Sound United - as expected - found a new home under Harman umbrella

[Oddball]

HARMAN Completes Sound United Acquisition to Expand Premium Audio Leadership

STAMFORD, CT – September 23, 2025 – HARMAN International ("HARMAN"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., focused on connected technologies for automotive, consumer, and enterprise markets, today announced it has completed the...

news.harman.com

It is finally done. Let's see how it works out for SU.

Speaking of D&M, they seemed to have kept the focus during the transition and albeit no new line or products, Dirac ART is apparently going to land in the next couple of weeks on all D&M gear supporting 4 independent subs. Bringing such advanced technology to gear that starts at $1K is admirable given that it was only available on Storm and derivative processors and AVRs costing more than $15K.

 

[mhardy6647]

It will be interesting to see if and/or how the various brands and products will be deconvoluted.

 

[PristineSound]

Harman will let B&W be. What a shame, B&W is an abomination of high fidelity.

I’ve spoken to Harman about its Sound United acquisition, and I think the future’s bright for Bowers & Wilkins, Denon and Marantz

“We think each brand has a special place, especially in the high-end market…”

www.whathifi.com

 

[Oddball]

It's good that they are thinking of D&M as their crown jewel. That brand defines the state of mainstream HT audio in many ways and even if not making big money, it is a what should be nourished and fed to prosper. After all, it's a rounding error on Samsungs balance sheet, but highly visible in the headlines and enthusiast community.

 

[dlaloum]

Harman will let B&W be. What a shame, B&W is an abomination of high fidelity.

I’ve spoken to Harman about its Sound United acquisition, and I think the future’s bright for Bowers & Wilkins, Denon and Marantz

“We think each brand has a special place, especially in the high-end market…”

www.whathifi.com

Well given they have Revel, Infinity, JBL, B&W, DefTech, Polk and Boston Acoustics.... they can handle quite different "voicings" in the various brands!!

I Just wish there was a space in that extensive suite of speaker brands, for a traditional acoustic suspension floor stander, like Boston Acoustics used to make in the 1980's.... they were great sounding speakers, and provided fantastic value performance.

But yeah lots of room among all those brands for varying "styles" - but my gut feeling is that several of these will simply be left to die on the vine... Boston Acoustics is already effectively dead, Infinity is almost dead...

 

[jhaider]

Harman will let B&W be. What a shame, B&W is an abomination of high fidelity.

I’ve spoken to Harman about its Sound United acquisition, and I think the future’s bright for Bowers & Wilkins, Denon and Marantz

“We think each brand has a special place, especially in the high-end market…”

www.whathifi.com

Ouch. So AKG is the red-headed stepchild and Revel and Polk are peers.

 

[Dougey_Jones]

Beautiful, now I can get a steep discount on almost everything anybody would want in the HiFi and HT world.

 

[IngMishael]

Harman will let B&W be. What a shame, B&W is an abomination of high fidelity.

I’ve spoken to Harman about its Sound United acquisition, and I think the future’s bright for Bowers & Wilkins, Denon and Marantz

“We think each brand has a special place, especially in the high-end market…”

www.whathifi.com

Gotta keep the quirky sound loving audiophiles in house

 

[Dougey_Jones]

Ouch. So AKG is the red-headed stepchild and Revel and Polk are peers.

“You’ve got a UK/Europe-based loudspeaker, which has a different sonic signature from a US-based, dome and cone speaker, such as a Revel or a Polk, or a horn or waveguide speaker, such as a JBL. There's a different sonic character. So we believe there's a market for all those brands to coexist. Maintaining that core identity of each brand is, I think, imperative.”

I think you're being a little hyperbolic in your interpretation of what he said. I find it more troubling that they're going to willfully preserve B&W's "house sound".

 

[jhaider]

I think you're being a little hyperbolic in your interpretation of what he said.

He made the comparison, not me.

I find it more troubling that they're going to willfully preserve B&W's "house sound".

Why? People seem to buy them for better or worse. The way I see it keeping B&W colored is an insurance policy for Revel even if the reasoning offered is nonsense.