I'll include some legendary lines, as well.

In no particular order:

A) Fisher: One of the early pioneering producers of some gear that I consider to be some of the first "high end" stuff.

B) Dynaco: Similar to "A."

C) Acoustic Research: Some of the first acoustic suspension gear. Probably THE high end speaker manufacturer of its day. (I killed them, too.)

D) Audio Alchemy.

E) Nakamichi: They OWNED the "High End Cassette Niche" (although high-end and cassette are an oxymoron pairing), as well as making electronics and turntables with high end aspirations. They were a notable fixture in most high end salons back in the day. Then, as the Buggles might say, "Digital killed the analog star."

F) Stax: Priced themselves so outrageously that they kind of fell out of high end consideration. Great stuff, and they're still trying to eek out an existence, but they totally Tony Romo'd themselves.

G & H) Apogee and Acoustat: I mention both together. They were both successful, with great market penetration and reputation. Products so good, that there are still thriving websites, forums, and modification networks in place to this day for trying to keep those babies working.

I & J) Tandberg and Revox: I think an interesting study, along with Nakamichi, would be the course these analog companies took on the path to exctinction after the digital asteroid struck their world. They may be alive yet, in some small, more mammalian form, but these giant dinosaurs were the leviathans of the magnetic playback epoch.

http://www.gradolabs.com/history.html

AR WAS teh first air suspension, they invented it. AR begat KLH...(Henry Kloss,Malcom Low, KLH begat Advent Henry Kloss..which begat Cambridge Audio...Henry is gone. One of the great pioneers of inovative audio David Hafler started Dyna which Begat Dynaco, which begat Hafler, which was sold to Rockford, old Haflers STILL sound great...still keep crankin after 25+ years...incredible simple designs, then VanAlstine can turn them into 21st century sonic bliss...VanAlstine another pioneer still going strong after 40 years. Tandberg is still around, Revox name was dropped, Willi Studer co. makes some of the best pro studio stuff, selling to radio stations and studios...No more consumer stuff. Boston Acoustics, also a spin off of the early Boston companies, now part of D&M which is saving some of teh greats..Marantz still going strong.
Shure still making lotsa pro equipment
Stanton same thing, one of the 2 pioneers in phono stuff
Grundig and B&O....2 more old timers still going strong
Sony makes a video game...and uses patents and ideas from teh likes of Philips etc...ever wonder what did sony ever invent? First transitor radio? Nope!! That was a Regency, Sony ran with that idea real well. Single gun CRT? I don't think so...Their LCD stuff is mostly Samsung panels and stuff. They did make a lot of batteries lately.
AT&T Westrex Recording, invented lotsa stuff
BASF, world's biggest chmical company, INVNETED magnetic recording tape, still going stronger than most.
Empire Scientific, had some cool cartridges and TT and speakers, long gone.
AKG, Sennheiser, inovators of all things electro acoustic still making great stuff
Jensen speakers,pretty much gone, and Jensen invented a speaker type,
How come in teh late 40's and 50's the hi-fi era, all kinds of new ideas and breakthroughs, none of the brilliant inventors gave any consideration to WIRE? And yet, Bell Labs had wires strung around the world, holding up to harsh enviorments, taking voices around teh world...yet hi fi engineers, didn't need wires in a vacuum, or special twists and turns to make hi fi a reality. Wire is the late 20th and early 21st century fad of teh moment...a magazine ad writers wet dream....If you can still think a 560's dyna ST70 sounds great, why would it need new modern magic wire? Dave Hafler didn't think it needed it then, people listen today and don't think it needs it either.
Wire is the modern pet rock

Lets not forget Sherwood (still around but in name only), Garrard (anyone remember the Zero 100?, gotta wonder why nobody has done a parallel tracking tonearm with today's high grade bearings and materials), Dual (still a hot seller on the used market), Advent (the first affordable speaker with a high end sound, Audiovox owns the name but it's not currently making any products), Scott (right up there with Fisher in the 50's and early 60's).

Of the early great names in audio only MacIntosh is still building high end gear. Probably because they never fell into the trap of going for the "consumer" market and stayed true to their product niche.

Sansui made some great amps once upon a time. As for the other nine? Pick any brand you could have bought at a PX in Thailand during Vietnam.

McIntosh, Marantz,AVA,Hafler stopped production.

Companies that are no longer here:

There was a speaker by Beveridge, which fired the sound toward each other, but created an image where you could pick out individual people applauding.

A turntable or arm by Rabco, considered near-high-end of its time. I think the integrated table worked better than the separate servo-driven arm. Harman-Kardon, later Harmon Intl. owns the rights the last I checked.

I do remember the Garrad Zero-100. It was a clever solution to the tracking error problem. It reduced the error to very small amounts compared to a conventional pivoted arm, but not to zero. The Rabco will achieve zero error when playing just the right LP. Otherwise it will be either ahead or behind the groove by some small amount. By my recollection, the error is less than in a pivoted arm's maximum error.

Anyone remember Dayton-Wright speakers, or Hill Plasmatronics similar to Ionovacs?

Rectilinear speakers? Where are they now?

Rectilinear made some good speakers. I'm not sure if those were considered high-end, but I found them very listenable. The Rectilinear III model came in a typical bookshelf shape or a "lowboy" floor-standing of nearly cubical shape. As I heard it, the head honcho was spending time working on another speaker concept to the displeasure of the business people, who wanted him to market the line they have. He left the company and formed Ohm Acoustics along with Lincoln Walsh, the inventor of the Walsh speaker. Ohm Acoustics is still around, but Mr. Walsh passed away long ago. That person also left the company not too long after Walsh's passing.

I though of another straight-line tracking turntable called the Air-Tangent, with the arm gliding on a thin film of air, precisely following the groove eccentricity of the LP. Don't remember if that's the company name or the model name. I think they are gone too.

MacIntosh is the only brand for me when it comes to sound system models.

___________________
McIntosh MA6500 Integrated Amplifier - Get the MA6500 Integrated Amplifier Catalog by McIntosh Laboratory, Inc.

Since Apple doesn't make audio equipment I'd say yes, it is dead. McIntosh still going, since D&M saved them from oblivion. Fischer is also just a name only. Soul Marantz legacy lives on, as they are still going after Philips saved em, now D&M keeps em going. Hormon Kardone is big and always getting bigga'. Harmone Kardone PRO has so many of teh names in audio. Still with people from the family running things. OH, and AVA is STILL independent and thriving, making the best mortally priced stuff available. Legacy Audio, has gone back to the creator, and is thriving , that was a buyout that didn't go right, now Legacy is making the best speakers again.

whatever happened to Epi speakers? my first spkrs were Epi, model 11 i think, bought in 1980. their top-of-the-line was a 4 feet tall tower in the shape of a truncated pyramid. were they related to the Epicure brand?