There are hundreds of reasons why one speaker brand succeeds and another fails - just like other businesses. I can cite one great speaker brand that went out of business (it didn't really fail) for a very particular reason. When Jim Thiel died his speaker company ended because there was no successor to his engineering talent. His obsession with time and phase coherency using first order crossovers and custom designed and house-built drivers was labeled "impossible" by one of his competitors.
Another example is Apogee speakers. I don't know as much about them as Thiel (see Thiel Owner's thread) but I did know a dealer well who retailed them. I was saving up for a pair of Duetta II's and he indulged me to listen to them once every few weeks. I went into the store one day and they were gone. I asked what happened and he told me he dropped the line. I was crestfallen but he said he was at the point where he couldn't have sold them to me in good conscience. He knew that I had two small kids and he said that the speakers were so susceptible to damage from little fingers, or cats, or other dangers in a typical home that he couldn't retail them. He had had a couple pairs damaged in his showroom and he had several owners return them and demand warranty repair because they got damaged by a minor incident. I'm not sure if this is the major reason Apogee failed but it was certainly a factor.
My point is that there is an individual story behind every business failure. I started a consumer products business which failed after 11 years and there's no way I could cite a single reason.
Another example is Apogee speakers. I don't know as much about them as Thiel (see Thiel Owner's thread) but I did know a dealer well who retailed them. I was saving up for a pair of Duetta II's and he indulged me to listen to them once every few weeks. I went into the store one day and they were gone. I asked what happened and he told me he dropped the line. I was crestfallen but he said he was at the point where he couldn't have sold them to me in good conscience. He knew that I had two small kids and he said that the speakers were so susceptible to damage from little fingers, or cats, or other dangers in a typical home that he couldn't retail them. He had had a couple pairs damaged in his showroom and he had several owners return them and demand warranty repair because they got damaged by a minor incident. I'm not sure if this is the major reason Apogee failed but it was certainly a factor.
My point is that there is an individual story behind every business failure. I started a consumer products business which failed after 11 years and there's no way I could cite a single reason.