For those in the Saloon that use M&K speakers this past Thursday was a dark day. M&K's web site says they closed their factory in Chatsworth California as of Thursday February 22nd and a search of other forums indicates M&K has gone out of business and the employees have been let go. While I did not experience any issues when I ordered my speakers via a dealer about 4 years ago or when I ordered my 851s directly from M&K about 18 months ago, two dealers on the west coast told me that M&K was a pain to deal with. In particular they were exceptionally slow to fill orders or make repairs under their warranty. Their website tried to address this problem by saying there were only three folks in their organization that could test their speakers. And M&K tested every speaker!

For folks like me that enjoy M&K products we can only hope that M&K will resurface with new management or ownership that will put the company back on track. Also, all my speakers are working just fine, but if need repairs it looks like their 10-year warranty is now just a piece of paper.

That's pretty shocking news - M&K has been a popular name in home theater for a long while now. Hopefully this isn't the end of the road for the brand name...