A trusted source with inside information into the inner-workings of Best Buy and more specifically, Magnolia, has told FutureAudiophile.com that McIntosh electronics will no longer be sold in the national chain. Initially we learned that this more would not be an immediate withdrawal but done more over a three to six months period. Others have suggested that the end date for McIntosh in Magnolia is April 4, 2025.
Someone with knowledge of recent issues between Bose and Best Buy told FutureAudiophile.com that Bose sent out a “secret shopper” to 25 Magnolia stores recently and the results were not good. They pulled the McIntosh line from all of those stores. Now they have escalated to pulling the entire, flagship electronics line from Magnolia.
A retailer-wide call was made yesterday to announce the move internally at Magnolia, sources tell FutureAudiophile.com.
What Brand(s) Will Replace McIntosh in Magnolia?
In the Mission Viejo, California Magnolia store inside of this Orange County Best Buy a new, legendary electronics line with ties to the automotive world, Mark Levinson, is now on display. Mark Levinson is every bit as famous and historically important as McIntosh. Beyond Mark Levinson, there will be no shortage of high end electronics lines looking to bid for this highly sought-after retail distribution.
Audiophiles have counted on McIntosh to be a truly blue chip audiophile brand that affords owners very solid resale values on the used market. Magnolia is the only remaining national chain in the Untied State since the collapse of Tweeter, Circuit City and Ultimate Electronics in the early 2000. If a brand wants to have traditional AV/audiophile retail exposure in markets like Minot, North Dakota or Billings, Montana – Best Buy (or even better a Magnolia inside) is the best, if not only, option.
Bose Seems To Be All-in on the Automotive/Audiophile Play …
We wrote extensively on how McIntosh was purchased by Bose as an attempt to expand their footprint in the automotive world (read more here). This was a tough pill for many long-time audiophiles to swallow but the industry experts were clear that the math was there and that using the legendary McIntosh brand to expand past relationships beyond Jeep.
How pulling McIntosh from Magnolia stores helps Bose is hard to see in the short term. Bose has always been highly protective of their lines and willing to file law suits with ease. The 1977 Supreme Court Case Bose vs. Consumer Union is one of the most significant in the AV industry as it allows publications like Readers Digest (or really anybody) to review a product if they buy it or have access to it. Losing this kind of retail access is a curious move, to be polite. It could also result in brand suicide if car audio brands don’t rush to sign up to put McIntosh branded audio inside their new cars. Even in the best case scenario, new cars from brands other than Jeep, will take years to get to market.
What Comes Next For McIntosh?
Of the top electronics brands in the audiophile world, the Blue Chip ones, none had positioned themselves better than Bose. Classe’ has been literally ruined and abandoned by Masimo and their gross mismanagement of all of their AV brands as they try unsuccessfully for a year-plus to sell them. Audio Research is still healing from its many owners in recent years. Mark Levinson had lost a lot of their top dealers and U.S. distribution but thrived with their Toyota/Lexus relationship and make some of the best headphones in the market in the Mark Levinson No. 5909 (read the review here). Krell is in probate as Dan D’Agostino is long gone and highly successful with his namesake audiophile brand. Sadly, his long-time ex-wife, Rondi, died in 2024 after turning down offers to sell the company. Krell is now in probate and basically out of business. Let’s call that a sea change in the height end audiophile electronics world.
McIntosh, in recent years, successfully diversified into the CI (custom installation) market which is no small feat. Perhaps that channel can float the brand going forward? Not many of those dealers sell Bose and many don’t view Bose in the most positive light. Bose has had close to no presence in the CI world thus there could be challenges keeping those distribution channels as healthy as possible in the coming months and years.
Will traditional audiophile retailers rally to pick up McIntosh? That is to be seen but there are so many new options that are not going for the vintage vibe, are made in Switzerland or other exotic locales. The market has changed which is good for the audiophile community but perhaps not for the audiophile establishment.
The number of McIntosh products going up for sale could muddy up the waters badly for McIntosh sales in the short to mid-term. Expect thousands of components to come on the market if Magnolia is going to sell their floor samples. There will be audiophiles who bail on the brand and sell off their McIntosh gear like it is 2025 Tesla stock. There will be other dealers who might lose the faith on McIntosh after such an abrupt move. These are all reactionary responses that assume that McIntosh will not continue to make/sell products as they have for 75 years. Despite the less-than-subtle moves made by Bose with McIntosh, abandoning the electronics side of the business still feels almost impossible.
Multiple people at McIntosh were contacted by email, text and phone. There was no comment or response at the time of publishing.
The one casualty of Bose taking over McIntosh could be an end to their insanely cool House of McIntosh experience center in New York City. I visited their absolutely gorgeous, five-story location in the Chelsea part of Manhattan (right down the street from Google in a trendy part of town) and it was a blast (read my article about House of McIntosh here). If you were inclined to make this voyage to audiophile Mecca, perhaps now is the time to do it because the rent on such a space “in the city” is likely hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of dollars per month. When the lease is up, Bose very well may cut back there too.
This is a developing story.
I am in favor of sending out “Secret Shoppers,” especially after new ownership comes on board.
But I think that Bose thereafter made the wrong move. Did the Magnolia Salespeople disparage, mock, or insult the Secret Shoppers? Did they tell the Secret Shoppers to lick the speakers’ binding posts? Did they tell racist jokes?
