Mana Audio update

Isaac - still with the sensayuma?

 

In business the product has to be in demand, I am not going to single out Mana as I have never tried their products, for I know they could be brilliant.

However if there is little demand for the product the company will fail, demand may be due to the falling hobby for the if the product is crap.

I haven't spent a pennty on my HIFI for ages, I much prefer to spend it on music these days.

I have also made all my own HIFI furniture as I feel the prices the retailers want for them is way way too much.

 

So, first I tried dictionary.co.uk
Then I tried google (3rd result was from the old mana board btw).
Then I laughed.
Then I felt a bit stupid.
Then I laughed again.

 

If they have gone under it is a very sad day. I thought they were a great company to deal with - total enthusiasm for what they did.

With the popularity of racks and stands now you would have thought they would be flying but sadly their gear is still very expensive at which point some of the more modern (and expensive) designs become viable alternatives.

However, does anyone remember the debacle regarding the Stealth power amp (which actually turned out to be the ECS amps for which Mana were going to do the marketing) and didn't they attempt to start making their own recordings at one point as well?

Mana gear was always held in very high regard when I got into hifi about 10 years ago. Then along came Richard Black (I think) in hifi choice and complained that the rack made more noise than the sound coming from the hifi and complained bout the ringing coming from the rack even if you clapped your hands near by - a mediocre review and I don't think I've seen a review of their gear since.

In that time Townsend, Voodoo, Avid, Finitie Elemente, Clearlight with their RDC, Hutter and others with a new way of looking at supports have come along and all have been highly praised in the press and subsequently in the peoples view.

Business can be tough sometimes.

I hope the guys that work there get over it as they were a great company to deal with.

 

yer :MILD:

 

I feel sorry for those owed money by them. I fail to see how a company of that size can end up with debts of over £60K and if some of it's creditors are people like Heuer and small suppliers, then they are the ones who deserve the sympathy surely?

 

Indeed.

 

Completely untrue, needless to say.

 

I'm still convinced the RB review didn't help them.

The entire review was about the ringing and not about the hifi placed on it.

 

Chaps

Mana was/is a good product but was marketed very badly.

The reality of selling is that you need either a good dealer infrastructure or an excellent internet selling forum and Mana had neither.

Dealers were reluctanct to deal with Mana because JW would still sell over the internet and cut them out. The forum was populated by yobs who presented an appalling image and drove potential customers away.

This really was a classic case of a company needing to out source its image to a professional marketing organisation.

Regards

Mick

 

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that what you had written was untrue. What I meant was that this:

is untrue.

 

I think the problem with Mana is that it takes quite a lot of time & patience to set up correctly. It's not really compatible with a hi-fi shop's demo room because things get moved around quite a lot, and moving it puts it out of tune.

 

Bub

Yes that is true so the obvious answer would be to produce a video to show how it could be done quickly. Even dealers where left in the dark over this.

The forum was littered with this topic and that also reduced confidence in the product.

No matter how good a product, you have to sell it and selling is a skilled profession.


Regards


Mick

 

No probs

When I ordered my wall shelf from them (about 7 years ago now) you had to order it direct from them - they had no dealer network at all back then.

At the time I had JUST bought my first deck (the Mycro) and it was bouncing all over the place due to the floor so I went for a wall shelf to put it on.

The guy I chatted to about it spent about 30 mins on the phone giving me great advice about turntable care and how best to set them up etc.. since I was a total novice at the time.

It summed up what the company, and its staff, was about and is something we don't see enough from the people who actually make the gear.

 

Unfortunately as they work in a very specific way they also dont suit all systems even when correctly setup - for decks at least. Stands like the TSS are a lot less hassle and work more effectively - and are much cheaper than some of the more ludicrous offerings. Plus they are tied into a whole philosophy which has waned in importance within an industry which is itself waning. Sadly they wont be the last.

 

This is true and a very sad state of affairs.

We need guys like Mana.

 

The problem with Mana is twofold:1/ the way it looks; it doesn't sit well peoples Habitat furnishings. 2/ Mana has been around a long time now & hasn't changed appearance or been tweaked therefore chaps find it easy to get itchy feet/bored and swap to a different stand (also the reason it starts to get 'bad' reviews IMO)

I don't think it's library atmosphere forum can have any impact on sales.

I for one will be sorry to see Mana go (if indeed that is the case).

 

I think the alleged domestic aesthetic problem is well-overstated. Dunkyboy's g/f remarked on how nice it looked, unprompted. Black goes with anything.

The TSS is not in the same league as Mana - from experience.

 

Its marketing hyperbole doesnt help either. Some of the claims dont seem that sound technically - though my mana ref table worked very well with my PT deck as they operate on similiar principles. Most people care about looks and style more than sound anyway, especially as supports are much less important in non-vinyl systems.

 

"supports are much less important in non-vinyl systems."

I would disagree.

"Marketing hyperbole"? Just read the reviews. OK, they are old, but that doesn't invalidate them.