Auralic goes belly up

Mike, I gotta hand it to ya'...

Anyone who has been in this hobby for some time and has owned tubed gear has seen the "magic smoke" at some point. I don't recall anyone EVER actually taking a pic of it while releasing said magic smoke. Kudos.

Sad what happened to Auralic. The Vega G2 was a pretty stout beast. Not the best, but no complaints when I had it.

Tom
 
Mike said:
I think what happened was that Mc ripped off the bandaid and terminated BestBuy who has literally hundreds of pieces of new and demo Mc gear in inventory.

Not to worry, there will be plenty of Mc gear to buy at rock bottom prices for months, if not years to come. The stock pile BB have is incredible.

Stay tuned….when this all comes out, there will be giant eyeballs popping. Heck, I may even grab a few pieces myself for pennies on the dollar. Four 1.25kws on my JBL’s? 🤔
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Yes , but is that paid for inventory..?
 
High-end audio is facing a reckoning.

The traditional audiophile base is aging, and most have already bought their “last Cadillac.” Younger listeners aren’t chasing esoteric gear — they’re buying measurement-driven products from companies like Topping, SMSL, Benchmark, RME and a few others that deliver state-of-the-art performance at a fraction of the price.

Digital technology has closed the gap. Transparent DACs, amps, and streamers now cost hundreds, not tens of thousands. Once transparency is reached, the old narrative of “dramatic differences” collapses.

The market for boutique brands is shrinking fast. To survive, many will have to reposition themselves as luxury lifestyle goods — just as watchmakers did when quartz made mechanical precision irrelevant.

Many names will vanish. Others will be absorbed. The era of “absolute sound” in the high-end is giving way to an era of “absolute branding”
 
nicoff said:
High-end audio is facing a reckoning.

The traditional audiophile base is aging, and most have already bought their “last Cadillac.” Younger listeners aren’t chasing esoteric gear — they’re buying measurement-driven products from companies like Topping, SMSL, Benchmark, RME and a few others that deliver state-of-the-art performance at a fraction of the price.

Digital technology has closed the gap. Transparent DACs, amps, and streamers now cost hundreds, not tens of thousands. Once transparency is reached, the old narrative of “dramatic differences” collapses.

The market for boutique brands is shrinking fast. To survive, many will have to reposition themselves as luxury lifestyle goods — just as watchmakers did when quartz made mechanical precision irrelevant.

Many names will vanish. Others will be absorbed. The era of “absolute sound” in the high-end is giving way to an era of “absolute branding”
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Yawn. The anti-high end diatribe grows old. There has always been diminishing returns at some point. One company going under doesn't mean an evolution.

If someone can't hear a difference keep your money but obviously some can.

More affordable audio is good these days and it meets a niche.
 
nicoff said:
High-end audio is facing a reckoning.

The traditional audiophile base is aging, and most have already bought their “last Cadillac.” Younger listeners aren’t chasing esoteric gear — they’re buying measurement-driven products from companies like Topping, SMSL, Benchmark, RME and a few others that deliver state-of-the-art performance at a fraction of the price.

Digital technology has closed the gap. Transparent DACs, amps, and streamers now cost hundreds, not tens of thousands. Once transparency is reached, the old narrative of “dramatic differences” collapses.

The market for boutique brands is shrinking fast. To survive, many will have to reposition themselves as luxury lifestyle goods — just as watchmakers did when quartz made mechanical precision irrelevant.

Many names will vanish. Others will be absorbed. The era of “absolute sound” in the high-end is giving way to an era of “absolute branding”
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Unfortunately I have compared Gustard, Topping, SMSL, Fosi, Ayima etc etc to more traditional brands and the traditional brands have come out on top in terms of sound quality. I think there is a market for these brands and lately the sound quality has improved dramatically but so far not the level of traditional audiophile brands. The new TI TPA 2355 based Class D amps have surprised me. Seems to have alleviated some of the earlier gremlins that I didn't find appealing.
 
Mr Peabody said:
Yawn. The anti-high end diatribe grows old. There has always been diminishing returns at some point. One company going under doesn't mean an evolution.

If someone can't hear a difference keep your money but obviously some can.

More affordable audio is good these days and it meets a niche.
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I started a new thread on this. Most comments in that thread agree with what I said. Perhaps you should post your minority view there.
 
Mike, why do I have a sneaky suspicion that you might know a little about what is going on here.....

I have noticed what seems to be more McIntosh pieces on TMR over the past few months. Could this be people unsure about the future of the company and if/how current products will be serviced taking the "safe" route and moving to other established and solid brands?
 
JCS123 said:
Mike, why do I have a sneaky suspicion that you might know a little about what is going on here.....

I have noticed what seems to be more McIntosh pieces on TMR over the past few months. Could this be people unsure about the future of the company and if/how current products will be serviced taking the "safe" route and moving to other established and solid brands?
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Well, I know the guy who’s brokered a deal with Magnolia’s across dozens of states to buy their inventory. His giant warehouse is PACKED. Fire sale! May even get some myself.

🍿

Mc is changing and they need an entire new sales strategy. Sadly, they were killing it under Clarion. Since then, the clowns have run the circus. I do have high hopes for Bose. They will definitely get rid of that Mc house in NYC. Bose isn’t stupid.
 
Is headphonety a credible source? They seem to just put controversial stories out to attract attention.

In my opinion it would be foolish to buy McIntosh and let the brand die. I know Mike doesn't agree it does seem like they were on a positive path when Bose bought them. They were making money in the OEM auto arena, Their larger amps were popular, the 3500 Woodstock amp was a cool idea not sure how well they did, certainly weren't cheap. I agree they did put out a couple gimmicky products that was probably not wise. Although they became affiliated with Sonus Faber I don't think the two products had good synergy, IMO. They should have shown each product with a better match.
 
Mr Peabody said:
Is headphonety a credible source? They seem to just put controversial stories out to attract attention.

In my opinion it would be foolish to buy McIntosh and let the brand die. I know Mike doesn't agree it does seem like they were on a positive path when Bose bought them. They were making money in the OEM auto arena, Their larger amps were popular, the 3500 Woodstock amp was a cool idea not sure how well they did, certainly weren't cheap. I agree they did put out a couple gimmicky products that was probably not wise. Although they became affiliated with Sonus Faber I don't think the two products had good synergy, IMO. They should have shown each product with a better match.
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Their Segway into auto was weak at best. Bose will help here. The .3500 is a nice amp, but Rick Mak compared it against his originals and said it wasn’t close.

My issue is that their sales strategy is stuck in 1975. They are highly restrictive to territories. Make you buy shit you may not want. They are very authoritative. The world has changed and the old crew was clueless.
 
Mike said:
Their Segway into auto was weak at best. Bose will help here. The .3500 is a nice amp, but Rick Mak compared it against his originals and said it wasn’t close.

My issue is that their sales strategy is stuck in 1975. They are highly restrictive to territories. Make you buy shit you may not want. They are very authoritative. The world has changed and the old crew was clueless.
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That is a terrible practice making a company buy product they don't want. I know a dealer that dropped Krell years ago when Krell brought out their speaker line. Krell tried to force them to carry and display the speakers the dealer felt couldn't compete with what they had in those price points. I've also seen manufacturers force a company to take a certain number of each model. This is what made the niche for distributors who could sell to smaller shops not able to stock that much. Of course, big box stores began to sell so cheap and along with the internet distributors for the most part dried up, small shops closed, vicious. Most sadly service went away as well.
 
GSOphile said:
I was thinking of a well known European brand several years ago.
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Gryphon? They made a major mistake by getting rid of Phillip. The guy literally spent sleepless nights thinking of ways to promote the brand. Today? I would say they have lost considerable market share here. The fact is, the European companies don't really understand the US and Canadian markets. There are several brands right now I can think of that have zero traction here due to a poor strategy: Octave having DynAudio do their marketing/distribution has to be at the top of the list. The others are brands with "rep firms" rather than proper distributors. Rep firms barely keep the lights on, they don't move the needle.

To be fair, I'm sure many European brands have become a little gun shy when you see a distributor take on a line and never add a single dealer or when you see a distributor come up with other gimmicks like making your friend's living room a show room or purposely going after poor performing dealers so as not to give you, the distributor any real competition.

It's not easy. You have to put on the distributor hat and really be for growing the brand - win/win. Much like someone I know who is an owner of a trade show. When you're wearing the trade show hat, you have to want everyone to come. Even your local competitors.
 
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