D&M Holdings Discontinues Snell and Escient

A

admin

Audioholics Robot
Staff member
D&M Holdings sent out a press release today indicating that it is discontinuing its Escient and Snell lines and rolling much of those technologies into its existing/remaining brands: Denon, Marantz, McIntosh, and Boston Acoustics. While D&M will continue some level of support for Escient's existing products, users, dealers and custom installers can expect waning updates for these lines and likely no further developments will be made.


Discuss "D&M Holdings Discontinues Snell and Escient" here. Read the article.
 
Seth=L

Seth=L

Audioholic Overlord
IMHO, this isn't a bad play for D&M. Snell has not had a strong place in the upper end market for some time now. The presense of Snell was more strongly felt in the late 80's and throughout the 90's.

As for Escient; it's difficult to compete in a market with an increasing amount of cost conscious people beginning to utilize similar configurations with a video game consule, Blu-ray player, or home theater PC. The integration of an Escient system may be more seamless, but only a dwindling handful of consumers are interested or able to afford these levels of integration systems.
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
So now the list of decent speakers shrinks further.
 
highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
A friend in the business e-mailed the CE Pro article and I responded by saying that I don't like when a large holding company buys up so many manufacturers. While a separate entity will look at their problems and address them as they come along (when they can afford to), a larger corporation can put them off until they become too large to solve by changing manufacturing processes or suppliers. A separate entity can drop a model that stops selling to replace it with a new one, while a corporation that may have the benefit of more purchasing power, might look at closing the whole company as just another accounting decision.
 
davidtwotrees

davidtwotrees

Audioholic General
I like my Escient Fireball SE-80. I've never needed support as it has never had a problem. I like the music server platform and Seth nailed my nice in the market perfectly. I'm a dinasour at 48. Smiles.
 
adk highlander

adk highlander

Sith Lord
I can't say I'm surprised as far as Escient goes and I must say I've felt something was going on for a while. All their Vision series stuff was not getting updates for the last few months possibly due to the trouble with the copyright issues of burning a dvd. I own both Snell and Escient products and both of them have been bullet proof and offered great customer service when I have had questions.
 
W

westcott

Audioholic General
The only logic to discontinuing the Snell line is to better compete at a lower price level. I think this is the wrong direction for D&M. I would have kept the good name of Snell and let some other lower line go away or be integrated. I trust they will put all the R&D they acquired from the purchase to good use.
 
Seth=L

Seth=L

Audioholic Overlord
The only logic to discontinuing the Snell line is to better compete at a lower price level. I think this is the wrong direction for D&M. I would have kept the good name of Snell and let some other lower line go away or be integrated. I trust they will put all the R&D they acquired from the purchase to good use.
Snell as a brand is unfamiliar to all aside from audiophiles and those that have just been around audio long enough to know what's what. Boston Acoustics is becoming a household name with products ranging from desktop radios to high end speakers. I'm sure D&M's hope is to get into the runnings with the likes of Bose and Klipsch in terms of speaker noteriety, and who can blame them? Next step, get feet inside the doors of your well known B&M chain Best Buy.

Denon just happened to bet on the wrong B&M store when Circuit City dropped Harman International in favor of D&M. That forway couldn't have come at a worse time with one of the ugliest incarnations of Boston Acoustics speakers of all time and Circuit City on it's way out.

Well D&M has chosen again to enter the monster B&M race by placing their products in Best Buy stores, and not just the Magnolia Hi-Fi ones. I predict in the next year you will see Boston Acoustics move into every Best Buy along with their higher end lines in the Magnolia locations.
 
STRONGBADF1

STRONGBADF1

Audioholic Spartan
If the Escient stuff wasn't so expensive they would have sold a ton more...well at lest one more.:)
 
T2T

T2T

Senior Audioholic
Snell as a brand is unfamiliar to all aside from audiophiles and those that have just been around audio long enough to know what's what. Boston Acoustics is becoming a household name with products ranging from desktop radios to high end speakers. I'm sure D&M's hope is to get into the runnings with the likes of Bose and Klipsch in terms of speaker noteriety, and who can blame them? Next step, get feet inside the doors of your well known B&M chain Best Buy.

Denon just happened to bet on the wrong B&M store when Circuit City dropped Harman International in favor of D&M. That forway couldn't have come at a worse time with one of the ugliest incarnations of Boston Acoustics speakers of all time and Circuit City on it's way out.

Well D&M has chosen again to enter the monster B&M race by placing their products in Best Buy stores, and not just the Magnolia Hi-Fi ones. I predict in the next year you will see Boston Acoustics move into every Best Buy along with their higher end lines in the Magnolia locations.
I recall that the Boston Acoustics brand of speakers were carried in the Magnolia / Best Buy stores a few years back. They only had them for a short time ... then, poof, the brand was gone. Now, they're coming back? :eek:
 
G

gholt

Full Audioholic
I have a pair of an older pair of the Boston speakers A-150 they sound good. Not sure if the new ones may be as good. They are 20 years old, but they still work for some things.
 

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