Blast from the past!

[KEW]

I was researching older subwoofers and came across a thread with this suggestion in the context of $500-$700 subwoofers. I was struck by the attrition rate:

The same batch of names tend to come up in that price range.
SVS
HSU
AV123
ED
EPIK

Wow! I had completely forgotten some of those (until reminded by the post)!
But 3 out of 5 gone!
60% failure rate!
I know at least one of the failed companies involved corruption, but does someone know the story of what put the others under?
Was ID really that risky or was it poor business practices that killed the others!
Note that all of these companies had a decent reputation for making a pretty good sub at the time.

 

[shadyJ]

I was researching older subwoofers and came across a thread with this suggestion in the context of $500-$700 subwoofers. I was struck by the attrition rate:

Wow! I had completely forgotten some of those (until reminded by the post)!
But 3 out of 5 gone!
60% failure rate!
I know at least one of the failed companies involved corruption, but does someone know the story of what put the others under?
Was ID really that risky or was it poor business practices that killed the others!
Note that all of these companies had a decent reputation for making a pretty good sub at the time.

ED and Epik had supply issues and reliability issues that they could not keep up with. Epik released a dual 12" sub that kept on killing its amp after awhile, and they were not able to keep up with the replacements. ED had supply issues and also amplifier reliability problems. You really need to get all your ducks in order if you want to make it as a manufacture direct audio company, and that means reliable suppliers, reliable designs that don't take too much post-purchase support, and promotion. It's really hard to start out as a garage company to try to make it these days. I wouldn't want to do it. There have been other companies that came and went, yet they had good products, which is a shame. You need more than just a good product to make it these days.

 

[lovinthehd]

My Epik Empire is doing daily blasting just fine, tho....

 

[shadyJ]

My Epik Empire is doing daily blasting just fine, tho....

This happened to the dual 12" model, and my guess is the woofers was wired in parallel that created too much of an impedance load for the amp that they were using. It was a low-cost sub, but the problem is taking up so much time and resources to fix a whole bunch of these budget subs that weren't going to have much of a margin anyway. It probably depleted all of the companies resources very quickly. I think it was just a one man shop too.

 

[lovinthehd]

This happened to the dual 12" model, and my guess is the woofers was wired in parallel that created too much of an impedance load for the amp that they were using. It was a low-cost sub, but the problem is taking up so much time and resources to fix a whole bunch of these budget subs that weren't going to have much of a margin anyway. It probably depleted all of the companies resources very quickly. I think it was just a one man shop too.

Oh I'm quite familiar with the whole Empire saga and I'd say it wasn't much more than a one man shop at times for Chad Kuypers (formerly of Ascendant iirc). The 12" model was called the Legend and indeed had horrible amp issues. The Epik also had a fair amount of amp issues, he had to replace mine fairly early on under warranty. Good value subs but he trusted in his amp supply a bit much. Few dual opposed subs outside of the Submersive at that time....

 

[Irvrobinson]

I suspect Velodyne may soon be joining the attrition list. A dealer told me they've shut down their corporate warranty and support services, and parts are difficult to get. The dealer is one of the authorized repair centers. To quote the person I talked to, "Velodyne is not the company they used to be."