TC Sounds Bankrupt

**ccdoggy** · **04-12-08, 01:05 PM**

TC sounds 12" driver closeout at PE, its the same as the Epic driver but just an aluminium cone. for $129.

looks like they are trying to find anyone to sell their stuff to pay off whatever they have.

http://www.audiojunkies.com/blog/125...-parts-express

**rodH** · **04-12-08, 07:18 PM**

I saw these closeouts as well, to bad I already ordered the Torrent Mistral/TCsounds Db500. Oh well, those 2 12" drivers were under $200 delivered, can't complain about that. I am guessing this is the reason the Torrents are on sale as well, they are losing the supplier for this driver so they probably have to change designs/manuf?

**ISLAND1000** · **04-12-08, 07:55 PM**

My guess is that all contracts with TC Sounds are dissolved with the business. Any other company that used TC Sounds as their supplier no longer have that source of supply. Hopefully some of those companies have a supply surplus stocked in their warehouse.

**mrogowski** · **04-12-08, 09:58 PM**

The only people who lose are the creditors, unfortunately.

**thxgoon** · **04-12-08, 11:58 PM**

Quote:

mrogowski wrote:

The only people who lose are the creditors, unfortunately.

And the customers with warranties, and the businesses in the supply chain and the employees of TC Sounds and... Creditors are in the business of risk management. I wonder if SVS still gets their drivers from TC?

**Robert_J** · **04-13-08, 08:37 AM**

Quote:

Bent wrote:

Was SVS their big customer being the (I think) the T-V 12 in their "Ultra"?

and less important, did the contract go bad/run out between SVS and TC-Sounds?

Quote:

thxgoon wrote:

I wonder if SVS still gets their drivers from TC?

They haven't been getting their drivers from TC in a while. Stephen Ponte left TC to be the in-house driver designer at SVS a couple of years ago. I think he saw the writing on the wall then. Eclipse also didn't renew their contract with TC. And yes, the TV-12 was built by TC Sounds. In fact, it was built with the Audiomobile Mass 1202 motor. The older Ultra driver was just a re-badged Audiomobile. I bought a TV-12 from a guy in San Diego who knows Thilo. When you remove the magnet boot, there's an Audiomobile sticker and serial #.

Quote:

anidabi wrote:

I know what went wrong. TC sounds should have moved the production to china a long time ago and not to try to keep the made in USA flag on their products.

They tried. The Eclipse SW-8000 (10") and SW8100 (12") were not made in the US even though they do use the LMS technology. Npdang, the owner of DIY Mobile Audio forum, tested one on his Klippel system. The BL graph was off center which means the voice coil was not centered in the gap. I recently built my own sub from scratch. It's not that difficult. An off-center VC is just poor quality control.

-Robert

**mrogowski** · **04-13-08, 10:17 AM**

Quote:

thxgoon wrote:

And the customers with warranties, and the businesses in the supply chain and the employees of TC Sounds and... Creditors are in the business of risk management. I wonder if SVS still gets their drivers from TC?

That's what I was referring to. They allow thousands of dollars to be rung up, only to see the owner walk away from it and in turn, they receive pennies on the dollar back from it.

**Owen Bartley** · **04-13-08, 05:29 PM**

That makes me really sad. We've seen a lot of really promising companies and products go in the last couple years, but I surely thought TC Sounds would be one of the ones to stick. DIYers have had some really GREAT options over the last few years, and I hope despite setbacks like this the community still manages to hang on and grow.

**ISLAND1000** · **04-13-08, 10:46 PM**

It makes you wonder whether an American entrepreneur with a new idea or product automatically has to include China in the production, assembly, and marketing of the product.

**lcaillo** · **04-13-08, 10:56 PM**

Of course one does not have to. It would be foolish, however, not to consider all possible vendors.

The market reality is that DS-21 is very much correct. We have enjoyed an era of incredibly cheap products that we will not likely see again as China becomes more part of the "real world" and less of a society closed in upon itself. I would not want to be a leader in China over the next few decades.

**Owen Bartley** · **04-14-08, 09:10 PM**

Quote:

DS-21 wrote:

I hate to be a pessimist, but unfortunately I think we're at the end of a bit of a golden age.

I can't help but agree with you there. I mean I hope we're wrong, but it seems like things have come so far in such a short few years, and now we're seeing problems. I think I built my Tempest just around when the new trend of crazy high excursion drivers was emerging. We saw some great stuff like the TC drivers, the Avalanches, the Tumult... and not that we don't have great drivers now, but I do think we may have hit the end of this strong forward push.

