Sound United has been sold....

[highfigh]

It is not very practical to use active speakers when your listening room doesn't have the wiring with the appropriately located AC outlets to power them.

Outlets are added in homes very frequently- why is this a deal-breaker? WRT other cables, the custom integration industry was built on this- some don't like to do retro cabling, but some of us made a career on it. A stick-built house is easy, if the basement isn't finished, somewhat more difficult if it has been. Access holes in drywall can be repaired and homeowners need to understand & accept this.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Samsung bought Harman/Revel.

So why not Apple buying Masimo/B&W/Marantz/Denon/Classe?

I have faith.

 

[highfigh]

Masimo (owner of Sound United) posted earnings today. From their earnings call: Sure. Thank you. Yeah, I think as I've mentioned before, one of the reasons we acquired Sound United was for their audio engineers as we were planning to get into the hearing aid market for low to moderate hearing loss. So with the help of that team, the help of the neuro team in Australia and our own engineering team here in Irvine, we are developing what I hope will be a revolutionary hearing aid. And we call that H1 for now, that might stick as the final name. But I think H1 should be available for sale this year.

Their "non healthcare segment" consists of sound united and their hear aids. Non healthcare posted a negative revenue of 11% CAGR over the last two years. Hear aids is negligible though growing. Buying sound united for engineering help with their hearing aids sound like Bullish.. to me. I would be pissed if I were an investor/boardmember. No mention on the call about sound united products.

OTOH, as the population ages, more hearing aids will be needed but if their plan is to disrupt that industry in order to put the competition out of business, it is BS.

As an investor, if the corporation is making money, why is the change in direction a problem?

 

[highfigh]

Probably the only standard connectors will be the HDMI plugs!

If that happens, they'll deserve every bit of the problems they allow and cause. I have commented for over a decade that the HDMI port and cable end are structurally a terrible design and my opinion hasn't changed.

How many people actually know that the screws over or under HDMI ports were originally intended to be used for securing a retainer for the cable ends? People didn't use them, the manufacturers stopped including them and laughed all the way to the band when people damaged their cables and equipment's HDMI ports.

But the market knows all about how this stuff works, right? Trying to tell people what will and what won't work is like talking to a wall.

 

[highfigh]

Samsung bought Harman/Revel.

So why not Apple buying Masimo/B&W/Marantz/Denon/Classe?

I have faith.

Because it involves Apple.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Because it involves Apple.

Never know. Could be good or bad. I think it will be good as long as Apple allow Sound United to continue doing what they have been doing.

All iPhones and iPads will come with a free Audyssey App.

Might even turn the Denon remote phone app into something good - follow in the footsteps of Yamaha's MusicCast.

Doubt it. But shoot. It could happen.

 

[highfigh]

Never know. Could be good or bad. I think it will be good as long as Apple allow Sound United to continue doing what they have been doing.

All iPhones and iPads will come with a free Audyssey App.

Might even turn the Denon remote phone app into something good - follow in the footsteps of Yamaha's MusicCast.

Doubt it. But shoot. It could happen.

"Apple allow Sound United to continue doing what they have been doing." Read that out loud without laughing.

Free Audyssey? Maybe, but I think they would charge something, just because they can. Even if it's a dollar, they'll make millions.

Yeah, the Denon apps have been a problem. It's mind boggling that they haven't done better with this- maybe Yamaha has some kind of exclusivity on the way it was written in the way URC and other remote control manufacturers do with those programs.

Personally, I'm tired of the consolidation in the market and distribution. Do you buy from distributors like ADI, SnapOne or the old Allnet? COVID killed Skywalker. Capitol Sales and GetNext Level, but then ADI was bought and they just finished the deal to buy SnapOne.

 

[ryanosaur]

It strikes me as a little premature to worry about this right now. If Apple and Marino are dating, that’s cool. A lot can still happen, though.

Some folk like to complain about Apple, yet my experience has been solid with them.

It would be interesting to see how Apple could leverage the former Sound United family into their program.

It would also be interesting to see if there would be any regulatory red flags between the US and EU and their respective laws about competition. *shrugs

Until an offer is made it’s just speculation, though.

