Losses at Denon/Marantz, more cost cutting
Apparently D&M Holdings (the company formed by the initial merger of Denon and Marantz, and later additions of McIntosh, Rio, and ReplayTV) is still finding its footing. They just announced a loss for the first half-year, and attribute that to declines in the premium consumer A/V market.
But, the article I read also had an interesting bit about D&M Holdings consolidating their manufacturing into a facility in China to save on costs. I don't know if this means that they now deal with only one outsourcing partner, or if they actually own and manage this facility. The last few years, Denon in particular has been moving their entry and midlevel manufacturing around to different outsource partners in China, and I don't know if this has affected their product quality. The article also mentioned that D&M's manufacturing plant in Japan is being spun off into an independent company. Given that this might be where Denon's (and Marantz's?) flagship products are currently manufactured, does this now mean that those models are also getting shifted to China?
http://www.stereophile.com/news/112403dmholdings/