Onkyo files bankruptcy (1 Viewer)

[Sam Posten]

Classic Japanese audio brand Onkyo files for bankruptcy

Maker of stereos and speakers doomed by market shift to streaming and smartphones

asia.nikkei.com

 

[DaveF]

Eep!

 

[jcroy]

Would this matter, considering Onkyo had already divested their consumer home audiovideo equipment division to Voxx + Sharp Electronics late last year?

VOXX International Corporation Completes The Acquisition Of The Audio/Video Business Of Onkyo Home Entertainment Corporation

/PRNewswire/ -- VOXX International Corporation (NASDAQ: VOXX) ("VOXX" or the "Company"), a leading manufacturer and distributor of automotive and consumer...

www.prnewswire.com

 

[jcroy]

Not entirely clear what assets are left in this "Onkyo" corporate shell.

(ie. Besides a ton of debt, office furniture, real estate, etc ....)

 

[Lord Dalek]

Good thing I bought a Yamaha!

 

[John Dirk]

It's sad news nonetheless. As competitors disappear so does the incentive for true innovation and competition.

 

[Jeff Flugel]

Yes, sad news but inevitable. A side note: I taught business English classes at Onkyo's Osaka office for several years. A lot of good people working there, most of them having left the sinking ship long before now. Onkyo's brief and misguided attempt to break into the tablet market did not help their fortunes any.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

It's sad news nonetheless. As competitors disappear so does the incentive for true innovation and competition.

Long term this can’t be great.

I don’t mean to be all “sky is falling” because I know it’s not a direct comparison but look how brutal consumer electronics manufacturers have been in recent years about culling product lines that don’t meet what may be absurd expectations. 3D capability got removed from TVs because not enough people were using it. Apple just eliminated the iPod because selling 3 million units a year was considered a failure.

There are a lot of things that AVRs can do that are just of no interest to the general public. On one hand you’ve got the most advanced multichannel sound format ever with Dolby Atmos, but on the other hand, the vast majority of the public is choosing to use built in TV speakers or a sound bar. The growth categories seem to be in smart wireless speaker devices operated with your phone.

So without panicking or anything, more as an existential question because I know there’s a lot more to Onkyo folding than any one particular thing, I just wonder how any niche product line can survive in an environment where nothing short of mass adoption is considered a success.

 

[John Dirk]

I just wonder how any niche product line can survive in an environment where nothing short of mass adoption is considered a success.

I think, for product lines that do survive, the answer will be in increasingly steep prices to offset lower volume. Witness what is already happening with JVC and Sony projectors.

 

[JohnRice]

I think, for product lines that do survive, the answer will be in increasingly steep prices to offset lower volume. Witness what is already happening with JVC and Sony projectors.

At the same time, for the stuff us nuts like, smaller brands are taking up the slack. People looking for a $500 receiver will probably only have 2-3 to choose from, but for good stuff, companies like Anthem are already beating the mainstream brands. They don't have to sell millions of them to believe it's worth doing.

 

[Robert Crawford]

At the same time, for the stuff us nuts like, smaller brands are taking up the slack. People looking for a $500 receiver will probably only have 2-3 to choose from, but for good stuff, companies like Anthem are already beating the mainstream brands. They don't have to sell millions of them to believe it's worth doing.

The Anthem 1140 looks damn good, but it's not available anywhere yet.

 

[John Dirk]

At the same time, for the stuff us nuts like, smaller brands are taking up the slack. People looking for a $500 receiver will probably only have 2-3 to choose from, but for good stuff, companies like Anthem are already beating the mainstream brands. They don't have to sell millions of them to believe it's worth doing.

Absolutely true but this also leaves them little incentive to provide fair pricing, timely product launches, etc. Oh well... Being an enthusiast was never meant to make practical or economic sense.

 

[JohnRice]

Absolutely true but this also leaves them little incentive to provide fair pricing, timely product launches, etc. Oh well... Being an enthusiast was never meant to make practical or economic sense.

I think you know how unnatural it is for me to see the sun shining. Help me out, just a little bit.

 

[John_Bilbrey]

Wow, didn't see this coming. Long-term, less competition is not good. Although it paves the way for the smaller guys to bring innovative products to market, the "cost" of such innovation will continue to go up. As bad as I hate to say it, in this day of streaming audio "quality" and MP3s, hi fidelity is lost on most of the population. They're fine with listening to built in TV speakers or a cheap sound bar (check out my sound bar! It has a sub!).

Having said that, I'm soon to be guilty of buying a sound bar (but not a cheap one). However, I still have my dedicated movie room upstairs with a proper AVR and discrete speakers. I haven't bought a new AVR in a couple of years, my most recent Denon is running like a champ.

 

[Josh Dial]

The Anthem 1140 looks damn good, but it's not available anywhere yet.

For what it's worth, I believe "most" of the supply issues have been resolved and vendors (and least in Canada and the US) are starting to see somewhat reliable stock levels this month (after pre-orders are filled, of course).

I managed to snag an MRX-1140 back at launch last February, and (again, for what it's worth) I can attest to the quality. After a few weeks (not months like the internet trolls would have you believe), all the ARC issues were shaken out. The last few beta firmware updates have been quite excellent, including adding true support for two subwoofers (or four if you have the AVM90), obviating the need for REW or a miniDSP. Indeed, I compared using ARC to balance my two SVS SB16s against using my miniDSP, and I preferred ARC.

 

[DavidJ]

The Anthem 1140 looks damn good, but it's not available anywhere yet.

And it or the 740 were what I had hoped to get when I did my upgrades but I eventually gave up and went another direction.

Like Sam (and John) posted above, I too am concerned about the long-term impact.