Ultimate Support Systems Acquires Radial Engineering

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user 37518

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Just saw this article on prosound web https://www.prosoundweb.com/channels/av/ultimate-support-systems-acquires-radial-engineering/?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=content/&eid=341034799&bid=1636829

Im not really interested in Radial, however I wonder what will happen with Jensen Transformers.
 
The Ultimate Support booth at NAMM has Jensen branding as well as all of it's other brands.  I would guess for now it's business as usual although I expect it may have an effect on DIY purchases in the medium term.
 
Perhaps now is the time to buy some Jensen transformers just in case. Its crazy that a company that makes mic stands bought all those other companies, Radial and Jensen included.
 
Isnt the whole point of an acquisition like this to diversify the company portfolio?

Seems like Jensen would be a company that has low, yet relatively consistent sales? I mean, they are the leaders in a very niche market.  ;D
 
Jensen are screwed. The only reason for a mic stand company to buy a Di box company is to increase sales and take the name of a very successful brand. They'll be looking at how to make it cheaper, American labour i.e. Jensen windings will definitely be scrutinised. Think about it, a passive radial is a box and a Jensen - for 90 bucks, fund a Chinese made transformer that 60-70% as good - and the Chinese are getting better at this by the day, especially the young guys who know about metals - then that's an extra 50 bucks of pure profit per box and the only people who will notice are geeks who read the trade papers and golden eared people, who are few and far between. Used on tour I doubt anyone would notice, or if they did they'd think it was their imaginations.

No I can't see this going well for Jensen at all.
 
This is a natural evolution as bigger fish eat the little fish. The alternative may be the little fish starving and fading away.

The future is always different and not always better but premium audio transformers are a niche market that is harder and harder to justify in the context of modern technology.

JR
 
JohnRoberts said:
X
The future is always different and not always better but premium audio transformers are a niche market that is harder and harder to justify in the context of modern technology.

JR

Which I guess is why most people in this market make other types of transformer too.

Cheers

Ian
 
JohnRoberts said:
This is a natural evolution as bigger fish eat the little fish. The alternative may be the little fish starving and fading away.

The future is always different and not always better but premium audio transformers are a niche market that is harder and harder to justify in the context of modern technology.

JR
Sorry to be pita, but it´s not natural evolution, that´s a simplistic analogy ;)
Else what would stop a lot of small fish from eating  big one?
I think it´s capitalism that drives accumulation of wealth for the big ones, the system that creates monopolys on all fronts and can´t explain how endless growth shall be sustained much longer...
:eek:
 
L´Andratté said:
Sorry to be pita, but it´s not natural evolution, that´s a simplistic analogy ;)
Else what would stop a lot of small fish from eating  big one?
Have you ever watched fish....?

Big fish routinely eat smaller ones. Small fish will sometimes eat a big fish if it is already dead.  :eek:
I think it´s capitalism that drives accumulation of wealth for the big ones,
I have spent my entire life trying to accumulate more wealth. I recall when I first made the realization that I had more money in my wallet than I could drink in one sitting (and I tried). Since then accumulating wealth is considered a means for security in my old age, while that could get wiped out easily. I have passed on replacing my bad knee, because I'd rather drink that money.  8)
the system that creates monopolys on all fronts and can´t explain how endless growth shall be sustained much longer...
:eek:
Opinions very... Capitalism sucks, except compared to all other economic systems.

Monopolies are already illegal (anti-trust laws).

We must remain alert to threat of crony capitalism as big business tries to buy influence by lobbying legislators who stay a little too hungry trying to accumulate campaign funds, and their own personal wealth.  I fail to see how legislators can afford to live in DC and become millionaires, on a legislator's salary? Something stinks in the swamp.

JR

[edit- I have shared that I live in a poor region to keep my cash burn rate lower. Sometimes I forget how poor my neighbors are. Tomorrow is junk day where my town will pick up discarded appliances and whatever from the curb. This morning I put my broken wall oven and broken air conditioner/heat pump at the curb. Less than two hours later they are both gone (and town pick-up is tomorrow). Some guy with his wife helping him lift the heavy stuff (around 100# each) up onto a trailer pulled behind his pick-up truck. I ASSume he will scavenge sellable scrap from them.  I have seen this repeated on other junk days. I am really cheap so I feel a little bad about throwing stuff away that still has worth, but I expect they need the meager residual value more than I do.  /edit]
 
JohnRoberts said:
[edit- I have shared that I live in a poor region to keep my cash burn rate lower. Sometimes I forget how poor my neighbors are. Tomorrow is junk day where my town will pick up discarded appliances and whatever from the curb. This morning I put my broken wall oven and broken air conditioner/heat pump at the curb. Less than two hours later they are both gone (and town pick-up is tomorrow). Some guy with his wife helping him lift the heavy stuff (around 100# each) up onto a trailer pulled behind his pick-up truck. I ASSume he will scavenge sellable scrap from them.  I have seen this repeated on other junk days. I am really cheap so I feel a little bad about throwing stuff away that still has worth, but I expect they need the meager residual value more than I do.  /edit]

Don't you have freecycle or freegle or something similar in the US? It is site where you list things you no longer want and someone who can use it asks for it and comes and picks it up. We have recently downsized from a big five bedroom house to a small two bedroom bungalow so we had a lot of accumulated stuff to dispose of. A lot we took down charity shops but a lot has also gone via freecycle.