**ISLAND1000** · **04-14-08, 10:07 PM**

So . . . . . uhmmm . . . . what's next? Are stationary boxes with high performance drivers history? Is the planetary digital wireless system that gets implanted just under the skin near your auditory canal next? Will the stereo effect be implemented by a device carried in a vest pocket? Or what?

**rodH** · **04-14-08, 10:21 PM**

Quote:

ISLAND1000 wrote:

So . . . . . uhmmm . . . . what's next? Are stationary boxes with high performance drivers history? Is the planetary digital wireless system that gets implanted just under the skin near your auditory canal next? Will the stereo effect be implemented by a device carried in a vest pocket? Or what?

My understanding is that mankind will eventually just "evolve" and we will lose our hearing of any freq < 60 Hz. This TC sounds thing has astronomical effects, I wonder what people did before TC was around

**SQBubble** · **04-15-08, 11:06 PM**

Hello,

Some more info can be read over here!

http://www.soundsolutionsaudio.com/f...howtopic=16544

**Sonnie** · **04-15-08, 11:29 PM**

There isn't really a lot of info there that has not been said here. It would be more appropriate to post a link there to this thread.

That same question was asked and answered by Mike in the SoundSplinter forum here at the Shack.

**Owen Bartley** · **04-17-08, 06:35 AM**

Hey Jay, thanks for cheering me up! I guess just seeing more negative changes got me in a bit of a dumpy mood towards everything, but you make some very good points. There ARE a lot of great options still available to us, and hopefully there will continue to be for a long time. I can deal with (not saying I like) the increase in costs caused by currency fluctuation, general inflation, and foreign markets, that's just something we can't avoid. But when I thought we were running out of good options and materials, that started to get to me.

**phaseshift** · **05-11-08, 11:15 AM**

For what it is worth, a good friend of mine who is the owner of a significant OEM speaker manufacturer in Asia (not China) asked me if I would be interested in coming up with some driver design platforms for the DIY market.

Probably do a couple of subwoofers in a economy and performance class and level it out with some components. I was also thinking about doing some DIY kits where the drivers and maybe filter components come packed with parameters and response data.

Any thoughts?

**DasBot** · **05-13-08, 04:29 PM**

Thilo was at the auction as a representative for AudioPulse and bought everything worth buying. I thought this might happen when I was talking to the auction house. They asked me to place a blind blanket bid on everything.

AP will have virtually everything made overseas. Right now PE is doing the warehousing as well and drop shipping to dealers.. if any.

Dealer buy in is only $2500 and you basically get 50 points on everything... Though I doubt the market for $2500 single raw drivers is a big one. Lifetime warranty against defects though. PE isn't even selling at full MSRP.

Still some of the best looking and performing drivers on the planet.

**ISLAND1000** · **05-14-08, 12:14 AM**

Are we then to believe that Audio Pulse is still in business and that sometime in the future their drivers will be made in China and be ready for sale in the USA once again?

**DasBot** · **05-14-08, 12:43 AM**

They're being built overseas now. Thilo & company will build out some of the inventory from the auction and keep some stock on hand just in case there are delays. That's why you get the lifetime warranty.. You're paying full retail plus his margin will be much wider due to being made overseas. The quality will still be there, just provided overseas. Last time I checked the 1MW magnetizer was kaput anyway.

To answer you directly, the BK only applied to TC Sounds which was technically the build house for AudioPulse. ;-) So TC is kaput and owes everyone. AudioPulse is in good shape and not going anywhere. All assets were bought by AP or Thilo personally... Or his investement group.. Don't know the details on that.

Diamond Audio went through the same thing.. actually several times. Burned everyone of their vendors.

**Robert_J** · **05-14-08, 07:41 AM**

Quote:

DasBot wrote:

Working with DW right now for a real 3" p-p XBL^2 monster to compete with LMS.

Welcome to the Shack, Patrick. Did you really think that you could ninja edit that sentence out of your message? You have to post detals.

I know this is a little off topic (more appropriatefor CA Junkyard) but here's the sub build that I did with your recone parts - slideshow.

-Robert

**mrogowski** · **05-14-08, 11:24 AM**

Sweeeeeeeeeeet....

**Ricci** · **05-14-08, 03:02 PM**

Very nice slide show Robert.

DasBot,
Thanks for the update. That's good news.

Advertisement