Bose buys McIntosh

This is hardly bad news. A storied up-market home audio brand, made still in the USA, is bought from its PE owners by a well-known U.S. broad market audio company already well-established in the personal audio space, professional coms, in home audio and in automotive integrations, with a track record of innovative product offerings (noise-cancelling headphones, worn both in coach and in the cockpit.) It costs money to exist in the space McIntosh enjoys, and there are only so many ways to reach new buyers. Samsung has been buying many brands also. Some storied brands have been cut up, Sennheiser among them. Would that have been better? The blindered views of some around here who can't see the positives in things like excellent class-D products that reach new customers and address power and energy consumption issues in ways older technologies never will are more of an impediment to the hobby than Bose ever will be.

I wouldn’t worry about McIntosh. Bose might trim off the waste. McIntosh’s main strengths are in electronics although they make every kind of component. Are their turntables competitive against the other high-end TT makers? They "make" phono cartridges that are badge engineered Sumikos. They make headphones. How many do they actually sell? They make large speakers, but are typical McIntosh electronics buyers also buying speakers under the brand? Are McIntosh rack-mount solid state amps for whole-house audio selling well against competitors? How many buyers of McIntosh gear buy everything possible from the brand? How many buyers of the brand are first-time McIntosh buyers and what do they typically buy and what do they typically own? I would guess new McIntosh buyers might come from Denon, Yamaha or Marantz, upper mid-market brands. (Back in the day, Bose also occupied that space, with speakers, the 401s/501s/601s and 901s, and support electronics, when Klipsch made only what is now their Heritage line.)

The blue meters are distinctive, but only mean anything to a small number of audiophile owners. Still, they set McIntosh apart and probably should be left alone, or at least kept where a Vu meter is expected and appropriate. Signature design features do matter, a lot. Meters are expected in high-end amps. Technics, now in its super-premium revival makes great efforts to place them on its $16k TOTL products.  VAC does the same, even more elaborately. Sure, it is theater, but necessary theater.

Bose is certainly innovative outside the small audiophile space. Their automotive system brand is well-placed in the mass market, which isn't a bad place to be. They have made a significant bid in the consumer home audio market against Sonos. Their personal audio and industrial audio (professional noise cancellation systems) are solid. Getting a brand that is welcome in the high-end vehicle market in places where Bose doesn't have the cachet makes sense.

If Bose wanted to place a marker solidly in the high end North American audio market, McIntosh and Sonus Faber would be a very solid start. Both brands are well respected and enjoy good shares of their (admittedly) small market. Neither need help as concerns visibility and both have loyal customer bases. Other similarly-placed companies are already owned by other conglomerates. Appreciated micro brands are too esoteric to be worth the trouble and most have no significant presence or product lines that are too small. McIntosh has long experience in the electronics space with every kind of design, monoblock tubes to class-D, HT, network, every kind of playback technology except perhaps RTR. They weren't independent under PE.