Audio and video equipment manufacturing

Televisions, soundbars and headphones are made by global electronics groups and are not a Canadian entry path; the pre-screen's "brand-and-scale" is right about them. What Canada actually has in this code is hi-fi — loudspeaker and amplifier makers in Ontario and Quebec with international reputations — and that is the proposition screened. It is reachable: 52 of 77 establishments have fewer than ten people, US establishments average 19, and a loudspeaker is drivers, a crossover and a cabinet. The cut is what the category's best brands turned out to be worth. In February 2022 Masimo agreed to pay about US$1.025B for Sound United — eight audio brands, among them Bowers & Wilkins, Denon, Marantz and Polk Audio [A]. In May 2025 it agreed to sell the same business to Samsung's Harman for US$350M in cash [A]. Roughly two-thirds of the price went in three years, for brands with decades of reviews and dealer relationships behind them — sold after a formal strategic review, not out of insolvency. The reading here is that the specialist audio buyer is not being replaced: listening has moved to phones, earbuds and television soundbars sold by platform companies at prices that do not need to earn a return on the speaker, and the specialty dealers who demonstrate and sell separates are fewer each year. An entrant is therefore not fighting incumbents for a growing pool; it is asking for a share of a shrinking one from owners — Harman now holds AKG, Harman Kardon, JBL, Mark Levinson and Revel alongside the Sound United names — who can fill a dealer's whole floor. A craft business selling to enthusiasts is possible; it is a livelihood, not a market entry. The design software sold to electronics makers is screened separately.