Apple Rumored in Possible Buyout of Masimo's Sound United Audio Brands

[Wayde Robson]

This story is crazy, if complicated. Apple is at war with Masimo over their ongoing patent infringement case that presented Apple a loss it's currently appealing. But Apple is rumored to be striking back at Masimo, specifically helping enflame the trouble its founder/CEO Joe Kiani is experiencing with Masimo's board and a specific activist investor. But Apple is also rumored to have made an offer to buy Masimo Consumer, the spinoff company that includes but is not limited to the Sound United audio brands.

Is the buyout offer connected to the patent infringement case? We don't know because the buyout details are part of a confidential filing to the board. But the buyout seems to be the activist investor's carrot on a stick dangling in front of Masimo investors to get them to vote to unseat Masimo's longstanding CEO who also happened to start the company from scratch. If true, it sure makes Apple look a little shady, but maybe that's just life in corporate America.

But the BIG question is... what the hell is Apple going to do with the Sound United audio brands? I'm 50/50 on whether or not it could be a "good" thing. But the other 50% says Apple would be a terrible owner of the Sound United companies.

Details and links to sources in the link below!

Rumor: Is Apple Plotting a Sound United Buyout From Masimo?

 

[lovinthehd]

I remember this being a background threat just due the lawsuit(s?) between Masimo and Apple. I can't imagine Apple being a good owner of these various brands....

 

[TLS Guy]

This story is crazy, if complicated. Apple is at war with Masimo over their ongoing patent infringement case that presented Apple a loss it's currently appealing. But Apple is rumored to be striking back at Masimo, specifically helping enflame the trouble its founder/CEO Joe Kiani is experiencing with Masimo's board and a specific activist investor. But Apple is also rumored to have made an offer to buy Masimo Consumer, the spinoff company that includes but is not limited to the Sound United audio brands.

Is the buyout offer connected to the patent infringement case? We don't know because the buyout details are part of a confidential filing to the board. But the buyout seems to be the activist investor's carrot on a stick dangling in front of Masimo investors to get them to vote to unseat Masimo's longstanding CEO who also happened to start the company from scratch. If true, it sure makes Apple look a little shady, but maybe that's just life in corporate America.

But the BIG question is... what the hell is Apple going to do with the Sound United audio brands? I'm 50/50 on whether or not it could be a "good" thing. But the other 50% says Apple would be a terrible owner of the Sound United companies.

Details and links to sources in the link below!

Rumor: Is Apple Plotting a Sound United Buyout From Masimo?
View attachment 68555

I can't think of a better owner for Sound United than Apple.

This whole audio/AV arena has been dwindling and fossilising for years. There has been next to no appetite for radical change which is long overdue.

The market for all this gear we love is minute in relative terms.

As I have pointed out very few homes have good audio and or AV systems. But in the not too distant past most homes had a fairly decent audio system.

Then came the Internet and the audio budget of families transferred to computers, iPhones and tablets.

I have often told you what a visionary Peter Walker was. He really was an outstanding and unique innovator. Just look at his designs, which are unique and set apart from the herd.

Back 40 years ago he foresaw this radical change in what would consume the family electronic budget.

One of his last creations was this.

That is a digital radio control for linking and controlling Quad equipment. The technology was not available to properly support his concept at the time. So the device fell short on technical grounds. However he told me he foresaw a time when audio gear would be controlled by pocket devices.

What I am continually railing against is lack of innovation.

Hard media is now dying and Internet streaming is taking over at pace. So IT is controlling the game and the future. I know you unimaginative die hards will push back at this again. In time and sooner than you think you will lose the argument.

Our technology and systems need to meet the populace were it already is.

So pretty much every household has at least and iPhone and more likely than not a tablet, and probably a computer or two. So why should they be duplicating it with a receiver?

For most there is absolutely no reason why an AVR or AVP is required for most households, which is probably why they don't have either.

So a phone and or iPad could actually easily replace the front end, connect to the router by Wi-Fi. Almost every home now has Wi-Fi and a router.

Now get ready for AcudefTechGuy to scream blue murder. The right place to put the amps IS IN the speakers. Active crossovers are superior to passive ones. It is no contest. The use of DSP makes it easy to control the crossover and provide time alignment. The later is impossible to do with passive crossovers unless you use first order crossovers which are a nightmare.

So for streaming your Phone or tablet could control your whole system. No extra expense, you already own the gear, just add speakers, or a sound bar if you want.

For those like me who have historic legacy gear an analog interface unit, that also had digital options could easily be designed and controlled from phone or tablet.

This is the obvious way forward.

If I were Apple I would hardly be able to wait to get my hands on Sound United.

Our systems are fossilized and long overdue for radical change.

