The survival of the fittest.

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....

:)

@jpwarren58-  "Tweak Evangelist" and "Count of Concrete" totally made my day--i'm still laughing.

BTW Count of Concrete--You can't say it's all marketing and it's all word of mouth in the same sentence--it's one or the other.  

@Mahgister: Tannoy made its name (and fortune) in PA equipment all the way back to the 1930s and really got going with military sales in WW2. The domestic audio line is successful, but I think PA equipment still pays the bills. Even so they are on their third owner, in the Philippines. Perhaps that is the secret of longevity; being sold to a larger foreign corporation, viz. Quad is now owned by IAG, and B&W is owned by Sound United.