Sad news for NHT

CEPro published the following statement regarding NHT

"February 23, 2009

Dear Friends of NHT,

It's time to turn down the lights: NHT is going quiet.

Over the next 60 days we're going to sell the remaining professional and consumer inventory through our existing dealers and distributors, pay our bills, and then spend time rethinking the future of NHT. However, you should know that we are not bankrupt. Everybody here is fine and no, the car didn't get hit by a train. In a way this difficult economy provided the right opportunity for the change in strategy we felt has been necessary for some time.

One thing that is for sure is that this is not about our love for or commitment to the brand. It isn't about the audio business, either. It's all about the realities of the world and how consumer attitudes are changing, and how we as a brand and an industry can best respond to the need for real invention. We're anxious to get moving. When we do, it will be in the right direction.

NHT has always stood for something more than a great speaker. Our philosophy has to do with a way of thinking – about value, about fair play, about paying attention to what matters, about integrity. For us, it's a way of life.

We have a colorful history that included our share of distractions, but we hope we have made the speaker industry a little more interesting and helped in raising the bar.

We believe March 31, 2009 is to be the last day of "regular" business, at least for now. We intend to offer customer service and repair services for both in and out of warranty, available ongoing. Keep an eye on our website (nhthifi.com) for more details and the occasional update.

Remember, this isn't good-bye, it's just "see you on the other side"

Thanks for everything!

Chris, John and the entire NHT gang"




Stereophile's Jason Victor Serinus was able to get Mr. Byrne to elaborate a bit more in this news item. It's like being "on a break" in a relationship or "seeing other people" it isn't officially the end but in reality it usually is. Think of how the dealers feel. They have supported this brand for years, put in the hard work to build the brand name in their markets, made it a priority ,and then when they need NHT the most it isn't there for them. They will have to sell all of their demos at a huge discount (because many customers will read the statement as NHT is out of business) and pick up a new line to fill the void. How big of a check are their dealers going to have to write to start doing business with a new manufacturer? Can the average Mom and Pop audio store afford it right now? They just torched a lot of bridges. If they do come back everyone in the industry will be wary of doing business with them again for quite some time. Very strange. It's being discussed on Stereophile's Forum right now.

The end of an era?

It’s always surprising that customers expect the price of speakers and electronics to defy inflation and continually drop in price. They may have been willing to spend $500 for a Sansui in the mid 1970’s but now they want a unit that has three times the wattage, five additional channels of amplification, video swithiching (or even scaling), and surround decoding for the same money. That’s particularly interesting when one considers that the cost of that $500 Sansui would be approximately $2,500 in today’s dollars. Unfortunately, the audio video industry is thought of in the same way as the computer industry. The costs associated with building audio products don’t follow the same rules as computer processors and hard drives that is set forth in Moore’s law. Moore’s law, which was developed to predict the advancement of computer technology states that the number of transistors on a chip doubles every 24 months. This increase in productivity leads to a decrease in cost for computers, but not audio. So what’s a manufacturer to do when customers are looking for prices to drop as their costs rise? For many manufacturers the answer was simple? Go to China.

Is the cheap Hi-Fi equipment coming from China a good or a bad thing for customers, companies, and the industry in general? That kind of question is impossible to answer in one word for anyone who is informed on the subject. David Wilson of Wilson Audio had some interesting things to say on the subject in a video that has been previously posted here. Compared to Wilson Audio’s approach of cost-no-object speaker building NHT has always been know as a company that wants to give it’s customers outrageous value for the money. Not surprisingly Chris Byrne (one of NHT’s founders) views on the subject have more nuance in them than Mr Wilson. Mr. Byrne, who isn’t against the manufacturer of goods in China does however see this trend of unbelievably cheap Chinese labor coming to an end. While he feels this means an increase in the cost for goods he also sees the potential to create local jobs and industry as well as reduce planned obsolescence. Another positive outcome would be a reduction in electronic waste. Please read his essay here.