Denon/Marantz - the end is near

[PHD]

Denon/Marantz the end:

channelnews : Former Sound United Business Could Be “Discontinued” Next Year After Falling Revenues, No Buyer and Losses Claims New Director

Masimo executives are back calling their consumer audio business Sound United, with a senior executive on a conference call this week claiming that they will move the business into being a “discontinued operations” if and when the board decides “to no longer pursue a spin-off, of the this...

www.channelnews.com.au

The Denon X800 and Marantz Cinema series lines may be the last ever as Sound United is about to go belly up.

Should we dispose of all D&M AVRs?

 

[EWL5]

To which altar shall we sacrifice our Denon/Marantz units (JBL's, Arcam, or any other Harman brand)?

 

[Chr1]

If any of y'all are within a five mile radius of me, I'll come collect...
May as well start hoarding AVRs too.

 

[amper42]

Denon/Marantz the end:

channelnews : Former Sound United Business Could Be “Discontinued” Next Year After Falling Revenues, No Buyer and Losses Claims New Director

Masimo executives are back calling their consumer audio business Sound United, with a senior executive on a conference call this week claiming that they will move the business into being a “discontinued operations” if and when the board decides “to no longer pursue a spin-off, of the this...

www.channelnews.com.au

The Denon X800 and Marantz Cinema series lines may be the last ever as Sound United is about to go belly up.

Should we dispose of all D&M AVRs?

While there may be no current buyers for Sound United, it's possible a white hat buyer will come in at bargain basement prices and pickup Denon/Marantz for 5 to 10 cents on the dollar. The leadership at Sound United was poor and needs to be left behind. Denon still has a big enough following that it can compete in the right hands with a reasonable price tag. The days of $2000-$5000 AVR's on a mass scale are no more. More reasonably priced gear with a focus on reliability would be a profitable business.

 

[EWL5]

PAC is in the same boat, if I'm not mistaken! Didn't they lose the Pioneer Elite and Esoteric license last month?

 

[kyuu]

If Denon were to revamp their lineup with updated form factors (smaller size, a nice screen, not looking like the same boxes from the 90s) and class D amplification while maintaining or even improving measured performance I'd become a customer of theirs once again.

 

[Oddball]

Sound United is not to go belly up necessarily. It has been designed for spin off for quite a while and all this means that now it will be officially designed for sale.

If any buyers out there to be determined. Their revenue decline and losses are honestly a rounding error on a bigger balance sheet. Masimo was never the right long term buyer, although they managed to push out some of best D&M products and we should thank them for that.

I wish luck to D&M as one of the iconic brands. It is true that their line up and offering will need to be consolidated as business needs to make money. I don’t think they just need to continue with 3800H as their value power house. There is room for more but probably with much less overlap between Denon and Marantz.

 

[VintageFlanker]

 

[Oddball]

PAC is in the same boat, if I'm not mistaken! Didn't they lose the Pioneer Elite and Esoteric license last month?

Looks like much worse than D&M. But interesting that there is no brother news coverage. I guess nobody really thinks it's a big deal except us nerds and addicts .

channelnews : Vox International Up For Sale, As Consumer Sales Plunge, Pioneer Brand Dropped

Sales at US sound Company Vox International the owners of Premium Audio Products, Klipsch, Onkyo, Acoustic Research and formerly Pioneer, is still spiralling downwards with their consumer audio category down 35%, overall sales which include their automotive business were down 18.6% in the last...

www.channelnews.com.au

 

[quattro98]

I hope Denon/Marantz remain viable. I am interested in the AVR/processors. The software and HDMI reliability of Denon is nice. Not having a product with constant glitches is great. Unlike many other audio brands, Denon, Marantz, and Bowers & Wilkins all have updated products. They aren't defunct brands.

