Onkyo, the legendary Japanese manufacturer of high-end amplifiers, declared bankruptcy on May 14, bringing an end to an era for audiophiles and highlighting crucial lessons for executives in fast-moving businesses.
The price/value ratio may both develop and demolish a brand. Onkyo’s brand was based on the quality and accessibility of its amplifiers. Onkyo amplifiers are sonically muscular, well-built, and adaptable to a wide range of speaker types. They also enabled discriminating ears throughout much of the socioeconomic spectrum to hear rainbows of strong sound. The exquisite M-588 is renowned, but even the simple TX-51, which has been in daily use for decades, demonstrates that Onkyo goods punch much beyond their weight.
Onkyo was unable to keep up with technological advancements. By 2015, its goods were no longer high-fidelity and affordable. Others provided comparable or better quality at even lower costs. Amazon.com and Best Buy both confirmed that new Onkyo models would no longer be available in the summer of 2020. Other retailers, including those from the United Kingdom, joined the parade out the door.
Onkyo was contracting even as its market expanded. Americans are listening to music at home more than ever before. According to Neilsen’s data, Americans listen for up to 30 hours each week on average. Portable devices and astute streaming services enable access to a large array of new and interesting music, resuming radio’s position in the “pre-Selector” era when deejays and program directors made decisions and radio firm shareholders generated money. Great musical discoveries await once again, owing to the internet, HD, Flac, and so much more. All that is required is a good sound system.
Armies of former counterculturists, now as open-hearted to the brands of yesteryear as they are to the cultural authorities they once mocked, breathe the name ‘Onkyo’ with cool reverence. The brand still has weight. Onkyo could have mounted a rebound with the right product-market fit.
Customers got disoriented and perplexed. The great audio brands alternated between leading and following them. Ours has been a decades-long global obsession with configuring our wifi / Bluetooth fiber optic 5G app-ready network-audio-center 5.1 surround sound touchscreen-enabled streaming protocols.
