[ekovalsky]

28 fulltime years here, no debt, made in USA, still going strong!

That is definitely something to be proud of.  Wish Apogee and Sonic Frontiers applied your business model, maybe they would still be around.

[Al Garay]

Actually Brian. I applaud your accomplishments. That is something to put up on your website and be proud about.

Someday I do hope to listen to Tyson's RM40s so I can truely appreciate them when they are properly setup.

Al

[skrivis]

28 fulltime years here, no debt, made in USA, still going strong!

Definitely something to be proud of.

It's a different philosophy. Others run their business on debt. It sometimes seems that getting financing  and leveraging things is more important than actually producing product. In fact, it's like product is only necessary so you have something to show when you go for your next round of financing.

[skrivis]

It's one thing for a business to take business development loans and fail. Happens every day and it's part of capitalism. To leave town and skip out on debt is unforgiveable though. I for one will never consider buying speakers from a company that did that, I've steered several people towards VR-1s before but never again.

Gary

I've heard about his fudging the truth in the past regarding Cal Tech. I looked at the VSA web site yesterday and found it to be, shall we say, less than truthful.

[JohnR]

Nevertheless, I operated Shamrock Audio for 11-years full-time without ever borrowing a nickle from anyone. That may well have been the second best decision I ever made.

I'll bite... what's the best one?  

[Shamrock Audio]

I'll bite... what's the best one?  

http://www.shamrockaudio.com  

[skrivis]

I'll bite... what's the best one?  

http://www.shamrockaudio.com  

That link seems to be broken. I don't see anything about audio there...

[rmihai0]

Its sad to hear this about Meadowlark. But this is just an example, unformtunatelly. The real problem is that so called "2-channel" manufacturers don't understand that they do have a competition. The old big companies (Technics, Sony, etc). And who is saying that they are manufacturing cheap products it is only partially right. Because they are using cheap components, but they are having designs developed by R&D teams that NONE of the small guys can afford. That is why everybody is hapy when can get a Panasonic XR45 and a Toshiba SD-3950, and modding them the result it will be very close to the so called "high-end" audio.

Yes, it is competition in the market, and you cannot make a fortune in couple of years! You can make a decent leaving doing what you like and, in about 20 years, if you are really good, you can make a fortune.

[JohnR]

I'll bite... what's the best one?  

http://www.shamrockaudio.com  

That link seems to be broken. I don't see anything about audio there...

Mystifying to me too. Maybe this is off-topic for the board

Anyway, too bad about Meadowlark. I owned a pair of Kestrels once.

[art]

We don't realise that we have competition??? You have to be joking.

Some will say the real problem is so-called audiophiles who pay lip service to small manufacturers, but constantly kvetch about why our products are so expensive.

These are the same people who then run out and buy $2000 cables.


Pat

[Tbadder1]

Even worse--the Shamrock Audio link led me to some prostletyzing, bible obssessives trying to foist the good news on us.  Geez this is sad; I am really bummed.

[Brian Cheney]

Competition is fierce in High End audio because most purveyors do not make a profit or have to make one.  They go through OPM (Other People's Money) and when that's gone, solicit more.

Many companies big and small have gone to China now for all their manufacturing.  They don't even open the boxes once they arrive.  What a surprise party for the consumer!  That works both ways: two containers of bad cabinets killed Dunlavy.  Then again, other High Enders I could name charge ten times the landed price of their goods--and the consumer is none the wiser.

Low prices and high quality, along with technological innovation, have kept us in business.  Geez, we sell INTO the Far East.

[ctviggen]

How do you do it, Brian?  You work in an incredibly expensive area of the country and in a field where alsmost everyone manufactures things overseas.  In CT, many of the manufacturing jobs are gone.  My friend, with a degree in mechanical engineering, had to move from CT for lack of jobs.  It's amazing to me that there are any speaker manufacturers based in the US who actually manufacture anything in the US.

