Emotiva Audio to Acquire Bob Carver LLC

Sorry if you had your brains explode all over your monitor, but it happened to us too. As revealed in this week's Emotiva Podcast, Emotiva has acquired Bob Carver LLC. Emotiva, long known to the Audioholics of the world as the go-to manufacturer for Internet Direct amplifiers, has a history of providing solid-state amplifiers at a fraction of the price of the brick and mortar competition. Bob Carver, a literal giant (but not too literal, like Fezzik) in the field of amplifiers, has a long history in the world of high-end audio through his companies, which include the well-respected Sunfire.

Bob Carver LLC is a new start-up from Carver that is focused on tube amps (as we reported here and here). Carver and partner Bob Farinelli started the company a few years ago. Farinelli is reportedly leaving to focus on his own automation company Smart Farm, LLC. Carver will begin working with Emotiva and his technologies will be integrated into both the Emotiva lineup and the Sherbourn line that Emotiva's parent company (Jade) acquired a few years ago.

While the announcement may be a bit premature, Emotiva has promised that the deal is all but done and that Emotiva will immediately take over production of the Bob Carver LLC. lineup of products. Keeping in the spirit of the original Bob Carver LLC products, all the original products will still be made in the Unites States at the Emotiva facilities.

This is an exciting development for all those interested in tube amps but not interested in their traditionally high cost. While we expect the Sherbourn products to be as expensive as custom installer products tend to be, we wonder what will end up in the Internet direct store on the Emotiva side. Carver's products have been traditionally sold exclusively through custom shops, so this is a big change for him.

Carver, reportedly, will be "deeply involved" in R&D at Emotiva—news that has vast implications for the future of Emotiva's offerings. On top of all this, with Carver's work with Sunfire, a company known not only for amplifiers but subwoofers, more changes in Emotiva's offerings are surely on the horizon. Dan Laufman, Emotiva Principal, said on the podcast, “We’re going to make a very, very serious effort in the high-performance subwoofer category."

Carver will be integrated into the Emotiva company in a design and development side. This mean Carver will be able to focus on coming up with new and interesting technologies and solutions while allowing Emotiva to focus on production and sales.

We, for one, are pretty excited to see how this all plays out. But, there are sure to be many different opinions about this acquisition. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.