 

[jinjuku]

Now get ready for AcudefTechGuy to scream blue murder. The right place to put the amps IS IN the speakers. Active crossovers are superior to passive ones. It is no contest. The use of DSP makes it easy to control the crossover and provide time alignment. The later is impossible to do with passive crossovers unless you use first order crossovers which are a nightmare.

A possible solution is to do something like they do with Power over Ethernet. Send both a digital stream and power to the speaker using one cable that low voltage people can install. This would work for the majority of installations with surround excepting subwoofers.

 

[Trell]

A possible solution is to do something like they do with Power over Ethernet. Send both a digital stream and power to the speaker using one cable that low voltage people can install. This would work for the majority of installations with surround excepting subwoofers.

Genelec have a line of active monitors powered by PoE:

4430A - Genelec.com

Looking for exceptional sound over IP? The 4430A offers power, audio and loudspeaker management via a single standard CAT cable, delivering unrivalled flexibility, cost-effectiveness and simplicity of installation.

www.genelec.com

 

[TLS Guy]

Genelec have a line of active monitors powered by PoE:

4430A - Genelec.com

Looking for exceptional sound over IP? The 4430A offers power, audio and loudspeaker management via a single standard CAT cable, delivering unrivalled flexibility, cost-effectiveness and simplicity of installation.

www.genelec.com

Thank you for that post. Those look like the early winds of change, soon to be hurricane strength.

 

[Trebdp83]

Apple isn’t known for wired tech these days but purchasing Sound United could make things interesting for sure. Beats hardly suffered for it. You could see an AVP/AVR with Apple TV built-in and perhaps wireless “Home Play” capabilities similar to “Carplay.”

Apple has recently opened up Dolby Atmos streaming over Airplay 2 in beta. Wouldn’t hurt if Denon/Marantz units supported it. I’m using Siri as my DJ when using Carplay. Siri could also be the “projectionist” in a home theater. There are lots of ways to go here and Apple’s money and recognition can only help Denon/Marantz regardless of anybody’s personal feelings about them. Maybe help with those damn Dolby processing restrictions. That would be nice.

 

[highfigh]

I can't think of a better owner for Sound United than Apple.

This whole audio/AV arena has been dwindling and fossilising for years. There has been next to no appetite for radical change which is long overdue.

The market for all this gear we love is minute in relative terms.

As I have pointed out very few homes have good audio and or AV systems. But in the not too distant past most homes had a fairly decent audio system.

Then came the Internet and the audio budget of families transferred to computers, iPhones and tablets.

I have often told you what a visionary Peter Walker was. He really was an outstanding and unique innovator. Just look at his designs, which are unique and set apart from the herd.

Back 40 years ago he foresaw this radical change in what would consume the family electronic budget.

One of his last creations was this.

That is a digital radio control for linking and controlling Quad equipment. The technology was not available to properly support his concept at the time. So the device fell short on technical grounds. However he told me he foresaw a time when audio gear would be controlled by pocket devices.

What I am continually railing against is lack of innovation.

Hard media is now dying and Internet streaming is taking over at pace. So IT is controlling the game and the future. I know you unimaginative die hards will push back at this again. In time and sooner than you think you will lose the argument.

Our technology and systems need to meet the populace were it already is.

So pretty much every household has at least and iPhone and more likely than not a tablet, and probably a computer or two. So why should they be duplicating it with a receiver?

For most there is absolutely no reason why an AVR or AVP is required for most households, which is probably why they don't have either.

So a phone and or iPad could actually easily replace the front end, connect to the router by Wi-Fi. Almost every home now has Wi-Fi and a router.

Now get ready for AcudefTechGuy to scream blue murder. The right place to put the amps IS IN the speakers. Active crossovers are superior to passive ones. It is no contest. The use of DSP makes it easy to control the crossover and provide time alignment. The later is impossible to do with passive crossovers unless you use first order crossovers which are a nightmare.

So for streaming your Phone or tablet could control your whole system. No extra expense, you already own the gear, just add speakers, or a sound bar if you want.

For those like me who have historic legacy gear an analog interface unit, that also had digital options could easily be designed and controlled from phone or tablet.

This is the obvious way forward.

If I were Apple I would hardly be able to wait to get my hands on Sound United.

Our systems are fossilized and long overdue for radical change.

Innovation costs a lot of money and with uncertainty, comes hesitation in make the moves after the ideas come. Governments can afford it- they lose a ton and appropriate more in the next fiscal year but private entities don't have that luxury.

A big problem with this is that if someone comes up with a great idea, there's a good chance that someone is coming up with another idea that may not be as good, but will replace the better one because of marketing. Preferences on HD-DVD vs BluRay aside, HD-DVD died a very quick death. Beta was technically better than VHS, but VHS won, partially because people could use tapes that recorded more hours, yet the video quality was worse and they inherently had problems with the synch track.

