Pioneer Splits From Premium Audio Company

Premium Audio Company (PAC), the parent company of audio brands Onkyo and Klipsch, has announced that its multiyear partnership with Pioneer Corporation’s home audio and home theater division will not be renewed. This “mutual decision” was revealed in an email to distributers and dealers. This concludes what has appeared to be a successful collaboration in licensing and marketing between the two companies. PAC was quick to clarify that the agreement never included Pioneer’s automotive, television, headphone, wireless audio, or professional sound products — only the company’s home AV gear (such as AV receivers), which had been licensed to Premium Audio Company and developed alongside models from Onkyo and Integra. Those other product categories will continue to be produced and sold by Pioneer Corporation or other Pioneer licensing partners. The announcement of the PAC/Pioneer split arrived soon after both entities were acquired by separate companies, both focused on automotive tech, rather than home AV tech.

Toward the end of June 2025, Pioneer Corporation was acquired for approximately $1.1 billion by CarUX, a Taiwanese maker of automotive smart cockpit solutions. Clearly, CarUX wanted Pioneer Corporation’s car audio division to reinforce its existing focus on automotive infotainment, and the Taiwanese company probably had no plans in mind for home AV. But for now, Pioneer’s existing PAC-developed products remain available at retail, and crucially, PAC will continue to provide support for these products.

Meanwhile, PAC and its parent company Voxx International were acquired in April 2025 by Gentex Corporation, a Michigan-based electronics and technology company that develops and manufactures equipment for the automotive industry. In business since 1974, Gentex spent $196 million for Voxx, again mostly likely for its portfolio of automotive electronics, and for the opportunity to expand into the automotive and consumer audio spaces. Gentex already owned a big chunk of Voxx before the deal, which was finalized after Gentex purchased the remaining 68.1% stake. This purchase came just months after Onkyo, one of PAC’s flagship companies, announced a big push for a re-brand and a “reimagined” identity. (See our article Onkyo Reimagined: The Japanese Brand Prepares For A New Chapter.)

The complex relationship between PAC and Pioneer actually predates the existence of PAC itself. It all started in 2014, when Pioneer split up its car and home audio businesses, selling its home AV assets to Onkyo. At the time, Pioneer was in a transitional stage, having pulled out of the TV market a few years prior. Though the company enjoyed a good run as the picture quality king during the reign of plasma, Pioneer pulled the plug on TV production as 1080p gave way to 4K, and offloaded its home AV division to focus on the more lucrative automotive market. And so it was that Onkyo began licensing the Pioneer brand for AVRs. That relationship was renewed — after a few rocky periods — when Onkyo was purchased by Voxx International (and its subsidiary, Premium Audio Company) for just $31 million in 2021. It was then that PAC and Sharp Corporation entered a joint venture to take control of Onkyo Home Entertainment Corporation, including product development and branding. In 2023, we saw the resultant new wave of Onkyo and Pioneer/Elite products, designed from the ground up under the auspices of PAC. These products, such as the Pioneer Elite VSX-LX805 11.2-channel AVR, were generally well-regarded and have received positive reviews for their performance and engineering. (See our Onkyo TX-RZ70 review.)

Now that the partnership between Pioneer and PAC has come to an end, the development of new Pioneer and Pioneer Elite home audio products will revert back to Pioneer Corporation. It remains to be seen whether Pioneer’s new owners will devote resources toward developing home AV gear, and/or whether CarUX will simply license the Pioneer brand to another partner who will then develop and manufacture new Pioneer and Pioneer Elite AV electronics. Meanwhile, PAC said in the announcement that the company intends to focus its attention on its core brands: Klipsch, Onkyo, and Integra. Indeed, PAC’s most recent home AV corporate branding only mentions these three brands. These are the three brands that PAC owns outright. PAC also has two secondary home AV brands, Heco and Magnat. But just as Pioneer was, these brands are operated by PAC under licensing agreements; PAC doesn’t actually own them. What we can’t help but wonder is whether there will be a divergence between future Onkyo and Pioneer AVRs, which shared a common platform prior to the PAC split. Time will tell.

We are grateful for the opportunity to work with Pioneer and appreciate the collaboration we’ve had. After thoughtful discussions, we have mutually agreed to part ways and are now focused on the exciting next chapter of growing our core brands. Our commitment to delivering exceptional audio solutions and supporting our customers remains unwavering.

— Vincent Bonacorsi, COO of Premium Audio Company

The good news for the owners of recent Pioneer and Pioneer Elite products is that, as part of this transition, PAC will continue to provide service and support for all products produced and sold during the PAC/Pioneer partnership. Premium Audio Company has assured Pioneer users that PAC “remains dedicated to delivering the highest level of service and satisfaction to its loyal customers,” and will continue to run the PAC-operated Pioneer Home website to support all Pioneer purchases made through PAC-authorized dealers and distributors. The website will reportedly offer model-specific service and support information, making it easy to identify the appropriate support resources.

What Happens Next for Pioneer?

Pioneer’s split from Premium Audio Company is just the latest in a series of ongoing moves on PAC’s part to trim down and reduce its debt. In August of last year, PAC announced that it had sold off both the Jamo and Energy loudspeaker brands, neither of which was raking in sales at the level that Klipsch continues to achieve. Rayleigh Labs, an R&D and manufacturing company based in Shenzhen, China, partnered with Cinemaster to acquire Jamo and Energy. Cinemaster is a distributor that PAC has described as “the largest audio distribution company in China.” According to PAC, Rayleigh Labs is “one of the most significant R&D and manufacturing partners of the PAC group,” and is a longtime supplier to Voxx. For its part, Cinemaster “has been the distribution partner for all PAC brands for more than two decades,” according to PAC. It will be interesting to see whether these former PAC brands can rise from the ashes, and whether Pioneer’s home AV division will rise to regained prominence, or fizzle out under new, automotive-focused ownership. In today’s ever-changing AV landscape, past achievements are no guarantee of future success. Consider Jamo, for example. Founded in 1968, the Danish company employed over 400 people and was, at one time, Europe’s largest speaker manufacturer, according to Wikipedia. It was certainly a name I paid attention to when I got into audio in the 1990s. But by the end of that decade, the business started to decline. Klipsch acquired Jamo in 2005, but was never able to raise the company back to its former heights.

Pioneer is now at a crossroads, and what happens next for the storied brand is anything but clear. We know that development of Pioneer and Pioneer Elite home audio and home theater products “will continue under the direction of Pioneer Corporation,” but today’s home audio space is so unstable, that could mean any number of things. Every time we turn around, there is another acquisition, consolidation, or licensing agreement being announced. (See our article Masimo Sells Sound United to Harman/Samsung, Creates Audio Empire.) PAC might still end its licensing agreements with Heco and Magnat, or even sell off one of its core brands. Because Gentex’s acquisition of Voxx is still relatively recent, we can’t know what that company's longterm strategy will look like. We’ll be keeping a close eye on the precarious state of the home AV industry, so stay tuned to Audioholics for the latest updates. Do you think Pioneer and Pioneer Elite will enjoy a resurgence under new ownership, or does the dissolution of the PAC partnership represent the beginning of the end for Pioneer Home AV? Share your thoughts in the related forum thread below.

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