Hot off the presses, Sound United is acquiring Onkyo/Pioneer

[Ponzio]

Wow!!! this some amazing news and not in a good way from my point of view. I believe that once competition has fewer players in the game, innovation suffers, and monopolistic tendencies rear its ugly head to the detriment of the consumer. Inevitable as this is I don’t see this as good news.

As a long-time Yammy audio equipment fan I would never have predicted that I would be part of the resistance.

Ironically I just took ownership of a RX-A3070 a couple of days ago. Vive la résistance!

 

[hk2000]

They will ruin Onkyo and Pioneer just like they ruined Marantz and Denon!!! In the meantime Yamaha's stuck just shot up- at least in many audiophile minds.

 

[MR.MAGOO]

They will ruin Onkyo and Pioneer just like they ruined Marantz and Denon!!! In the meantime Yamaha's stuck just shot up- at least in many audiophile minds.

How did they ruin Denon and Marantz, people still buy them, don't they?

Whatever bad aspects the brands Denon, Marantz, Pioneer, Onkyo, DefTech, etc all have, THAT is what needs to be "ruined" IMO.

 

[shadyJ]

How did they ruin Denon and Marantz, people still buy them, don't they?

Whatever bad aspects the brands Denon, Marantz, Pioneer, Onkyo, DefTech, etc all have, THAT is what needs to be "ruined" IMO.

Agreed, how was Denon and Marantz ruined by Sound United? I don't see that.

Anyway, consolidation in this market segment is inevitable since it is a shrinking market, not a growing market. I don't know if it is a good thing or bad thing to have Sound United own so much. It could have advantages but it could also have disadvantages, and my guess is that it will be a mixed bad for consumers. The only sure thing is that there were bound to be less players in the AVR market since sales have been on a continuous decline. Maybe Sound United buying Onkyo and Pioneer was the best possible outcome. Better than them just closing down in bankruptcy. I do hope that Sony sticks it out, but I'm guessing they will throw in the towel in this market not too long from now just like Harman-Kardon.

 

[MR.MAGOO]

Agreed, how was Denon and Marantz ruined by Sound United? I don't see that.

Anyway, consolidation in this market segment is inevitable since it is a shrinking market, not a growing market. I don't know if it is a good thing or bad thing to have Sound United own so much. It could have advantages but it could also have disadvantages, and my guess is that it will be a mixed bad for consumers. The only sure thing is that there were bound to be less players in the AVR market since sales have been on a continuous decline. Maybe Sound United buying Onkyo and Pioneer was the best possible outcome. Better than them just closing down in bankruptcy. I do hope that Sony sticks it out, but I'm guessing they will throw in the towel in this market not too long from now just like Harman-Kardon.

If this page from Crutchfield is any indicator, Cambridge Audio might be next to throw in the towel!

https://www.crutchfield.com/g_10420/Home-Theater-Receivers.html#&clearAll

 

[lovinthehd]

Wasn't Marantz originally ruined when they sold out to Superscope? or was it Philips? Or the various versions of D&M? Denon may have had to wait until the formation of the first D&M by comparison. In any case it seems market forces have had their way with the fate of such products...

 

[rslspeakers]

Hope they keep Audyssey room correction on the Denon and Marantz lines.

 

[scott911]

I fully expected to see a thread overrun by commentary on how this near-monopoly was going to be bad thing. But most seem to not think this will be a problem, and it's not even April 1st yet.

It's like the MTD buy-out of most lawn equipment manufacturing companies. Look at the part's manuals or whites, cub cadet, Troy-Bilt, bolens, yard man - the biggest difference between mowers, snow blowers, etc. is paint color! That's what you'll be getting in a couple of years with all those brands - same guts, same engineers, and different nameplates.

Maybe one brand or the other with have a few different capacitors or capacitors that were placed there just to give the audio review blogs will wax on and on about.