FF to remote controls- Phillips Pronto worked great. It was very /computer-like when it came to programming and when companies came along with simpler versions, people bought them. Integrators didn't because we need reliability, but the consumer market was full of DIY remotes.

That takes us to compatibility between components and brands- some brands don't care about others, they want their stuff to work with their own and if mixing & matching causes problems, so be it. Many of those compatibility problems are gone, but not all- the manufacturers don't use the same brands of control ICs and really, they shouldn't because if that one manufacturer has problems, EVERYONE loses their supply. RAM supply was affected by an earthquake in Taiwan around 2000 and supply was very scarce, so the price skyrocketed. VTuner had problems in about 2010 and most brands of AVRs suffered, except for Yamaha and maybe one other because they didn't use the same feature.

As the owner of a conglomerate with so many brands of the equipment I have worked with for so long, I don't like the idea that Apple will own them. From the standpoint of having a gigantic pile of money to throw at it, fine, but I don't like Apple, for several reasons and their lack of communication WRT problems with their crappy AirPort Express/Extreme hardware is a great example. I first heard, from AppleCare support, that they didn't recommend or support using more than two AirPort devices in the same network.This came after they announced the end of development of network hardware, even though their ads showed networks with three or more devices. When Apple decided to pick a word that had been used in networking for years in their own way, adding an access point IS NOT 'creating' a network but that's what they used, rather than 'extend'. Using 'extend' caused networks to crash, leaving them inoperable until the AirPort device was disconnected and the setup changed.

Then, there's the problem with Apple handheld devices and 'separation anxiety', where they hang onto a node until long after its signal is too weak to work. Apple devices don't roam well in many cases and if they want to work with integration of various brands and types of equipment, they need to make this happen. I predict that their way of combating network issues will involve buying a company that makes network hardware and then, requiring the use of ONLY that brand with their own brands of AV/computers/handhelds.

Apple's favorite word is MORE and they won't sleep until they have it. I also expect them to move more production to China and I don't like that.

 

[highfigh]

A possible solution is to do something like they do with Power over Ethernet. Send both a digital stream and power to the speaker using one cable that low voltage people can install. This would work for the majority of installations with surround excepting subwoofers.

If the manufacturers would actually design and test the subs to prevent ground loops, only a power source and ethernet cable would be needed and DSP control could be at the front end, making the sub's setup more simple. An STP ethernet cable should minimize these problems.

 

[highfigh]

Genelec have a line of active monitors powered by PoE:

4430A - Genelec.com

Looking for exceptional sound over IP? The 4430A offers power, audio and loudspeaker management via a single standard CAT cable, delivering unrivalled flexibility, cost-effectiveness and simplicity of installation.

www.genelec.com

That looks great- if only more people would accept this kind of design.....

 

[Trebdp83]

There is a market for everything. But, the masses don't want anything like an ethernet connected speaker system. Many who think it a good idea aren't actually running out and doing it. Though, there are many overspending on powered Smart speakers such as the Home Pods. They can be used as a stereo pair with an Apple TV 4K.

Now, I'm sure a Denon/Marantz unit equipped with what I am going to coin right here and now as Airplay 3-D and Apple TV OS built-in would appeal to many folk. Airplay 3-D would of course support Dolby Atmos streams from a Smart device but the AVP/AVR would also use Airplay 3-D to send the corresponding channel info from Dolby Atmos signals to multiple speakers in a Dolby Atmos configuration. No, I wouldn't recommend Home Pods for many reasons. But, Sound United comes with Def Tech and Polk Audio so they have lots to work with there.

To sweeten the pot on the wire connections, include Thunderbolt inputs and outputs on the Denon/Marantz AVP/AVRs and finally include a second USB port around back NOT for storage devices but for audio signals from a connected PC/Mac. A tall order maybe, but these outfits need to get on the ball. If Wiim comes out with a compact multichannel AVR with wireless multi speaker connectivity, look out.

Dolby licensing doesn't come cheap. I'm not sure if there is any savings in consolidation there but if there is any, it could be an incentive. There also is not currently any AVP/AVR with Apple Music built into it. Apple could put it into Denon/Marantz units or, like I mentioned, could develop HomePlay, or HomeTheaterPlay so one could use an iOS device to control everything. It all couldn't possibly do worse than the Vision Pro.

Apple could split up AVP/AVR units like they do the iPhone, iPad and Mac. There could be "Pro" models including ethernet and Thunderbolt connections while standard models stay with HDMI and conventional speaker terminals. "Air" models could include the Airplay 3-D wireless connections. I'm just throwing stuff out there but any of it is a step in a new and potentially profitable direction.

 

[Bernie Williams]

Sound United would be much better off as a privately held company (not by private equity). It's a slow growth ,at best, industry. With all the turmoil at Masimo not sure how they could get there.