 

[mns3dhm]

Masimo's new management will not liquidate Sound United and the associated brands like Bowers & Wilkins, Denon, Marantz, etc. They're just not happy with the financial proposals they've received from potential acquirers. I'd consider Masimo a motivated seller at this juncture as they've made it clear they do not consider Sound United as a strategic business and indicated a desire to sell. This is the dilemma of the motivated seller in general - when people know you don't want something, they will make low ball offers to begin negotiations. Exacerbating this is the fact that the brands, while valuable, become increasingly less valuable to potential buyers as time goes on and the businesses deteriorate. This will get resolved sometime in the near future and Masimo will accept the highest offer they can get.

 

[Oddball]

If I had a billion, I’d bet that D&M is worth at least half of it. Sadly, not that much in my pocket.

Brand is worth much more than its sales or such. D&M is huge in AVR space and seems like dominant. Is there a future for AVRs is a different question but whoever wants to find that out might want to acquire D&M.

And also people might want to pay a few bucks more for Marantz audio in their cars. Always hated Bang and Olufsen in my car as it was real crap for the price, but I bet most people would take Marantz over stock if reasonably priced. Then there are TVs and other audio devices where this brand could be recognized as value add.

 

[vert]

I learned the other day Lincoln cars in the US have Revel speakers

 

[EERecordist]

The most recent Marantz industrial design is in house. To me it is well done. https://www.instagram.com/begumtomruk/

 

[kyuu]

I mean sure, the Horizon thing looks neat and I'd love to see one on Amir's test bench. However, beyond the price there's also this:

All that work into the design and no one even thought to have a way to route the wiring through the base instead of making the wires stick out the back? Sheesh.

 

[ban25]

In other news, Bose buys McIntosh:

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/11/19/bose-buys-mcintosh-storied-maker-of-high-end-luxury-audio-equipment.html

 

[ban25]

Masimo's new management will not liquidate Sound United and the associated brands like Bowers & Wilkins, Denon, Marantz, etc. They're just not happy with the financial proposals they've received from potential acquirers. I'd consider Masimo a motivated seller at this juncture as they've made it clear they do not consider Sound United as a strategic business and indicated a desire to sell. This is the dilemma of the motivated seller in general - when people know you don't want something, they will make low ball offers to begin negotiations. Exacerbating this is the fact that the brands, while valuable, become increasingly less valuable to potential buyers as time goes on and the businesses deteriorate. This will get resolved sometime in the near future and Masimo will accept the highest offer they can get.

Exactly. D+M is not going anywhere, but a healthcare electronics firm is not the right owner, as shareholders indicated the day the acquisition was announced. As such, Massimo is a motivated seller. The volume home theater market, which was once occupied by low-end AVRs and HTIB, is being eaten by soundbars, if it isn't gone already. HT manufacturers like D+M need to move upmarket to maintain relevance with the smaller, more well-healed customer base that still wants to invest in a full discrete home theater. Marantz has done a great job of that FWIW, with products like the AV10, Model 10, and Cinema 30. Do they need 1:1 duplication across the board with Denon X3800H/Cinema 50/4800/C40/etc? Not sure, but that will be for the eventual buyer to decide.

 

[GD Fan]

Exactly. D+M is not going anywhere, but a healthcare electronics firm is not the right owner, as shareholders indicated the day the acquisition was announced. As such, Massimo is a motivated seller. The volume home theater market, which was once occupied by low-end AVRs and HTIB, is being eaten by soundbars, if it isn't gone already. HT manufacturers like D+M need to move upmarket to maintain relevance with the smaller, more well-healed customer base that still wants to invest in a full discrete home theater. Marantz has done a great job of that FWIW, with products like the AV10, Model 10, and Cinema 30. Do they need 1:1 duplication across the board with Denon X3800H/Cinema 50/4800/C40/etc? Not sure, but that will be for the eventual buyer to decide.

Definitely ripe for rationalization of the product lines.

 

[Timmy]

Seems that my imagination about an »ultimate« Denon CD-Player won’t come true after all

 

[Oddball]

There is more to come in the future. Marantz already ventured into speaker space, albeit with huge sticker price and performance to be evaluated.

Speaker packages would be next sensible move to optimise lower end HT packages. People often do all kinds of compromises and then not happy with it. Package it all up, optimise design and there you go. Could come on S, M, and L sizes as well. Many happy customers. Apple did that a while back and never looked back.