I thought this was the way of the world now ? Not just in the case of Scottish hifi companies. Certainly seems to be the preferred solution from where I'm sat at the moment.Originally Posted by Howard Popeck (Stereonow)
I'm sure the redundancy decision wasn't easy for them. The company had been built with some pride regarding it's Scottish workforce and where I don't agree that laying off the workforce is the always the best solution sometimes these things have to happen. Nobody has a job for life in the current world.
David raises a very good point with regards to Rover. I'm originally from down the road from ~Longrbridge, all my family at some point have worked there (and I mean uncles, cousins, etc.. not just my Dad). I had tight links to them in my first IT job working for a company that the IT for them. When a company like Rover goes, it doesn't just take Rover - it takes the surrounding area with it, it's like a big mushroom cloud from Nuke bomb, everyone in the vicinity gets effected in one way or the other.
And, yes, people like Clarkson with his silly digs, even now, do more harm. There is no reason to like every product from a company but when they do produce something good then it should be supported.
Linn is trying to learn from some of it's mistakes. Ditching the hard drive based Kivor and moving to the much more sensible DS components shows they are thinking of the future, learning from their original computer based mistakes.
I currently live just down the road from Rega, these guys are a great example of how to run a company, make decent components sold at a very good and competitive price. Michell are another great company, well run little cottage industry BUT since John Michell died where are the new products coming from ? Ok the got a new DC Never Connected PSU for the Orbe and the limited editiion Odyssey was brought out but where are the new designs ? Prior to John passing away he borght out the Technoarm, the technodec, the technoweight and the VTA adjuster. All great, well designed products and, imo, superbly made and excellent VFM. But what happens when other companies move on with their designs ? Where will Michell be ?
Sometimes you have to take a gamble, read the industry and try and move with it. Imo, cd based systems will slowly die out, I certainly won't buy another CDP. Computer based audio with streaming devices will be the future, regardless of some of the hifi snobbery. The Linn DS components, the Majik in particular, show that these streaming devices can be as good as the similarly priced cd players, if not better, and als have all the flexibility of being connected to network. Soon these will also include, films and tv programmes.
Companies have to move to survive before the computer industry BECOMES the hifi industry. Linn has done what it needs to do in order to keep the company competitive and to survive.
I don't believe you should support a company BECAUSE it's British. In fact I dislike several of the companies David mentions and I can't think of a single component by one or two of them that I would want to own. Linn have looked for scapegoats for their current misfortune and that is wrong but they have also tried to rectify their problems.
A friend recently had a phne chat with someone at Michell, he was told they were doing ok but most of their sales were outside of the UK now. Things move on it's a tough business world out there as I'm sure you don't need me to tell you that.
I get in to work every day and expect to be told not to come in tomorrow. I've not been given a pay rise this year because the company I work for states they can't afford it and the client I'm based at is laying 10's of thousands off in the US.
That's life and having a go at Linn because they laid a few people off is just not really acceptable. It's the current business model for most of the corporate world
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