Hi all,

Does anyone know if Acoustic Solutions radios are made for Argos exclusively? are they an Argos-owned brand? I can only find them for sale at Argos or on Ebay, and the website is dead, just goes to a holding page?

If anyone knows I would be interested to hear.

Cheers
Dan

More than likely Argos own the rights to the name and get it stuck on a range of generic stuff. They used to own the Wharfedale name for electronics (nothing to do with the speaker manufacturer) and stuck that badge on TVs and STBs that also appeared with all sorts of other badges on.

For example the Wharfedale PVR my mum has I once saw four near identical boxes to it on sale side by side in Tesco. There were only a few minor cosmetic differences and the name of the "maker" on the front between them. But underneath they were all the same generic box made in Turkey.

So what is badge Acoustic Solutions in Argos might well be sold in Currys/Tesco/Sainsburys under a different name.

As chrisjr said, it's simply a badge used by Argos on any cheap rubbish they can buy in (they use Bush for the same purpose now).

Bush are the same ? Used to be a separate company and now just used for generic vestel products.
TV's, digi boxes and radios. I have a Magic Box Radio, the last thing I bought from Comet that is almost the same as a Bush Arden Wooden radio.
It sounds alright but I wouldn't like to guess how long its going to last.

As for TV's these days I think I would only stick to Panasonic,Sony, Samsung and LG in that order.

The Bush name is currently owned by Argos.


Bush went bust way back in the 80's?, it's been nothing but a cheap badge since then

It's sad that all that's left of a quality TV and radio manufacturer like Bush, is the "badge."
In my youth a picked up a second-hand Bush VHF64 radio. Fantastic reproduction, in a quality cabinet. The Vhf band would even pick up the BBC TV sound.

Trade mark: ACOUSTIC SOLUTIONS
Status: Examination
Filing date: 24 April 2013
Holder's name: Argos Limited
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/tmcase/Results/4/EU011767142

Yes a great shame, back when Bush existed they were a decent make.

The story goes that Toshiba deliberately bankrupted them - they joined together in a joint venture with a new factory at Portsmouth (I think it was Portsmouth?) - but then Toshiba pulled out leaving Bush unable to pay for it on their own. Bush went bust as a result, and Toshiba stepped in and bought the factory up cheap.

Don't know how true it was, but that was the story at the time - and Toshiba certainly pulled out of the joint venture, and then bought up the factory afterwards.

I thought as much, but thanks for the responses, and thanks Andrew for that info, useful resource that!

They certainly had a joint venture for a time but it was in Plymouth ( I get also get Portsmouth & Plymouth mixed up LOL )

Rank who had acquired Bush in 1945 established a joint venture with Toshiba in 1978 assembling Toshiba TVs in Plymouth. This was Rank's former factory first opened in 1949.
Rank sold the TVs under its Bush brand; Toshiba under its own name. Two years later Rank sold its share of the joint venture to Toshiba but not the Bush brand name. The Bush name was sold a few years later and resurrected.
The last I heard about the Plymouth site was that it was manufacturing Toshiba's air conditioning systems and Plymouth employs 16 engineers for testing Toshiba TVs.
http://www.gaininbusiness.com/articl...-Stays-in-City

A lot more information on the Rank-Toshiba joint venture can be found here, just scroll past the opening paragraph in French.
http://civilisations.revues.org/1656

In essence, the joint venture proved to be unprofitable so was dissolved in 1980. The entire workforce was laid off and closure costs were met in proportion to ownership ie 70% Rank, 30% Toshiba.

Toshiba was encouraged by everyone to salvage the situation. It took over one factory and took on 300 staff to form the basis of its new UK TV operations. Rank-Toshiba Ltd had owned four factories and employed 2,600 people.

Guess Argos must have bought the brand.

I bought one of their DVD players years ago but I got it from Richer Sounds.

We're talking about ten years ago or something like that. I only got it as they were one of the first to release a DivX compatible DVD player you could buy on the high street. I seem to recall it only lasted a couple of years before it packed in.

BBC TV sound was never broadcast in band 2. Must have been non linearity of the front end doubling the band 1 frequency. Not such a good design then

Argos seem to know what they're doing, as my parents have had the same Wharfedale television for about ten years now and it blows away any other standard size television I've seen at any price. You can see the screen clearly when you're sitting at about 80 degrees to it and it frustrates the hell out of me that I can't find one anywhere.

Hmm..

Might have been because we were living in Shepherd's Bush at the time.

They won't be "buying" a brand , you in effect rent it for a fixed period from the trade marks holder . There are loads of this type of arrangements -- mostly started in the digital camera area where on lower cost items you could be purchasing almost anyone's kit with a familiar brand on it !

But now its even happening in big price ticket item like cars , TV's etc

It depends entirely on the specific arrangements, some are sold outright, and some just buy the rights for a specified time.

Sometimes it's a mix of both (such as Goodmans was).

Yes; Bush has been a "nothing but a cheap badge" for a long time. Its owner was "Alba" for around 20 years- according to Wikipedia they bought the Bush name in the mid-80s. That's the *same* "Alba" whose name appeared on much of the first wave of cheaply-manufactured audiovisual goods to come out of China when they started seriously ramping up their manufacturing and exports during the 1980s (i.e. back when Chinese-made goods were strictly bottom-of-the-range).

I say "Alba" because- ironically- the Alba name itself had originally belonged to *another* (unrelated) British company that went bankrupt in the early-80s.

To further the irony, since the Alba (and Bush) brands were sold on to Argos a few years back, that importer had to change *its* name from "Alba" to "Harvard International". I think they owned a whole load of other brands at one point, but the only one of note they still seem to own is "Goodmans". Still, it's not really important who owns "Alba" or "Bush" if all they're used for is to brand some arbitrary imports. Ditto lots of other defunct company names bought up and whored out as "zombie" brands.

I once bought a home cinema and within 2 minute of turning it on i kicked myself for what a waste of money it had been and took it back. I would recommend get Sony or any other well known brands if Argos is your choice of store.

Carrying on in the Acoustic Solutions theme - I presume it was deliberately chosen to con people in to thinking it was Acoustic Research, a well respected audio manufacturer (particularly of speakers).

I have a 26" Accoustic Solutions HD Ready tv in the study. Bought it roughly 6 years ago, never had a problem, great picture quality too (albeit if you watch it positioned head-on) Its hooked up to a Technika HD Freeview box. For what it is, the tv was a bargain.