Say goodbye to Infinity

sad, but not unexpected.
Harman bought infinity to break into the audio market, and there's been no infinity that I've liked since they quit using Emit tweeters, (and polydome/polygraph midranges), and I've heard most of them.
I said goodbye to infinity years ago, sadly.

jaz
 
False premise.

According to Samsung, they acquired Harman Int'l primarily for its mobile electronics. That includes speakers.

And there's no indication that they're getting out of the speaker business or discontinuing Infinity. If they do shutter it, it will be because the Infinity brand withered on the vine for decades under Harman.

Samsung has produced transducers for years - they're not going to stop making speakers after acquiring several speaker brands ("JBL home audio makes all kinds of money, but we bought Harman for mobile electronics, so goodbye to all that!").

Don't be Chicken Littles.
 
Didn't Harman acquire Infinity to use the name to push car stuff out the door? They didn't quit making home speakers, but they can't have been trying too hard.
 
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Infinity hasn't been an important player in the world of hi-fi since Arnie left the company. Well OK, the last "significant" speakers they made were the Renaissance series.
 
I think there is a shake out in the speaker industry and those big names, faced with competition with smaller (leaner) speaker companies will have to either get leaner themselves, or possibly sell out the brand name. This seems to go on in many industries, the Davids conquering the Goliath's. Maybe some of these big well known brands will keep a small high end part of the business going but I fear for the old names in speaker makers will be heading to the grave as they get bought up and stripped..
 
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Samsung is leaving Harman's leadership team in tact. The status quo will be preserved. The alarmism is unwarranted.
Hope you are right, the world would not be the same without the JBL's of the world still producing speakers (even if I can't afford them). However what happens ofttimes is they SAY that everyone is safe and the companies bought will be left alone, but too often that isn't what happens. First the bean counters show up, and before long fundamental changes are made. Maybe it is a good thing, but mostly bean counters know accounting, and nothing about speakers.
 
Hope you are right, the world would not be the same without the JBL's of the world still producing speakers (even if I can't afford them). However what happens ofttimes is they SAY that everyone is safe and the companies bought will be left alone, but too often that isn't what happens. First the bean counters show up, and before long fundamental changes are made. Maybe it is a good thing, but mostly bean counters know accounting, and nothing about speakers.

I'm confused though because Infinity and JBL haven't really been serious contenders in HiFi for a decade. Harman redirected both of their efforts into big box store offerings years ago.
 
I'm confused though because Infinity and JBL haven't really been serious contenders in HiFi for a decade.
Harman_JBL%20Everest%2067000_BG_Pair_RT-25dbef21.jpg

Yeah, definitely not serious! :dunno:
http://www.jblsynthesis.com/productdetail/everest-dd67000.html
 
HK does own JBL.

It seems that HK was sadly losing interest in the Infinity brand name long before the Samsung takeover.

JBL under HK's new management of Paliwal has essentially abandoned high end and even middle end speakers, and JBL Professional is not making enough profits to be a growth part of the company anymore. Paliwal decided that for the company to be better, and growth oriented, it had to become much more international in scope, product, markets, and personnel. So he's basically sent all of JBL manufacturing to Mexico and Japan, proudly shutting down JBL's Northridge production (leaving only some of JBL Pro there), and over the last two years, fired / let go of the majority of JBL's experienced engineers, including Greg Timbers and Jerry Moro - primarily so that design can go over to Non-US sources and designers. While its true that Harman has done better by concentrating on auto / mobile, and interconnected software (to become a "growth" company), the legacy companies like JBL, Crown, and the like under Harman will essentially wither away or be spun off IF someone wants to continue them - IMO.

IMO, Once Samsung gets what they want out of this merger, and Paliwal rides off to another company to resurrect (his expertise) within 2 years, JBL could either die or go independent.

Samsung is leaving Harman's leadership team in tact. The status quo will be preserved. The alarmism is unwarranted.

