What happened to Harman Kardon ?

[Nitin K]

In the earlier years Harman kardon was a very big brand associated with powerful & warm sound with an excellent reputation. It use to give good competition to other main stream brands like Yamaha, Denon, Marantz Pioneer, Onkyo etc. It use to be built like a tank & would last for many years. Can't say the same about the recent models though.
Although Harman International has acquired many good brands like Arcam, Mark Levinson, Lexicon, B&O, Revel, JBL etc yet its own Harman Kardon has gone into oblivion. Just curious if anyone knows why this great brand is not so popular now-a-days although it has a good presence in India.

 

[Deleted member 15865]

Harmon International was itself acquired by Samsung in 2017. Samsung’s primary interest was the ‘connected car’ business of Harmon as they wanted to catch up with Apple and Google. One doubts if audiophile audio products is a strategic interest area of Samsung.

 

[Nitin K]

Harmon International was itself acquired by Samsung in 2017. Samsung’s primary interest was the ‘connected car’ business of Harmon as they wanted to catch up with Apple and Google. One doubts if audiophile audio products is a strategic interest area of Samsung.

If audiophile products are not the main interests of Samsung then I guess the other good brands under its umbrella will also gradually vanish.

 

[RRR]

As was informed to me, another area of interest to Samsung was Jbl's portable music accessories business.
Hence you don't see a good range of Jbl home speakers much anymore ie. bookshelf and floorstanding speakers.

 

[Lizard King]

Harman/Kardon may have become an insignificant brand, but under Samsung, Harman International is a huge company with massive R&D in cutting edge technology. The group has now assimilated big and respected audio / HiFi brands like Mark Levinson, Revel, Arcam, Bang and Olufsen, Bowers & Wilkins, AKG, Crown, JBL and many more. Each of them have leadership position in their own niche.
Also JBL is among the world leaders in studio/stage/ stadium/ large venues acoustic solutions.

 

[shyamv]

Harman/Kardon may have become an insignificant brand, but under Samsung, Harman International is a huge company with massive R&D in cutting edge technology. The group has now assimilated big and respected audio / HiFi brands like Mark Levinson, Revel, Arcam, Bang and Olufsen, Bowers & Wilkins, AKG, Crown, JBL and many more. Each of them have leadership position in their own niche.
Also JBL is among the world leaders in studio/stage/ stadium/ large venues acoustic solutions.

Bowers & Wilkins is owned by Sound United Group not Harman. Also only the automotive audio business of Bang & Olufsen is owned by Harman. I believe their consumer audio business is still owned by its Danish parent. Harman does own the rest of the brands you mentioned.

 

[Nitin K]

Harman/Kardon may have become an insignificant brand, but under Samsung, Harman International is a huge company with massive R&D in cutting edge technology. The group has now assimilated big and respected audio / HiFi brands like Mark Levinson, Revel, Arcam, Bang and Olufsen, Bowers & Wilkins, AKG, Crown, JBL and many more. Each of them have leadership position in their own niche.
Also JBL is among the world leaders in studio/stage/ stadium/ large venues acoustic solutions.

Harman Kardon amps were quite good and sought after in the 80's and 90's and use to give tough competition to main stream brands like Marantz, Yamaha, Denon etc. Their amps were known for their powerful warm sound. But some how later on they did not do well even though the entire line was revamped and gradually faded into oblivion.

 

[RRR]

Harman Kardon amps were quite good and sought after in the 80's and 90's and use to give tough competition to main stream brands like Marantz, Yamaha, Denon etc. Their amps were known for their powerful warm sound. But some how later on they did not do well even though the entire line was revamped and gradually faded into oblivion.

Because like many other brands they concentrated their efforts on HT later.
They even had superb power amps in the 80s.