Resonessence Labs Out of Business?

[Norton]

As a Mirus owner, I haven’t  heard much from/about Resonessence Labs recently and just noticed the website now goes to a domain placeholder.

 

Anyone know if they are still in business and this is maybe just something temporary given the current difficult environment? 

[seeteeyou]

Maybe give LinkedIn a try?

 

https://ca.linkedin.com/in/mark-mallinson-52108316

 

Here's their physical address in Canada

 

http://highfidelity.pl/@main-469&lang=en

 

Apparently it's put on sale since the beginning of March

 

https://property.trovit.ca/listing/6-bedroom-house-for-sale-at-863-coronado-crescent-kelowna.1v1vZx1P1w1s13

https://vernon.britishcolumbia.remax.ca/listing/251529957-150112732/863-coronado-crescent-kelowna-bc-v1w-2k3/

 

Most likely we should know what to expect then?

[Norton]

Thanks for the detective work.  Not conclusive but not reassuring either.  If this is anything other than a temporary interruption, one would hope they and their dealers will provide an update to customers with product still under warranty.

[TubeLover]

On 3/27/2020 at 4:03 AM, Norton said:

Thanks for the detective work.  Not conclusive but not reassuring either.  If this is anything other than a temporary interruption, one would hope they and their dealers will provide an update to customers with product still under warranty.

Sad to hear about this. I hope you get the future support that you deserve. The guys at Resonessence really knew what they were doing, and your Mirus is a wonderful and brilliantly designed product. 

 

JC

[Norton]

On 3/29/2020 at 6:03 AM, TubeLover said:

your Mirus is a wonderful and brilliantly designed product. 

Thanks for the kind words, currently enjoying extended listening during “lockdown”.

At most optimistic this may of course just be temporary incommunicado.  I haven’t see any reference, elsewhere on the web, to them ceasing  trading.

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

I'd say the company is out of business if I had to guess. Looks like the domain wasn't renewed. This is usually a sign because domain renewal is like $10. Of course it can also be overlooked / forgotten, but given the circumstances it doesn't look good. 

 

 

Domain Name: RESONESSENCELABS.COM 
Registrar URL: http://www.newfrontier.domains 
Updated Date: 2020-03-14T07:51:57Z 
Creation Date: 2010-03-13T20:43:27Z 
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2020-03-13T00:00:00Z 
Domain Status: autoRenewPeriod https://www.icann.org/epp#autoRenewPeriod**

 

** This grace period is provided after a domain name registration period expires and is extended (renewed) automatically by the registry. If the registrar deletes the domain name during this period, the registry provides a credit to the registrar for the cost of the renewal.

[Pablooo]

Here is my story with Resonessence Labs.

 

Last year I had my Mirus Pro upgraded to the Signature Series. When I mailed to Mark Mallinson I got a reply of Ahmed Rizki. He reported that Mark has retired and that he takes over his duties. 

Ahmed has further handled the upgrade to the Signature Series. The last time I received an email from him was on October 4, 2019. 

 

Because the DAC display has broken recently I contacted Ahmed again on April 2nd. Unfortunately the email bounced and shortly after I found out the website was gone as well. Via LinkedIn I found out that Ahmed works for Ess Tech (from the Sabre dac chip, where Mark Mallinson worked with his brother). I have sent an email to this company and explained my problem but to date I have had no response.

 

Once I figured out who will take over the repair service I will report here. 

[Norton]

The consensus over on this thread https://www.head-fi.org/threads/resonessence-labs-concero-discussion-review-thead.634760/page-156 

 

is that Resonessence are gone; Project86  seemed to have good links with them in the past.

 

Of course no one other than insiders knows the circumstances, but speculation is inevitable when a company won’t communicate and it does seem to have been handled particularly badly to date (I.e. not handled at all) especially for customers with expensive  products  under warranty.  Doesn’t necessarily reflect well on ESS either given  the closeness of the 2 companies.  I don’t think it was a sudden decision as I noticed the Thesycon drivers (for which I guess an ongoing licensing fee is payable) were no longer available on the site well before the disappearing act.

 

With the Invicta/Mirus my sense is that this was an ambitious product  that they kind of lost interest in, so that the HDMI  port  never did get configured as an input (would have been great with an Oppo as transport) , BNC never got configured as clock input, and despite the “DXD” logo, it couldn’t actually play 352/384 off a SD card.  
 

It would be great if someone could take this on, both for repairs and even maybe further firmware development, but not holding my breath.  Lesson to me here is never to buy pricy kit from small manufacturers.

[Dr Tone]

If anyone you would think Sabre themselves could take it on as a test ground for new stuff. It was there engineer behind the designs in the first place.  Maybe a coincidence but the original FPGA based filters in the invicta line made it into the latest Sabre chips and the latest Mirus’s just use the built in Sabre filters.

[The Computer Audiophile]

I don’t think many companies are interested in taking on an out of business company’s problems. Just saying. 

[Dr Tone]

7 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I don’t think many companies are interested in taking on an out of business company’s problems. Just saying. 

Other than Mark running the business out his house and not very well, Resonessence engineering and expertise seemed to come from ESS in the first place.

