Do you remember?

Klipsch bought the name a few years ago, as I recall, then the Aragon name quietly disappeared into the audio abyss.

Many of these companies go out of business because they offer too much value. They are not getting enough monetary return on the quality they put out and cannot remain afloat. One has to make sure the profit margin is enough to stay viable.

John

Pbb, first of all it's bass ackwards. Secondly, I don't really understand how you said anything differently than what I said. Different words, but the same general philosophy. You are saying these companies went under because they didn't charge enough money for their products, correct? That is what I was saying.

Or are you blaming the consumer and not the company? I would tend to disagree with this. Ultimately, the company can only blame themselves for their financial liability. I cannot blame the company I work for if my finances aren't in order. It's simple economics, if you aren't making enough profit margin to stay in business, you either raise your prices, cut corners or go out of business. Especially if your theory is correct, and people out here are just dying to pay more money.

Obviously, designing, manufacturing and marketing hi-fi electronics is not what some manufacturers make it out to be either. Otherwise, they'd still be with us.

FWIW, companies that offer exceptional value and cannot stay afloat because of it is not limited to audio. That is why the Hudson automobile company went under many years ago. Naturally companies love to get their foot in the door by offering exceptional quality at bargain prices. Once in the door, you have to play the game in order to stay in the game. That would mean to lower quality and/or raise prices to pay the price of doing business.

Otherwise, you wind up in a "Do you remember?" thread.

John

Pbb, they make the gold for the Far East. I've been told that 75% of the North American high end manufacturers business is from Asia. The Asians like gold, and shiny looks. That's why silver and gold are so popular with high end manufacturers. Not for the USA, but for their main customers in Asia, where black is repulsive.

FWIW, I agree with you, I prefer black faceplates.

Pbb, so then by your theory, the companies that went out of business did so because they overpriced their products? Obviously if the market felt that they represented a good value for the money, they would sell enough units.

There are plenty of companies who sell products in the same price range as Sonic Frontiers and Aragon, that are still in business. So either these two companies were not selling enough units, which would be hard to believe since most believe they represented good value, or their profit margin per unit was not high enough. FWIW, when you have a low profit margin, you would have to sell many more widgets to stay afloat. You cannot expect to sell as many Audio Research units as Denon units would sell, therefore the profit margin has to be different. When you have a high end company trying to sell units at Denon/Sony profit margins, that company won't be around for long, because they will never sell as many units as Denon/Sony.

John