AIWA's back... and blue

[WobblySam]

I haven't seen anything from AIWA in 20 years. I remember they had stuff in all the catalogs in the 60s and 70s.
My wife and I were at a holiday party (her friend from work) this past weekend and the host had a second room set up with a sofa and several chairs - and at the end of the room was a smallish speaker sitting on a little wooden table. Soft rock was spilling out and I walked over and looked at it. It was AIWA! The host walked in about then and proceeded to tell me it was a bluetooth speaker. I asked where the tunes were coming from and he opened a desk drawer and pulled out a DAP. I started asking him about the speaker and he seemed a little miffed that I wasn't interested in the player - turns out it was an AK320 and he was particularly proud of it.

The speaker is about the size of a practice amp and for bluetooth, it sounded pretty good. We sent a little Foghat over and turned up the volume. It drew a crowd.

Anyway, good to see a brand from my youth reborn, even if it is bluetooth.

 

[blownsi]

I was under the misunderstanding that Aiwa = Sony. Thanks for the clarification. With that said, that BT speaker has gotten a ton of rave reviews.

 

[blownsi]

I was just commenting on the 'the old brand' comment.

Understood

 

[hjames]

Now, yeah, they can post all that stuff somewhere that they are not the same company ...
but tell me WHY they would name themselves AIWA if they weren't trying
to garner name recognition from the previous brand's history?

 

[DrumminDaddy]

Now, yeah, they can post all that stuff somewhere that they are not the same company ...
but tell me WHY they would name themselves AIWA if they weren't trying
to garner name recognition from the previous brand's history?

Not only the same name, but the same logo/font as well. Musta bought the trademark rights from Sony. But perhaps not the design/intellectual property. Name recognition is certainly worth $$.

 

[lini]

(...) That happens more than you realize.

Indeed. I can't speak for the American market, but over here quite a few of the formerly big German brand names have reappeared in the meantime, with the companies behind having little to nothing to do with the original companies anymore. Think Grundig, Telefunken or Nordmende, for example. Also most modern Dual stuff - or maybe even all of it, as it would seem pretty debatable, whether Dual-Fehrenbacher would still seem worthy of being regarded as standing in the tradition of the original Dual-Steidinger company.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini