Just Curious......


But whatever happened to Kenwood??? Weren't they making home audio gear up until recently??? Did they go by the wayside the way Sansui did????

Not that I am going to get anything from these companies, I was just wondering what's going on with the demise of these companies???
128x128chaskelljr2001
I found this website for Kenwood USA:

www.kenwoodusa.com

They seem still to be active.
They're still doing some pretty interesting things, particularly in mobile audio. Their DVD touchscreen navigation head units are considered to be among the best on the market, and they make a portable digital audio player that's genuinely probably the only genuinely hi-fi, audiophile-quality DAP on the market.

Not sure if they do anything for home audio anymore, but that doesn't seem to be their focus.
Several of these manufacturers from the earlier days of hi-fi (who were regarded as high end then) have gone in different directions. Look at Nakamichi, Kenwood, Sansui, as examples. They're all still in business but have pulled away from the high end home audio/stereo business it seems. Kenwood focused heavily on the automobile sound system market. I loved Nakamich products but now they're out of the home high end audio business as we know it. Their products now seem to be more portable mini type disc players, desktop music players, etc. Stuff you might see in Brookstone.

I just looked at the Sansui website and I'm surprised they manufacture that many products. I don't ever see them in U.S. stores of any type. Strange. Back in the mid 70's I had a Sansui Reel to Reel tape recorder. I thought that was the ultimate machine back then and it probabaly was.

To me of the 3, it's truly sad to see what happened to Nakamichi. My hi-fi store back in the 80's and mid 90's (Stuarts Audio, Westfield, NJ) had them as their higher end line over Yamaha for example. It still amazes me to no end how many different brands of high end hi-fi components are available today. Somehow they all survive.