I’ve heard this too, but I’m unclear when it actually happened. The Wikipedia page hasn’t been updated and suggests Philip Swift is the owner. I have a pair of Spendor S3/5Rs in my TV rig, so about a decade old I guess, and they are certainly made in the UK. Fabulous little speakers IMO!
Broadly speaking, ISTM that the high-quality end of HiFi industry is trying to maintain a manufacturing base largely un-adapted to a world of smaller customer demand.i think the problem with hifi, is just so mind bending expensive,that me and most people cannot afford to pay retail, everything i have excluding main cables, and six way musicworks box, is pre owned, not old, i have a Esoteric K01x cd player, there is no way i would pay £20,000, retail,i would have sleepless nights, and magazines, keep banging on that £20K-£30K amps are a bargain, how much does it actually cost to build a amp, say we have a £20,000, amp take off the dealer 50%, then we are down to £10,000, take off the profit then we are down to about £6,000, this includes staff building, r&d, heating and all the rest, if you price it up in parts you would be looking at £3-£4k, and i'm not talking amp casing milled out of a 30kg lump of alli, this subject comes up all the time, about the cost of hifi, PS audio have gone online only in some countries but they have not dropped their pricing, and to say we should go out and buy new, is just plain dafft, cost will be the end of this great hobby, nobody is forcing us to keep upgrading, its what we do, the second hand market in the usa, is doing just fine, and the gear is about a third of new, what's not to like, the problem is it's 110v, amazing gear to be had on audiogon, and the likes, you can't tell me a £20,000, car is made for £3k ish,
i think the problem with hifi, is just so mind bending expensive,that me and most people cannot afford to pay retail, everything i have excluding main cables, and six way musicworks box, is pre owned, not old, i have a Esoteric K01x cd player, there is no way i would pay £20,000, retail,i would have sleepless nights, and magazines, keep banging on that £20K-£30K amps are a bargain, how much does it actually cost to build a amp, say we have a £20,000, amp take off the dealer 50%, then we are down to £10,000, take off the profit then we are down to about £6,000, this includes staff building, r&d, heating and all the rest, if you price it up in parts you would be looking at £3-£4k,
If you are interested in technical performance these have been good times as things like DSP, multichannel, active crossovers, etc... have enabled substantial increases in technical sound quality of recorded music within a room in the home. OK most audiophiles are not interested in that sort of thing but it doesn't mean sound quality in the home has not being improving and for a reducing cost in real terms.
The romantic ideal of rustic stone buildings housing a warren of Harry Potter type characters beavering away on turning out magical products is just an advertising dream.
From what I gather the stock goes/went from Coatbridge to Holland (maybe it's all just sitting there permanently now as site is closed) before being shipped to UK dealer for onward delivery to customer. This was my experience in early October at least.I just have! They are due to be delivered hopefully Monday or Tuesday this week. Does anybody know where they are being assembled now? I assume it is still somewhere in Scotland and. There was a delay on my order of approx 10 days so either they were on the slow boat from China or the production facility was just being set up( Wishful thinking!). The stuff advertised in the Coatbridge auction looks like mostly ancient stuff. The factory site itself looks like a horrible ancient industrial unit. Google the Fyne factory unit it could be anywhere. It is just a modern rectangular box in a nice new industrial estate. The romantic ideal of rustic stone buildings housing a warren of Harry Potter type characters beavering away on turning out magical products is just an advertising dream.
Great, I must hear that through the Ardens later!a friend of mine has a MASSIVE organ in his front room which we heard today , must be 10 foot high by about 10 foot , powered by glorious tannoy dc speakers .... sounds almost as good as the real thing , these dc tannoys are pretty ancient . hopefully tannoy will go on for many more years wherever they are made
this is he playing another organ , his is just as big with the tannoys
i think the problem with hifi, is just so mind bending expensive,that me and most people cannot afford to pay retail, everything i have excluding main cables, and six way musicworks box, is pre owned, not old, i have a Esoteric K01x cd player, there is no way i would pay £20,000, retail,i would have sleepless nights, and magazines, keep banging on that £20K-£30K amps are a bargain, how much does it actually cost to build a amp, say we have a £20,000, amp take off the dealer 50%, then we are down to £10,000, take off the profit then we are down to about £6,000, this includes staff building, r&d, heating and all the rest, if you price it up in parts you would be looking at £3-£4k, and i'm not talking amp casing milled out of a 30kg lump of alli, this subject comes up all the time, about the cost of hifi, PS audio have gone online only in some countries but they have not dropped their pricing, and to say we should go out and buy new, is just plain dafft, cost will be the end of this great hobby, nobody is forcing us to keep upgrading, its what we do, the second hand market in the usa, is doing just fine, and the gear is about a third of new, what's not to like, the problem is it's 110v, amazing gear to be had on audiogon, and the likes, you can't tell me a £20,000, car is made for £3k ish,
Top of the range audiophile equipment on the other hand has become expensive because of a large drop in demand and a large increase in extremely rich people able to casually purchasing the "best" hi-fi without being an enthusiast.
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From what I gather the stock goes/went from Coatbridge to Holland (maybe it's all just sitting there permanently now as site is closed) before being shipped to UK dealer for onward delivery to customer. This was my experience in early October at least.
I dropped into ATC in Stroud the other day........
Yes, dealer mentioned in a phone call, no idea whether UK dealers were aware things would happen so quickly to the point of closure at Coatbridge.Thanks for that. Had to go back over a few threads looked like you got Ardens? Did the dealer tell you that? When I made a query I was told factory was still open and sure they had visited it earlier this year but it is obviously well shut. Surprising that there is no reports in the papers or online as the original attempt to close it generated a lot of noise. I hope the storage thing in Holland is just a 'temporary little arrangement' as one of our Taoiseach claimed when entering coalition with a smaller party and they open up somewhere near Coatbridge.
Funny there was a slight delay on 'production' of my pair so wonder now what that really meant.
In hindsight, if I’d waited, I may have been spooked by the latter Coatbridge news and what seemed like a sudden acceleration of events.
It's very sad to see yet another great British and formerly World leading company lost.
It is but it's really just the name that is lost, or rather the value of the name. The people are still here and doing the job. Just not under the same name. It will be interesting to see what develops in the future. As the Tannoy brand devalues and the owner crashes support and development, will Fyne start taking over legacy support? I'm guessing, no idea. Just wondering how things might go.