Great Post
Excellent post, Zumbo. I thought I'd post the paragraph on Denon. They "merged" with Marantz in 2001, as well as McIntosh. I didn't know they were also involved with Mission, Dali, Arcam, and Infinity! Hmmm.
Denon
A Japanese manufacturer that curiously enough is best known in the west for their consumer audio and home theatre products but is better known in Asia as a supplier of professional audio products especially in the broadcast sector. Notable for selling the worlds first digital audio recorders and later the first hard disk recorder. Originally founded in 1938 as Nihon Denki Onkyo but soon became better known by the shortened form, but "Den-on" can mean "electric sound" in Japanese. The company was taken over by Nippon Columbia in 1963 and Denon absorbed what used to be the hardware arm of that company, it's for that reason that Denon still releases consumer electronics using the Columbia brand in Japan. Later became a part of the Hitachi group and likewise absorbed some of the audio product lines of that company, was re-established as a fully independent entry in 2001 but merged with Marantz in 2002 to form D&M Holdings but R&D and marketing remains separate from the mother company. Denon USA also acts as the NA distributor for Mission and Denon Japan acts as the distributor for Dali, A & R Cambridge (ARCAM), Infinity and Kimber Kable. Official homepage. US homepage.
Distributed in Malaysia by Hwee Seng Malaysia, in Romania by Lotus Telecom, in Singapore by Hwee Seng and in Switzerland by Koenig Apparate AG.
Here's the beef on the parent company:
D&M Holdings
The company that owns Denon, Marantz and McIntosh. Created in March 2002 by the merger of aforementioned Denon and Marantz companies with additional finace from USA based venture capitalists, what makes this merger unusual and the reason why the companies are listed seperatly is that they decided to keep the sales, R&D and management of the companies mostly separate but to rationalise and merge on the manufacturing and logistic side of things. The company bought MacIntosh from Clarion in March 2003 but that company is run separatly as well. Official homepage.