Official MK - Miller & Kreisel Thread?!? - Page 3

I just got 4 S-85's and a S-85C. Loving them so far, but was also a little dissapointed with the single set of inputs. Now saving for sub.

Yes, the manual didn't really say much but no big deal for me.

As I stated before my S-85s also did not come with the consumer crossover installed which has the dual inputs for "NORMAL" or "BRIGHT MIDRANGE TIMBRE".

The S-85's from mksoundstore.com have the "professional" crossover installed, from what I understand is much better then the "consumer" version. Basically what we have is a M&K Professional MPS-1510 in a S-85 box. CR_Client and Ryan-T, if you look at the back of your speaker where you connect your speaker wire you will notice that it says "M&K Professional"; which as I said before was clearly a bonus at this price!

Hate to be the harbinger of bad news MK is officially out of business as of yesterday afternoon. My bro has a subwoofer in for repair and Ken Rheingold (the national sales manager) told him that all employees were layed off (including himself) and that the factory is locked down never to reopen.

I was going to purchase the old MX150 sub from my bro but it doesn't appear like he can even get it back. He lives in CA and drove by the factory in Chatsworth just to see if he could pick it up. No luck, the place is shut down!

Sorry to bring the bad news but it is worthy of publication here.

That doesn't make much sense, they've just released several new products for 2007.

If this is true, this is a real disappointment, not only as an M&K fan but as an A/V enthusiast. M&K has been around for a long time and is credited with inventing the whole sub/satellite concept as well as many other contributions to speaker/sub design, not to mention that they are/were widely used in the production of movies and music by many of the major studios.

Hunter-

I noticed the "M&K Professional" on the back, didn't realise that meant a different crossover was installed. Definitely a bonus, in that case!

Wiggles and Monty-

That would explain why I haven't gotten any response from the service department this week. Glad I hadn't shipped my power supply and capacitors to them for repair yet. I went to their online store website, and it is "down due to maintenance."

As far as your brother getting his property back, I would think that, no matter what happened to M&K, they would be in an even bigger world of hurt if they tried to hold on to something that didn't belong to them.

I'm hoping for the best, and hoping that this is just a temporary reorganization. I wonder if there was dissention in the ranks over the massive price cuts that happened around Valentine's day and such. I know that I practically stole the speakers I got from them, considering the price I paid, and the inclusion of free shipping, etc. Hopefully Ken Kreisel didn't get into any legal battles with Jonas Miller or anything like that. Then again, they might have introduced the Xenon and K series because they were trying to get sales figures up, as they have very little dealer presence and stiff competition from the likes of Klipsch and B&W. Might be that they just weren't able to sustain it any longer.

You'd think that Skywalker Ranch would be able to sustain M&K's business needs even in the absence of any sort of decent dealer presence, though.

We can all speculate as to what happened... I just hope that whatever happened, it isn't permanent, or that they can be revived or purchased by someone with their same level of cabinet making skills and other technological prowess. I love my speakers, and was very enthusiastic about the day that I would get to upgrade to S150's or other such goodies.

It is truly a sad day if this is accurate.

I take back my previous comments about Xenon and K series... Looking through the company's timeline on the M&K website, those lines were introduced in 2000, which was before they moved to the larger production facility, etc.

I wonder if timeliness of order fulfillment and their rigorous testing processes finally caught up to them. Based on a lot of what they do, their overhead per speaker has got to be enormous, and our society has been getting more and more impatient as the years go by.

If the INS had shut them down, I'm sure it would have made the news. Google News turned up nothing.

I was under the impression that Miller passed away a while back(10 years ago?) and that Kreisel had made his money and just kind of lost interest in running the business letting it wither away.

Jonas died? I thought I read that the two of them parted ways, and that Jonas was working for another company designing speakers to this day.

