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Brands that disappeared very quickly

Thetiminator said:
How on earth did mana go under?! They were selling them by the bucketload....At a time when Linn/Naim dealers were busting the doors...
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I remember being surprised by that as well. I'd assumed the guy that owned the company (and was very active on their forum) just got bored with it and went off to do something else.

I remember the Mana wars quite fondly and even did a couple of visits to listen to a couple of the mega-stack systems. I was never really a believer in anything other than them being very decent racks, but my LP12 still sits on a Mana wall rack and my Naim amps and CD player still live on Mana racks as well.
 
Joy and Peter Wanstall JPW loudspeakers based in plymouth and Charlie Green leas was Factory production manager (went on to Revolver) and the cabinets were made at Dartmoor Prison in the early days by the inmates
Peter was a big into sailing and eventually went off to sell high end yachts
We used to go down and stay with them In heybrook bay (yes thats where the heybrook factory was) just outside Plymouth

But also a few more to think about

Keswick Audio Design / Bluepoint Acoustics (Dean went on to make Monitor Audio a great success)
Anatek Acoustics Martin was a clever guy and made some lovely sounding stuff
Impluse Loudspeakers
Magnum Electronics
Peter Belt PWB
ARC loudspeakers (john Chapman)
 
Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
Tresham became NVA IIRC.
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Sorry, not quite, do you mind if I correct you.....?
Here's a story...once upon a time in a far away land.....there was a
man by the name of Mark westley...this is his story....

I started Tresham Audio with Richard Dunn in the late 1970's.
I knew him as a Salesman for AR whilst I was working for Audio T in Cambridge ( later becoming TAS, St Ives).
Richard, having little technical knowledge, was the Sales and Financial Director and I was the Technical and Production Director.
Although I was qualified and capable of designing electronic devices, we needed someone more experienced with the ability to design us a Studio Amplifier quicker than I would be able to.
We, therefore employed Barry Porter from Trident, who, having recently had a Nervous Breakdown ( https://tridentaudiodevelopments.com/history/ ) was looking for a more friendly and gentle workplace.
Together with Barry's and my skills and abilities, we came up with our first amplifier, the Tresham SR402. Various products followed. After about 3 years, Tannoy took an interest in us, and our products and purchased the company which included me.
Richard somehow managed to dump all outstanding financial debts that Tresham Audio had accumulated, onto my shoulders.
After Tresham Audio ceased trading, I retained one of the keys to the factory to provide a product inventory for my new employer.I believe Richard may still had his key at this time.
Before this happened, Tresham Audio were working on a bipolar 50 watt/per channel amplifier and had produced a prototype. This prototype mysteriously disappeared from the Test Bench before Tannoy and I cleared the company unit.
As Tannoy- Tresham Manager, with Tannoy, I was responsible for staff training and all the designs and product development and manufacturing for Tannoy - Tresham products.
Coincidentally,Richard started NVA with a 50 watts/channel power amplifier (Bi-polar) and Passive Preamp.
Barry Porter and I used to wind Richard up and joke with him. One of those jokes was telling him that we needed to change all the metal screws to plastic to allow the music signal to escape without distortion! I fear, in this instance , he may have believed us.
Mark Westley
 
donmarrese said:
Sorry, not quite, do you mind if I correct you.....?
Here's a story...once upon a time in a far away land.....there was a
man by the name of Mark westley...this is his story....