There are individuals who and enterprises that specialize in formulating “Sales Training” plans. There’s a Human Factors watchword (or, Shibboleth) that, in a crisis, one can never be any better than one’s training had been.
Whoever made that decision at Bose might have felt a cathartic surge of self-actualization, but, really: was the situation totally un-fixable? Bose is slamming to door on a lot of foot traffic, in a lot of places that haven’t had a Component Audio Specialist Retailer in 25 years.
duh, McIntosh doesn’t need a door on a lot of foot traffic. that’s not who they are. Auntie isn’t ever going to buy any McIntosh component, ever.
See you in Bankruptcy Court!
You will be waving a sign: “WEE LUVV U!”
Anyone who buys McIntosh has their cranium… inverted.
Duh (et tu quoque): Have you noticed how many new-technology amps this website has raved about?
GaN??? Hypex-based???
Here’s my Dark Horse Bet:
https://audioxpress.com/news/teac-launches-reference-500-series-stereo-power-amplifier-with-hypex-ncorex-technology
A $2000 amp that is more than 80% as good as a $20,000 MacInslosh Boat Anchor.
Sleep tight!
I am delighted to hear that Bose is pulling the McIntosh line from BestBuy/Magnolia. The salespeople in the Magnolia shops with whom I have interfaced know next to NOTHING about the higher end of audio. Moreover, they contribute meaningfully to soiling the panache of McIntosh. I also believe that, by not competing with BestBuy on the less expensive end of McIntosh’s product line, this move will be a [small] boon for dedicated audio and AV specialist stores. Thank you, Bose!
When the United States Post Office has a large number of complaints about the quality of service in one small-town branch Post Office, what do they do???
DO THEY CLOSE THAT POST OFFICE???
Please don’t be stoopid. (I know that it is a habit with some people.)
Of course, the USPS does not close a Post Office.
They do the hard work of Isolating the Problems, and Re-Training, and Imposing Progressive Discipline, and if needed: Replacing employees.
I am a Management and Marketing Communications Professional.
Only guys who have been, um, modulating to “The Stepford Wives” for how many decades, will be the easy-to-harpoon Whales for MacInSchlock, until the Final Trumpet sounds.
I look forward to the forced sale, or the BK.
From my experience at (Best Buy) Magnolia in Montrose, Ohio near Akron, the representation and presentation of all products has always been just horrible. Magnolia is definitely not a priority at that store. I buy at local stores, and we have a some really good ones in NE Ohio.
The relationship between Magnolia Hi-Fi and McIntosh is about as old as hi-fi itself, going back nearly 70 years. And for decades Magnolia and Mcintosh have been synonymous. But, this isn’t about that, it’s about a pissing contest between Bose Corp and Best Buy. So what if Bose wants to make it big in car audio? What does Macintosh’s presence in Best Buy do except enhance the brand? Unless Bose wants to use it as a carrot to stick more of their other products in Best Buy. But Magnolia has been a Sonus Faber dealer about as long as there’s been a Sonus Faber. So, I’m just not seeing the upside, short-term or long, for Bose.
I can’t tell if there’s a Magnolia in any Best Buy in the greater Denver and northern Front Range from searching their website. The one I knew in Loveland was taken out some time ago. Weird that BB doesn’t even care to make use of the brand at this point.
The move shows Bose cares about McIntosh and it’s reputation. McIntosh was good before Best Buy and will be better without it. What makes you think this move would have anything to do with the McIntosh showroom in NYC? My impression Bose just removed the line from a terrible retailer.
To think that the current rendition of Magnolia is anything like its original stature when Magnolia of Seattle sold out or merged with Best Buy would be a mistake. It has taken a long decline from the date of transition. It is an empty room without life or any customer service. It is simply a wasteland within a big appliance store these days. I have attempted to check out a number of locations in a number of states over the past year or so and it has been the same each time that I go in and attempt to look around. I have encountered the same situation each time. It is difficult to find anyone to help, when someone does show up they are untrained and have very little product knowledge. There are few products on display and just try and compare anything or play any music. It is pathetic. It appears that the secret shoppers found what I have experienced. I am surprised that Best Buy is still around.
I posted a link to this article in a private “Magnolia HiFi Family” FB page that is packed with folks who worked at the original company, some stayed on after the BB acquisition. Many of the folks on that page have 25+ years at MHF.
The general sentiment is that BB blew their golden opportunity with the Magnolia brand years ago. The 3 things that made Magnolia successful and voted the #1 Audio Retailer in the nation something like 27 times were: 1) fanatical dedication to product knowledge and continuous product training; 2) deep relationships with the vendors, all of whom had reps visiting the stores constantly to make sure all sales people were comfortable with their product; and, 3) fanatical dedication to top-shelf customer service and the cultivation of relationships with our clientele. None of these things are significantly present at Magnolia/BestBuy. MHF was one of, if not THE biggest, McIntosh dealers on the planet because we knew and LOVED the product and the folks who made it and their reps. Whether or not you like Mac or not is moot – the reasons they’re out at Magnolia/BB are the lack of the above commitments and the fact that they failed to keep the shine on the brands – both Magnolia and McIntosh. Nearly 100% of the comments on the MHF Family page were in favor of Bose pulling Mac out of the Mag/BB stores – why allow the brand to molder in the muck that is BestBuy when you aren’t getting either respect OR sell-though? Bose is a whip-smart marketing company – I only hope they don’t fumble with this brand and ruin it altogether.