Is Allison dead?

[JKent]

I see they have a web site and their phones are "temporarily" disconnected, but emails have not been answered. Looking for front grilles for my Fours.

Anybody know the company's current status? I sure hope they survive.

[dynaco_dan]

>I see they have a web site and their phones are

>"temporarily" disconnected, but emails have not been

>answered. Looking for front grilles for my Fours.

>

>Anybody know the company's current status? I sure hope they

>survive.

Hi there;

I have read on this site, several times in 2005, that the company was being resurrected, with Roy Allison, in a consultatative only capacity.

There is some reason why your contact is not successful, if the company is still being resurrected.

Perhaps the financing has failed.

Failure to keep, at least the lines of communication open, in this case, just their website, can only cause further financial losses and lost consumer and dealer confidence.

It would be nice if, Roy, was a site member here, to at least confirm the status of Allison Acoustics.

I used to write to him quite often, I'm sure he couldn't have forgotten this pest, when he was at AR.

Even when he was off sick, his secretary wrote a nice letter until Roy was back to work.

A very honourable and kind man, as I remember.

He was like a long distance friend.

I also have read many positive write-ups here, particularily regarding his revolutionary tweeter design.

Looking at a few past ebay auctions, which showed some good photos of a few Allison speaker systems.

I did notice they used the same spring loaded tweeter lead posts as the original AR-3 tweeters.

They had a lot cleaner and more professional appearance than the AR solder strips.

[Guest aamore]

As I was scowering the listed dealers for a pair of Allison Threes and I spoke to Burt Penchansky of Burt's Electronics Kingston, NY. He spoke with the owner of the company who had suffered a heart attack and was out of commission for several months. Obviously, financing difficulties have hit the company and it is no longer producing speakers but parts should be available. The owner, according to Burt, hopes to re-group and sell product at trade shows when he reorganizes.

I saw that Layne Audio carries replacement parts for Allison. I was on their website yesterday but cannot access it today.

Good luck on the covers.

Aaron

[dynaco_dan]

Thank you for your follow-up.

Here's hoping for a speedy and complete health recovery for him.

[JKent]

I'll add my .02 to DD. Best wishes for the company owner's health. Some things are way more important than our hifi toys.

btw--regarding Layne. I emailed them for info on their AR logo plates about a week ago. No reply......

They say they have speaker grilles for Allisons, but if they don't even acknowledge an inquiry from a potential customer, do I really want to send them money?

[dynaco_dan]

>I'll add my .02 to DD. Best wishes for the company owner's

>health. Some things are way more important than our hifi

>toys.

>

>btw--regarding Layne. I emailed them for info on their AR logo

>plates about a week ago. No reply......

>They say they have speaker grilles for Allisons, but if they

>don't even acknowledge an inquiry from a potential customer,

>do I really want to send them money?

Hi there;

I have read many reports here in 2005 of Laynes failure to respond in any form of communication.

I would suggest that you send me the money at least. lol

Actually, I would suggest another dealer that gives you a little more service for the money, some service at least would be nice.

Good luck.

[dynaco_dan]

>I see they have a web site and their phones are

>"temporarily" disconnected, but emails have not been

>answered. Looking for front grilles for my Fours.

>

>Anybody know the company's current status? I sure hope they

>survive.

Hi there;

Does any member know whether the company is on it's feet or still attempting to re-establish itself?

Is Roy F Allison still there in his consulting capacity?

Strange that there continues to be a web site and no phones.

Best of luck.

[Steve F]

I had occasion recently to speak to one of the people involved with Allison's ressurection (we were talking about another matter, unrelated to Allison), and during our discussion, he had to excuse himself to take a call related to an upcoming meeting involving the investors, the Chinese factory, and Roy.

I don't know if that meeting ever took place, but at least I can report that it was scheduled to take place. So, the embers are still smoldering, for what it's worth.

Steve F

[dynaco_dan]

Hi Steve;

Thank you for the update.

I have not done a google for, Allison, to see if there is other Allison forums around.

If there is not and this is the main active, Allison, forum, then I think it would be appropriate to approach that individual, to let him know.

It would be fitting for him or an authorized spokesperson, to keep us informed a little bit, unless that is really confidential.

Anyways, thank you, Steve, for that update and piece of encouragement.

[Steve F]

I just returned from CEDIA (the big custom installation a-v trade show) in Denver, where I happened to speak to the US sales broker of the Allison project.

Although it wasn't the main topic of our conversation together, he did mention to me that the details between Roy and the overseas factory were "close" to being worked out, and the project would be underway "soon."

In this business, "close and soon" can mean almost anything. What I was looking for was whether or not he would say, "Oh, forget that. It'll never happen."

