OH MY GOD BEST BUY IS NOW SELLING KLIPSCH

[DEAM]

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON I HERE IN APRIL KLIPSCH WILL BE SOLD AT BEST BUY WAL MART TYPE OF STORES RIGHT NEXT TO BOSE . WHAT A SELL OUT JUST LIKE METALLICA

[Vladi]

Deam, turn the ALL CAPS off, they imply shouting at someone.

[Guest BobG]

Deam,

If you want to raise a ruckus, flame us or merely be a chaotic influence on this forum, we'll deal with it. On the other hand, if you wish to be wholly inappropriate (your avatar for example) we cannot sit idly by. We have removed your avatar and retained your posts.

Please respect the people on this bulletin board. If not, we will respond to the needs of this community.

BobG

[m00n]

You know, I don't care about the whole sellout thing. And if you look, it's only the synergy line. Besides, what difference does it really make?

In this economy and with stiff competition, sometimes you need to find more outlets for your product. However, I still am shocked about Klipsch pulling out of tweeter and magnolia hifi. I don't know anything about Tweeter, but Magnolia HiFi is a very nice chain of audio video equipment stores.

I spoke to my Magnolia HiFi dealer about this, I got his side of the story, and while it gave me some insight into how Klipsch marketing works, I am trying to not form an opinion against Klipsch because I have not and most likely will not get to hear Klipsch's side of the story.

[windwardtrades]

I second your comments about Magnolia. What's kind of interesting, though as part of this whole discussion, is that Best Buy bought Magnolia a couple years ago. The Magnolia guys say Best Buy has stayed out of their way and just afforded "buying power and capital", but you nevertheless get the strong sense that they don't like the association.

[cleandan]

I am having a hard time finding the correlation between Best Buy selling Klipsch, and Klipsch somehow being worse off for the effort or a lesser product all of a sudden. Best Buy is offering Klipsch Synergy speakers to a very large market due to their market share. The Klipsch Synergy series speakers are very nice for the price range, and great for a beginner who does not want to spend $$$$ but still wants to get quality products that sound better, or at least as good as the competition. After securing the buyer at a lower price range, and getting brand loyalty, they will most likely step up to a higher grade of Klipsch speaker when the money, and mood, hits them. Before this Klipsch was sold, almost exclusively, at "high end" audio stores. A place where many beginners walk through, dream, but seldom buy. Placing Klipsch products where the beginner frequently visits, and buys, is a very good idea, and will most likely get a larger market share because of it. The way the audiophile my benifit from this is through lower prices on high end stuff, due to higher profits in other lines. If the very notion of Best Buy selling your beloved speakers is enough to make you switch, or feel less worthy for now owning Klipsch, you did not buy your speakers for the right reason in the first place. You are a name dropper shopper and not a quality item shopper. Good luck.

[Randu]

I bought my first pair of Klipsch KG's at The Good Guys 8 or 9 years ago. I know that they are more focused on A/V than Best Buy is, but still, certainly not a "high end audio store". If they didn't carry them, I most likely would have never heard a pair of Klipsch speakers, much less owned them. I don't see the problem.

[Dave Harris]

Well, I certainly don't think that moving to "non hi or mid-end" retailers will necessarily hurt Klipsch. And, I think it is great that more people will get exposure to, what I think, is a good quality audio product at a reasonable price point.

However, even though the original poster was certainly trying to simply be a pain in the butt (as his knowlege of audio certainly demonstrates), he does have a point.

If you think back, you can easily think of a number of companies who have certainly watered down their products, in an effort to bring that product to the mass market via the dreaded department store.

Yes, I know Bose certainly has its detractors, but I remember in the 70's and 80's before it became a marketing conglomerate, that it actually put out a good product. Now, it's cheapy plastic overpriced speakers are a joke. Around the same time, JBL had a number of fantastic speakers on the market. Have you compared vintage JBL with the mass-markets JBL stuff of today? Heck, I remember when Technics put out some good equipment before they became, essentially, a department store brand. I still have my original Technics CD player that I bought back in 1984/5 and it beats the heck out of a lot of today's equipment. You see a number of makers seemingly vying for the department store shelves, and, the quality of product declining (eg., Yamaha, Onkyo, JVC, to name a few).

