Can we expect the Samsungization of these brands? Should we be on the lookout for locked-down audio ecosystems, ever more extraneous features, phone apps, and smart appliances?

Ewww.

Guessing this doesn’t affect Denon DJ / inmusic?

There are quite a few independent old British brands in audio. I hope they stay small niche and independent in the face of consolidation and some genuine competition from China. There are Danish and Finnish brands too and the odd French one. Anyway I hope they can remain independent even as they move some parts of their manufacturing to Asia.

Curiously you can follow some designers from shop to shop as they move in their career evolution.

Niche players like SVS Sound or Devialet are much more appealing now that Samsung owns these storied brands.

    > "Sound United’s impressive roster of brands is rooted in a deep passion for sound, innovation, and commitment to quality that aligns with Harman’s own values"

"They gave us money lmao"

It is interesting how the market for high end audio has changed with the demise of physical media. I don't associate these high end audio brands with the home, however I do associate them with the options on expensive cars.

For the average person with a big TV and standard issue sound bar, an expensive home audio setup has limited appeal. What they have is good enough. However, in the automotive market it is a very different game. For starters, if you have to pay a five or six figure sum for your vehicle, where you are already in the game of specifying options, that expensive audio option isn't that expensive when compared to all of the other 'necessary' options, so you might as well tick the box.

With high end cars, resale value matters. If you have the base specification then this isn't going to fare too well in the second hand market. With some options you are never going to get your money back, but some are 'mandatory', particularly if they are bundled. It seems to me that this is the lucrative niche for high end audio, not the home or other markets. Plus you can sell someone a ridiculous amount of speakers, for example 22 of them, whereas, in the home, nobody has 22 speakers in their living room.

The home audio market has moved on, leaving this consolidation in its wake.

There is something wonderful about listening to physical music recordings without using a screen. It's like cursive writing, or knowing how to drive a stick-shift. But barring a Carrington event, or some moderate-to-severe internet catastrophe, its hard to motivate the utility of this kind of "middle path asceticism". "Shed no tears," the futurists say, since not too long ago most if not all "educated people" knew Greek and Latin, how to use a slide-rule, and how to saddle and ride a horse, and we don't particularly miss those things. I would argue caution, not least of which because this argument is too closely aligned with the market forces that know it's far more profitable to charge you per action than per object. It's always hard to know if we lost something important, or shucked off a barnacle holding us back, until we're looking back. I believe there is a sweet spot between the endless toil of "no technology" and the profound ignorance (and helplessness) that comes from putting everything behind a screen. I suspect that the hi-fi gear between the 1970's and 2010 will continue to be collectible for this reason for at least 100 years.

What is left? Any recommendations for a modern-day receiver for two-zone 5.1.2 and a 2.1 setup?

Luckily Cambridge Audio is still fully owned by its founder. ( Or same person running it for the past 30 years. )

Sad when I first heard B&W sold 10 years ago. I had their 600 series and still wish someday I could afford their top range model.

This is tangentially related-- I was a professional guitar player in the my 20's. When we were kids there were a handful of really great bands in the western United States like The Warlocks, The Cosmonauts, The Shivas, Super 78!, and especially the Brian Jonestown Massacre that thrived off of a huge culture of music enthusiasm that was especially, "tapes and records first. CD's are for the car."

Now outside of a handful of stalwart groups I don't see anybody making, "canonical" rock n' roll music in the, "post Velvet Underground" sense. It's, "correlation vs causation" but I can't help but feel that it was Spotify and streaming that killed this culture. Music became an, "everybody" thing that had no barrier to entry. Music subculture died. Fashion came next. Film has been declining since the 2000's.

I can stand you destroying my country's political culture but should have left it alone. It feels like an Albigensian Crusade.

Literally, the only thing I know about "Denon" is that they once tried to sell a $500 Ethernet cable.

https://www.cnet.com/culture/denons-500-ethernet-cable/