31–40 of 297 posts
It's too bad Denon (DENki ONkyo) didn't buy this Onkyo to make the merger complete :). I'm guessing it wasn't worth it to go downmarket via Onkyo, and it sounds like Onkyo had been accumulating debt for years.
I had no idea Denon was related to Onkyo :)
I was however surprised to learn that Denon was actually founded by an American in Japan in 1910.
This isn’t big news, the actual “Onkyo” that consumers know will carry on, the Bankruptcy is the remains of the company that had already sold off the hardware divisions. “The company sold its core home audiovisual business to Sharp and U.S.-based Voxx International and its earphones and headphones business to an investment fund, both in September. A joint venture between Sharp and Voxx is expected to continue using t…
The design of the manuals, including the fonts and screenshots were almost identical. The back and front of the units were almost identical. I bet even the guts were identical!
Here is the pioneer unit: https://intl.pioneer-audiovisual.com/manuals/docs/SN29403616...
Here is the Onkyo unit: https://www.onkyousa.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/TX-SR494...
They screwed up their receivers circuit board from 2009 to 2015 ish. All their receivers would fail after 5 years and Onkyo did a massive recall campaign to replace the main circuit board (with all the amps attached.) That must have costed them.
How hard would it be for them to just take their existing stereo and hook it up to alexa or sonos or some other existing streaming service. If the audio quality is good then quality + decent interface seems straightforward?
Most a/v units have long offered good connectivity and even mult-room setups using one. So, interoperability and connectivity are easy. Aside from reasons mentioned in the article, you now have 1-2 generations of people who grew up without having much exposure to a/v receivers and large speaker setups, whether at home or big box store electronic stores. Even the ones who have, the marginal benefit of having pricier a…
That aside though, a stereo setup is something that a lot of people just had. I have a decent one and it’s wired to multiple rooms. If I were starting from scratch I almost certainly wouldn’t do that today—to say nothing of all the components to play four or five different types of media.
This isn’t big news, the actual “Onkyo” that consumers know will carry on, the Bankruptcy is the remains of the company that had already sold off the hardware divisions. “The company sold its core home audiovisual business to Sharp and U.S.-based Voxx International and its earphones and headphones business to an investment fund, both in September. A joint venture between Sharp and Voxx is expected to continue using t…
I was window shopping for an atmos receiver and noticed the manuals and even product design between a certain Onkyo and Pioneer receiver were basically identical. The design of the manuals, including the fonts and screenshots were almost identical. The back and front of the units were almost identical. I bet even the guts were identical! Here is the pioneer unit: https://intl.pioneer-audiovisual.com/manuals/docs/SN29…
But actually I think that had already happened, and that we are just observing now the formal recognition of that fact.
It's too bad Denon (DENki ONkyo) didn't buy this Onkyo to make the merger complete :). I'm guessing it wasn't worth it to go downmarket via Onkyo, and it sounds like Onkyo had been accumulating debt for years.
I had no idea Denon was related to Onkyo :)
The market segment for Onkyo just doesn’t exist anymore - those that want receivers and a HiFi/HT setup are already well served Denon/Marantz and Yamaha (and the “audiophile” world beyond that is a pretty well saturated market). Sony is still around but that’s clearly not their core business.
But the former Onkyo base has been eroded by soundbars and wireless multi speaker setups.
Sad to hear. Growing up I had an Onkyo amplifier that I liked a lot. I picked it up at a garage sale for a few dollars and used it through my teenage years.
It is sad. Many classic brands have gone by the wayside. Not all have been satisfactorily replaced. Onkyo had some very good quality, for a fairly reasonable price.
This isn’t big news, the actual “Onkyo” that consumers know will carry on, the Bankruptcy is the remains of the company that had already sold off the hardware divisions. “The company sold its core home audiovisual business to Sharp and U.S.-based Voxx International and its earphones and headphones business to an investment fund, both in September. A joint venture between Sharp and Voxx is expected to continue using t…
How hard would it be for them to just take their existing stereo and hook it up to alexa or sonos or some other existing streaming service. If the audio quality is good then quality + decent interface seems straightforward?
Many modern receivers support both Chromecast and Airplay, as well as some level of HomeKit / Google Home / Alexa integration. I think for Onkyo, they just fell in an awkward middle. Not as high end as Denon/Marantz/etc. and not as cheap as . Combined with the drastic decrease in people "needing" receivers and speakers (many people now just get a sound bar, or Bluetooth speakers) and the market squeezed them.
A system of passive speakers, an amplifier or two, and the complexities of the user interface (I can't hear the TV, which of these three remotes do I need to push the "source" button on?) isn't actually a good experience -- and in the middle of the market, there's no particular reason it needs to stay this way.
At the highest end, people want analog sound processing. At the bottom end, we have cheap powered smart speakers using Bluetooth for connectivity. In the middle, we could easily have good quality powered speakers and some reasonable mixture of wireless and wired interconnect that didn't require all the legacy nonsense of a separate amplifier/audio receiver.
How hard would it be for them to just take their existing stereo and hook it up to alexa or sonos or some other existing streaming service. If the audio quality is good then quality + decent interface seems straightforward?