GoldenEar Technology, the 10-year-old audiophile loudspeaker company started by audio industry entrepreneur Sandy Gross, its co-founder and president, has been acquired by The Quest Group, owner of the AudioQuest brand of cables, Niagara power products, and DragonFly DACs and wholly owned by AudioQuest’s founder and CEO, Bill Low.

The announcement of the acquisition was sent by Gross to GoldenEar dealers and export distributors in early January in a letter. (Shown in the photo are Bill Low [left] and Sandy Gross.)

“The Quest Group… has defined how a focus on audiophile performance can combine with market savvy and understanding, marketing excellence and operational excellence to achieve exceptional business success. All of these positives mirror what GoldenEar is about, but with greater strength, resources and capabilities,” Gross stated in the letter about the joining of the companies.

“We have established a much-envied distribution network in North America through the best brick-and-mortar dealers. And in the international markets, with distributors in 35 countries, we have begun to establish an equally enviable worldwide presence,” Gross said in the letter, noting that Bill Low, a fellow “fanatical audiophile” whom Gross has known for nearly 50 years, from the time Low was a high-end-audio retailer, is “the right business partner with which to join GoldenEar ­ – one who understands who we are, what we do, and how we do it.”

Gross added in the letter, “I very much want to continue with my lifelong work of creating great loudspeakers and bringing them to market…I think that TQG’s capabilities will help us to create and structure an even more effective market presence, and, with their help and backing, I am confident that our sales team will grow and be able to offer even greater support to you, our dealers, distributors, and to your teams.”

He also noted The Quest Group’s strong European presence and its Asia-Pacific team as positives for the GoldenEar Technology brand.

The letter goes on to note that GoldenEar’s engineering team remains in place, with the addition of new head Benjamin Seaman, and that the company’s sales and in-house support teams remain “in place and in gear,” as before the acquisition.

Gross’ letter notes that about 100 of GoldenEar’s approximately 200 North American dealers also carry AudioQuest, but Gross noted that “GoldenEar will continue to slowly and methodically pursue its own unique and independent distribution strategy… Over time, more AudioQuest dealers might become GoldenEar dealers, though only when and where appropriate… there is no mandate for either community to merge with the other.”

Bill Low, in an addendum to the announcement letter, noted, “I’m delighted to welcome GoldenEar into the heart of The Quest Group’s performance-oriented audio business…

“The businesses of GoldenEar and AudioQuest are simply complementary and compatible to a degree seldom seen when an investment business buys companies… Everyone who knows Sandy has witnessed someone doing what he loves—I hope the same is obvious to those who know me. Sandy and I will now be practicing our favorite ‘pastime’ under the same umbrella.”