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Why speaker lines come and go

Here's some Monday musings:

The old LAD Starlet amplifier came to mind the other day - the one heavily advertised and reviewed in Stereophile about a decade ago or so.

http://www.stereophile.com/integratedamps/310/

I never owned one, but it seemed like an aesthetically pleasing, well designed piece. I looked it up over the weekend and of course couldn't find it anywhere, though I did discover that perhaps Von Gaylord had bought out LAD some years ago?

That made me think of Escalante speakers that were, like Talon speakers, out of Utah. Talon is now based in Iowa and is owned by Rives Audio, a company specializing in room treatments and acoustics. Escalante's also gone, their website static since 2009, although their Pinon or Fremont speakers will pop up on audiogon occasionally. I read on one of the forum topics here on agon that perhaps a bad review from Sam Tellig may have contributed to Escalante's dissipation, though I have no idea if that's true or not.

So my question is, more or less, what causes speakers (or other components) to come and go? Is it a matter of quality? Of market saturation in their price point? Of marketing? Why do some lines like Avalon or PSB or MacIntosh last forever while others splash around a bit, then sink beneath the sine waves? Could bad publicity in Stereophile or TAS single-handedly sink a brand?

There's an interesting site here:

http://audiotools.com/dead.html

about dead and defunct audio companies, but I'm curious as to what you all think.

regards,

simao
128x128simao
bigkidz
3,395 posts
 
Since I now in the business of building amps and preamps, budget is one and marketing is the other. Knowing my preamp is way better than anything you can buy that is from the known high end manufacturers, I have a limited buying public because I am an unknown manufacturer. Recently a consumer compared my preamp in his system for a few weeks told me that he had never heard anything like this before. He uses an ARC top of the line preamp. He wants to send the preamp back to ARC because he thinks something is wrong with the ARC to sound so bad in comparison. He understands the design and why it works and he seems willing to purchase my preamp but there is a little hesitation factor in buying form an unknown. The marketing effort that it will require to sell direct is costly and time consuming. If I would to to a select dealer network, the cost would double. I still would only get my half. If ARC built my preamp they would probably charge $50K to made a hand made, point to point wired preamp with custom parts. Sourcing parts long term is also an issue. Drivers are parts change over time and you are always experimenting to improve the sound. Parts are expensive to keep trying and testing and listening.

I hope this helps.
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,431 posts
 
None of these high end speaker companies make drivers

Not always. Hyperion Sound designed their own very innovative speakers. For starters they had no spider web suspension, that adds mass to membrane and affects linearity. Midrange speaker is 6.5" in diameter and has ferrofluid suspension. Designed and manufactured by Hyperion.
bifwynne
2,206 posts
 
Kijanki ... add Paradigm to the list, at least their high end speakers. The company also makes its own drivers. That's a big reason why Paradigm can pack so much speaker into such a reasonably priced package.

Particularly noteworthy is their beryllium dome tweeter and cobalt/aluminum alloy cone midrange driver. Both drivers also use (i) ferro fluid to cool and stabilize the motors, and (ii) super neodynium (sp?) magnets to increase SPL and lower distortion.
djcxxx
105 posts
 
Cottage industry with under capitalized hobbyists producing small scale labor intensive equipment selling to a very limited customer base. The real question is why any small high end audio manufacturer is able to survive.
bifwynne
2,206 posts
 
Djcxxx ... excellent question.

The Harmans, Paradigms and Focals have large low-end/lo-fi product offerings that presumably generate enough revenue to absorb a goodly portion of their fixed cost burdens. I've read on a number of other audiophile web sites that some companies have adapted to the current economic model by "ex'ing" out distributors and retailers by offering their products direct to consumers, e.g., Ohm and Von Schwiekert. This obviously knocks out distributor and retailer margins which add a sh*t-load to the end consumer retail cost.

Without having access to the "books," it's hard to know how "hobbyists" or small companies make it. Some do. Most don't for all the reasons I learned 45 years ago in Econ 101 and Management Accounting 101.

I'll say this. If R&D drives innovation, I question how small companies can really do it. The companies I mention above not only have extensive R&D operations, but they also manufacvturer many of their speaker compenents in-house. It should be no surprise that the companies listed above (and Magico too) use beryllium tweaters in their high-end gear. I suspect that many of the other "Big-Boys" don't because they can't.
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