[Music Maven]

We don't realise that we have competition??? You have to be joking.

Some will say the real problem is so-called audiophiles who pay lip service to small manufacturers, but constantly kvetch about why our products are so expensive.

These are the same people who then run out and buy $2000 cables.


Pat

I hope I don't offend anyone, but if I EVER buy a $2000 pair of interconnects, I hope they throw in a straight jacket and rubber room!

Jerry

[Brian Cheney]

Yes, it is strange how things worked out.  I have no plans to manufacture offshore and still wire every crossover network myself.  Recently I've taken to bringing home each pair of production speakers for individual  tweaking in my sound room.

Since I do this for a living I have to give people what they want at a price they find attractive.  I hope to continue doing so at least another 10 years.

[skrivis]

We don't realise that we have competition??? You have to be joking.

Some will say the real problem is so-called audiophiles who pay lip service to small manufacturers, but constantly kvetch about why our products are so expensive.

These are the same people who then run out and buy $2000 cables.


Pat

The quality of the product is often more important than the size of the company that made it. I also can't really afford to make too much allowance for your being a little guy.

If you offer me something that the bigger company can't, then I might pay you more. If you're offering the same thing for more, then you're going out of business in a hurry.

It's also not usually considered wise to complain about customers in a public place...

[Eric]

I'll bite... what's the best one?  

http://www.shamrockaudio.com  

That link seems to be broken. I don't see anything about audio there...

Mystifying to me too. Maybe this is off-topic for the board

Anyway, too bad about Meadowlark. I owned a pair of Kestrels once.

It looks like to me he is saying that believing in CHrist was the best decision he has ever made

[doug s.]

We don't realise that we have competition??? You have to be joking.

Some will say the real problem is so-called audiophiles who pay lip service to small manufacturers, but constantly kvetch about why our products are so expensive.

These are the same people who then run out and buy $2000 cables.


Pat

nope, yure wrong here.  the folk that complain about expensive products do not run out & buy $2k cables.  these are the folk that complain about expensive products, remember?!?     these "complaining"  folk will search out bargains wherever they exist - diy, small companies that offer walue for money, huge conglomorates that happen to produce outstanding product due to economies of scale, etc.  lotsa these kindsa folk right here on audiocircle, as a matter of fact!  

the folk that run out & buy $2k cables are the kinda folk that have no qualms about paying a small company like red rose music $7k for an amp that they can buy for $1200, w/a different name silkscreened on it.  these kinda folks are more interested in talking about how much money all their shite cost, instead of being interested in how the reproduced music sounds.

i try to be an educated consumer.  i will spend what most folk consider a lot of money for an audio product - if it offers good walue & excellent sonics.  

ymmv,

doug s.

[art]

I have been buidling high-end gear about 20 years longer than you have. My experience backs up my statement. The people who complain the loudest are usually the first ones sucked in by hype. And since those types are not my customers, I can ridicule them in public.

You are right that they are more interested in talking about their gear than whether or not it sounds good. As long as they can read somewhere that it sounds good, that is all that it takes. How else can your explain someone buying cables that cost more than a cheap used car, and are the same in terms of functionality.

Pat

[PhilNYC]

C'mon, folks...it's really simple.  There are a ton of high end speaker/audio-gear manufacturers serving a relatively small niche of audiophiles.  Coupled with the used market, it's just a case of there being more manufacturers and products out there than the demand for products warrants.  Some companies are going to go out of business for the simple reason that there's not enough demand to sustain all of these companies.

Which companies survive is a function of many things...quality, quality control, marketing, distribution, pricing, cost control, customer service and ultimately profit margin and volume.  In the end, it appears that Meadowlark didn't manage all these things as well as other companies.  That they would run from creditors is surprising and irresponsible (and somewhat hard to believe!)...why they didn't declare bankrupcy and use the associated legal protections to work their way out of it is a mystery...