Cheers

Ian
 
ruffrecords said:
Don't you have freecycle or freegle or something similar in the US? It is site where you list things you no longer want and someone who can use it asks for it and comes and picks it up. We have recently downsized from a big five bedroom house to a small two bedroom bungalow so we had a lot of accumulated stuff to dispose of. A lot we took down charity shops but a lot has also gone via freecycle.

Cheers

Ian

Freecycle isn't a thing here, at least in L.A. but we use the free section of Craigslist in much the same way. 

One thing that took me a minute to adjust to is the tradition of leaving things on the curb as John mentioned, it's not a thing where I come from in Ireland.  It works very well and generally if it hasn't been taken in a day or two you trash it.  I'll generally do the curb and list on Craigslist and have gotten rid of everything from dog kennels to couches to parts bins this way.
 
ruairioflaherty said:
Freecycle isn't a thing here, at least in L.A. but we use the free section of Craigslist in much the same way. 

One thing that took me a minute to adjust to is the tradition of leaving things on the curb as John mentioned, it's not a thing where I come from in Ireland.  It works very well and generally if it hasn't been taken in a day or two you trash it.  I'll generally do the curb and list on Craigslist and have gotten rid of everything from dog kennels to couches to parts bins this way.

In the UK many people use a skip (dumpster?) when doing building work or such like and leave it on the road outside their house. Often people will remove stuff from it and others will dump stuff in it. Over a period of time it acts like a mini recycling centre.

Cheers

Ian
 
I don't have that app on my smart phone (I don't have a smart phone).

The old "one man's trash is another's treasure" is apparently still true, but by the time I discard something I generally value it negatively (i.e. a nuisance). Either something I can't fix, or is not worth fixing. The wall oven was so old repair parts were not available, while the 50 years newer technology is so much nicer.  ;D

Down here in the deep south the old school way to recycle unwanted household goods is to have a "tag sale". The family hosting a tag sale puts up flyers on telephone poles around the neighborhood with date and address of the "tag sale", usually on a saturday.  The more aggressive shoppers will show up at dawn to cherry pick through the treasure.  Sometimes a couple families get together to assemble a critical mass of junk to sell. The name "tag sale" comes from the practice of putting price tags on the old junk, piled out in the yard and on the driveway, while price haggling is probably common.

Generally if I am going to discard something of actual value I will try to give it to a neighbor. I gave one neighborhood kid an old treadmill I paid $3,000 for new, a few decades ago, since I can no longer run. I also gave away a still serviceable Schwinn air-dyne exercise bike ($700 new) I no longer use to a different neighbor (he doesn't use it either). There are collection bins for old clothes and I have donated my share of old clothes that I no longer wear.  Just a couple weeks ago I wore a tie and jacket, for the first time this century (surprising a few people who never saw me wear one). The better tie I tried to wear that day had been chewed on by moths***. For some reason the moths only ate the red thread/yarn. 

Right now I have a different neighbor trying to give me an old mattress and box spring he is discarding this month. It will surely get picked up by local scavengers. In fact years ago when I was cleaning nasty mold out of my house I replaced my bed, and discarded the old one. I was appalled that somebody picked it up... while it looked in pretty good shape (close inspection revealed  small evidence of mold).  :eek:

Within the last year a flea market has opened up in town, inside an empty building vacated by a lawn equipment company that moved out.  I haven't been even a little interested to check out their fleas even though I drive by it on my bike route.

JR

*** Imported brown rice can often have live moth eggs in it. I have learned that stashing the rice in the freezer for a week or two before using will kill the eggs. Took me a while to learn that trick but now I keep an extra bag of rice in the freezer. And swap out with fresh rice each time I buy more.  No new moths for several years, but too late to save that tie.

PS: When I moved down south from CT back in the mid '80s I hired a dumpster to hold the accumulated crepitus I had accumulated (I am a pack rat). They didn't have a half sized dumpster to rent me so gave me a full size dumpster for the price of the half.  I filled it up with junk, and had an overflow pile almost that large again sitting next to it, that they collected too. These days I try to be more disciplined about discarding stuff routinely.

 
JohnRoberts said:
The old "one man's trash is another's treasure" is apparently still true, but by the time I discard something I generally value it negatively (i.e. a nuisance). Either something I can't fix, or is not worth fixing. The wall oven was so old repair parts were not available, while the 50 years newer technology is so much nicer.  ;D

I am guessing you are not married.
  :)
Cheers

Ian
 
ruffrecords said:
I am guessing you are not married.
  :)
Cheers

Ian

If i was I might get lucky for buying the new oven...  but i can still appreciate it.

JR

PS: If I was married I would have had to paint my house years ago... as it was, one neighbor's wife wanted me to paint the trim (on my house) a different color. ::)
 

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