So then, if one was a Harman fan, what would they like for them to offer? I'd be hard pressed to see them stray away from what they have already done, at least with JBL. That would seem like a lot of work just to end up with a different looking version of what everyone else is doing. It seems like it would be kind of tough to be Harman in the current consumer audio market.
Modern music has kind of suffered the same kind of fate, it seems, with the best ideas already having been used up a couple decades ago.
Most of Harmon's loudspeaker lines are currently shadows of their former selves. Buy 'em and turn them into clones of each other, competing in the same consumer space. Infinity is a good example ... at one time they produced what were considered the best loudspeaker in the world (The Infinity Reference Standard).
Barely a decade later, Infinity is sold to Harmon (1983) and immediately began a move deep into the mass-market consumer space, and into car audio. Flagship Infinity models begin to disappear, and finally do completely disappear. Many of Harmon's brands are examples of a drive to mediocrity. Not that they are terrible, but to wake up a Mustang when you went to bed a McLaren is still a significant change.
JBL is a special case, as it was Harmon's first acquisition, the resulting company more of a merger than anything else. So they get a little grandfathering in the consumer side, and are a key player in the Pro side (JBL's consumer and pro divisions are completely separate, and always were).
I was talking to a Soundcraft rep who was an old friend of mine and was, at one time, my employee, at a funeral of a mutual friend, a musician with a few solo releases. Soundcraft make recording consoles and are a Harmon International brand.
Quote: "We own everybody."
