The survival of the fittest.

I am glad that you are enjoying your older Sansui gear. But the topic was speaker manufacturers survival not vintage gear. All the best to you!

I speak also about Tannoy, a brand name actually living strong, not only a vintage brand, that sell easily( i sold my 2 pairs of dual concentric gold paid 400 dollars 45 years ago 2,000 dollars)...

Their dual concentric tech was new and very amazing and the timing right...

Why do Tannoy succeed and go on living so long? For me the 2 essential factors are design quality/pricing and timing, amongs others important factors (advertising, esthetic, workers and transmission of technology, innovative new produtcs, standadization of line products etc).

If an innovative technology works , it can work even better for ever, magneplanar tech for example....When a new tech, is so revolutionary, then the product is unique, irrepleacable it can even grow stronger.... Magneplanar is an example...

Perhaps the new Tekton technology with an array of drivers is on the same road.... Electro-acoustic speakers are.... Horn speakers also....

It is the reason why design quality/pricing and originality is one of the most important factor in longevity.... All the others factors for me are subordinate to the timing factor, except perhaps the transmission of skills in a new generation of works....This tradition of transmission of skills with all his requirements were no more possible in the case of Sansui  and were broken, amongst other factors, by the exigencies of the new emerging competitive mass market at the times....The same forces act and plays for or against any audio product, speakers or amplifiers....

My best to all....

Sansui used to make speakers, too. Some were stand-outs (those with white membranes). I am not sure how sound would compare to more recent technologies. Therefore, longevity of a speaker manufacturer Sansui...

...well, it was good while it lasted.

I think that Sansui speakers were not so well reviewed at any times like their amplifiers always were .... It was more a side product by a great amplifier designer....

For the longevity question, i think it speak volume when 50 years after their creation some product, be it speakers or amplifiers, Tannoy in one case and Sansui in the other, some products become mythical well designed sought after products... When the state of the company, being alive or dead, do not change the product value at all, it speaks volume about the importance of the quality and innovative design factor ....The main factor for me indeed with the right pricing and the timing factor in the survival of the company....

After some decades the main new intervening factor being the transmission of the traditions and innovative genius to the successive generation....It was no more the case with Sansui tradition in around 1995, but for Tannoy the company kick always at the time being other speakers companies "butts" so to speak.... :)


Just a last word to say that the survival of a company is not ruled by the same exact factors than the survival of a product in the market... The Company and the product are not synonymus and do not partake to the same fate completely...

Sansui company is dead for many decades, Sansui amplifiers kicks butts today; Tannoy dual gold sell for gold today and the company create new design that dont replace or kill the old one at all.... That say something also....


My best to you....

The "timing" factor is the most difficult to understand....This timing factor is more encompassing than just luck....

Because like a human being, a company or a product has his birth date, and his life and crisis....
The timing factor is a point in time where the others intervening factors plays well together or not....
The survival of any company, designing speakers or not is related to this timing convergence...
The analysis of a speakers company history or any company is centered around this convergence or timing factors...

It will be interesting to compare the many different designers of speakers and looking for this time convergence of many factors in their success and relating the timing of their innovative different technology to their comparative rate of success speed in time ...

There exist no longevity without timing, even if a company take good decisions, the convergent decisions must be taken in a certain window of time...

Ok i hope that i had not annoy anybody....I will pass the torch....

:)