[The Computer Audiophile]

4 minutes ago, Dr Tone said:

Other than Mark running the business out his house and not very well, Resonessence engineering and expertise seemed to come from ESS in the first place.

Sure, but I don’t see Apple lining up to take on the broken products of its ex employees’ companies. 
 

Just doesn’t make sense unless ESS is hurting for business and thinks there’s a buck to be made. 

[Dr Tone]

11 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Sure, but I don’t see Apple lining up to take on the broken products of its ex employees’ companies

But from all accounts it was a current ESS VP designing and creating the products for Resonessence.
 

https://ca.linkedin.com/in/dustin-forman-90103930

[Norton]

8 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Sure, but I don’t see Apple lining up to take on the broken products of its ex employees’ companies.

Relationship seems closer than that, the person who took over the running of Resonessence after Mark Mallison is also a current ESS project manager, if LinkedIn is up to date.
 

 It would be good to hear from anyone who knows their way around Canadian company records as to whether RL have gone into administration or such like, and whether there are any financial  or governance links with ESS.

 

Obviously, unlike some other situations, everyone got what they paid for (but with a ? on the warranty support, which was included in the purchase price) and these were great products; but when  you are charging $7k+ for  a DAC, at the very least an explanatory email to customers would have been the gracious thing to do and not too much to ask.  Oppo managed to exit the market in a professional, orderly manner and have seen the resale values of their former products  rocket.  I don’t think that’s going to be the case here.

[Pablooo]

2 hours ago, Norton said:

Relationship seems closer than that, the person who took over the running of Resonessence after Mark Mallison is also a current ESS project manager, if LinkedIn is up to date.
 

 It would be good to hear from anyone who knows their way around Canadian company records as to whether RL have gone into administration or such like, and whether there are any financial  or governance links with ESS.

 

Obviously, unlike some other situations, everyone got what they paid for (but with a ? on the warranty support, which was included in the purchase price) and these were great products; but when  you are charging $7k+ for  a DAC, at the very least an explanatory email to customers would have been the gracious thing to do and not too much to ask.  Oppo managed to exit the market in a professional, orderly manner and have seen the resale values of their former products  rocket.  I don’t think that’s going to be the case here.

I agree with you Norton.  

 

In an effort to check whether RL is still in business I checked the address on the invoice ( 1631 Dickson Ave, Kelowna, BC V1Y 0B5, Canada). This turns out to be a building where ESS technology rents office space:

 

https://www.landmarkcentre.ca/tenant-directory/building/1/Landmark_1/

 

Unfortunately there's no business registration number on the invoice but as there's no such history to be found on the internet my guess is the company has always been a subsidiary of ESS. 

 

 

[Norton]

A Resonessence website has been resurrected but use of English is odd, including “Lab” in the singular,  as is reliance on generic imagery.

 

Genuine or not?  Of course RLabs could end online speculation just by spending a tiny bit of the income they got from selling $7k DACs on sending their customers an email explaining what situation is, especially those looking for warranty returns or even to download a driver.

 

Odd there’s nothing in the audiophile press about this.  Quick to lavish reviews, somewhat reticent maybe on reporting when things go wrong?

[davide256]

8 hours ago, Norton said:

A Resonessence website has been resurrected but use of English is odd, including “Lab” in the singular,  as is reliance on generic imagery.

 

Genuine or not?  Of course RLabs could end online speculation just by spending a tiny bit of the income they got from selling $7k DACs on sending their customers an email explaining what situation is, especially those looking for warranty returns or even to download a driver.

 

Odd there’s nothing in the audiophile press about this.  Quick to lavish reviews, somewhat reticent maybe on reporting when things go wrong?

Looks like a generic "build a website in 5 minutes" template. Other than a Herus link there is very little company specific content. The site  logo doesn't match either

for the old Resonessence logo... maybe a spinoff/employee buyout?

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Or a malware operation. 

[Norton]

13 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Or a malware operation. 

Maybe I should have mentioned, if it’s not obvious, that this site appears to be at the genuine RL’s existing URL so that copious links all over the web will direct to it.  My best guess is either that the new site has no connection whatsoever with RL, or that RL has been bought out by an entity for  whom English is not the first language and this is a placeholder site for now.

 

I know nothing about internet governance, if the former scenario above, is it that quick and easy to take over an existing url for an unconnected company?

[Dr Tone]

If renewal is Ignored and ownership expires on the domain name, after a grace period it’s publicly available for purchase again.

[Miska]

You can find current registrant information for the domain here:

https://www.godaddy.com/whois/results.aspx?domain=resonessencelabs.com

 

[Norton]

32 minutes ago, Miska said:

You can find current registrant information for the domain here:

https://www.godaddy.com/whois/results.aspx?domain=resonessencelabs.com

 

Thanks.

[Norton]

7 hours ago, Dr Tone said:

If renewal is Ignored and ownership expires on the domain name, after a grace period it’s publicly available for purchase again.

Thanks, still a RL owner?

[The Computer Audiophile]

Need we say more?

 

 

[fas42]

Here we go ... https://profiles.forbes.com/members/agency/profile/Randy-Soderman-Founder-CEO-Soderman-SEO/f27e1eef-bd5c-4abc-a16f-027e10c851cc