Whenever Egan observes teenagers listening to Britney Spears or Justin Timberlake on their iPods, he sees future opportunity according to an interview he gave recently to Electronic House in the USA.
While most speaker manufacturers are decrying the "dumbing down" of today's consumers, Egan is convinced that those listeners of low-quality MP3 files will evolve into music aficionados (not necessarily audiophiles) who will migrate into higher quality equipment.
"People are changing how they get into their music. IPods are just the latest iteration," says Egan, KEF's vice president of marketing. "We don't see ourselves as a speaker company. We are an acoustics company. Being just a speaker company would limit our opportunities. We are not into earbuds, but we are not averse to that direction."
To that end, KEF is nimbly applying its acoustics roots to a broad line of products ranging from in-walls/in-ceilings, its well-established (and redesigned) floorstanding and bookshelf Reference Series speakers, its new KEF Wireless and Universal Wireless system, and its new $130,000-per-pair Muon floorstanding speakers. This fall, KEF even plans to introduce a commercial audio line.
The company's parent is Goldpeak, based in Cambridge, England, while KEF has its U.S. sales and distribution office in Marlboro, N.J. Egan says the company "laid down the gauntlet" that its manufacturing and engineering in England would be "the preeminent acoustics facility" in Britain or it "will go to China."
