[goldear]

I just caught part of this on my local news station, claiming that Recoton, right around the corner from me in Lake Mary, is filing for bankruptcy. I know that Recoton was affiliated with NHT in the past, but are they still? Anyone else with some more details?

 

[tonygeno]

Recoton sold NHT to Rockford in December.

 

[blkwrxwgn]

I would hate to see Acoustic Research go out of business. Has anybody heard about their outcome? I know that Recoton bought them years back. Hate to see one of the older speaker manufacturers go out of business.

 

[DigitalGriffin]

I would hate to see Acoustic Research go out of business as well. They had many innovative designs. Their older speakers still get good bids on auction sites. Sadly after Rocoton took over, their quality took a nose dive as they aimed at the lower end market. :-( They were supposed to release a new line of speakers early last year using the same bob-carver sub woofer and 4 mid range drivers. But nothing ever came of it.


One of Acoustic Research's faults was their pricing strategy. They had a large MSRP on better speakers, but internet retailers often cut off B&M prices off at the knees. No B&M suppliers means no exposure and a slow death. (The exception to this rule being rockets, swans, hsu, and SVS)


Hopefully someone will buy them up and put them back on track.


~*Sigh*

~Don

 

[John Ashman]

I have a great story here, which makes you wonder how they left NHT alone and didn't screw them up. We picked up AR thinking they'd offer a more efficient (AR, efficient? Something wrong there already) and more affordable option to NHT (MORE affordable? What was I thinking?). So, they bombed. Bright, edgy, sounding like the worst of the Infinity speakers. So, there I am at CES and this pitch guy from AR starts going on and on about the new AR1 and how Bill Bush of NHT helped in its design. Okay, I'll listen. "Ewwww". He keeps talking and goes and grabs Cary Christie, apparently responsible for all of the lousy, cheap speakers to come out of Infinity and he tells me how Bill Bush personally told him that he thinks the AR1s are BETTER than the NHT 2.9s. I'm not hearing it. So, I say, "well, look at the time" and duck out. Hey! There's Bill. "Hey Bill, guess what Cary Christie told me!" I got the biggest, funniest eye roll I've ever seen. So, here comes the story. He was called in to work on the AR1. He says he got the speakers sounding "decent" especially considering the high efficiency design. But it need more work. After spending an entire week "roughing in" the crossover (mainly through computer modeling with some subjective listening) he tells them what parts to order. They say "sorry, we've decided to put in these [cheap, crappy] drivers since the others are too expensive and you'll need to redesign the crossover." At which point, Bill said "well, look at the time."


I'm SO glad they're with Rockford. Too bad about AR and Advent. I love the name Advent and associate it with the older models and the Advent 300 receiver. Somebody needs to rescue these and do something with them.

 

[apg]

Excellent story, Mr. Ashman


"Too bad about AR and Advent. I love the name Advent and associate it with the older models and the Advent 300 receiver. Somebody needs to rescue these and do something with them."


I, too, am a big fan. I still have my "baby" Advents, and a nice selection of ARs, including the "Old" AR90 towers.

Some other quality name brands brought low: Sansui (Terrific electronics name, now plastered on crappy TVs.), Fisher (Never as good as people thought, but still far better than what's going by that name now. Name sold off a couple of decades ago.), Marantz (See Fisher; SuperScope ruined them.), KLH, Scott, Classic (Obscure ModComp reference...).


I fully expect that the first mainland Chinese car sold in the US will carry the Packard logo, and be sold though Studebaker dealers...