What old brands have become

[schmitt trigger]

The name Bell&Howell may not be familiar to people outside North America, but here was a very respectable brand.

My father had a B&H 8 mm film projector, that lasted until bulbs were no longer available.

Nowadays? Cheap pest repelents, made you know where.

 

[gophert]

The name Bell&Howell may not be familiar to people outside North America, but here was a very respectable brand.

My father had a B&H 8 mm film projector, that lasted until bulbs were no longer available.

Nowadays? Cheap pest repelents, made you know where. View attachment 114863

I think B&H tried to move from a film studio equipment company to educational products, and ultimately simply slapping their name on cheap Asian-made binoculars, pest repellers, personal slide projectors, audio equipment, walkie-talkies, and other gadgets and selling them as mail-order through late night infomercials that drove them into financial ruins. Some investment company bought the name and relaunched recently. Same business strategy - put B&H name on white-labelled crap.

 

[dr pepper]

I'm in England, Bell & Howell projectors were used at school, they were used by schools for a long time, until video tape replaced them in the 80's.

 

[JimB]

Going back to the 1970s, my memories of Bell and Howell are their UV recorders, like this one:

(Image copied from here:
http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/test_equipment/bell_and_howell/Bell_and_Howell_Catalog_1973.pdf)

Most of the UV recorders we used were made by SE Labs, a UK based company, but the odd Bell and Howell appeared now and then as customer equipment.

JimB

 

[dr pepper]

I've never seen one of those.
Might be a little before my time, I was still in junior school.

 

[chemelec]

The Company was Bell&Howell.
This company on TV shows the Bell&Howell, But Pronounces it Bell+Howell.

I Don't think it is the SAME COMPANY.
Just a Knock-Off.

 

[dr pepper]

Another name from school was Hughes & Kettner audio equipment, the sports hall had it.
I got a couple of HK power amps for a customer back in the 90's, they werent bad for the money.

 

[audioguru]

HK was Harmon Kardon, the American audio systems company starting in 1953. When Kardon retired, Harman bought the JBL speaker company and marketed the first stereo cassette recorder/player that had the Dolby noise reduction system. Harmon was appointed into the American government then had to sell Harmon International, to Beatrice Foods who knew nothing about audio systems or how to sell them and lost a lot of profits. When Harmon left the government he re-bought his company back from Beatrice Foods for almost half the price he sold it for. When Harmon retired recently, the Harmon International company was sold to Samsung for 8 billion USD. The list of excellent audio companies owned today by Harmon International is too long to list here.

 

[Mickster]

^^
We need the "Informative" button back....ADMIN!

Thanks AG.

 

[unclejed613]

that's similar to Acoustic Research, which spun off KLH, which spun off Advent, which split into Kloss Video and APT corp. i worked for APT for a few years, and Kloss Video was right next door,

unfortunately, anything made these days with the KLH or Advent brand name on them are from some sweatshop in China.

 

[schmitt trigger]

Roger that.
Very interesting post AG

 

[gophert]

HK was Harmon Kardon, the American audio systems company starting in 1953. When Kardon retired, Harman bought the JBL speaker company and marketed the first stereo cassette recorder/player that had the Dolby noise reduction system. Harmon was appointed into the American government then had to sell Harmon International, to Beatrice Foods who knew nothing about audio systems or how to sell them and lost a lot of profits. When Harmon left the government he re-bought his company back from Beatrice Foods for almost half the price he sold it for. When Harmon retired recently, the Harmon International company was sold to Samsung for 8 billion USD. The list of excellent audio companies owned today by Harmon International is too long to list here.

I visited Bose and Harmon International (Samsung) in the past month. Two completely different mentalities when specifying materials and manufacturing methods. Look at the list of subsidiaries for Harmon on Wikipedia, all the kings of American Audio have been assembled under one roof at Harmon. Whoever runs Bose managed to turn an innovative audio research company into a cost minimizing, technology minimizing marketing company.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

HK was Harmon Kardon, the American audio systems company starting in 1953.

You're doing the 'American' thing of assuming nothing exists outside of the USA (even though you're Canadian), Hughes & Kettner is a German company who makes PA and guitar amps etc.

 

[schmitt trigger]

. Whoever runs Bose managed to turn an innovative audio research company into a cost minimizing, technology minimizing marketing company.

That is such a pity. As you correctly said, Bose has traditionally been an innovative company. Its products commanded a premium price, but were well worth it.

If I understand you correctly, this would be roughly similar to Hewlett Packard, which devolved from the world's premier T&M company to an ink and toner company.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

That is such a pity. As you correctly said, Bose has traditionally been an innovative company. Its products commanded a premium price, but were well worth it.

Not in the HiFi world, it's always been considered (VERY) over priced and of relatively poor performance and quality, it's no coincidence that Bose advertise in 'Life Style' magazines and not HiFi magazines, nor do they ever have reviews done in the HiFi magazines (as poor as they are for reviews anyway).

Bose is usually said to stand for Buy Other Sound Equipment

To be fair though it does tend to have interesting facilties, and appeals to it's target market, where accurate and quality sound reproduction isn't a concern.

 

[dr pepper]

Thanks Nige.

Anyone remember orange amps, I believe they are back in business, I think Hi Watt are too.

 

[tomizett]

Just as an addendum to #8, it's "Harman" not "Harmon", unless it's been changed or marketed differently in different parts of the world.
https://www.harman.com/
One of the two big global groups in pro audio (and lighting), the other being Music Group, which grew out of Behringer.
Harman recently took the remains of UK console makers Soundcraft out of the country, prompting much sadness & nostalgia across the industry.

The Hewlett Packard thing is interesting: Of course, what was HP continues to be a leading electronic instrument maker, but the marketeers seem to feel that it's more important to keep the brand continuity in ink and toner, and that the reputation of the test/measurement gear is strong enough to withstand re-branding. It surprises me that having their ink associated with cutting-edge lab gear doesn't appeal to them, but there you go.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Anyone remember orange amps, I believe they are back in business, I think Hi Watt are too.

Well at least the names are back in business, I've no idea if they have anything to do with the original companies.

 

[dr pepper]

Asset stripping back in the 90's changed some decent household & business names.

 

[audioguru]

In my past hifi days, British and German products were not available in Canada except the Blaupunkt car radio with a cassette tape deck I bought because it was the only one available that recorded, then I souped it up and made it hifi.
My first stereo speakers were Acoustic Research and I still use one every day. The other one has a broken woofer flexy wire. I recommended a KLH system to a friend.

I never liked Bose until I attended a hifi demo and I could not find the sub-woofer. Small speakers had covers that made them look large then the covers were removed and I gasped at the good bass from the little speakers. Recently there was a tiny Bose Bluetooth speaker system on demo at Costco. It sounded fantastic but its cost was tremendous. My son bought me a cheap Chinese copy that I never use.