Brands

Voxx Announces Final Deal to Acquire Onkyo, with a Twist

June 29, 2021 by Ted 1 Comment

Voxx International has announced that they have finalized their agreement to partner with Sharp Corporation to acquire the Home Entertainment Division of Onkyo – news that Strata-gee readers knew about last week. The news comes as a result of Onkyo shareholders voting last Friday to approve the sale of the company to Voxx’s subsidiary known as the Premium Audio Company. Not much was new here on the Onkyo front, as we already told you about the deal only covering the Onkyo and Integra brands. However, we did learn some more interesting details on the company’s attempts relative to the Pioneer and Pioneer Elite brands.

See what’s happening with Voxx, Onkyo & Pioneer

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SnapAV and Control4 are Rebranded as Snap One

June 29, 2021 by Ted Leave a Comment

SnapAV Execs Hindman & Vaughn Explain the Rationale Behind the Change to Strata-gee

Recently, in a special Zoom presentation for Strata-gee by SnapAV executives Jeff Hindman (Chief Revenue Officer) and Kordon Vaughn (VP Marketing), I was about to learn about the company’s new brand strategy going forward. Ever since SnapAV acquired their largest division, Control4, there has been much speculation about how to address the market with two strong, well-known brands. I joked, “So what’s it going to be…ControlAV or Snap4?

It turns out I wasn’t that far off, as the executives shared with me that they would be rebranding the organization as Snap One.

Learn more about how SnapAV became Snap One…

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End of an Era: Onkyo Shareholders Vote to Sell Off Home Entertainment Division

June 25, 2021 by Ted Leave a Comment

Photo of Onkyo Atmos models at CE Week — *Onkyo Atmos-ready AV models at a past CE Week [Click to enlarge]*

BREAKING NEWS

In a rather terse announcement to investors posted today, Onkyo Home Entertainment Company, Ltd. announced that, by a majority vote of company shareholders, the sale of the company’s Home Entertainment Division to Voxx International has been approved. This vote of approval was widely anticipated and represents the last formality in the transfer of the company over to Voxx. This is the first time since 1945 that Onkyo’s parent company is no longer involved in the home entertainment business.

See more on this end of an Onkyo era

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TOLA Expo: Industry Groups Partner for Super-Regional In-Person Dealer Expo

June 23, 2021 by Ted Leave a Comment

A group of industry manufacturer sales representatives in the Southwest has partnered with Samsung to produce one of the first in-person industry dealer events in more than a year called the TOLA Expo. The event, which takes place on June 29-30, 2021 covers a huge region – organizers refer to it as a “super-regional show” – drawing from the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas…hence, TOLA.

Learn more about next week’s TOLA Expo

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Congress Prepares to Regulate Big Tech, Yet They Top ‘Most Trusted Brands’ Poll

June 18, 2021 by Ted Leave a Comment

>Learn How to Improve Consumers’ Trust in Your Brand

Many political observers have declared the end of bi-partisanship, as the political right and left seem further apart than ever before in the history of the country. Yet there is one area where both parties agree, it is time to rein in the big tech players. Ironically, in a new poll of the 15 most trusted brands in the world, we find a lot of tech represented – including some of the Big Tech players. Is Congress out of step with the American people? And how important is “trust” to a company or brand anyway?

See the most trusted brands & how to improve yours…

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MQA – Voices Arise in Harmony with a Video Critique from ‘GoldenSound’

June 17, 2021 by Ted 22 Comments

Part 2 – We Go Deep into the World of Those Opposed to MQA & Bill Leebens Speaks with GoldenSound

STRATA-GEE: This is the second installment of our series on the controversy engulfing MQA, conducted in partnership with guest poster Bill Leebens. In this post, you will learn more about those who are critical of MQA, with some going on the record for the first time for this story. MQA has been controversial almost from the beginning – with an intense opposition that ebbs and flows over time. But as we told you in our introductory installment (see MQA Controversy – A True Audio Breakthrough? Or a Marketing Scam?), a recent YouTube video critique from an audiophile not involved in the audio industry, has spurred a huge resurgence of interest (that video had over 267,000 views!), in part because of the perhaps naive but seemingly earnest reasonableness of “GoldenSound” and the heavy-handed backslap from MQA.

Learn more on why some oppose MQA

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SnapAV Says Latest Control4 OS 3.2.2 Update Offers Full Support of OvrC

June 1, 2021 by Ted Leave a Comment

SnapAV announced today (Tuesday) that its latest rendition of its automation brand Control4’s OS 3 operating software – OS 3.2.2 – finally introduces full support of the company’s popular OvrC remote management platform. No doubt part of their ongoing integration strategy since they first acquired Control4, this news is sure to make life just a little easier for their Control4 dealers who support OvrC.

See more on Control4’s OS 3.2.2 & OvrC

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Onkyo Releases Final Fiscal 2021 Numbers and I Am Stunned

May 25, 2021 by Ted 10 Comments

Onkyo Classic OCP-1 — *Is this the future of Onkyo?*

I recently told you that the Onkyo & VOXX/Sharp deal has been delayed from a firm May 20th date to sign a definitive agreement, to a more hazy “sometime” in late May, according to an announcement released by Onkyo to investors in Japan. At the same time the company put that announcement out, they also released the final numbers for their fiscal 2021 results – the fiscal year ending March 31, 2021. The only way I can characterize these numbers is to say that they are…in a word…stunning.

See the Onkyo results for fiscal 2021…

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B&W and Abbey Road Studios to Collaborate on In-Car Systems

May 13, 2021 by Ted 1 Comment

Bowers and Wilkins (B&W) and the famed Abbey Road Studios announced this week that they have formed a new collaboration to further advance the state-of-the-art for in-car entertainment. The two companies have worked together for years with Abbey Road studios using B&W speakers for monitors in their studios. Now the partners will extend their relationship in the furtherance of this new venture.

See more on this B&W and Abbey Road Studios venture

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SnapAV Takes Preliminary Step Ahead of Registering for Public Offering

May 12, 2021 by Ted Leave a Comment

In a move that has been widely anticipated for some time now, Wirepath Home Systems LLC, the corporate name for SnapAV, has filed paperwork with the SEC to preliminarily begin the process of registering their stock for sale to the public. We learn little in the rather terse announcement from the company, but many in the industry had expected this day would come for years now.

See more on SnapAV taking steps to go public

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Brands

Voxx Announces Final Deal to Acquire Onkyo, with a Twist

See what’s happening with Voxx, Onkyo & Pioneer

SnapAV and Control4 are Rebranded as Snap One

SnapAV Execs Hindman & Vaughn Explain the Rationale Behind the Change to Strata-gee

Learn more about how SnapAV became Snap One…

End of an Era: Onkyo Shareholders Vote to Sell Off Home Entertainment Division