The status quo has already been the decline of JBL as they essentially no longer make anything here in the us, but rather slap the JBL logo on Far East produced crap aimed at the convenience audio market - profitable, but hardly the stuff of future legends. But then again, the audio market is so much different from even a decade ago what with mobile this, portable that, bluetooth and internet connectivity, etc. So yes, the old JBL is already dead, and the new JBL will be vastly different, shifting already.

Hope you are right, the world would not be the same without the JBL's of the world still producing speakers (even if I can't afford them). However what happens ofttimes is they SAY that everyone is safe and the companies bought will be left alone, but too often that isn't what happens. First the bean counters show up, and before long fundamental changes are made. Maybe it is a good thing, but mostly bean counters know accounting, and nothing about speakers.

The classic way most companies die, they get all the IP and legacy goodwill out of them, only to have their name slapped around on all sorts of easily sourced Chinese cheap goods, then wither away.

I'm confused though because Infinity and JBL haven't really been serious contenders in HiFi for a decade. Harman redirected both of their efforts into big box store offerings years ago.

JBL can and has produced plenty of fine and great sounding speakers for the US, Japanese, and European markets for the past 20 years - but the market for large and even medium sized speakers has dried up in the US - people want fundamentally different audio reproducers brought on by the desire to have inconspicuous speakers, non-wired speakers, and speakers that are secondary to fidelity, power, and scale, but rather the suggestion of sound and quality, the suggestion of location, surround, and multichannel, and the need for none of it to be seen if possible - the Bose model of sound reproduction. If all that people nowadays listen to is earbuds and soundbars, is it any wonder that traditional speaker designs are not being bought?
 
Samsung is leaving Harman's leadership team in tact. The status quo will be preserved. The alarmism is unwarranted.
Oh please, we were hoping that at the least, Paliwali would be shown the door!
 
JBL under HK's new management of Paliwal has essentially abandoned high end and even middle end speakers, and JBL Professional is not making enough profits to be a growth part of the company anymore. Paliwal decided that for the company to be better, and growth oriented, it had to become much more international in scope, product, markets, and personnel. So he's basically sent all of JBL manufacturing to Mexico and Japan, proudly shutting down JBL's Northridge production (leaving only some of JBL Pro there), and over the last two years, fired / let go of the majority of JBL's experienced engineers, including Greg Timbers and Jerry Moro - primarily so that design can go over to Non-US sources and designers. While its true that Harman has done better by concentrating on auto / mobile, and interconnected software (to become a "growth" company), the legacy companies like JBL, Crown, and the like under Harman will essentially wither away or be spun off IF someone wants to continue them - IMO.

IMO, Once Samsung gets what they want out of this merger, and Paliwal rides off to another company to resurrect (his expertise) within 2 years, JBL could either die or go independent.



The status quo has already been the decline of JBL as they essentially no longer make anything here in the us, but rather slap the JBL logo on Far East produced crap aimed at the convenience audio market - profitable, but hardly the stuff of future legends. But then again, the audio market is so much different from even a decade ago what with mobile this, portable that, bluetooth and internet connectivity, etc. So yes, the old JBL is already dead, and the new JBL will be vastly different, shifting already.



The classic way most companies die, they get all the IP and legacy goodwill out of them, only to have their name slapped around on all sorts of easily sourced Chinese cheap goods, then wither away.



JBL can and has produced plenty of fine and great sounding speakers for the US, Japanese, and European markets for the past 20 years - but the market for large and even medium sized speakers has dried up in the US - people want fundamentally different audio reproducers brought on by the desire to have inconspicuous speakers, non-wired speakers, and speakers that are secondary to fidelity, power, and scale, but rather the suggestion of sound and quality, the suggestion of location, surround, and multichannel, and the need for none of it to be seen if possible - the Bose model of sound reproduction. If all that people nowadays listen to is earbuds and soundbars, is it any wonder that traditional speaker designs are not being bought?

Well stated..
 
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