 

[jinjuku]

Genelec have a line of active monitors powered by PoE:

4430A - Genelec.com

Looking for exceptional sound over IP? The 4430A offers power, audio and loudspeaker management via a single standard CAT cable, delivering unrivalled flexibility, cost-effectiveness and simplicity of installation.

www.genelec.com

We just need a consumer, open, royalty free, standard. In Broadcast and Live Sound we have AES67, AVB.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

We just need a consumer, open, royalty free, standard. In Broadcast and Live Sound we have AES67, AVB.

I think you likely referring to a method of sending digital audio to these speakers as the PoE part itself is an open standard, IEEE 802.3af (PoE), at(PoE+), and bt(PoE++)

 

[Trell]

We just need a consumer, open, royalty free, standard. In Broadcast and Live Sound we have AES67, AVB.

An issue to resolve, though, is the content industry insistence of copy protection for digital audio output. I’m not by any stretch an audio pro but my understanding is that various IP standards (currently), like AES67 and AVB, have no support for copy protection. That will for sure put a damper on adoption. I’m skeptical of analog audio transport in those same CAT cables used for PoE will work well.

 

[-Jim-]

I'm with @TLS Guy on this.

It's really coming to Innovate or Die! And in recent times OEMs haven't been able to see a path to glory (think $$) by investing in innovation; so they have been shrinking and eating each other on the way to a certain demise.

Wireless front ends and powered speakers are the future near term IMHO, but who knows what technology will bring down the road. Innovation will show us the way, and yes it may stumble a few times due to market forces, but at least with it there is a future for this hobby /industry. Apple taking over Sound United may just be the catalyst need to steam roll it.

What do you think?

 

[jinjuku]

If the manufacturers would actually design and test the subs to prevent ground loops, only a power source and ethernet cable would be needed and DSP control could be at the front end, making the sub's setup more simple. An STP ethernet cable should minimize these problems.

You wouldn't want STP. UTP is better. STP represents a ground path.

 

[Trell]

I'm with @TLS Guy on this.

It's really coming to Innovate or Die! And in recent times OEMs haven't been able to see a path to glory (think $$) by investing in innovation; so they have been shrinking and eating each other on the way to a certain demise.

Wireless front ends and powered speakers are the future near term IMHO, but who knows what technology will bring down the road. Innovation will show us the way, and yes it may stumble a few times due to market forces, but at least with it there is a future for this hobby /industry. Apple taking over Sound United may just be the catalyst need to steam roll it.

What do you think?

IMO there are at least two current obstacles 1) Price, 2) Connectivity and 3) Copy protection.

That said, I think that active monitors are great, and for the record I’ve two Genelec 2.1 setups, that have DSP, for desktop usage. We’re very happy with them in our daily usage as consumers and worth the expenses for us. (We’re not audio pro, btw).

Extending that to our living room quickly became very expensive for a 5.1 bed layer only. The preamp output voltage from our AVR, and most others, would likely be too low (using pro audio monitors). Going digital is a no-go due to copy protection unless use very expensive pro audio gear.

 

[TLS Guy]

I'm with @TLS Guy on this.

It's really coming to Innovate or Die! And in recent times OEMs haven't been able to see a path to glory (think $$) by investing in innovation; so they have been shrinking and eating each other on the way to a certain demise.

Wireless front ends and powered speakers are the future near term IMHO, but who knows what technology will bring down the road. Innovation will show us the way, and yes it may stumble a few times due to market forces, but at least with it there is a future for this hobby /industry. Apple taking over Sound United may just be the catalyst need to steam roll it.

What do you think?

I think the real game changer has been the meteoric improvement in the quality of streamed AV, and audio for that matter. When I started streaming in a serious way back about 14 to 15 years ago, it was very second best, if not third best and a hassle. Now there are streams out there that can compete with any disc format. Streams are variable depending on source, but that has been true of all media from day 1.

The issue really comes down to how you can deliver quality to the end home user, at high quality, with minimal hassle at the least expense and reduced domestic clutter.

Job one is building your infrastructure to make use of what people already own.

A big box with a complex operating system and 15 or 16 power amps is so far from what is required and practical for most, to deserve laughing of the face of the Earth.

That anyone would contemplate putting those sort of contraptions on the market I find to be absolutely astoundingly impractical and senseless.

We already have better cheaper, and more elegant ways to provide that in the home.

In the end it really comes down to harnessing what we have in an intelligent and elegant way.

So, in the end it comes down to good design, which through the ages it always has.

 

[jinjuku]

I think you likely referring to a method of sending digital audio to these speakers as the PoE part itself is an open standard, IEEE 802.3af (PoE), at(PoE+), and bt(PoE++)

I was just speaking to the data side of the house. HD-Base T is one such attempt but I've not looked to see if it's an open standard but I'm talking about a consumer open standard that runs across traditional IP.