LSA Group Purchases DK Designs
By Wes Phillips July 18, 2005 — At HE2005 last April, Daniel Khesin's brawny $3000 150Wpc DK Designs VS-1 MK2 hybrid integrated amplifier had the crowd buzzing with its expansive sound driving Von Schweikert speakers—and bang-for-the-buck pricing. We spoke with Khesin and he was passionate about breaking into the high-end big leagues. Therefore, it came as a surprise to receive notice on July 8 that DK Design had been purchased by LSA Group LLC of Louisville, KY.

Khesin stated that his primary financial interests are not related to the audio industry and that LSA, which is about to release a line of high-performance loudspeakers, "will handle the company in a manner befitting our corporate culture—and take the company into the other areas, which would be considered a natural outgrowth of our efforts to date."

LSA is headed by audio-industry veteran Larry R. Staples, an audio store owner and former director of sales for Thiel Audio. The company is poised to launch two loudspeakers by early August: the $995/pair LSA Model I bookshelf loudspeaker and the $1995/pair floorstanding LSA Model II. Also included in the line will be the $25,000/pair X-Dream floorstanders, which have been marketed as the DK Designs X-Dream F7 up to now, as well as a to-be-announced center channel loudspeaker. Staples also announced that the company will add to its electronics offerings with Mk3 and Signature versions of the VS-1.

Staples said, "We have two companies with virtually identical corporate philosophies. We both offer products which are tremendous values in their respective categories in the marketplace, and this was such a natural fit, we could hardly contain our enthusiasm, when we became aware of DK's availability."

DK has a dealer network that includes 80 North American dealers, and distribution into an additional 12 countries.