Audio

Sonos announced today that Tweeter will be carrying the eponymous product at more than 150 retail locations throughout the U.S. (mostly in the Northeast).  Tweeter is now the largest retailer in the country to carry the Sonos Digital Music System, and Sonos claims a "quality over quantity" approach to signing up retail partners. Nonetheless, Sonos is on track to have 500 retail location partners by the end of 2005, the first holiday buying season that Sonos is available. Tweeter should be a good fit for this mid-tier product: Sonos fits in between the half dozen $200 – $300 streaming music …

Outlaw just announced a new pre/pro (the surround sound processing portion of a receiver without the amplifier section), the model 990, and its a doozy: a high end version of the company’s 950 for only $1099. More surprising than the product itself is Outlaw’s secrecy about it – while some analysts (including yours truly) were briefed on this last year, this is the first public indication the company has made that they were even working on a new pre/pro, and it should be shipping within the next month or two. The change in strategy was due to the flack the …

BusinessWeek has an article in this week’s issue titled, "The Crisp, Clear Sound of Rising Profits" [registration req’d] on B&O’s recent uptick in business. After years of stagnation, the company is rolling out dozens of new initiatives in high end audio systems for exclusive automobiles, yachts, and penthouse suites at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. That’s all well and good, but those are relatively small markets with high investment required to enter.  In other words, they’re brand-building activities, not core products. Bose and Harman are exceptions: they make real money in their auto divisions because they’ve built the business …