Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Big Box stores going upscale?......almost.

Today at lunch, I went to Best Buy. Now, I have not been in a BB store for quite some time.....in fact, the last time was to check out their Guitar section. This time I thought I would check out the Home Theater department, and see if they had anything new.
Wow,they now carry some Martin-Logan "hybrid" electrostatic speaker models, as well as some other "nice stuff"!
The reason I can't go into greater detail about all the new, and more expensive items I saw there is......I didn't see them!
The audition rooms were pitch black, with no sales help. I squinted at few things, but had to get back to work. It was interesting to "see" they have improved their inventory, but some things never change. Big business will never learn.

It must be a Best Buy with a Magnolia showroom? Ours doesn't have that.

Best Buy in Canada doesn't offer too much as far as better speakers go(vs US stores).

It had to have been in a Magnolia 'store'. Our local Best Buy has one. And yes, it's a welcome change. They've had them for several years now.

Like your experience though, there's hardly ever anyone back there to help. Usually the demo rooms are lit though, and it's easy enough to cycle through which gear you want to hear. Sometimes it's nice to be left alone, but there has been a time or two when I've had a question and had to wander around to find a 'blue shirt' to come help.

The real benefit of the Magnolia store, IMHO, is that they do have good deals on stuff from time-to-time. They'll have sales and open-box deals that rival what you can find online from some of the more questionable outlets. Good stuff; Denon upper-tier AVR's, Pioneer Elite, Vienna Acoustics speakers, etc. And you know it's US-spec/warrantied gear that you can easily return if something goes wrong. And contrary to what you might think at Best Buy, you can haggle a bit on the prices.

They do have decent enough setups. Our magnolia rooms have stuff like Definitive, Klipsch and Vienna. However, you do run into the same issue with any of them (the added margin over ordering from a place like Axiom or av123 direct.)

Another day, another lunch hour, and another look at Best Buy.

Yes,it is a "Magnolia" BB. The Lights were on today!

Nice stuff indeed. I tried to get the model numbers on a few of the speakers, so I could do some research (Martin-Logan, Vienna Acoustics, etc.) but there was no help...again, and most had no tag, or info. card.
I did notice the conspicuous absence of JBL Speakers from the store.

I have posted before, that I once had JBL's .....and when I wanted to upgrade, I was not interested in the (no longer USA made, Imported from Mexico) speakers JBL had to offer.
Part of the reason I still went to BB looking at speakers after I found Axiom, and bought my M60's was to see what was new in the JBL line. JBL seemed to just move the same drivers around in their black cabinets, instead of creating new, and improved speakers.
I'm sure they are still available somewhere, other than the web......but what a shame..to take a great domestic product, and turn it into a imported "copy" that few now want. I wonder just how much money that cost saving move to Mexico made JBL?

Big business never learns.

How about that.......I hijacked my own post with a JBL rant.

I hate to poke a hole in your rant, but a lot of speaker manufacturing has moved offshore. Axiom builds its drivers and, I think, some of its amps, in China. Paradigm does a lot of its manufacturing in China...

The world just keeps changing. 120 years ago it was those damn Yanks and their cheap (and dodgy manufacturing practices) that bugged the Europeans so much.

...........You didn't.