Sowter seems to be part of Carnhill group now...

[Holger]

see attachment

 

[ruffrecords]

Companies House data show Brian Sowter and others resigned as directors on 28th February 2020 and on the same day June and John Hall (both of whom are directors of Carnhill)  were appointed directors of Sowter. Looks like Carnhill is swallowing them all up. First OEP, now Sowter - who is next?

Cheers

Ian

 

[Holger]

Lundahl perhaps, then Haufe and Pikatron ;-)

 

[Rob Flinn]

That's rather worrying.  Sowter are the only place I would go to for custom pro audio iron.  If Brian is no longer anything to do with it will they still offer the same service & will the standard still be the same ?

 

[emrr]

Wow, look at that timing.  Might be what makes them survive.  Sad to see them absorbed. 

 

[warpie]

Worrying indeed...

 

[ruffrecords]

That's rather worrying.  Sowter are the only place I would go to for custom pro audio iron.  If Brian is no longer anything to do with it will they still offer the same service & will the standard still be the same ?

Brian was born in June 1939 so he is 81 this year so perhaps he has just retired and sold up.

Cheers

Ian

 

[Rob Flinn]

Brian was born in June 1939 so he is 81 this year so perhaps he has just retired and sold up.

Cheers

Ian

I had thought this myself.  It will be interesting to see if carnhill slim the range down.  There are a lot of projects around which are designed round Sowter transformers ....

 

[Tubetec]

Sad to see the end for Sowter alright , specialist in the audio transformer game a long long time .
At least Brian was happy to interact with his customers , and give specs ,
With Carnhill ,ratio/impedence  is about all you get , I cant see any excuse for that ,
Its a huge loss 

 

[rackmonkey]

It’s an understandable development. but I suspect this won’t be to the benefit of customers. I hope I’m pleasantly surprised.

 

[Slenderchap]

Lots of  Sowter transformers are actually manufactured in a Carnhill factory by Carnhill staff anyway... they have been doing that for a long time.

I expect that the most commonly used ones for DIY projects  will remain available...

Colin
www.audiomaintenance.com

 

[abbey road d enfer]

The big question there is are they going to continue to serve the customers that order a few pieces of a custom design, have they the resources in-house for that, will they train people with the techniques and knowledge. Nothing is impossible, but there must be a will to do it.

 

[Rob Flinn]

The big question there is are they going to continue to serve the customers that order a few pieces of a custom design, have they the resources in-house for that, will they train people with the techniques and knowledge. Nothing is impossible, but there must be a will to do it.

Exactly.    Just because Carnhill have been doing a lot of the production work doesn't necessarily mean they are willing to do continue doing one off design work.  It would be nice to get a statement from them to know what their intentions for Sowter are.

 

[TomWaterman]

Howdy all, not around these parts much.

Have been looking at custom Sowter orders and just caught up with the Carnhill buy out.

Has anyone done any custom parts since this thread? I get the impression the "Brian's" behind the Sowter genius might not be involved much longer.

-T

 

[ruffrecords]

I asked for a custom inductor quote just before Christmas and got a reply from Brian. He said he is consulting for them at the moment.

Cheers

Ian

 

[TomWaterman]

Hey Ian, good to see you Sir. Hope you're surviving well.

I'm in contact with Brian now, trying to locate some interesting parts I got from them 10+ years ago.

One uses Radiometal in a mixed lam situation with M6 steel, so not sure that's still available - where's CJ?!

-T

 

[Squeaky]

I ordered a transformer from Sowter on 16 September 2020. That is more than five months ago. I have emailed them twice to inquire about when I might expect delivery with no response. I have tried not to sound too exasperated (in my emails). Below is my last email sent Monday of this week:

"Please see below my previous correspondence (for which I received no reply). I understand that Sowter has been open for business since 4 January, could you please provide me with an estimated shipping date for my transformer (Order Number: NDXXXXXXXXXXXX)? I understand there have been some difficulties but it has now been approximately 5 months (almost 22 weeks) since I ordered the transformer."

The lack of a response is starting to bother me. They have had my money for five months now. I am used to greater courtesy in business than this. I have ordered many transformers from Sowter but this will probably be my last.

 

[TomWaterman]

Hmmm, that's tricky. I believe they are backordered a lot and playing catchup. Hopefully they'll come through for you. Fingers crossed.

 

[user 37518]

Too bad! well, as long as we still have Jensen and Cinemag then I'm ok.

 

[ruffrecords]

Cinemag is 'slammed' with work (quote from Dave today) and I expect all the transformer manufacturers are struggling to meet schedules and at the same time keep their work force safe.

Cheers

Ian