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Audionet gone?

Hifi Shark will give a few more options for those of us not resident in the UK. There is one or two in Sweden.
It is a bit odd to have the website disappear from the face of the earth. I would at least expect there to be a statement explaining things for existing customers.
 
I've never looked at the band, but it does seem expensive for the lower part of hi-end. 12k for a CD player and 11k for 200w mono blocks. 26k for a pre-amp. It may sound great (it may not), but it's difficult to make sense of the product range.

Reports show this is a bankruptcy going back to 1 October. No suggestion of anyone buying the assets. Looks pretty final.
 
I don't find there product list confusing, the expensive pre £28k is to match up to their £68k power. What is confusing to me, you seem to think this is the lower part of hi-end. I can only say again my brother purchased their £6.5k amp and it bettered Audio Research,VTL, Vitus, T & A products, costing double or nearly double.
 
Salamander said:
I don't find there product list confusing, the expensive pre £28k is to match up to their £68k power. What is confusing to me, you seem to think this is the lower part of hi-end. I can only say again my brother purchased their £6.5k amp and it bettered Audio Research,VTL, Vitus, T & A products, costing double or nearly double.
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I missed that.

There is a review here.
http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/audionet-pre-g2-linestage-and-max-monoblock-amplifiers/
More interesting is that they were going for 20 years, apparently successfully, and then ...

"Fast-forward to October, 2014, which saw momentous change at Audionet. Thomas rounded out the Audionet “Dream Team” by adding Robert Hagemann (formerly with Dynaudio, KEF, and Burmester) as a managing partner, bringing in Jan Geschke (Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Dali, and Dynaudio) as the brand director, and contracting renowned industrial designer Hartmut Esslinger (Apple, Sony)."

When companies do this stage of development from being a proprietary business failure is quite common. It is often predicated on new products, larger market share or international expansion. Nothing is guaranteed and it's an expensive business. So they bring out a £100k the pre/power combo in 2017 and fail in 2018. My guess is that they were undercapitalised, the expansion did not work and the new product did not sell - or a combination of these factors. Fact is, having been in business since 1994, they made a quantum leap and soon ran out of money.

My experience of looking at hundreds of businesses over more than 30 years is making expensive products that are not demand-driven is a terrible risk and often results in failure. It is no surprise to me that some of the more successful audio companies originated from military applications, such as dCS, Chord, Nordost etc. They demand technology with vast R&D budgets to produce it. Full frequency recordings only came about from unlimited funding provided to Decca in WW2 for military purposes (mainly detecting U boats). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decca_Records#Full_frequency_range_recording_(ffrr)
 
Hopefully these'll be reliable for owners, because they look like an expensive doorstop should a fault occur. Definitely not the sort of gear you can just drop off at any amp repair shop.
 
Yomanze. That would be my concern, too, and that is why I find it strange that no formal announcement can be found on their website.


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EDIT:
sls4321 said:
(...)
"Fast-forward to October, 2014, which saw momentous change at Audionet. Thomas rounded out the Audionet “Dream Team” by adding Robert Hagemann (formerly with Dynaudio, KEF, and Burmester) as a managing partner, bringing in Jan Geschke (Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Dali, and Dynaudio) as the brand director, and contracting renowned industrial designer Hartmut Esslinger (Apple, Sony)."

When companies do this stage of development from being a proprietary business failure is quite common. It is often predicated on new products, larger market share or international expansion. Nothing is guaranteed and it's an expensive business. So they bring out a £100k the pre/power combo in 2017 and fail in 2018. My guess is that they were undercapitalised, the expansion did not work and the new product did not sell - or a combination of these factors. Fact is, having been in business since 1994, they made a quantum leap and soon ran out of money.

My experience of looking at hundreds of businesses over more than 30 years is making expensive products that are not demand-driven is a terrible risk and often results in failure. It is no surprise to me that some of the more successful audio companies originated from military applications, such as dCS, Chord, Nordost etc. They demand technology with vast R&D budgets to produce it. Full frequency recordings only came about from unlimited funding provided to Decca in WW2 for military purposes (mainly detecting U boats). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decca_Records#Full_frequency_range_recording_(ffrr)
Click to expand...

Interesting perspectives.
 
These days with GDPR closing down the website is probably a smart move.

I would have thought most of the products should have many years of enjoyable use left in them. I wouldn't want a software driven item and resale values ...

I bought a new turntable from a UK company that was last of the line. I got an excellent price. It uses standard motors, easy to replace if needed, and Rega belts. I've had years of happy use and many more to come, hopefully.

I've tended to use products from companies whose business model makes sense. These include Quad, Harbeth, Plinius and Linn. They all have relatively small product lines (Linn has more), they are very conservatively managed, the products are only released if they are noticeably better than what went before and the same products sell for many years. I include Linn as a good example of a company that lost focus, came close to going bust, and was refocused by Gilad. Devialet has a completely unique disruptive business model for consumer electronics.
 
I can see why a number of companies dropped the mass market audio stuff in the face of Apple, Sonos etc and rushed up market with super high priced stuff but I imagine when they arrived the competition was even fiercer and the market opportunity more restricted. You need huge marketing spend to win the beauty contest where the audience is PL footballers, Blohm+Voss owners and pharma board members who aren’t ‘hifi enthusiasts’. Some prices are now truly into YMBFJ territory, even for the very wealthy.
 
Yomanze said:
Hopefully these'll be reliable for owners, because they look like an expensive doorstop should a fault occur. Definitely not the sort of gear you can just drop off at any amp repair shop.
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I thought their streamer sections would soon be old hat, with no support pretty worthless

One of the reasons I no longer buy all-in-one gear with the exception of a Qb
 
The streamer section is a uPnP device, nothing that needs updated. Its a platform that is completed.
The DAC section on the other hand has 4x BB 1792 mono modules and two master clocks in sequence, with all the digital inputs I could wish for.
I don’t use the Ethernet connection for streaming however I do use it for controlling the system as it has full remote functions from the app.
Nothing to worry about, but if you’re a neurotic audiophile then I’m sure you’ll find something, regardless. ;-)
 
I'm happy if it works for you CK

Streamer platforms not my strongest admittedly

Perhaps just a bit scared reading the green place and various Uniti issues reported
 
Cereal Killer said:
The streamer section is a uPnP device, nothing that needs updated. Its a platform that is completed.
The DAC section on the other hand has 4x BB 1792 mono modules and two master clocks in sequence, with all the digital inputs I could wish for.
I don’t use the Ethernet connection for streaming however I do use it for controlling the system as it has full remote functions from the app.
Nothing to worry about, but if you’re a neurotic audiophile then I’m sure you’ll find something, regardless. ;-)
Click to expand...

Likewise, with Devialet I use Devialet Air, but sometimes uPnP and can always fall back to usb if needed ... or coaxial, or optical. Streaming provides almost too many options.

That said, if I'd dropped £100k on their Max pre/power amplifier as a little Christmas present to myself last year, I might be a bit miffed. But then as a Ukrainian arms dealer I'd probably send a couple of likely lads round for a chat about a refund.
 
Went to Hamburg to have a listen to some kit. The Hifi store I went to had Audionet on display (DNA /Stern). The message was that the company is not going to be back.
 
The brand name will certainly be held with the receivers so yes 'audionet' may not return as a name. But history with the likes of 'Sonic Frontiers' who became Beyond Sonic Frontiers' after facing similar circumstances, shows there maybe life in a resurrected product lineup from Thomas Gessler and his recently appointed CEO.
 
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