M&K is back!

**thxgoon** · **01-06-08, 07:35 PM**

As a long time owner and fan of M&K speakers, I was sad when I heard they had gone bankrupt to say the least. Today I thought I'd goolge them for updates and low and behold I find this link! Wohoo!

Their new website will be mksoundusa.com and it sounds like they will continue to make their legacy products.

**Sonnie** · **01-06-08, 10:21 PM**

Moved to Home Audio Speakers.

We actually knew they had been acquired, but not much has been said since. Looks like they are working on the site.

**MrPorterhouse** · **01-07-08, 08:25 AM**

Very cool. I've never owned M&K myself, but the name is well known and the reputation is fantastic. Its always nice to see people who have passion for music and loudspeaker design be able to pratice their art and science. I look forward to hearing great things.

**thxgoon** · **01-07-08, 12:20 PM**

Yeah Sonnie I knew they had been acquired as well but didn't know when they were actually going to start up again or what they were going to make. I searched for the above thread but the engine wouldn't let me search 'M&K' because of a three letter rule. Any suggestions?

**Mike P.** · **01-07-08, 02:37 PM**

You can search 'M&K' from google.com. Click "Adavanced Search" and In the "Domain" box type hometheatershack.com. 3 letter rule solved!

**ACGREEN** · **01-07-08, 03:42 PM**

When I heard they stop production due to ebay counterfeits, I emailed M&K to ask if they would consider selling the business. They never replied. Then they went for Auction for $250k...Man I would have liked to have known that. Sounds like it might have been a great deal.

**bricot** · **01-07-08, 04:08 PM**

Wonder if this will go anywhere?

**bricot** · **01-10-08, 10:52 AM**

Do you actually get a page to load with that URL? I just get a network error.

I don't understand how the counterfit speakers killed the company... Where they not being spotted when they did repair work on them and cost them a bunch of money that way... seems like if they were being returned and if they were recognized as being counterfit, M&K would have just sent them back to whomever and said "These are counterfit speakers, talk to however you bought them from ....'

It's unnerving that something like that can actually take down a good company

Anyway if there is light at the end of the tunnel, I'll wait to replace one of their speakers that I own.

**ACGREEN** · **01-10-08, 04:31 PM**

I think they felt that the counterfeit ebay sales of their subwoofers was cutting into their sales.

**thxgoon** · **01-10-08, 06:04 PM**

The URL seems to be working fine though it directs to a page that is under construction.

I don't think counterfeit products are soley to blame for MK's demise. They've had problems for years with keeping up with demand. When I bought my first set I waited for almost 3 months for them to come from the factory and I know of several local dealers who dropped M&K because they could not get product. How many people are really willing to wait months for speakers? Anyways, given that and the availability of product online (counterfeit or not) I can see why they went out of business. I certainly hope the new ownership has a better business model which it sounds like he should... he worked in distribution.

**bricot** · **01-10-08, 06:24 PM**

Interesting..... When I bought mine they only took a few days to get. It would be nice to see them get back up on their feet, especially if they can fix supply type issues.

**conchyjoe7** · **01-11-08, 02:59 PM**

Good to see that a once great company with excellent products has not been left out to dry so to speak. Now, if the new owners can work out the few, albeit large problems with the company, we can all look forward to more of what made M&K great: Excelence in their products!

Let us not forget that we all owe a debt of gratitude to M&K, as they were largely responsible for today's subwoofer...no small claim to fame.
Good luck to them...
Cheers,
Konky.

**thxgoon** · **02-08-08, 07:32 PM**

Update!

I just received a response to an email I sent the company about a week ago and low and behold, the site is up and it sounds as though they are on their way to being back in business.

New website: mksoundsystem.com

Here's a copy of the email:

Dan,

Thank you for your interest in the new MK Sound (note the new name.)

As you may have heard, M&K was bankrupted last February and all its assets
sold at auction. The IP was bought by M&K's former European distributor
along with a couple of his friends in Copenhagen.

The new owners have renamed the company MK Sound and have made wholesale
changes which will improve the company's capabilities and overall quality.
We have eliminated redundant or unnecessary SKU's, kept those SKU's that our
customers know and love and retained those relationships with vendors,
dealers and reps that were so important to M&K. Our goal is to maintain the
quality of the M&K brand and even improve upon it and grow the company.

We are still in the process of re-establishing our relationships with our
dealers so you may find it difficult to find us for a while. Please know,
however, that we are working on this and will have a presence in your area
in the not too distant future. In the meantime, you can contact Paul
Brachhold at Sound Ideas. While he is far from local, he is an excellent
home theater consultant, currently carries MK Sound product (new and old)
and will be pleased to talk to you.

Please log onto our new website for the latest information on our products
and progress updates on the new company.

Thank you again for your support.

**Chuck_V** · **02-16-08, 09:54 AM**

Posted this on AVS a few monthes ago if anyone is interested:

Quote:

Ok, yesterday I had the opportunity to have a good conversation with the co owner of MK Sound, Asger Bak who held a short seminar in Stockholm about the present and the future.

