AKG Vienna Ceases Operations

[sdelsolray]

AKG, a longstanding and famous Austrian brand of recording gear (mics, headphones, etc.) has closed its doors. Corporate parent Harman forced this closure. Many AGK folks are forming a new company.

http://www.psneurope.com/akg-vienna-austrian-audio/

[Bob Womack]

I wondered about their fate when they were snapped up by Harmann a while back. I wondered again when Avantone reverse-engineered the AKG CK-1 capsule (from the original C451E line) and brazenly sold the resultant Chinese-built mic as the "CK1." As the article stated, Harmann has turned their sights entirely to the entertainment and automotive world and we see that in just about everything they touch. I'm hoping JBL doesn't go down the same hole. I wonder if Sennheiser will snap up the product line like they did Georg Neumann GMBH?

I'm glad I got mine before they went under. They were a great brand. Grab your K240s while you can.

I'm glad there is a long-standing independent U.S. repair guy they sent their customers to for the legacy pieces... but wonder where he'll get his parts. That's where we've been sending our older stuff (C451E, C414COMB) for repairs.

The new company made up of their engineering staff is called Austrian Audio, by the way. I wish them the best.

Oh, the humanity. It'll be the talk of AES in New York this weekend.

Bob

[KevWind]

Wow "As the world turns"

I wonder if the C12 VR price already $6k will go thru the roof
I see they are backordered on the AKG web sight.

[Bob Womack]

New word: The brand isn't ceasing, just the Vienna headquarters. More: HERE.

Bob

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

New word: The brand isn't ceasing, just the Vienna headquarters. More: HERE.

Bob

Hopefully AKG the will continue with the quality. I am also really looking forward to see what Austrian Audio will come up with.

Bob, If your are going AES pleas report back with a brief recap on this

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by KevWind

Hopefully AKG the will continue with the quality. I am also really looking forward to see what Austrian Audio will come up with.

Bob, If your are going AES pleas report back with a brief recap on this

I'm not going to make it this time and it's a shame because it is a joint AES and NAB. I had some cool stuff to check out and some industry friends to check in with... and my Neumann shirts are getting pretty worn out as well.

Bob

[rockabilly69]

I just hope AKG will honor the warranty on my AKG K712 Pro and K240 headphones if needed

[endpin]

I am fortunate to own the “Real-McCoy”, but I assume manufacturing had been farmed out to China long ago.

[Sage97]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

Grab your K240s while you can.

Bob

Been looking at these for awhile now but don’t know which ones to get. I’ve only seen the inexpensive “studio” versions, the monitor versions and the pricier mkIIs. There may be others. One would assume the pricier ones to be the better ones but that isn’t always the case. Which ones do I grab while I still can?

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by Sage97

Been looking at these for awhile now but don’t know which ones to get. I’ve only seen the inexpensive “studio” versions, the monitor versions and the pricier mkIIs. There may be others. One would assume the pricier ones to be the better ones but that isn’t always the case. Which ones do I grab while I still can?

After reading that second article I'm not sure anything is going away because Harman is maintaining the brand. With that said, I own a pair of the M (monitor) version that I've had since the '80s. I've put new pads on them once. There is a pair of the S (Studio) variant in the drawer behind me here in the studio. The main difference is that the S variant is at a lower impedance and plays more nicely with consumer gear than the M version. There's talk about the frequency response difference but I don't hear much.

Bob

[MikeBmusic]

I love my AKG P220 LDC mic! (wherever it was made)

[Sage97]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

After reading that second article I'm not sure anything is going away because Harman is maintaining the brand. With that said, I own a pair of the M (monitor) version that I've had since the '80s. I've put new pads on them once. There is a pair of the S (Studio) variant in the drawer behind me here in the studio. The main difference is that the S variant is at a lower impedance and plays more nicely with consumer gear than the M version. There's talk about the frequency response difference but I don't hear much.

Bob

Excellent. Thanks very much Bob.