 

[Phase 2]

Hope they keep Audyssey room correction on the Denon and Marantz lines.

I hope they have a really big sale!!

 

[Grandzoltar]

Many consumers go the sound bar these days. I don’t think they will assimilate all the brands. I do hope they share technologies though. So you might see pioneer jump back into the race with Denon and Marantz. I don’t see Sony jumping into bed with them. Sony has to much other stuff going on to sell out to the big conglomerate.

 

[lovinthehd]

Many consumers go the sound bar these days. I don’t think they will assimilate all the brands. I do hope they share technologies though. So you might see pioneer jump back into the race with Denon and Marantz. I don’t see Sony jumping into bed with them. Sony has to much other stuff going on to sell out to the big conglomerate.

Not just soundbars but the entire universe of portable tunes via phones/pads/earbuds/headphones etc. Smaller households. Even new home wireless systems like Sonos offers are very popular. The demands for avrs let alone pre-amp/amp combo seem to be irreversibly shrinking. Pioneer has been maintained separately somewhat by Onkyo, altho some of their MCACC tech seems to have migrated over to AccuEQ since....might be interesting to see what happens with licensing of Audyssey....maybe it will go back in Onkyo (like my old one).

 

[sdleslie]

I have been buying, installing, programming and recommending AVRs for 15 years. I settled in on Pioneer Elites after many adventures with most of the other brands. In the article you state " Pioneer just made their receivers even better after they (with Onkyo) joined forces." I cannot agree with this at all, there was no joining of forces. In fact after my purchase of an SC-LX701 I was so disappointed that I went to eBay and bought an SC-99. I posted a detailed comparison between the two on the AVS forum but am not allowed to post links so search for post 7779 on 8-21-2018 on the SC-99 AVS Forum.
Onkyo in so many ways did away with the great Pioneer Engineering that made their products great. Yes the D3 Amps and Speaker AB remain but not much else. I see Sound United doing what Onkyo did and making four brands all the same eliminating the competition that has benefitted the consumer in the past. I do not share your optimism, we'll see how this plays out!

 

[gene]

Hasta La Vista Baby!

Sound United Terminates Acquisition of Onkyo & Pioneer

 

[VonMagnum]

It's probably for the best. D&M would have too many AVR brands, IMO. There should be at least some differences between them, not just 7-channel inputs and HDAM... Onkyo would be just another nameplate.

 

[Dave J]

I had a weird feeling that something would go wrong (but I didn’t know what). ONKYO needs to stop trying to “get rich quick” and focus on putting out some serious high performance and highly reliable audio for the money. Since it appears (to me at least) that home theater is slowing down, ONKYO has an opportunity to make some serious high performance two channel music audio equipment.

 

[Dave J]

It's probably for the best. D&M would have too many AVR brands, IMO. There should be at least some differences between them, not just 7-channel inputs and HDAM... Onkyo would be just another nameplate.

That’s true come to think of it.

 

[Dave J]

Wasn't Marantz originally ruined when they sold out to Superscope? or was it Philips? Or the various versions of D&M? Denon may have had to wait until the formation of the first D&M by comparison. In any case it seems market forces have had their way with the fate of such products...

I came into audio during the Superscope era. That is the only Marantz that I knew and I thought it was quite good. I have never heard any of the really early Marantz.

 

[Dave J]

They will ruin Onkyo and Pioneer just like they ruined Marantz and Denon!!! In the meantime Yamaha's stuck just shot up- at least in many audiophile minds.

Yamaha? That would not surprise me. Yamaha’s two channel gear is great.

 

[MR.MAGOO]

I guess Sound United wants to be the General Motors of the audio/video world?

 

[AndYL]

Well judging from the Zero stock of Pioneer or Onkyo entry level stocks in Europe this is either optimistic or assume Covid19 is responsible? Looking at the many complaints over reliability in Marantz reviews I'm starting to fear for my options for a next affordable amp. What the hell is going on?