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[Tim Weaver]

My new job has a bunch of Auras and some Vipers. We are going to do some expansion next year and I’m wondering how Martin is holding up under Samsung’s ownership? I know I wouldn’t buy in to Soundcraft right now, so is Martin in the same boat?

[Tim McCulloch]

My new job has a bunch of Auras and some Vipers. We are going to do some expansion next year and I’m wondering how Martin is holding up under Samsung’s ownership? I know I wouldn’t buy in to Soundcraft right now, so is Martin in the same boat?

Soundcraft was this way before Samsung bought Harman, so not sure we can blame the mothership for SC's problems, but so far Samsung hasn't been a help, either.

Rumour is that Martin lights makes money for Harman.  If that's correct I'd say the brand is more likely to continue and have parts support.  My experience with earlier Martin lighting has been that I'd buy new and sell the day it was out of warranty.  In a HoW / school / community theater that's probably not a workable business model.

Interestingly, two of the happiest days of my company manager life where when the last Soundcraft mixer and last batch of MAC2000 left our shop for the last time.

YMMV

[Jeff Lelko]

Martin is a safe bet in my eyes.  While the original Auras are getting a bit long in the tooth the support for Vipers isn't going anywhere.  I'd say at least 50% of the professional stages I work on are lit by Martin (in part or in whole). 

I had a chance to hands-on demo the Mac Ultra last year and it's quite the fixture.  The new Aura PXL is also impressive as is the P3 architecture.  I was on the fence with adding a few dozen Atomic Dots to my inventory but after demo-ing decided they weren't the right fixture for my application.  The Atomic Bold is more versatile but too big for what I needed.

The TL;DR is that Martin isn't going anywhere and offers many impressive modern fixtures which seem to have no issues selling.

[Tim Weaver]

Soundcraft was this way before Samsung bought Harman, so not sure we can blame the mothership for SC's problems, but so far Samsung hasn't been a help, either.

Rumour is that Martin lights makes money for Harman.  If that's correct I'd say the brand is more likely to continue and have parts support.  My experience with earlier Martin lighting has been that I'd buy new and sell the day it was out of warranty.  In a HoW / school / community theater that's probably not a workable business model.

Interestingly, two of the happiest days of my company manager life where when the last Soundcraft mixer and last batch of MAC2000 left our shop for the last time.

YMMV

I read (on reddit so, grain of salt) that JBL has Billions of $'s in sales and Martin is like 300 million.

Hopefully they either leave them alone or sell them to an entertainment industry company. It would make me feel better about buying new lights next year.

[Jeff Lelko]

I read (on reddit so, grain of salt) that JBL has Billions of $'s in sales and Martin is like 300 million.

I'd be curious to see how much of those billions in sales is consumer grade stuff.  Aside from the (thankfully) short-lived THRILL series Martin hasn't dabbled much in the more lucrative consumer and weekend warrior lines of products.  The Mania Series from a decade ago and the lower end of the Rush Series is about the lowest down the food chain Martin has gone anytime in recent memory post-Wizard and Acrobat/T-Rex era. 

[Tim Weaver]

I'd be curious to see how much of those billions in sales is consumer grade stuff.  Aside from the (thankfully) short-lived THRILL series Martin hasn't dabbled much in the more lucrative consumer and weekend warrior lines of products.  The Mania Series from a decade ago and the lower end of the Rush Series is about the lowest down the food chain Martin has gone anytime in recent memory post-Wizard and Acrobat/T-Rex era.

I'm sure its mostly consumer brand stuff. Its why Samsung bought them in the first place. To get into the car audio market. Maybe they are building a Android auto/Carplay alternative and they want the JBL logo on it, I don't know. They have said that they want some of the Pro Audio tech in this new venture.

JBL is worth a lot, and they paid a big chunk of change to get that brand. I just hope they don't let the other brands wither and die.

[ProSoundWeb Community]