I was the second commenter on the article in ce pro. I beleive I am only referred to as John. I provided my actual dealer name of Knightwing Audio as well, and I use it or my real name ALWAYS! I don't go around talking crap and believe that if you are going to, you better have the balls to put your name on it... I think it is a shitty move by Ira, and no thank you to a new and improved relationship!

I am / was a Bay Audio Dealer since 2004. I was never a "big" dealer, but I tried to support them as mech as possible. Most of the product has exceptional build quality, and brings a credible story to tell at the sales table. I still have some inventory if anyone needs to match something up.

I have NOT received the "letter" that was mentioned. No email, no fax, no phone call. I recently placed an order roughly 3 months ago and nothing was mentioned of the upcoming "transition". I feel like I did my client a disservice because she now has a left, center, right speaker set that will have no future! These replaced a set of Original M&K's purchased back in 2005. I'm sure she feels her new speakers which cost nearly 3 times as much will out last and out perform her old ones. I fully expect the same. The only problem is, I will not be able to even source a tweeter if such an issue arises... Just not cool!

I can only remember one incident requiring warranty repair with a Bay Audio product. It was a powered subwoofer that retailed for $1,000. The client managed to fry the woofer. It was fully under warranty, but even though it was less than a year old NO parts were available! Not even a simple woofer replacement! They did not hang me out to dry though and replace the entire sub with the newer model. They could have said that it was abuse and therefore not covered. So good for them on that. Honestly I remember thinking, wow how strange is that that they don't have a replacement woofer for a product less than a year old! I was able to get replacement M&K woofers for ten year old product! Not because they were blown, but the foam had rotted away.

My opinion is this... Ira should have kept his name out of the new company and remained a behind the scenes consultant for the new guy. My take being he has a new influx of cash from the investor and the new guy wanted to bring some credibility to the new company. Bad move, ex lax.

+1

link doesnt work.

Surprised? It used to.

The link url still has this:..."bay_audio_ceasing_operations_ira_friedman_launches_new_biz_perfect_third/"

They redirected it to another article. Still want to support ce pro? Evidently it is easy to undo your news when you write in the digital realm.

Ouch...the truth hurts.

Julie Jacobson, I understand that companies go in and out of business every day. But usually when that happens, they don't turn around and start a new business doing the same thing the next day. And why did CEPro decide to make the article disappear. That makes you look bad.

I agree Julie. Besides, I was also looking forward to a response from Ira. If we are interpreting the events incorrectly, he should have been quick to set the record straight. The lack of response, and the removal of the article are telling.

Because.....Money....

I don't recall Ira's companies being big advertisers. A threat to withhold his many tens of $ in advertising is hardly something that should scare CEPro.

Maybe not, but bad news travels at the speed of light, so one advertiser can has ill effects on others.

Besides, the threat of a lawsuit can be cause for thought, since a lawsuit itself can be extremely costly, win or lose.



Never used Bay Audio, and what I've heard here, the product was a good one, so I'm wondering what the reason behind this move was.

Don't mean to derail but what are some examples of these advertisement reviews?

The internet never forgets:

[Link: webcache.googleusercontent.com]

I had a great relationship with Bay Audio then something changed around the time David Baird left. Called them to mix match a speaker budget of $15k and had Sales person give me a $23k package then tell me it's easier to down sell. As if I need their coaching on how to approach and sell to clients. Couple other things like that.

I once had a subscription back in the 90's (free with something... I can't remember). The very 1st issue had a TV review. The TV in question was a certain RCA model; a model well known by our industry to be a steaming pile of crap! I mean it was head & shoulders above (meaning below) and other thing on the market at that time. It was an incredibly bad TV - performance, reliability, and design. Here is was in Consumer Reports, getting a glowing review (best out there). After a couple of issues and seeing the same crap over & over... talking to some other professionals in other fields about what they have seen in Consumer Reports, it was all to obvious what was going on.
Nothing I've seen has seem to change over the years decades.

Either that or believe that every single person that works at Consumer Reports, rode the short bus as a child. Which is more likely?
And either way means the same thing as far as their content goes.

I worked in the appliance industry for a bit and I can tell you stories about the horrible and flat out inaccurate reviews.
The biggest problem with CR is that they include price in the review, so it ends up sku'ING the value and overall rating dramatically

Apparently my dad thought CR was the holy grail. That rag was the reason he overpaid for a Sony Betamax camera and player...