Do you remember?

Spica, too. Some of the best loudspeakers made, at affordable prices. They were bought by an electronics company, then shut down. I spoke to the original owner (John Bau) about this once. He seemed quite surprised and disapointed. He sounded like a man of principal, saying how he wanted to make great speakers people could afford, and refused to pursue the crazy $$ high-end market. A real shame and loss to the high-end market.

Regarding Aragon, they were associated with Acurus. Are they gone too?

Apogee speakers-the stages could do vocals like no other speaker I've heard.

Dunlavy speakers- another buyout and shut it down story.

Sonic Frontiers-I agree that was a shock.

Klipsch bought the name a few years ago, as I recall, then the Aragon name quietly disappeared into the audio abyss.

Many of these companies go out of business because they offer too much value. They are not getting enough monetary return on the quality they put out and cannot remain afloat. One has to make sure the profit margin is enough to stay viable.

John

Add Hales - a great speaker company

John, you have that back asswards: they don't gouge the buyer, so they don't reap the rewards of the fundamental equation of high-enders, that is more money always equals better sound. Designing, manufacturing and marketing hi-fi electronics is not what high-enders make it out to be. That people can't comprehend economies of scale and that they believe that companies who can only build things in small runs, and consequently sell at prices that are way too high, produce the best sounding equipment is what normally kills companies offering products with a superior price/performance ratio. The other outfits have latched on to this reality and are only more than willing to inflate their prices to sell their stuff to people who need to inflate their fragile egos.