What happened to Harman International?

[Seth=L]

After reading a post on another thread by No.5 I thought to myself, what has happened to the once reputable Harman International. It seems all their stuff just went to the dogs.

Infinity keeps going down hill, they just dropped their flagship in favor of some aesthitically pleasing crap. JBL apparently has reliability issues with the amplifiers in their subs and just as well in the H/K receivers. Circuit City apparently dropped Harman's stuff for D&M Holdings' Denon and Boston Acoutics. I wouldn't be surprised if Best Buy starts selling Harman Kardon receivers soon, Magnolia Hi-Fi already does.

When a Hi-Fi company like this starts dealing through Target, you know they are in trouble.

So did they just get some new cheap CEO or what?, just what is going on over there at Harman International?

 

[emorphien]

I don't know what's going on. I still know people buying the H/K receivers and loving them and having no trouble, but I have heard they're not supposed to be as reliable anymore. Since mine is 4 years old it's been fine, but I really don't know if I would buy another H/K receiver. If I were in the market now I'd probably wind up with a Denon unless I had more than $6-700ish to spend.

 

[stratman]

Does Sidney Harman still own the company? What about the Mark Levinson and Proceed lines?

 

[highfihoney]

Does Sidney Harman still own the company? What about the Mark Levinson and Proceed lines?

Mark Levinson owners with service/warranty issues have been having trouble with harmon for quite a while now,buying a used peice of ML gear is a scary move till they get back to the same service they used to offer ML owners.

 

[Seth=L]

The Esoteric stuff should still be fine, but I am not thrilled about spending that amount of money, I could buy a house instead. Those divisions operate pretty seperate from Harman International I believe.

 

[highfihoney]

The Esoteric stuff should still be fine

I wouldnt want to bet my cash on that,there have been quite a few ML owners complaining of terrible service issues like incompetent people answering the telephones to seriously long waiting periods in getting their gear returned to them after service.

 

[stratman]

Man that is scary. I have a Proceed cd player, which has been bullet proof, but I shudder sending it to a company in disarray.

 

[Seth=L]

Man that is scary. I have a Proceed cd player, which has been bullet proof, but I shudder sending it to a company in disarray.

You need to get some pics of the proceed and post it on the 80s-90s cd player thread I started.

 

[no. 5]

Infinity keeps going down hill, they just dropped their flagship in favor of some aesthitically pleasing crap.

I better pick up some Beta's befor thay are gone.
I think I've heared that the Cascade's are'nt too bad... I mean, as far as a coat hanger thin speaker can be.

any word as to how Revel is doing amid all this?

 

[Seth=L]

I better pick up some Beta's befor thay are gone.
I think I've heared that the Cascade's are'nt too bad... I mean, as far as a coat hanger thin speaker can be.

any word as to how Revel is doing amid all this?

I don't like the Betas very much, it is the grills. It isn't aesthetically appealing to me and I wouldn't think it would offer much in the way of acoustics. I suppose I could listen to them without the grills though.

Not sure on Revel, honestly I know very little about them.

I own a pair of Infinity Interlude 10s. I love them, and they look nice to me.

 

[no. 5]

I don't like the Betas very much, it is the grills. It isn't aesthetically appealing to me and I wouldn't think it would offer much in the way of acoustics. I suppose I could listen to them without the grills though.

thay look better with out the grills off anyway.

BTW, how do the Interlude's sound? bright, neutral, laid back?

 

[Seth=L]

thay look better with out the grills off anyway.

BTW, how do the Interlude's sound? bright, neutral, laid back?

Well I made an entire post and went to submit it and Mozilla desided to take a crap on me.

The Interludes sound warm in mids, can be boomy if placed near walls or corners. The highs can be grainy, but not bright in my opinion.

The produce a strong center stage if positioned correctly, I have heard wider soundstages like my NHT 1.5s. I have also heard deeper soundstages from other speakers.

These speakers are best for classical, jazz, and slower paced music. That doesn't mean they don't perform well for dynamics and fast paced material, only they do their best with former mentioned genre and types.

 

[Tomorrow]

As an owner of (snicker-snicker...I hear you) 4 different models of JBL and two different models of Infinity speakers, I'll state that, to my ears, they represent a value beyond what members this forum will believe. I've auditioned tons of brands trying to 'upgrade' out of these old dudes (including some A/B switching vs. the JBL's), and the only brands that beat them are in the 4 to 5 grand per pair (mains) stratosphere. The closest I've come to saying "those sound just like my JBL S312 mains" are the largest Monitor Audio Silver floorstanders. (The MA's were a bit harsher to my ears.)

On the other hand, I wouldn't buy an H/K fugly rx and the JBL S120PII subwoofer I owned wouldn't put out much more than a horse phart.

These guys still know how to make speakers, IMHO, especially their professional gear. But alas, speaker sound is all between the ears, anyway. Nevertheless, I wouldn't buy H/K electronics with your money, much less mine.