Miiller & Kriesel Sound - Out of business

If you haven't heard, I was told they went out of business. Very sad as I like their speakers and put the S150 system in my families house many years ago.

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=M+%26+K&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

edit:

Apparently this is old news, but it was new to me.

http://www.stereophile.com/news/030507kreisel/

I think that there was a thread about that at the time, but it's been a few months. It is a shame...

Retep,

Everything at M&K's Los Angeles factory was sold off a couple of weeks ago by a receiver. However, there is info that two folks that were involved with M&K in Europe have purchased the company and may make a run at restarting it. I'll believe it when it happens.

I would caution anyone looking for M&K speakers to make sure they know what is being offered for sale. For example, eBay has three LCR750s for sale that are clearly not consumer products. They don't have serial numbers or any model information. One even said "Made in China" which I understand was one of their issues; counterfeit M&K speakers or ones made in China that did not meet M&K specs.

I'll enjoy my current M&K setup while it lasts (hopefully for a long time) and keep my eye on creative speaker companies (Outlaw, Ascend, etc) should I need to replace something.

Looks like M&K are back. I dropped them an email, but didn't hear back.

http://www.mksoundsystem.com/

The revived M&K appears to be struggling and has little or no presence in the U.S. yet. I see the web site only has photos from the far east. There is a pretty good running dialog over at AVS on whether the new owners will be successful or not. I have my doubts, but still hope they are able to deliver the M&K quality many enjoy. A couple of AVS members have ordered speakers however they have yet to receive them and delivery has been delayed a few times. Only time will tell if M&K will make it and what kind of product they deliver. Let us know if they respond to your email; the info should provide further insight into the new company.

Follow up. The first AVS member received his new M&Ks today. They guy lives in Sweden. He is to post pictures and his impressions of the new M&Ks.

AvFan,
Keep us in the loop about M&K.
on the web .... no mention of seperate subs...mmm....

That site is NOT the real M&K. Those seem to be the rip off speakers that drove the real M&K out of business.

According to this article, that I've posted before in another thread, the true M&K designers have moved to the site listed in the article. That site, however, still does not seem to be active. Here's the link:
http://mixonline.com/news/mandk-sound-returns-092407/

Ouch! It does look like they're the imitators. I wonder what THX thinks about having the speakers listed as being THX certified...

I may have misspoken about the site being a ripoff. It seems from the photos on the site that the people mentioned in the Mix article are the same people they show in their pictures. I would be interested to see if AVfan gets a reply to his email.

The site, however, does still give me a weird feeling. It seems to lack any technical details that would be representative of a company whose history is based in the professional audio world. It also seems to be only interested in broadcasting that M&K, the originals, are used in studios. It doesn't even attempt to link to any consumer oriented reviews that exist on the products they are presenting. Weird...

As far as I know the MKSoundsystems site is the new M&K. M&K was purchased by two European M&K distributors and the main person is Asger Bak, the "ab" in the contact email on the web site. The Los Angeles connection is/was Chris Minto and Chris Hagen of the original M&K staff. There is some doubt whether Hagen is part of the company but he apparently designed the new "M" series.

It is not clear where they are manufacturing their speakers, source of drivers, overall quaility or compatibility with original M&K products. The only new speakers I know about are the ones a Swedish guy just received (can be seen on AVS). The cabinets have a different finish and the drivers look like the old ones but there is no way to know how they perform. Eventually someone who owns old M&K product will purchase some of the new generation and be able to offer a comparison.

When M&K shut down the owner, Ken Kriesel, mostly blamed their failure on counterfeit product. Many folks believe their troubles were much deeper. I know dealers were dropping M&K 2 to 3 years before their closing because it took months and months to get product. Its tough to sell a speaker line when you can't deliver the speakers.

The photos on AVS do not show the back of the speakers nor do they show close-ups of the drivers. As you said, nothing will be really known until a former owner purchases and compares the new product to the old product.

I do agree with your final comments about the old M&K. Long before they closed down, I too knew dealers who weren't receiving products in a timely manner. It also seems that the person on AVS who bought the new speakers had a lengthy wait time as well. Maybe some things don't change...

I may be a big fan of the old M&K but I don't think I'm fanatical enough to consider them as the only speakers out there for me. Until this new site proves themselves as manufacturers of a quality product, I'm going to look at other speaker brands. And I still really don't like their approach to the website. It still screams "ripoff" to me.

Yeh, the web site is a little cheezy and I've grown accustomed to seeing lots of information from a manufacturer (e.g. response plots). None of that is on the M&K site and while I may not hear "ripoff" the voice in my head loudly says "Caution".

I too will look at other speakers if the need arises. For me the custom DIY market (Selah, Rythmik. etc) may allow me to indulge my woodworking and audio/HT hobbies at the same time.

I hope the new M&K has the right stuff to survive in a very competitive market for those folks that want to upgrade, add to a current system, or enjoy what current M&K owners experience.

I love M&K audio stuff. I am embarrassed when I heard that he is out of business. I hope they are only doing renovation and will again open.

There is a new M&K now, although I believe there are some differences from what was once being made and the ownership team is different.