Bose buys mcintosh, sonus faber

[Everett T]

McIntosh has done automobile sound since the 90s, and did an integrated system for Subaru ~2000.

View attachment 408043

View attachment 408044

Clairon scared McIntosh loyalist and yet everything worked out, in fact what little they did outside of amplification was rebranded Clairon units.

 

[norman bates]

I like how people focus on growth since 2022.

Coming off of Covid then, of coarse things look all sunshine.

 

[mns3dhm]

Interesting, from the article - the luxury audio market (defined as products with cost > $5k) grew 12% in 2023. I wonder if car audio packages in luxury brands (i.e. Sonus Faber in Maserati) account for any of that.

Samsung paid $11 billion for the Harman Luxury brands (Mark Levinson, etc.) and a lot of that was based on business plans that project car audio is going to grow into an enormous business. Bose is heavily invested in this activity and could well introduce a McIntosh branded car audio line.

 

[restorer-john]

Clairon scared McIntosh loyalist and yet everything worked out, in fact what little they did outside of amplification was rebranded Clairon units.

Clarion.

 

[JustJones]

Bose is already in a lot of automobiles

Vehicles | Bose Automotive

At Bose Automotive we make great cars even better. We believe the power of sound should be for everyone. Working with partners from across the automotive spectrum, we put our beliefs into action. And into some of the best cars in the world.

automotive.bose.com

 

[quattro98]

For context, this provides some background.

Biamp Owner, Highlander Partners Announces the Acquisition of McIntosh Group

Highlander Partners, L.P., a private investment firm from Dallas, Texas, announced the acquisition of McIntosh Group, through a newly-formed holding company. The investment firm has a plan for the audio market and it might have to do with residential integration, since it also acquired Biamp...

audioxpress.com

 

[Everett T]

Clarion.

Thanks, Dilaudid post op has me not paying attention.

 

[MoreWatts]

Stole this info from another forum:

"Since 1990, McIntosh has been owned by:

Clarion - the Japanese car stereo manufacturer
D&M Holdings - a Japanese based holding company, that was owned by:
RHJ Interntaional - A French-based financial services company, who then sold D&M to
KK - A holding company owned by Bain Capital, who then sold off McIntosh to
Fine Sounds SpA - An Italian company owned by Quadrivio Investment Group, then the CEO of the North American division bought out McIntosh to form
Fine Sounds Group - Renamed to McIntosh Group, which was acquired by
Highlander Partners - A Dallas-based private equity firm"

~7 owners now in ~35 years, so sold about every 5 years.

I think that 'D&M Holdings' shown is Denon/Marantz, right? What happened there? Seems like Denon/Marantz/McIntosh would be a pretty formidable consumer electronics consortium...

 

[Pearljam5000]

Please Bose buy Genelec too so we could buy them at a lower price

 

[kyuu]

Two problems with the above:

1) Genelecs are high-performing speakers. Not Bose's style.
2) Maybe it's just me but I don't associate Bose with driving down prices. Sort of like expecting an acquisition by Dyson to lower prices.

 

[RKV1]

Stole this info from another forum:

"Since 1990, McIntosh has been owned by:

Clarion - the Japanese car stereo manufacturer
D&M Holdings - a Japanese based holding company, that was owned by:
RHJ Interntaional - A French-based financial services company, who then sold D&M to
KK - A holding company owned by Bain Capital, who then sold off McIntosh to
Fine Sounds SpA - An Italian company owned by Quadrivio Investment Group, then the CEO of the North American division bought out McIntosh to form
Fine Sounds Group - Renamed to McIntosh Group, which was acquired by
Highlander Partners - A Dallas-based private equity firm"

~7 owners now in ~35 years, so sold about every 5 years.

I think that 'D&M Holdings' shown is Denon/Marantz, right? What happened there? Seems like Denon/Marantz/McIntosh would be a pretty formidable consumer electronics consortium...

Charlie Randall the current president of McIntosh since 2001 has worked at McIntosh for the entire period. Must be "fun" to have all these bosses.

