Why so little discussion about Snell ?

I've been wondering about that myself. The present dealer network is very limited compared to what it once was. I wanted to check out their new line-up but there were no dealers within a reasonable driving distance from my home. I wonder why so many dealers abandoned ship? Conjecture on my part, but it might have some thing to do w/the take-over of Snell from (Boston Acoustics, I believe)? I have a pr. of their JIV's in beautiful walnut veneer finish. Wonderful spks. which will last nearly forever. Yes, they need to do better marketing and set-up a better dealer network.

I think you are right about this being an effect of the Boston acquisition. I would have thought that the effect would have been just the opposite... Boston marketing the hell out of them as the "renowned old school high end speaker company" and then basically just slap a snell name plate on some existing design. This is not to imply anything against Boston, just what you often see when a small company get's bought by a bigger one. From what I can tell they still have a small company attitute but they are under the arm of a big brother. Too bad the big brother does not at least read the magazine reviews let alone listen to the product...

Snell as a company has been tossed around about a bit from owner to owner and from chief designer to chief designer. As such it's hard to speak of Snell in terms of "typical" consistentcies.

I used to sell Snell's in the 1980's when I worked for HIFI Buys in Louisville. Wonderful speakers, sweet and warm sounding with not a lot of effort required to make them sound good. Use decent interconnects and spikes or "tiptoes" and they just sound awesome, across their entire line.

I currently own a pr. of E Series IV's (driven by an NAD receiver and CD player using Monster's best in a biwire configuration). In a word: wonderful.

Two reasons for the lack of "buzz" about Snell....Kevin Voecks, who picked up the torch after Peter Snell died, moved on after his tenure at Snell (he now runs Revel--not heard them but I bet they sound great), which resulted in the lack of vision driving Snell. And the acquisition by Boston Acoustics, which began to relegate Snell to the back of the room becuase the volumes were low compared to BA's numbers.

If Boston wants to sell that division, I can probably come up with some investors.

Did Boston gobble up their designers? Both companies have a high regard for pair-matching through sophisticated QA. Friend of mine was just let go at Boston because they lost their huge Gateway OE contract....