To date every corporate buyer has left McIntosh alone. If Bose messes with McIntosh, and I feel they probably will since "they know better", it will be the absolute end to a great brand. I experienced the Clarion and DMN holdings days. Life was good.
I agree with Bonsai about the pricing structure. They support their earlier product much longer than almost anyone else as well.
I was authorized warranty in the 1990's and still deal with the service department. Same people. Once they lose those skilled individuals it will be nasty. They will gloss over it and ride the reputation as they ruin the brand. Once they killed it, sold off in parts and the name goes to contract manufacturers.
I agree with Bonsai about the pricing structure. They support their earlier product much longer than almost anyone else as well.
I was authorized warranty in the 1990's and still deal with the service department. Same people. Once they lose those skilled individuals it will be nasty. They will gloss over it and ride the reputation as they ruin the brand. Once they killed it, sold off in parts and the name goes to contract manufacturers.
At one of my sales jobs around the year 2000 we sold the BOSE systems, along with other things.
Many people came in asking for it by name. We couldn't argue them out of it, even though EVERYTHING ELSE we sold was better.
Among us sales people, we pronounced the brand name "BOH-ZAY" ... similar to the pronunciation of the German word "böse" which roughly translated means "evil" in English.
Many people came in asking for it by name. We couldn't argue them out of it, even though EVERYTHING ELSE we sold was better.
Among us sales people, we pronounced the brand name "BOH-ZAY" ... similar to the pronunciation of the German word "böse" which roughly translated means "evil" in English.
When I was involved in this market over here: rep got 10% of list price and dealers demanded 50% but some could be squeezed for 40 or 45%. Problem also was some carried many competing products. Don’t get me started on the reviewing fraternity 😡
Sounds a bit like the Luxman story. I was surprised to hear they started out pre WW2 in Yokohama IIRC. At one stage 20 or 30 yrs ago they were owned by Samsung. I don’t know who has them now or if they are stand alone again, but from what I’ve read, they went through a long period of difficulty. Hopefully Mac will avoid that. At lease Bose are an audio company. I think Samsung now own Harmon.
Interesting times 🙂
There are (or were?) a lot of engineers at Bose, they certainly have some know how at their disposal. They had a great cash cow with ANC headphones for a time, but corporations rushed into that space in the early 2010s headphone gold rush. ANC is no longer a fantastic differentiator, it's a baseline feature for high tech BT headphones. Bose has had layoffs, and Dr Bose has passed. They need to find their next path, going up market makes sense. Hopefully they can use their purchased cachet to positive effect, it's easy to buy something like that and be too heavy handed.
The Audiophiliac discussed the buyout yesterday and, interestingly, claimed that Bose had a new version of the 901 speakers coming out. After checking on the Internet it looks like this is just a small run of 12 items with a special custom finish:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/2024-bose-901-series-7.58523/
Those of us that always thought the 901 had potential keep hoping that McIntosh will offer new engineering capabilities and Bose will redesign the EQ along DSP lines -- ideally with some Dirac-like room correction capability. This would solve the terrible timbral problem the original design lived with for over 50 years.
Can you imagine a newly improved 901 speaker going up against the current crop of contenders? Suspect they will note that the 901 always demanded a special room configuration in which there was uninterrupted wall space between the speakers (best at 8 feet or greater). This might be difficult to sell to cramped modern buyers.
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/2024-bose-901-series-7.58523/
Those of us that always thought the 901 had potential keep hoping that McIntosh will offer new engineering capabilities and Bose will redesign the EQ along DSP lines -- ideally with some Dirac-like room correction capability. This would solve the terrible timbral problem the original design lived with for over 50 years.
Can you imagine a newly improved 901 speaker going up against the current crop of contenders? Suspect they will note that the 901 always demanded a special room configuration in which there was uninterrupted wall space between the speakers (best at 8 feet or greater). This might be difficult to sell to cramped modern buyers.
I remeber reading that MIT was willed Dr. Bose's ownership / stake in the company, so some representatives of MIT are /were involved in the management of the company.