Audio Video News

Sandy Gross Departs GoldenEar Technology

Al Griffin  |  May 27, 2020

Back in early January we reported that The Quest Group, California-based owner of AudioQuest, had purchased speaker maker GoldenEar Technology. The following week, I met with GoldenEar co-founder Sandy Gross in the AudioQuest suite at CES and was happy to learn he would be continuing in his old role at the new company for the time being. Well, that time is now up: Gross has announced he is leaving The Quest Group in order to pursue his “many interests.”

Having known Sandy for over two decades, I can attest that he does indeed have many interests outside of music and hi-fi, a key one being collecting art, specifically Mexican and mid-century American Abstract Expressionist painting. After first meeting Sandy at CES back in the mid-1990s, our shared art interest gave us much to talk about aside from audio, although we discussed that as well during his regular visits to drop off speakers at my home for review. Once he made sure they were set up to his liking, we’d then make our way to the nearby Albright-Knox gallery to check out that institution’s world-class collection of Abstract Expressionist works, including Jackson Pollock’s Convergence (see photo above).

As the co-founder of three iconic speaker brands—Polk Audio, Definitive Technology, and GoldenEar Technology—Gross has accomplished great things during a long career. We at Sound & Vision wish him the best during his downtime, but also wouldn’t be surprised to see him pop up again on the audio scene at some point. Onward and upward, Sandy!

COMMENTS
John_Werner's picture
Submitted by John_Werner on May 27, 2020 - 3:00pm

Jeff, you certainly could be correct in your "basic buyout" chain of events. That said these are unusual times. I think both companies and individuals are either choosing or having to re-access where they're at. Simply due to age we knew Mr. Gross would not just reduce his workload, but at a point retire. I hope this is the basic scenario and that they Golden Ear company won't loose focus. Audio is a tough business these days and we need value performance leaders like Golden Ear. They get the respect of the "sky's the limit" crowd as well as the average person who wants the best yet can't afford the crazy high-end stuff that I'm sick of seeing so much simply because a lot of it doesn't trickle down in "the exclusive" club of the high-end who has no interest in the mainstream. Golden Ear is a marvelous exception offering so much for very down-to-earth pricing. I can only hope they learn from Sandy in this regard and neither cheapen or in greediness increase profit margins to "milk" the performance/value legacy Gross has firmly created

hk2000's picture
Submitted by hk2000 on May 28, 2020 - 11:38am

Won't be long before he starts a new one. Why not? The speaker design is all there, a little tweak here, a twist there, and a new speaker line is born, which he'll sell for $millions on the dollar in just a few years- easy money.

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