esoteric products

Agreed...TEAC home and pro audio sales world-wide is a huge number so almost 2% of that does not in any way mean that Esoteric should apologize for their revenue numbers. There has always been a natural ebb and flow of audio gear from Esoteric, DCS, and many others here, generally after new models come out (the Grandioso 01 and 02 lines are relatively new as are the K-01x and K-03x) so people look to upgrade or have already done so. In many cases as well, people are jumping/trying other brands so the amount of Esoteric gear posted appears relatively normal. Their pricing, like MSB, DCS and several others is on the high end so again, the 2% number is not something to be apologized for IMHO, in the least.

BTW...the phrase that with the consolidation of Onkyo/etc, Esoteric accounted for 1.9% of TEAC sales,....is superfluous, at least to the Onkyo part. Esoteric sales is a fixed percent of TEAC sales no matter whether Onkyo exists or vaporizes; don't know what that phrase is intended to imply or incite except to muddy the waters.

There are a good number of reasons for not upgrading to another Esoteric product :-
1. Poor resale
2. No streaming
3. Value for money upgrade
For current owners of an Esoteric player, the best value proposition would be to keep it as a cd/sacd transport and add a hi-res music server/streamer/dac for pcm/dsd/mqa.

Zephyr24069,

The Onkyo comment was just to stress how aggressive Gibson is going after both the home and pro markets...Nothing incendiary suggested!
My comments, together with Jon2020 may culminate as to why the "ebb and flow" have recently been more of a Dam in the river...:-)

These pieces are going for pennies on the dollar as opposed to just three years ago!

The loss of key personnel won't help turn that around, in my opinion...

The 1.9% mentioned was IN COMPARISON to they're most recent group of acquired brands as a percentage of return...NOT a good number!

Of course it is a question of tastes for ME Esoteric as always been a very good make BUT not my cup of tea,they are built like tanks BUT to ME they also sound like tanks my preference is for a much warmer sound ( Zanden )( Audio Research )( Ayon )( MBL )( Chord )Bow Technologies ) to name a few.

"The 1.9% mentioned was IN COMPARISON to they're most recent group of acquired brands as a percentage of return...NOT a good number!
Azjake"

Again, I say not necessarily. Percentage of return is one thing, profit is something else entirely. Esoteric, even though its owned by a bigger company, is still a separate business. And as long as the Esoteric brand returns a healthy profit, that’s always a good thing.

Another factor not to be overlooked, is access to designs and patents not currently available to the parent company. They can use Esoteric technology in any of the other divisions with no penalty. A good example of this type of thing is Arcam/dcs. dcs developed the ring dac, which ended up going in Arcam CD players as well. And if that's the case, you would have to look past the 1.9%. Esoteric may be used to add value to some of the other brands.