Bose buys McIntosh

It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

I think years ago the Clarion group owned McIntosh at one time. Frank Gow told me they had been close to going bankrupt. 

Today's McIntosh is not your father's McIntosh as Mc quality has slipped steadily starting with the demise of the storied "Mac Clinics".  Heck, they still use the legendary Grateful Dead "wall of sound" from the '70s as a marketing gimmick and have turned to sticking blue meters (that break) on every product they build as a substitute for quality.  Let's hope that deep pocketed Bose intends to restore McIntosh to its former glory.

I've said for years that McIntosh is what certain people bought after they found out that Bose was consumer junk. The Mcintosh of the last century simply is no more and quite frankly the silly blue meters and green lights are just a tired and overused gimmick. Bose would do good to get rid of that eyesore and bring them the rest of the way into the consumer-grade audio market. From a quality perspective, they've been there for a while anyway.

I have to reluctantly agree. The sound quality hasn’t qualified as high end for quite some time. These days the likes of Rotel/NAD/Cambridge products perform better to my ears, not to mention various “Chi Fi” brands. 

50 years ago (early/mid 70s), Marantz was bought by Superscope and the response among audiophiles at that time was much the same as what we're seeing here. Now, the classic Marantz gear from that era is selling like hotcakes, with receivers like the 2270/2275 going for big bucks. So the fear that your Mac gear may suddenly drop in value could be valid in the short term, but in the long term quality remains appreciated.