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Why doesn't anyone make an original Quad clone?
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Posted on February 6, 2016 at 11:36:51 | ||
Posts: 7956
Location: Eagle, Idaho Joined: October 22, 2004 |
Boggles my mind that as unique and intrinsically 'right' as this speaker is that no one is making a modern version. It's over half a century old, so patents don't matter. What we know about manufacturing now you'd think we could make a chassis that is much easier to produce and work with (no more f*cking staples and wood screws). You can buy new, 15 ohm LS3/5a's made with real KEF drivers in 2016. But after all this time no one has made a new Quad 57. Bummer. 'A lie is halfway around the world before the truth gets its boots on'. -Mark Twain |
from a business standpoint, posted on February 7, 2016 at 07:48:32 | |
Posts: 16952
Location: San Diego, Ca Joined: November 12, 2002 Contributor Since: June 17, 2003 |
You would need to convince your investors that your legal advisers have given you the green light and assured you no patent issues will arise (remember this is a British company not U.S.). Assuming this passes the first hurdle, setting up, buying the materials, equipment, employing engineers, and a team etc., you're looking at dropping at least a couple million just from the outset. However- I'm pretty sure Quad, a company that's essentially a National treasure in Great Britain, wouldn't take this lying down and would file so many lawsuits against you (regardless if it's legal or not) you'd end up folding from bankruptcy before your first product ever saw the light of day. In this regard you would need at least a million in the 'war chest' in case such a scenario does arise. Ok, let's say you're in China (who as we speak makes vintage Marantz clones -which btw aren't looked upon very favorably) or Korea and you're going to do this on the 'grey market'. You'd still have to employ a team, train them, and convince Americans the product is just as good as the original enough to buy it. Which brings us to the next question- re-creating a vintage product raises a lot of concerns from a consumer's vantage point: -does this product use authentic parts or 'cloned' inferior parts? We all know the original Ford Mustang is a classic but re-creating one in today's market would limit it's production to a "limited edition" series aimed at a collectors market. I won't even begin to think what they'd offer for such a product. However there are exceptions-Apogee speakers live in near-perfect reproduction with Analysis audio, and have been around for some time now.
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