I started Tresham Audio with Richard Dunn in the late 1970's.
I knew him as a Salesman for AR whilst I was working for Audio T in Cambridge ( later becoming TAS, St Ives).
Richard, having little technical knowledge, was the Sales and Financial Director and I was the Technical and Production Director.
Although I was qualified and capable of designing electronic devices, we needed someone more experienced with the ability to design us a Studio Amplifier quicker than I would be able to.
We, therefore employed Barry Porter from Trident, who, having recently had a Nervous Breakdown ( https://tridentaudiodevelopments.com/history/ ) was looking for a more friendly and gentle workplace.
Together with Barry's and my skills and abilities, we came up with our first amplifier, the Tresham SR402. Various products followed. After about 3 years, Tannoy took an interest in us, and our products and purchased the company which included me.
Richard somehow managed to dump all outstanding financial debts that Tresham Audio had accumulated, onto my shoulders.
After Tresham Audio ceased trading, I retained one of the keys to the factory to provide a product inventory for my new employer.I believe Richard may still had his key at this time.
Before this happened, Tresham Audio were working on a bipolar 50 watt/per channel amplifier and had produced a prototype. This prototype mysteriously disappeared from the Test Bench before Tannoy and I cleared the company unit.
As Tannoy- Tresham Manager, with Tannoy, I was responsible for staff training and all the designs and product development and manufacturing for Tannoy - Tresham products.
Coincidentally,Richard started NVA with a 50 watts/channel power amplifier (Bi-polar) and Passive Preamp.
Barry Porter and I used to wind Richard up and joke with him. One of those jokes was telling him that we needed to change all the metal screws to plastic to allow the music signal to escape without distortion! I fear, in this instance , he may have believed us.
Mark Westley
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We've had posts like this in past that turned out to be lies, but this sounds quite plausible. Richard was a bit of a contradiction. He had crazy ideas regarding speakers. Removing crossovers, adding steel plates to the cabinet and pouring stuff onto the midbass driver. All done by ear, with no mention of measurements.

Someone with the technical knowledge to design amplifiers is unlikely to be the opposite when it comes to speakers. He used to mention Royd Audio were designed by ear, but I've measured the Minstrel, and there's no way that was done purely by ear. It measures very well off-axis, with no peaks or dips at any angle. This is a sign of good phase tracking, and that can only be done with measurements.
 
Cav said:
I think naim used an idea that vuk first developed which he called the "ball-nutter" - essentially ball bearings in a nut which supported glass shelves.

When I suggested this on the naim forum I was banned.
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Vuk was just one step from being a genius and had a very enquiring and innovating mind. Also a good photographer. He came up with the "ball nut" idea which was cheap and also very effective. I am convinced that Naim pinched concept for the Fraim.

I have a Hutter system which I bought mainly for appearance and they were recommended by Naim until they produced the Fraim when the Hunter was dropped.

I cannot remember the last time anyone mention Hutter.
 
Mick P said:
I have a Hutter system which I bought mainly for appearance and they were recommended by Naim until they produced the Fraim when the Hunter was dropped.

I cannot remember the last time anyone mention Hutter.
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Same here, but it's in the garage. Didn't fit with the space I had when we moved. Hunter is out of business, as far as audio stands go. I was looking for a double width base, but they're pretty much unobtanium now.

The Hunter stand did "do" something, I remember listening to some Stacey Kent after switching from target to Hutter, and it clearly made Stacey sound like a woman rather than a girl.

(Glad to read that you are still around, Mick)
 
Hutter was distributed by Phil March at Phonography when it dissolved Phil took time out and it fell by the wayside
Not sure if their still in business anymore
 
Shanling: Flash Gordon looking valve CD player or amp championed by Hi-Fi World and stocked by Walrus.

Red Wine Audio.

Revolver turntables.

Voyd turntables?
Lavry DAC's?
 
There was a Northern Irish brand of turntable called Strathearn - odd-looking thing with three orange discs equally spaced around the platter. Vanished with the speed of that other celebrated Northern Irish start-up DeLorean
 
What about Albarry...they made some unusual amplifiers at the time, but were never more than a short lived blip on the radar.
 
piccadilly said:
Shanling: Flash Gordon looking valve CD player or amp championed by Hi-Fi World and stocked by Walrus.

Shanling are alive and well. They moved on to make very well received DAPs and have very recently released a compact, top loading cd player/ transport.
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