I had tons of questions and found out that I got most answered without any doubt around it. MK also presented a complete new speaker line called the M-series. They are about the size of the old K-series but with new Vifa 1” tweeter and 4” midrange woofer/woofers and new crossovers. I got the impression this is mostly Chris Hagens work. Chris Minto is a part of the “new” MK Sound witch I think sounds really good, he was a part of the "old" M&K.

The new owner has had 4 months to start thinks up and I got the impression it has been some really hard work in those months to get where they are now.

The brand name will be called "MK Sound" and ”Miller & Kreisel Professional” for the products that will be manufactured for the studio industry.

Asger Bak handed over the new brochures of the speaker line up for home cinema (not including the 150-system, but it will be produced) :

-Alpha-System (seems like the “old” K-series)
-M-Series (new model, about the size of the K-series, but in a black satin finish)
-Xenon-Series (don’t know if any changes been made, the tweeter looks like the M-series one)
-750 THX-Series (same as before)

He also told me that the website www.mksoundsystem.com will be up next week. I got a very positive felling overall. It seems to me they are on the right track and have a good strategic approach getting the company on their feet again. They will be represented at the 2008 CES.

There is a lot of work to do, and now the big thing is to get the whole distribution and sales stuff going again, and the most important thing, to actually deliver speakers when requested.

Asger Bak told me that the “new” MK Sound will honour the “old” MK warranty in those cases where the components match the new product line of today. Seems fair to me, there have been so many models the last 10 years I could only imagine the cost of starting to produce spare parts for speakers no longer manufactured. But I cannot guaranty that this information but to my understanding that is the case, Danish in not exactly Swedish so it may not be 100% accurate. I’m 100% sure however that they will definitely help old MK customers out the best they can in a reasonably way.

Well, that’s the information I’ve got for now from Mr Bak. The overall impression is positive from my view.

After this I have been in contact with Mr Bak several times, and we are going to get the first speakers up here in Scandinavia the next few weeks.

/Chuck

**only126db** · **03-08-08, 08:36 PM**

One of the posts metioned Ebay counterfits....how can you tell if they are counterfit?

I was actually just looking at a bunch of M&K tweets.

I need some tweets for a project I am doing and was thinking that the M&K tweets may be a good choice since I remember back in the day they made a quality product.

So how to know???

**Chuck_V** · **03-09-08, 05:16 AM**

Quote:

only126db wrote:

One of the posts metioned Ebay counterfits....how can you tell if they are counterfit?

As far as I know, this counterfit "issue" is not really an issue in reality.

All the products are M&K-stuff, the but if they where produced by the M&K/ACI Chinese factory after the Chatsworth facility and M&K in the US went down, I guess these can be called counterfits.

/Chuck

**only126db** · **03-09-08, 12:52 PM**

Quote:

Chuck_V wrote:

As far as I know, this counterfit "issue" is not really an issue in reality.

All the products are M&K-stuff, the but if they where produced by the M&K/ACI Chinese factory after the Chatsworth facility and M&K in the US went down, I guess these can be called counterfits.

/Chuck

Ahhhh, though made in China (possibly) you think they would still be made to M&K specs?

**Chuck_V** · **03-09-08, 02:05 PM**

Yes, I think so.

But I can't be 100% sure. I do not belive the so called "counterfits" really are that, they were produced in the same place as every other product M&K that has been made. But when things went the wrong way, it seems likely that the "old" MK went out and blamed the "counterfits" for the company crash. Lots of information not transparent here...

Btw, which tweeter is it you are interested in? All M&K speakers has not been made in China, yet...that includes the famous 150-series and all the 78336626 various versions of them...but some of the smaller series has been made out of the Chinese facility.

/Chuck

**thxgoon** · **03-09-08, 03:26 PM**

Check the back of the speaker for the QC sticker and you'll know it's legit. All of the China made speakers were shipped to the US for QC before being re-shipped to the customer. Some variations of the 150 were counterfeit, I believe the gloss black version is something that M&K never made but they were showing up everywhere so I don't know how much guarantee you can have that those would have MK parts and performance.

**only126db** · **03-09-08, 04:54 PM**

These are the tweets:
http://pictures.kyozou.com/pictures/_5/4666/4665719.jpg
http://pictures.kyozou.com/pictures/_5/4666/4665720.jpg

**thxgoon** · **03-09-08, 05:30 PM**

Those look like the one's from the Xeon (i think that's what they called them) series of speakers. They are not the same tweets that were used in the S-150, 750 sats.

**only126db** · **03-09-08, 05:56 PM**

What's the quality like on those? Do you think they are real?

**Chuck_V** · **03-10-08, 04:49 PM**

I do think they are real, and the quality is good. The Xenons is nice, very small speakers for small rooms.

Exactly how good? I have no idea, depends a lot of the overall design I guess.

/Chuck

**only126db** · **03-10-08, 11:02 PM**

Quote:

Chuck_V wrote:

I do think they are real, and the quality is good. The Xenons is nice, very small speakers for small rooms.

Exactly how good? I have no idea, depends a lot of the overall design I guess.

/Chuck

I was looking at these for car audio project I am doing.....

How do you think they would fare in that type of environment?

Would use 4 per channel to accomplish 2 ohm load.

Advertisement