 

[Verdinut]

Outlets are added in homes very frequently- why is this a deal-breaker? WRT other cables, the custom integration industry wa s built on this- some don't like to do retro cabling, but some of us made a career on it. A stick-built house is easy, if the basement isn't finished, somewhat more difficult if it has been. Access holes in drywall can be repaired and homeowners need to understand & accept this.

It's a real deal-breaker then if you don't own the house. By the way, there are not that many powered speakers on the market except for subwoofers. Most accurately sounding full-range ones are passive.

How about the risk of RF interference and other noises related with a low voltage signal on long runs? Optical cables are OK but are fragile. I prefer speaker wires.

 

[highfigh]

It's a real deal-breaker then if you don't own the house. By the way, there are not that many powered speakers on the market except for subwoofers. Most accurately sounding full-range ones are passive.

How about the risk of RF interference and other noises related with a low voltage signal on long runs? Optic cables are OK but are fragile. I prefer speaker wires.

True about not owning the house.

Don't limit your active speaker search to consumer brands and models but KEF and Dynaudio are two brands that make speakers with internal amplification- I checked out the small KEF and they sounded very good. These are very small, but the low end was impressive.

Copper wire loses signal and are subject to interference, optical aren't and if you use optical, you'll never have a ground loop.

 

[Oddball]

Samsung bought Harman/Revel.

So why not Apple buying Masimo/B&W/Marantz/Denon/Classe?

I have faith.

Samsung is a conglomerate and engaged across many industries and has a culture of managing smaller companies as well.

Apple is completely different company than Samsung with extremely streamlined product line and few well defined service lines.

For the good of all of us, I hope that Apple D&M deal does not happen. If it has to be a FANG, Amazon or MS with more diverse businesses would be a better match, although still not the best match. You can’t expect good business decisions if the business is absolutely marginal and overall represents a rounding error in Apple’s balance sheet.

I could see a much better match with Hisense as a rising “lifestyle” brand that is missing this segment. They would hopefully be able to leverage their huge supply chain and R&D capacity to cater to further development of this niche market.

 

[TLS Guy]

Actually, I'm starting to change my view of Apple purchasing Sound United. The are pluses and grave dangers.

The most problematic part of AV systems are AVRs and to a lesser extent AVPs.

With active speakers and Internet, then there really is no need for many to have a receiver or AVP. The whole system could be controlled by a phone tablet or iPad. The only danger would be if Apple tried to make it all proprietary to Apple Music. If that happened then the Feds should sue pronto.
If Apple devised this as an open system it could be very successful. If those who want to use players, turntable and tape machines etc. then all you would need is a switching device controlled from your portable device.

This has the potential to make systems simpler cheaper and more intuitive to use, if the interface is well thought out and user friendly.

 

[multisport4me]

I love Apple. I'm all in on their ecosystem, iPhones, iPads, AppleTV. I hate their M2/3 chips because of their maiming HDMI audio. But otherwise, their stuff just works for me. No fuss no muss.

My main concern with Apple acquiring them is whether they'd actually let them remain autonomous. I just don't know (off-hand) of any M&A's Apple has done whereby they leave the company on their own with own brand, channels, product development, etc.

But it could be a really cool new chapter with Apple as well. As mentioned above, all too soon to speculate.....but to be fair, I said it was merely a rumor so why not have a little fun with idea?

 

[lovinthehd]

FWIW on the subject of Sound United being retained by Masimo I saw this recently https://www.massdevice.com/masimo-consumer-business-separation-sound-united/

 

[multisport4me]

I love Apple. I'm all in on their ecosystem, iPhones, iPads, AppleTV. I hate their M2/3 chips because of their maiming HDMI audio. But otherwise, their stuff just works for me. No fuss no muss.

My main concern with Apple acquiring them is whether they'd actually let them remain autonomous. I just don't know (off-hand) of any M&A's Apple has done whereby they leave the company on their own with own brand, channels, product development, etc.

But it could be a really cool new chapter with Apple as well. As mentioned above, all too soon to speculate.....but to be fair, I said it was merely a rumor so why not have a little fun with idea?

Scratch that - I forgot about Beats. They left that as a separate brand.