We did not have to close our shop but....just sold my company for a ton of cash, LOL.
We did not go out of Business, meaning we chose to sell our shop and take the money vs. Building cheap shit and making money.
There are many ways of making more money than in manufacturing, I have been machining for 35 years and have owned my own business since I was 19 years old.
We had 2 Million dollars in equipment and owned the building and all our gear.
We did this out of passion not simply to build the cheapest table and sell it for the most money like the rest. We designed over 300 products, ALL original but have been copied all over the place. We did not go out of business,
I made a decision to NOT COMPETE with cheap turntables,
We did actually build a 4 tables with a cheap VPI Hurst motor/low cost inverted bearing, cheap laminated pluinth... and it cost 1 grand to build, was going to sell it for $2500.00 but it was just another belt drive. I could EASILY compete but I am not interested in building low performance turntables.
Anyone can build a cheap belt drive (they come out of the wood work EVERY day another me too belt drive) there is nothing to it. But we are innovators and we sold a ton of RIM Drive (over 1000) tables and gear but the margins are getting too slim.
I admire VPI's business but not their turntables, they have a great business model, use inexpensive materials, use the same design in different packages, we could have done that it is simple,
But no thanks, our table(s) will now be legendary, you will not see a 100 LB rim drive turntable with tolerance of +/-.0001 (yes 1/10 of one thousands of an inch actually machined like aircraft parts.
The sound, you may be lucky to hear one some time but NO ONE sells their TTW Tables, well about 3 a year - thats a 99.5% customer retention rate
Vinyl will always rule, but I will not be making turntables JUST TO COMPETE
I actually love the vinyl music, and money was secondary.
Happy Holiday to you and your family,
It was fun,
Larry Denham
TTW Audio