I'm a little surprised these four companies combined sold for only $350M.
Unfortunately the market is quite small and shrinking. I wish more people wanted great sound rather than phone/tv speakers (or soundbars).
Samsung is paying $350M for audio brands B&W, Denon, Marantz and Polk
121–130 of 344 posts
Re: Samsung is paying $350M for audio brands B&W, Denon, Marantz and Polk
#122Now there are more avenues for Samsung to shove bloatware down our throats. I have a modestly high-end home theater and it is utterly maddening waiting for devices to “boot” and “handshake”. And after the wait, I’m presented with another “User Agreement” to sign that insists on shoveling ads down my throat and harvesting data. How much do you have to pay for a quick boot, no ads, and a private movie or music experien…
I use Meridian standalone active speakers which just take a PCM stream. An HDFury Vertex2 can strip the audio from HDMI
Re: Samsung is paying $350M for audio brands B&W, Denon, Marantz and Polk
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sonarr, Radarr, Lidard are completely free, no ads, and private. Throw in JellyFin and Kodi and you're set -- no financial cost.
Which one of those replaces a Denon AV receiver to accept a bunch of inputs in various formats (HDMI, phono, optical, etc) including Dolby Atmos and ARC support to drive a multi-room 15.4 speaker system?
You could perhaps consider looking at some of the class D amps coming out of CN. Remarkable stuff considering the price and power output.
SMSL has some good, well reviewed products; as do WiiM and quite a few other brands.
The Audio Science Review forum (1) has objective measurement based reviews of many of the newer amps, standalone and integrated.
I’m using the SMSL AO300 to drive Boston Acoustics VR3 floor standing speakers in a study, and they’re sound as good as they did when they were on an older Yamaha amp, or a Denon integrated amp.
Edited to add: most (none?) of the class D integrated amps can’t do Dolby -(licensing, I suspect, is the main issue here), so you’ll need to get a receiver in the middle for HTS though.
Edited post edit (sorry!): turns out Wiim streamers can now do 5.1, so some options are slowly emerging. (2)
(1) https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?forums/am...
(2) https://faq.wiimhome.com/en/support/solutions/articles/72000...
Re: Samsung is paying $350M for audio brands B&W, Denon, Marantz and Polk
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 90+% of the things people complain about would no longer be a problem if they got a traditional A/V receiver, plugged all their sources such as streaming boxes and game consoles into the receiver, and just used the smart TV as a monitor (and as a tuner if they watch OTA television). The problem there is the terrible UI of those A/V receivers, designed by committee that upholds long-standing traditions. It takes a l…
The Harmony remotes used to solve this problem - I am dreading the day my old Harmony One dies.
Kind of — Harmony remotes still had way too many buttons, you had to keep them pointed at the thing being controlled for the entire duration of a sequence, things could get desynced, and we shall not mention the horrible software, right?
Re: Samsung is paying $350M for audio brands B&W, Denon, Marantz and Polk
#125I'm a little surprised these four companies combined sold for only $350M.
Unfortunately the market is quite small and shrinking. I wish more people wanted great sound rather than phone/tv speakers (or soundbars).
Indeed. My custom-built, sound proof, no-window, 150-inch screen, laser projector, 7.2.4 THX-rated speaker, 10 seat, dedicated home theater room is driven by about 80 pounds of dual rack-mounted Denon AVRs. I'm going upstairs now to disable automatic firmware updates before Samsung can start spamming me with ads.
Re: Samsung is paying $350M for audio brands B&W, Denon, Marantz and Polk
#126[flagged]
Re: Samsung is paying $350M for audio brands B&W, Denon, Marantz and Polk
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
Same. Back in the mid 80s I spent way more than was sensible and bought myself seperate NAD pre/power amps, Boston Acoustic Speakers, and a Rega turntable for my birthday. I not only still have and use all that gear, but have since bought more of the same brands 2nd hand mostly from the same era, so I now have 5.1 surround in my lounge room, and stereo amp/speaker sets in my kitchen, office, bedroom, and guest bedroo…
I’d think there would be a market opportunity here. I have an old 70’s amp, and the switches/knobs are a bit noisy. Sure, I spray it down with contact cleaner, and it fixes it for a few years each time, but the dial light bulbs are starting to burn out. Most of its internals are hand soldered and switches /relays/etc that would be cheaper, better and more reliable with modern technology. Even though it was hand wired…
As someone with a metre-high stack of vintage recievers in his closet, I think a significant part of the appeal is the feelie aspect. If you put the guts of a Marantz 22xx in a black plastic case with a modern RCA logo in it, it would languish for five years in the back of a Goodwill.
But the feelies are the hard part. An attractive bespoke case is expensive to build and ship. Some of the stuff (high-grade tuning capacitors) probably simply can't be had in quantity without opening a new production line.
I know there are a bunch of DIY kits that claim to be circuit-equivalent to popular vintage amplifier designs, and there's the Akitika range, but they're still not really a turnkey "it's your favourite vintage model, but with zero hours on it"
Re: Samsung is paying $350M for audio brands B&W, Denon, Marantz and Polk
#128Great, lets wait for samsung to ruin Denon.
Re: Samsung is paying $350M for audio brands B&W, Denon, Marantz and Polk
#129I spent several years at B&W prior to the Sound United and Masimo era, so this news makes me incredibly sad. I hope Samsung doesn’t run the company into the ground.
There are lots of good people left at B&W. If they are afforded the autonomy they deserve, everything will be fine. If not…I guess we’ll see.
Re: Samsung is paying $350M for audio brands B&W, Denon, Marantz and Polk
#130Great...Samsung buying the competition. Denon makes great audio receivers. I expect them to turn to junk soon.
They were owned by medical device company. Same company that sued Apple and why we don’t have an oximeter on Apple Watches in the US.