Madrigal is Closed

Inna, on what do you base your statement "There are
better companies"? Have you owned Madrigal equipment?

I have owned a number of pieces of Mark Levinson gear,
and I have always found the construction quality beyond
reproach. You can criticize them for their sound, but
to me and many others they are among the best in "high
end". I've had occasion to deal with their service
department, and they were always prompt, polite, helpful
and completely professional. Other firms could do well
to emulate Madrigal.

I just got canned.

Drubin is basically correct an his assesment; that is the big picture.

The powers that be at HSG have not been able to follow through with smaller details/decisions that are part of more major decisions.

Gorf, sorry about your job loss. This economy/recession sucks. I hope Levinson stays afloat. I too have used and enjoyed their some of their equipment. I have especially liked their digital gear and preamps. I am less sanguine about their amps. Best of luck.

I think this is nothing more than a result of their own success and their own corporate direction. A very popular and well-respected brand with very high build quality (although I personally never cared much for their sound), bought and sold and merged several times on the way up the corporate ladder. This has been going on ever since the departure of Mark Levinson (the man). They have always striven for greater market share and corporate success (witness their association with Lexus), and this is just one more step in that evolution.

I wouldn't read too much into it, but instead say that if it upsets you, then support the smaller "craftsmen" in this arena, who make excellent products but have no latent mega-corporate ambitions. E.g., Ayre, BAT, Lamm, Red Rose (duh!), and many many others. Small companies that are dedicated to making the best product they can, content with a small market share, and put their energy into sound quality rather than image. That's the beauty of the high end: it is one of the last bastions of American craftsmanship and quality left in the modern era. The departure of one brand to corporate heaven is no cause for grief IMHO, not when it was clear that that's where they wanted to go in the first place. Celebrate the entrepreneurs among us, for they are the last holdouts against the corporate juggernaut and represent that which is best in America.

Correction, Madrigal is not closed. What has taken place is as follows. Harmon International the mother company of Madrigal has recently purchased Lexicon. And due the brand name recognition that Lexicon has, they have decided to desolve Madrigal in name only. The new name or umbrella is Lexicon. All the Madrigal employees will become Lexicon employees and all the companies under the Madrigal Umbrella excist now as subsidiaries of Lexicon. This is a report received from a Madrigal rep direct. Evidently since the phones were off for a few days the rumor mill produced this rumor. As Mark Twain once said "the report of my death has been exagerated greatly" (give or take a word)