Recently, I read about the LSA Group purchase of DK Design, in particular, the DK Design MK series integrated amplifiers. During this acquisition, LSA hired John Tucker of Exemplar Audio to help redesign the tube preamp section of the MK series amplifiers as well as improve parts.
Steve Nugent of Empirical Audio will also join hands with an audio OEM. I forget the name of the OEM, but Steve will be dealing with computer circuit designs to merge and enhance computer based audio.
Alex Peychev of APL HiFi is now an OEM of his own products.
Tube Research Labs have been working with OEM for years.
It seems the audio OEMs are taking notice of the better modders. If you can't beat them, join them. Too bad for many of us who rely on modifications to improve the performance of our gear. It seems the best modders will be too busy doing jobs for OEMs and won't have time for consumer modifications. If they manage to find time, the waiting period will likely be long.
