[Viewpoint] Auralic and Cocktail Audio go out of business

It wasn't long ago that we published a couple of editorials dedicated to hi-fi and high-end companies in financial distress. You can find the articles here and here. We reported on the troubles facing Krell and MBL (now acquired by a Chinese group, more infos will follow shortly), the closure of Verity Audio, the uncertainties surrounding the future of Devialet and darTzeel, and finally the collapse of the Sound United group (Bowers & Wilkins, Denon, Definitive Technology, Polk Audio, Classé, Boston Acoustics, and Marantz), which was acquired by Harman (i.e., Samsung) for a fraction of the price paid for the Masimo group just a few years earlier.

The picture that emerges is certainly not the rosiest. Meanwhile, news has arrived of the permanent closures of Cocktail Audio and Auralic. The latter had recently won a few “product of the year” awards. We intend to examine the real value of such awards in the near future. Now, the first company has not provided an explanation, while the second suggests that the new US tariffs have definitively crippled its exports. As for the former, I suspect its market repositioning was a mistake. Born as a company making smart, good-sounding, and inexpensive music servers (the X10 and X12, which we reviewed favourably), it has attempted to conquer a more elite segment of the market with increasingly expensive music servers. This is always a very risky operation because budget-conscious buyers no longer recognize the brand's mission, and those willing to spend more are unlikely to buy a product that has become famous for a music server costing a few hundred euros. It's as if, pardon the comparison, a company that makes food products for discount stores suddenly tried to attack the gourmet market, while maintaining the same brand. Failure would be practically guaranteed. Sometimes market repositioning has worked, but the audiophile customer is by nature wary and very tied to status.

As for Auralic, I can't find any answers other than those officially provided by the company, but certainly in the digital audio market (streamers, music servers, and DACs), the grass-roots aggression from brands that make excellent entry-level products must be very difficult to fight. Let's not forget that, ultimately, music servers and DACs have always attracted less interest than amplifiers and speakers, in the audiophile mindset.

These aren't good news, especially for workers and customers who suddenly see their employment contracts (the former) and product warranties (the latter) terminated, not to mention the lack of official tech support and the residual value on the second-hand market. For digital products that require constant software and firmware updates, this equates to a collapse in interest (and, sometimes, usability) for the product. Who would buy a digital product that can no longer be updated and could, therefore, stop working at any moment? We know what happens with smart-phones, for example. At a certain point, software updates cease to be available for a given model, and as a result, the increasingly updated apps stop working.

Summarizing, as we've been saying for years...the atmosphere isn't good for the audio market, despite the usual public defenders who will now tear their clothes and say we're the prophets of doom. We've been saying certain things for 30 years now, shouting in the wilderness, when all it would have taken was a realistic and far-sighted rethink of this market.

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October 2025 Editorial

Even Auralic and Cocktail Audio go out of business