in the first couple years to gain market share) in marketing/possibly R&D given current volume is very slim. Adding the complexity is the niche-y high end audio market, where it's the first segment to die when the economy is bad and the last segment to recover when the economy picks up. It will take a huge corporate committment to make that happen. And in Snell's case, it more than just R&D (good that they have a new chief engineer), but also distribution, product positioning (awareness/trial driving), etc., the marketing fundamentals.

Believe me, I'm a big Snell fan. But imagine if you are the Boston Acoustic owner (for a second), with only limited amount of funds to play with in a certain fiscal year, would you plow money into Snell, where it'll take a long time/miracle to just make a blimp, or would you spend the same money to bet on other HT in a box/best-buy & circuit city friendly chain, which would really move the needle for your bottom line, which directly ties to how you and everyone around you earn your bonus?

...then again, if it is for me, I would move into the cable business!