Now that audiophiles all over the world have tried to make sense (and a lot of jokes) of the acquisition of McIntosh and Sonus Faber by Bose, one hi-fi journalist has suggested a highly possible reason for the purchase.
Bose was not really eyeing the home entertainment segments of McIntosh and Sonus Faber, but the upmarket automotive audio market that these brands have ventured into. If this is indeed true, then audiophiles need not worry too much about the home systems of McIntosh and Sonus Faber being wrecked by Bose. Since the car audio market is much larger than the home audio market, Bose will pay more attention to car audio and leave McIntosh and Sonus Faber to their own product development.
Becky Roberts of What Hi-Fi? wrote on Nov 20: “You only have to read until paragraph four of the Bose press release to get to one of the acquisition’s clearest intentions — to capitalise on and enhance McIntosh’s burgeoning in-car audio solutions and partnerships. It reads: ‘The combined forces of Bose and McIntosh Group also opens new opportunities in the automotive sector. By leveraging Bose’s 40-plus years of experience in automotive audio, and McIntosh Group’s legacy of performance and design, the brands will work together to expand their research and continue to engineer authentic in-car experiences that redefine automotive sound’.”
Both McIntosh and Sonus Faber have made audio systems for vehicles for many years with Sonus Faber concentrating on the supercar segment.
The McIntosh MX1375 and MX1200 Reference Entertainment Systems and MX950 Entertainment System are available as factory installed systems in the following vehicles: 2024 Jeep Wagoneer S, 2022-2024 Jeep Grand Wagoneer, 2022-2024 Jeep Wagoneer, 2022-2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee, and 2021-2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee L.
“Both the MX1375 and MX1200 Reference Entertainment Systems and the MX950 Entertainment System integrate a high level of authenticity and design language from the McIntosh home audio products into the car cabin. The systems incorporate McIntosh’s iconic styling cues such as illuminated McIntosh logos, metal ridged control knobs, and aluminum frames that have made McIntosh instantly recognizable to fans around the world. Backlit logos on the door speaker grilles accent the vehicle’s interior lighting with McIntosh’s signature blue. The subwoofer grille is emblazoned with the McIntosh ‘Mc’ logo as it appears in McIntosh Monogrammed Heatsinks. The systems are truly a treat for the eyes as well as the ears!” says the McIntosh Automative web page.
Sonus Faber sound systems can be found in the Lamborghini Revuelto, Maserati GranTurismo and Pagani Huayra, which are expensive supercars.
Meanwhile Bose automotive sound systems can be found in Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Fiat, GMC, Honda, Hyundai, Infiniti, Kia, Mazda, Nissan, Porsche and Volvo cars.
So it is very likely that we will see McIntosh music systems and amplifiers driving Sonus Faber speakers in the supercars and even some upper-level cars like Porsche, Volvo and Honda and mid-level McIntosh sound systems driving Bose speakers in mid-range cars.
Meanwhile, What Hi-Fi? suggested that we can be seeing Bose’s expertise in headphones trickling to McIntosh and there may soon be McIntosh-branded headphones with Bose technology.
What Hi-fi? wrote that in an interview with CNBC, Bose CEO Lila Snyder didn’t rule out the possibility of Bose producing McIntosh-branded headphones, which is probably the easiest ‘new product’ to envisage coming out of this tie-up considering Bose’s vigour in the headphones space and that glaring gap in McIntosh’s prolific product catalogue.
While audiophiles have made fun of the Bose purchase, it may actually be good for McIntosh and Sonus Faber because Bose, regardless of whether it is considered to be audiophile enough or not, is still an audio company which is actually raking in plenty of money — it had sales of US$3.2 billion in 2021, US$3 billion in 2022 and US$3 billion in 2023. So it is in good health, financially.
Also it is not a private equity fund as such a buyer loves to buy a company when its share price is down, push for more market share, make the share price go up and sell it for a quick profit.
It is likely that Bose will own McIntosh and Sonus Faber for the long term. It is also likely that we will see McIntosh-branded headphones with Bose noise-cancelling technology.
