AURALIC
In the storms that have been raging in the world of hi-fi for many years, bad winds alternate with promising new breezes.
Take Auralic, founded in 2009 by Xuanqian Wang, whose announcement of his departure at the beginning of this year was not a good sign, especially as it came just before the release of the new flagship product, the Aquila X3. This week, we learned through a press release that the company was ceasing operations immediately, citing an 80% drop in sales in 20251. The reasons given were a price war and music lovers’ supposed interest in much cheaper streaming devices.
Despite these explanations, there are several contradictory reports, as some suppliers are said to have excess stock of the brand, while other countries have announced that they have been unable to obtain adequate supplies of certain models for several months. We called two French retailers, who admitted that sales of the brand had been sluggish since the beginning of the year, but not as drastic as the overall decline announced.
A note for Auralic device owners: as almost all of them are UPnP, even if the excellent proprietary app were to disappear, most devices will still be usable for many years thanks to third-party apps, starting with Qobuz Connect, for example.
Without specifying the amount of its liabilities, the company has announced that it is putting the brand up for sale for $2 million. Let’s hope that we will hear about a takeover in the coming weeks.
MBL
And since we are talking about takeovers, it is precisely a large Chinese luxury consortium, Chow Tai Seng, that has just bought and, at the same time, breathed new life into the German high-end brand MBL International GmbH.
With 4,200 employees and 4,700 stores in China, the company is injecting the necessary cash to allow MBL to continue its activities and development for the time being, with around 50 staffs according to our sources. Although most of the buyer group’s stores are not in the hi-fi sector, it should be noted that it also owns United Audio, which already distributes many German brands on the Chinese market.
With this good news, MBL, headquartered in Berlin and assembled entirely in Germany, is back on track, with more ambition than ever to conquer the international market! 2
1 « …effective immediately, the company will no longer continue operations due to a significant decline in sales performance. Sales have dropped by 80% this year due to the tariff war, increasing competition from cheaper streaming products and challenging economic conditions worldwide.”
2 « We are convinced that MBL is in excellent hands with MBL International GmbH, backed by Chow Tai Seng. The owner himself is a passionate music lover and a long-standing user of our products. Our location in Berlin, our production in Germany, our team, and our core values remain unchanged,” says Christian Hermeling, CEO of MBL. “Equally important, our strong international distribution network is recognized as one of our greatest strengths and will be further developed under the new ownership. »
