Sadly missed manufacturers


I've been an audio and music enthusiast since the 1970's. We've all seen a fair number of companies come and go. Some burned brightly for a while, some not at all, and some companies are still present but only in name as they otherwise bear no resemblance to their ancestors.

Are there any companies you are sad to have seen disappear?

l can name a few former luminaries that are now gone- Counterpoint, Apogee. Both offered very good products, but unfortunately neither offered bullet proof reliability. I am of mixed feelings of the various Carver companies. I think Carver, the man, is capable of producing some genuinely first rate products but I viewed much of the marketing as smoke and mirrors which to me detracts from a manufacturer's credibility.
128x128zavato

Showing 14 responses by zavato

CAL, Dual, Tandberg (well, though they still exist, they left the hifi business), Empire
Rectilinear - remember those? My brother in law still has a pair he received as a wedding gift nearly 40 years ago. I remember helping him shlep them into his apartment.
Hats off to Almarg- Brook is a great inclusion. I completely forgot about Brook, even though a pair of Ohm F's (Walsh drivers) are sitting in my home waiting for restoration or a new home
"a bunch of Linn knock offs like Ariston"

Well, the Ariston was no Linn knockoff- 1- it predates the LP 12, and 2- infact, the actual manufacturing of the Ariston was at Castle engineering which was owned by a certain Mr. Tiefebrun whose son latter founded Linn.

At one point there was a press release indicating that the turntable previously known as the ariston rd-11 will now be known as the Linn LP12.
I understand, and must everyone else, that as comparing the Ariston vs the Linn, the Ariston is the original but Linn definitely put in the time to make it better and better, which deservedly makes Linn the king of the hill since the 1970's of that genre of turntable.

I do miss Nakamichi. I once owned a few 3 head cassette decks- a Nakamichi BX300 and an Aiwa F660. Between the 2, I thought the Aiwa in some ways was superior. Aiwa did do well with tape stuff.

I also had a Honda which had the radio/cassette player stolen and replaced that with a Nakamichi head unit which was outstanding.

Grace is another lamented company, as is Garrard
There still is a company called Elac though I have no idea if its the same Elac
Rectilinears did not have great treble because they used lousy cone tweeters, but the rest of the spectrum was typically very good with great dynamics. And when you see who worked at Rectilinear, it's a whose who of well know audio designers- James Bongiorno (GAS)Marty Gersten (Ohm), Jon Dahlquist (Dahlquist) Richard Shihinian (Shahinian)were all at one time or another at Rectilinear. My brother in law has Rectilinear III's, which are quite large speakers.
Believe it or not, there was a review by Julian Hirsch comparing the III's very favorably to the Quad ESL57. I would not go nearly that far in praise of Rectilinear!
Anyone mention Allison?

There used to be a decent inexpensive turntable- Revolver