Epiphany Acoustics

[SLS]

Oh dear...there are some things that you simply cannot specify for mass production and expect to remain competitive or to retain ultimate quality control plus you lose that more personable relationship with clients for more bespoke work...this is all very relevant to small businesses like mine which you appear to totally misunderstand as understandably you probably lack experience in some of these more specialised fields. I am surprised at your attitude as with your business experience you should know better. But what the heck, no amount of reasoned discussion will sway you from your "you're wrong and I'm right" attitude. There are grey areas which appear to have past your black and white view of the world. Nothing personal but I'll bow out of this discussion now and leave you to your world of amazon



Spot on Anthony

I have no problem with bespoke. I have a lot of bespoke furniture at home. It costs a lot of money and cannot be mass produced.

Most of it was made by
http://rickbakerltd.com/gallery/
Image 45 in the gallery is Rowan Atkinson's TV (the Latin inscription is rather amusing), quite a few of these images are from Roger Waters' country gaff, including his loo at image 29.

The owner of this business was getting commissions from royalty (he did work for Diana at Kensington Palace) and still ran into business difficulties. He got back on his feet and with proper financial management is still doing well 25 years later.

If he could have made me a beautiful pair of speaker cabinets that could then have sounded as good as Harbeth I would have done that. I discussed it with him. It just was not possible. It was not a matter of cost. So I have ugly speakers that sound incredible, but to me it is the sound that counts. The rest of my hifi is hidden away in a (custom-made) unit, so looks are irrelevant.

On the other hand, I had a custom electric guitar made by a luthier for my son. He makes all sorts - lutes, violins etc., many for professional musicians. He could have hand-made the body and neck, but you cannot beat on quality and price custom parts from Warmoth, near Seattle. I think the body and neck cost about $1,100. Everything else was hand-made. The cost (£2,500) was less than you could hope from Fender Custom or Gibson Custom, and his guitar is without doubt better. It's also beautiful.

For the amount of innovation in British audio over the last 80 years I despair somewhat at its present relative lack of commercial success. I look at all sorts of businesses, big and small, some well managed, some not. Yesterday I was with the ex-CEO of a FTSE 250 company that was on the point of collapse. It occurred to me that smaller manufacturers could operate through a marketing co-operative. Some industries do that in the UK, other examples are Italian wine producers.

[anthonyTD]

Some beautiful furniture there!
Your very lucky to own some of it.
A...

[SLS]

Some beautiful furniture there!
Your very lucky to own some of it.
A...

If only I owned some of that !!! Mine is a little more modest, but made to the same level of craftsmanship.

[Macca]

IImage 45 in the gallery is Rowan Atkinson's TV (the Latin inscription is rather amusing), .
.

'Open the doors to reveal the world'

Very good

[SLS]

I did respond earlier, however, i decided, what's the point, in the grand scheme of things, folk who genuinely care, and appreciate products made by small companies here in the UK, will be in the minority for some time to come, However, as has been seen' time and time again, once these businesses are gone, thats it.
When you build something bespoke, on a small scale, you put a large part of yourself, and time into that product.

Croft and LFD are good examples.

Is there a suggestion that people who work in large companies do not make the same level of personal investment? You can buy a brilliant network player receiver from Pioneer for under £300 because they too have brilliant people who invest themselves in their work. Just because it turns up in a box from Amazon, does not stop me recognising what an achievement that is.

And how about Xuanqian Wang and Yuan Wang? Geniuses, both. And they started their audio business from scratch less than 10 years ago. Read here.
http://www.auralic.com/en/#5

[SLS]

Well done.
I saw it in the workshop - a thing of beauty. No good for a 55" LED.

'Open the doors to reveal the world'

Very good

[anthonyTD]

That was not the point i was trying to make!
You seem like a sensible guy, therefore you should know better!

Croft and LFD are good examples.

Is there a suggestion that people who work in large companies do not make the same level of personal investment? You can buy a brilliant network player receiver from Pioneer for under £300 because they too have brilliant people who invest themselves in their work. Just because it turns up in a box from Amazon, does not stop me recognising what an achievement that is.

And how about Xuanqian Wang and Yuan Wang? Geniuses, both. And they started their audio business from scratch less than 10 years ago. Read here.
http://www.auralic.com/en/#5

[SLS]

That was not the point i was trying to make!
You seem like a sensible guy, therefore you should know better!

Know better about what?

The other piece of advice most businesses get from their accountant is succession planning. How many of these smaller business will die when the owner packs it in, even if successful. Croft or LFD might be one of those.