 

[Mr. Widget]

This is very surprising but potentially excellent news.

Bose is a privately held company with a long time horizon. They are not like all of the other billion dollar brands who are publicly traded and make stupid decisions to get a stock bounce at the end of the quarter or fiscal year.

Bose has extremely solid engineering and can help Mac become a true industry leader once again, something they have not been on the technology side for many decades. Who knows, maybe Sonos Faber will start making speakers with solid engineering to rival Genelec and the other top flight brands but maintain their exquisite craftsmanship and design.

Next, Samsung buys Bose... and just like that... Revel, McIntosh and Sonus Faber are under the same umbrella... with Bose... lol. That twists my noodle a bit.

Even though Samsung is almost 100 times the size of Bose, I can't imagine MIT (the majority owner of Bose) would be interested in selling off such a great asset.

 

[jhaider]

Bose has extremely solid engineering and can help Mac become a true industry leader once again, something they have not been on the technology side for many decades.

I bet David Smith (RIP) is smiling from his resting place. His work on arrays started at McIntosh (the three-tweeter speakers, kind of proto-Perlistens) before going to develop the excellent “expanding array” Snells - and capped his career by developing pro sound arrays at Bose.

 

[jhaider]

This is what came in a Subaru, that trunk system is in a Mercedes


View attachment 408046

The Subaru one I had (have really) is a double DIN. I put it in my 2001 Miata SE. Looked fantastic sitting there in a BRG roadster with tan leather and wood Nardi steering wheel. Black electrical tape over the “Subaru” on the cassette flap.

 

[Bruce Morgen]

I bet David Smith (RIP) is smiling from his resting place. His work on arrays started at McIntosh (the three-tweeter speakers, kind of proto-Perlistens) before going to develop the excellent “expanding array” Snells - and capped his career by developing pro sound arrays at Bose.

Small scale live sound reinforcement is what Bose does best -- their stuff for that market is pretty solid.

 

[beeface]

Bose is all advertising and very little real product substance.

Bose make great products. Their products are aimed toward the general public, not audiophiles, but that doesn't make them bad, necessarily. There would be a squillion customers who are happy with their Bose headphones

 

[GXAlan]

Bose R&D is around 100M/year. They sold off the professional line (restaurants and event spaces) and probably used some of the money for McIntosh. They kept the live single speaker reinforcement (the L1 and F1.

They have a reputation for aggressively pushing to kill reviews that don't agree with their PR. Not a company I can support.

The Consumer Reports lawsuit was reasonable. Are there other instances?

 

[Mr. Widget]

Bose is all advertising and very little real product substance.
Imagine Bose's "advanced technology" with McIntosh amps. It's enough to make one ill. Enhancing audio quality with pseudo science never ends well. Bose is one of the worst offenders for truth in advertising. They have a reputation for aggressively pushing to kill reviews that don't agree with their PR. Not a company I can support.

I'm sure Mac will still build amplifiers with autoformers and tubes for those who want that sort of thing, but with Bose's R&D I could see them developing brand new class D technology that would rival Purifi and Hypex.

True Bose has been very good at marketing their wares to the general public and they have generally developed products with mass appeal that I have had no interest in. That said, their R&D is real and by entering these new markets, I think we may be surprised by what the engineers in Framingham develop in the coming years.

 

[kyuu]

The Consumer Reports lawsuit was reasonable. Are there other instances?

Not really. CR published an article with an opinion about the Bose speaker. Bose didn't like it, which is fine. There was nothing to sue over, however, which is why they lost the case.

 

[MattHooper]

Interesting.

It’s been my impression that there’s been a real McIntosh Renaissance in the past several years (or decade). I used to rarely see McIntosh gear, but now it’s featured in Av showrooms, audio shows, YouTube reviews, magazine reviews, audiophile system photos, etc.. McIntosh seems everywhere.

I wonder what this will mean for that. Probably see even more of it I guess.