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The history of audio-video over the past 75 years or more is populated with brainy engineers and acoustical design people who were very good at thinking up new ideas that capture the attention of the public.A lot of these peple were good enough to be able to found companies frequently bearing their names.
These guys were great thinkers, engineers and designers, and in the audio area were blessed with golden ears too.
Most of them, however, were much better at designing stuff then they were in the practial problems of managing a company to make money from their good ideas (see related discussion on Saul Marantz & Superscope).
Think of all the loudspeaker manufacturers that were separate companies in the 1960s and 70s.
I can count the companies that are survivors on one hand, if that.
Advent under Kloss sold a gazillion small and large Advents. Part of the appeal was the sound of an AR3 at 1/3 the cost. I've heard that despite having a hugely popular speaker, the company barely broke even in the best years, if that. There was an expensive dealer network to feed and water. The wholesale cost maybe covered the cost of the drivers and cabinets, but there was no money to cover the overhead of the company. Kloss was more interested in getting a workable projection TV, and that drained any small amounts of money being made selling loudspeakers.
I've often thought about why there were so many manufacturers of loudspeakers. This continues to present more or less, but mostly at the very high end. The answer of course is that one could start a speaker company with only modest amounts of capital, and a really good designer could come up with a design that sounded way better than it should given only modest parts cost. If this is successful, margins could be excellent. So a lot of guys tried this. The vast majority failed over the longer haul in keeping the company operational.A lot of audio people are critical of Bose, the designs and the pricing, but Amar Bose and his company survived and prospered. Bose must have gotten good business people and accountants around him very early on and never went the "sell it cheaper" route. Also, As the home audio market for speakers deteriorated, Bose formed alliances with automakers and also in PA and commercial audio that took up the slack and kept the company viable. I have always been more impressed with Bose products in those areas than their home audio products.
I'm listening to my Nakamichi headphones made by some company that must have bought the name along with the company history. Nakamichi made great 3-head cassette decks, expensive but superior to any others, but never figured out how to transition into the digital music era...Time marches on. The business world is often cruel to audio and video designers big and small (ask Sony about this, or Pioneer) and something newer and cheaper can render what you are doing obsolete nearly in an instant (Sony never really successfully transitioned from the Walkman to the mp3 player, and lower-cost but still high quality companies like Vizio (and Samsung) played havok with their TV business, not long ago considered among the best there was (Trinitron, Bravia).
David
Edits: 11/26/14Follow Ups:
Interesting read David & so true!Thanks for posting it! I often wondered how much longer Magnavox would have survived if Phillips would have not bought them out. The same goes for LG bailing out ZENITH! 2 big American Companies who were successful,both in Audio & video!
As to Magnavox, probably not much longer but might have made it. Competition like V-M, Capehart, RCA, Zenith, Motorola, Sylvania and others had left the field as a major factor or due to business practices that were firmly routed and not being changed might have benefited Magnavox in picking up part of their market share. The company had committed to trying to revitalize and gain traction. It had developed a solid receiver design in the 1500 series but still had not invented and developed a new marketing strategy such as getting acceptance by the audio shops. Sylvania had just experienced this with its intro of US made receivers that were actually very competitive in quality, sound and specs but, it took did not break the mold as to distribution and within a couple of years languished.
Magnavox and Sylvania likely should have created a new branding for their attempts and employed the then tradition independent audio manufacturer representatives like almost all audio companies did. These guys could canvass, assess and get orders whereas, Magnavox and Sylvania was used to a potential dealer chasing them down and maybe in 6 to 8 months get through the red tape. Philips had realized this problem in the US and had a 2 model distribution system.
Magnavox at the time still was quite financially sound but, like GM and Kodak had too much idle capacity that was draining them. If they had constricted to reduce the idle capacity, started to send production of product overseas and partnered with other companies as an outsource producer, it might have survived for some time, possible as a specialty manufacturer of high quality receivers and components. It might have even merged with maybe Sherwood to capitalize on their name, reputation, quality and, distribution network. Sherwood resisted going overseas for production and in doing so, the dream team owners had had enough. With Magnavox was the its capital new products of Sherwoods high quality could be developed. Just thinking about what might have happened. They might at the time also taken over EICO. The company was profitable but got lucky. They had just built a new facility to consolidate all activities. The US Postal Service needed to expand its facilities and the new building was just the ticket. There was a deal cut, money transferred hands and the owners decided to kill the company. As a manufacturer and for some decades it was in the financial industry as it was a public company. Eventually, the families took it private and finally just divided the treasure chest, closed the company and? Magnavox could have taken the EICO business, did a buyout of Sherwood and the results might have been interesting.
Instead, Philips wanting to establish the American presence grabbed up Magnavox and there's is history. Magnavox was in some ways a good deal for Philips as the company became a major CD manufacturing facility for Philips. It marketed the Magnavox brand but limited competition by not allowing both Philips and Magnavox electronics products lines. Eventually a few years later as the US invasion plan failed, Philips acquired the Marantz name and no longer needed the Magnavox label in its effort to get a fothold in the US market.
Don Brian Levy, J.D.
Toronto ON Canada
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