That was NOT said, so we'll just have to be patient and stay tuned to this channel.

Steve F.

[dynaco_dan]

Hi Steve;

Thank you for that update.

It is encouraging, to say the least.

[Steve F]

I just returned from CES where once again I spoke to the US sales broker who is handling the resurection of Allison speakers.

"Soon" was his reply.

So the embers are still smoldering, apparently. But I wouldn't rush out and buy a new bag of marshmallows just yet, if you catch my drift.

Steve F.

[Guest spanzetta]

guys,

are you saying that one day soon Allison will be live again?

Does it mean that we could be able to order original replacement parts directly from them?

In my case I am facing with the problem of having 3 Allison TWO woofers that needs to be repaired.. if I could order original parts from them I would be more then happy...

But the question is: even if they will be live again, would they have such replacement parts in stock?

Waiting your comments

Regards

[Guest spanzetta]

>I see they have a web site and their phones are

>"temporarily" disconnected, but emails have not been

>answered. Looking for front grilles for my Fours.

was you able to send emails to them? (even if no answer get)

In my case any emails to any allisonacoustics.com (tried parts@allisonacoustics.com and david@allisonacoustics.com) comes back with error "553 sorry, relaying denied from your location"..

No way to send email to them... was it different for you?

Regards

[Guest peterh]

I thought it was wonderful to resurrect the Allison line but they have a tough row to hoe in today's market, where home theater, mass-market, and cultist high-end are the only options. Allison doesn't really fit into any of those niches. A year or two ago I called an Allison dealer and they did seem to have stock on a couple models. Maybe there are some drivers available if you know whom to ask. In the meanwhile there's always ebay.

The website has had its "phone temporarily out of service/we'll fix it shortly" message for years, so I don't think the "current owner" having health problems is the whole explanation, though I certainly wish him a speedy recovery. If Mr. Allison is still involved this website ought to be an embarrassment to him. Another poster points out the fine personal attention he received from Allison many years ago. I certainly believe it. I called his RDL company back when they were doing direct mail and received excellent service. But Mr. A is no spring chicken and I suspect he has little to do with the company at this point. If he knew about the state of the website and had power to change it I think he would.

Over the years Allison doesn't seem to have reaped a proper reward for his engineering talent. His products by all accounts are excellent, but fate has been cruel to his businesses. For example RDL sent one of its smaller, cheaper models to Stereophile's Sam Tellig who raved about it in his column, really going over the top as he has a tendency to do. The scuttlebutt is that tons of people called up and ordered them and after they hooked them up and found out they didn't have much bass they returned them. RDL was hedging their bets by sending that speaker to Tellig; they should have sent one of the proprietary Allison designs with the convex cone tweeter and the woofer positioned for optimum room coupling e.g. upwards, or at floor level. If Tellig had yacked about and applauded that design Roy would have been able to sell a lot of his more serious models, which were still great bargains, and they wouldn't have been returned for lack of bass. Thought: I think Audio Advisor would be a good venue for Allison if and when there is an Allison. We can always hope.

[dynaco_dan]

Hi there;

I received substantial support from Roy when he was at AR.

I would write almost every week, just exaggerating a little, and he would reply with a signed and typed letter each and every time.

He was off sick one time and his secretary wrote a note explaining that fact and said he would reply personally when he returned to work, which he did.

At this point in time, if Roy was to do a very brief write-up here, I would believe whatever he said.

When I owned an AR amp, I wrote to ask him if they were going to make a separate tuner, if so, I would wait.

He responded yes and I waited about 6 months for my tuner.

As busy and as responsible a position that he held, he still took the time to be very personable and honest to me.

I was out of hifi during The Allison Acoustics era, otherwise I would probably own Allison's as well.

[JKent]

>guys,

>are you saying that one day soon Allison will be live again?

>

>Does it mean that we could be able to order original

>replacement parts directly from them?

>

>In my case I am facing with the problem of having 3 Allison

>TWO woofers that needs to be repaired.. if I could order

>original parts from them I would be more then happy...

>

>But the question is: even if they will be live again, would

>they have such replacement parts in stock?

>

>Waiting your comments

>

>Regards

Here's what Roy Allison wrote this month on the Yahoo Allison forum:

David Faulkner was very enthusiastic about bringing the brand back to life, and worked hard at it. He invested heavily in that effort both in time and money, eventually going into debt. He can't be faulted for lack of effort, but he made crucial errors in the beginning which were not corrected. And he had some terribly bad luck along the way. A good man was left with nothing to show for his good efforts. To sum up, there's no chance that the Kentucky operation will be revived.

There may be some other avenue for a revival, but I'm not able to speak further about that.