Question about quality of Meadowlark

I own a pair of Ospreys and Nighthawks, and I still think that designer Pat McGinty had an excellent product design, cabinetry, superb quality sound and investment value before his company closed earlier in 2005. The speaker high-end of the market is indeed on the downside, as the home theatre market has taken over the hifi industry, with smaller size speakers and inwall speaker installations growing at the expense of companies like Meadowlark. In addition, I get the impression that neither Pat or his wife Lucinda were real "marketing or financial people" or had staff members to strategically target their company's direction, combined with the fact that their company was moved to Watertown, New York, (from San Diego, CA) with very little financial injection (under financed)obtained from the New York State industrial incentive program. Although that regional area provided Pat McGinty and his Meadowlark company choices for fine wood and cabinetry, as they were next to the Canadian border, their transportation costs on finished goods must have been extremely high in addition to their operational expenses, combined with the fact, that they utilized expensive drivers only manufactured in Europe, and the dollar vs. the Euro in the last 24 months had a disadvantage of close and to as high as 30%. That would certainly burden any manufacturing operation. In the end, the McGinty's should have learned a bit of marketing from the Orange County Bikers, as they are also in New York State, but marketed themselves to stardom via non-network television and by originally copying California bikes to achieve their marketing goals. The US audio speaker manufacturing industry has had many closings throughout the years, all mostly due to the failure of its management (usually the speaker designers)not having a marketing plan and the right people around them to help them execute them. Only Dr. Amar Bose has been able to accomplish that with tremendous success with a still privately held corporation selling in the billions every year. That's a true marketing success. The McGinty's should have adapted or copied from Bose Corporations history. In summary, I still think that Meadowlark has a place in the audio entertainment industry and that can be salvaged with the right marketing and management personnel. Obviously through their history, many people bought their Meadowlark products (like myself), and I just wonder if Meadowlark ever researched that fact as to it why's? Who were my end customers? Why did they buy my products? What are their demographics and psychographics? The many etceteras and the many why's give you the direction and a mission, many times to focus ahead of the curve. Just ask the P&G and the Colgate people about that. Anyways, I still think that Meadowlark was one of America's best speakers manufactured in the last 10 years. Now they have become a collectors item, much in the McIntosh realm.

I am so satified with my BH2's, that I would buy more of them as an investment if I had the money. They are selling for $4500 used right now(if they sell), down from $7000 used that was being seen in Feb 2005 when Meadowlark went under. The drivers and components are so expensive in these, and the cabinetry first rate, with solid tops and fronts, that they are a work of art and a great buy at $7k. The sound is fantastic, WAF is high, and they are VERY tube friendly.
Mine were demos, the price was right, and came with a full warrantly, that is now worthless. There is little to go wrong on these, as others have mentioned, with parts available. Any good audio repair shop can easily repair these, should repair be needed. Amps and CD units break,but I have never had a speaker break!

Hello there 9 years late.
I bought a pair of used, mildly cosmetically compromised Kestrels in April 2013 and I just have to say that I would have been happy paying double that for them. They're incredibly musical with bass that is far more realistic than Totem Hawks - which are pretty damn good - one of the best speakers I've owned and one pair that I will never let go of.

I heard the Kestrels back in 2003, and they were fabulously musical.

I own the Meadowlark Nighhawks - currently up for sale now. No issues what so ever and one of the most satisfying speaker I have ever owned. Building my own components now so I need money to fund those projects. Not sure I agree with expensive drivers (Seas and Vifa) compared to what I have seen in other manufacturers. Pat went out of business because his speakers were priced to low for the quality of the wood he was using. In building my own components, I can make a preamp, phone stage, DAC, etc, with parts costs of $1000 - $1500 that will completely crush what you can buy but the cost for me to produce a really nice chassis is $1000-$1500. That is more than the parts I am using and I use the best parts I can purchase. That would mean I would probably have to charge 2.5 to 3 times that price just for the chassis if I were to sell through a dealer network!

My speakers are up for sale on US Audio Mart if anyone is interested, send me a message (sorry to advertise here!)

Happy Listening.