AudioNervosa

The Market => Manufacturer News => Topic started by: richidoo on April 15, 2010, 12:28:35 PM

Title: D&M's Snell Acoustics and Escient brands kaput
Post by: richidoo on April 15, 2010, 12:28:35 PM
http://www.audioxpress.com/audiobytz/down_memory_lane.htm

http://www.snellacoustics.com/
http://www.escient.com/

(http://www.snellacoustics.com/a7-illusion-award.jpg)

I guess the new D'Appolito designed speakers didn't take off. Speaker biz is tough.
Title: Re: D&M's Snell Acoustics and Escient brands kaput
Post by: bpape on April 15, 2010, 01:13:36 PM
That's really sad about Snell.  I had a pair of Type A's for years and loved them.

Bryan
Title: Re: D&M's Snell Acoustics and Escient brands kaput
Post by: richidoo on April 15, 2010, 01:34:27 PM
Hantra always ranked Snells high among his favs.  I think he got to hear one of the new post Voecks batch, said it was awesome.
Title: Re: D&M's Snell Acoustics and Escient brands kaput
Post by: bmr3hc on April 15, 2010, 02:45:44 PM
Kinda makes me wonder if a speaker  as good as Snell, with very reasonable prices, can't make it, who is next?

Henry
Title: Re: D&M's Snell Acoustics and Escient brands kaput
Post by: Black Sand Cable on April 15, 2010, 06:18:54 PM
Snell was a very nice speaker indeed.

Escient on the other hand was doomed to fail as the stuff was way overpriced.
Title: Re: D&M's Snell Acoustics and Escient brands kaput
Post by: mfsoa on April 15, 2010, 07:15:30 PM
My brother is, errrr, was, an Escient dealer and I used to tell him the same thing.

When you can buy a TB of storage for $80 and a Touch and PC for another $600, the writing's on the wall...

-Mike
Title: Re: D&M's Snell Acoustics and Escient brands kaput
Post by: bpape on April 16, 2010, 05:29:21 AM
The problem is/was that there are other things to consider besides the hardware with Escient.

1.  They have to pay royalties to Hollywood for the potential number of movies stored.

2.  There is development and support of the user interface for those who are PC illiterate

3.  Warranty, customer support, dealer margins, etc.

Bryan
Title: Re: D&M's Snell Acoustics and Escient brands kaput
Post by: rollo on April 16, 2010, 06:09:31 AM
  A pity to see go. When Peter Snell was alive that is when a Snell was a Snell. We do not see many if any for sale. Still one of my favorites. Rockport has a very similar character but minimum entry is $10,000. If you can find Snell B or or B minors BUY them.


charles
Title: Re: D&M's Snell Acoustics and Escient brands kaput
Post by: allenzachary on April 16, 2010, 07:36:40 AM
I sold Snell during the Voecks era and was very impressed with the sound quality, fit and finish, and tremendously high quality of their customer service.  Blow a tweet?  They kept records of the response curve of every driver in every pair of speakers.  They would replace your tweet with one that was a match to within half a db of the original's curve. Perhaps more importantly, it was a match to the other speaker's tweet as they only sold in matched pairs...sonically and cosmetically. 

Great products, great company.

*sigh*
Title: Re: D&M's Snell Acoustics and Escient brands kaput
Post by: richidoo on April 16, 2010, 07:42:07 AM
Quote from: rollo on April 16, 2010, 06:09:31 AM
If you can find Snell B or or B minors BUY them.

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?spkrfull&1276183231&/Snell-Type-B---rare-
Title: Re: D&M's Snell Acoustics and Escient brands kaput
Post by: rollo on April 16, 2010, 08:09:02 AM
Singapore eh. The shipping alone kills it for me. To bad.


charles
Title: Re: D&M's Snell Acoustics and Escient brands kaput
Post by: Carlman on April 16, 2010, 02:16:42 PM
Allen recommended the Snells to me in my 'early years' of audiophilia.  I lament not buying one of the many pairs that were available 10 years ago.  Has it really been 10 years?  Actually, it's been more.. that was late 90's.. man.. time flies.

Anyway, the new Snell's I heard in the stores were similar to Boston Acoustics for some reason.. ;)  But the larger and older (i.e. 'real') Snell's I could never get an ear on.. just the babies.. like the E series and such.  They had a good sound, though.  Lively but not harsh.

They died when BA bought them.

-C
Title: Re: D&M's Snell Acoustics and Escient brands kaput
Post by: Deton Nation on April 16, 2010, 03:46:42 PM
My first speaker was the Snell E IV. Great speaker. Sad.
Title: Re: D&M's Snell Acoustics and Escient brands kaput
Post by: allenzachary on April 16, 2010, 06:47:43 PM
The E was one sweet speaker.  A lot of music for around a grand.