Not sure why someone would get the impression that Ken Kreisel "lost interest" in the business... If he had, then why would he have a "signature series" designed by him, with each speaker mersonally autographed by him? Why would he still be on his company's web page with a smile on his face? Why would he keep coming up with new designs and new products? Improving and increasing product lines isn't a very efficient way to let a company peter out...

There is a difference between doing the fun part of speaker design and taking care of the day to day management of a business, marketing, dealer relations, etc. If you are satisfied with your financial comfort you can play at the part of your business you enjoy while the business withers away.

Has anyone tried calling them to see if the phone is answered?

If true, this is very unfortunate.

I was thinking of trying that while I was on my lunch break. Just didn't get around to it. Unfortunately, an unanswered phone at 11AM-1PM local time could just mean someone went to lunch. I somehow doubt that they would put up a recording on their phone number, though, if they closed up shop for good and wanted to keep all of the stuff that people had sent in for repair.

Everyone thought that they went belly-up in '05. Hopefully this is just a small hiccup for a company that has been running and making good products for the last 30 years.

I called them: no answer and the general voice mail box was full. Not a good sign.

I just spoke with Barry Ober and evidently Tuesday was the last day of operation. There will be something on the web site in a bit.

Ouch. 33 years of some great products, and now this. Here's hoping that someone buys up their patents and other intellectual property and keeps at least SOMETHING going. Too much heritage and history because of that company to just throw it all down the drain.

I think I'm going to hug my S-85's when I get home...

That's not good. Who will warranty my 150P's?

That sucks...

Yep, this is truly sad news. They were a very well respected company.

RIP

that's a real bummer. I was going to get another powered sub from them.

Hey Guys,

It is true, M&K is no more and it is very, very sad ....

Some dear friends of mine received no advanced warnings and are now jobless and worried. I wish all of them the very best of luck and I truly wish I was able to offer them full time employment.

It's just not right that a company like Bose flourishes while one like M&K doesn't.

Yes, this is very sad...do we know if the Professional line is still around or is this everything?

I sure hope that a good reputable company can take over their operations.

I'm glad that I got my S-150s a few months back, I was thinking of waiting but pulled the trigger.

I also upgraded my Sub drivers to the Super Fast drivers back in December.

I was told everything. M&K made good products and were on the ground floor with sub/sat systems. In fact, some say they invented the genre, so they were well positioned to take the home theater boom by storm. It seemed to me though that supply problems, and slowness to adapt to the new order (Made in China) hurt them. I'm sure there's a Harvard Business School case study waiting to be written.

I thought M&K recently opened a showroom in China and was producing speakers specially tailored to the Chinese market.

Maybe it wasn't "recently" enough.

I still have an M&K 750 THX system. Their more modest system that got great reviews (HT Secrets, etc.) from the beginning.
I've considered doing some upgrading, now after this news, not sure what I will do.
On the positive side, there may be some real dumping of their products, with a lot of bargains around. Maybe I should pick up a couple of 150's for the front.
The only other speakers I would even consider would be Paradigm, B&W, PBS, maybe RBH...
I have a medium sized room, with very few limitations, and it seems I get enough bass, clarity, soundstage, etc. Maybe I should just hold tight for the time being.

Problem is that product was very scarce over the past few years. I doublt you'll find many 150s at dealers waiting to be sold.

Yes, well, that WAS the problem.

There's a lot of speculation here, and not all of it is very accurate. Everyone is laid off and the doors are closed, but let's see what unfolds in the next few weeks. I'm hoping there is a rebirth. I've always been a big M&K fan, back from when I started selling them in 1979.

Let's see what happens, and hope for the best.

Check the M&K website. It will remove any and all doubt. The doors have been closed ... apparently forever.


OWK

videoaddikt, I wouldn't worry about getting new speakers. I have some fairly ancient M&K's and took them to demo an amp, I listened to some pretty expensive new speakers and they were very close. Unless you're unhappy with your sound, I'd say stay put. On two different occasions I've thought I could do better, but after listening to what's out there I realized I'd have to pay more than I want to upgrade.