by Michael

Audio Federation at THE Newport Beach show

[The High Cellini speakers at CES]

We are showing with Acapella Audio Arts again this year, this time in Room 1005 in the tower.

Hermann Winters of Acapella likes to bring The Beast music server which, although not as good as the better digital front ends, is very convenient for an exhibitor [who traditionally play songs from different artists, one after the other, all day long].

Yes, it is horrific that Richard Beers passed away recently [the show organizer] but we were already setup to show, and so the show goes on…

Hope to see you all there!

June 3-5, theshownewport.com

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Room 1005, with Acapella

High Cellini speakers (white with grey horns, like CES) MSRP $55K

Acapella cables, HRS SXR equipment stand with M3 isolation bases

ReQuest The Beast music server

in Acapella / Newport 2016 / Show Reports 2 comments
 by Michael

The Goliaths: Gibson Guitar vs. Fine Sounds

The consolidation in high-end audio always surprises me, though it often happens in markets that are under-going hardships.

Why are these corps doing this? Are they audiophiles? Are they just big dump corps? Are they just buying the companies for their brand names? Are they nuts???

[These are powerful brand names these two corps are picking up. If there is ever a rebound in this marketplace, or if they pivot the brands to sell something people really want, they will be poised to do well, I think.]

Gibson Guitar

Their brands now include:

TASCAM, Cerwin-Vega, Stanton, and Cakewalk, Onkyo, Integra, TEAC, and Esoteric plus Philips’ Home Entertainment “(now named Gibson Innovations)—a company that invented the cassette tape, the CD format, the DVD format and the MP3 format”.

When they bought Esoteric a few years ago, the deal also included distribution rights to French loudspeaker manufacturer, Cabasse, which Esoteric USA has been handling.

[Between Philips and Teac, they own the entire high-end transport manufacturing market AFAICT]

vs.

Italian Fine Sounds: McIntosh, Audio Research, Wadia Digital, and Sumiko (which handles distribution of Sonus Faber, Sumiko, REL subwoofers, and SME turntables and tonearms)

vs. little ole Harmon International:

Harmon: JBL, Lexicon, Mark Levinson and Revel.

 

in High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo 0 comments