I just hope it doesn't happen to Klipsch, or 20 years from now I'll be reminiscing about my RF-7's and the decline of a good product.

Dave

[Deang]

These are the places people shop who are looking for value. I think the move is brilliant.

The only downside is that specialty retailers made good money off of the Synergy line, and now they won't anymore. I know this will hurt them. Gee, I guess they'll have to get off their butt and learn how to SELL again.

[alkemyst]

Whenever a company moves into the large chain arena the small guy is always hurt and the consumer is helped.

What will probably happen now is increased sales will add more value to the current lines. There will also be a call for a cheaper line as these stores get the minimalist, no frills customer...you may also see a totally flashy lineup to appeal to the more lights the better crowd...but in the end you should have a better and cheaper product....when you are coming from an established line like Klipsch.

Sometimes if a relatively new line up goes from underground to major retail the price jumps as demand is usually higher than supply routes can fill.

Usually the people crying sellout are really upset that their little secrets are being shared.

Why should anyone turn down money and sales?

[Audio Flynn]

The "sell out " comments come from someone that does not have any experience in business.

Almas HIFI in Michigan is a great mid to hi fi shop. But they have been around for 45 years. Many people who would like Klipsch are too intimidated to come in.

The dealer is nice but perhaps too overly knowledgeable for a newbie to be comfortable.

Best Buy is a low stress environment for a perspective buyer of Klipsch to come into and "experiment".

A majority of the highly motivated, Klipsch predisposed buyers that come into a hifi shop would come to evaluate Reference rather than Synergy.

HIFI shops would have entry level Reference like the RB-3 to fill out their offerings.

Although many of us love what my wife calls the living room refridgerators(Chorus II); mainstream American consumers want more svelte speakers like the Synergy and Reference lines.

A strategic move to keep Klipsch financially healthy to develop more speakers for us to enjoy.

[v3spitfire]

My only concern is that Klipsh doesn't end up taking much lower profit margins that forces them to reduce quality in the lines thru best buy. These large outlets have huge power, and I imagine there is little negotiation, as they seem to drop lines and rotate rather frequently, probably when they don't get their way. It seems to work very well for Yamaha, who is in both retail and mid-fi shops. It didn't work for Nakamichi though. Klipsh may have enough marketing name recognition to make it work.

[Poindexter]

At least they didn't go with Circuit City

[wireless]

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On 3/8/2003 2:55:38 PM Dave Harris wrote:

Yes, I know Bose certainly has its detractors, but I remember in the 70's and 80's before it became a marketing conglomerate, that it actually put out a good product.

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No, Bose never had a good product. I clearly remember the 901s sounded crap even back in the 70s. The only reason I could ever figure they became popular is because they supposedly had unlimited power handling capabilities. That and they had the "direct reflecting" technology. This was very impressive to high schoolers. Until we listened to them. Sounded like they had a blanket thrown over them.

[wireless]

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On 3/8/2003 8:47:38 PM DeanG wrote:

The only downside is that specialty retailers made good money off of the Synergy line, and now they won't anymore.

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Not so sure about that. I paid less for a pair of SF-2s a year ago than Best Buy is selling them for today.

Also just recently bought a pair of RF-25s for less than BB is selling SF-2s for. Doesn't really make sense. I suppose this way it lets people who want to feel they are buying high-end go to specialty retailer and pay less for the lower end of the RF-line. I bought the 25s because I needed a small center channel.

The SF does have better specs but how does this square with it being better than some of the "reference" series?

[rscotth]

My dealer in S. Florida told me that Klipsch was soon going to do away with the entire Synergy line and focus all efforts on the Referance line. I was in the market for the Quintets and the told me that they have been discountinued to make way for the new referance sats coming out in mid July. Any thoughts?

[avman]

the quintets are not being discontinued, but will be primarily shipped to best buy-type stores. i haven't heard of synergy being discontinued.

the two new reference series sat/sub systems look TASTY!!

more later,

avman.(authorised Klipsch dealer )

[The Dawg]

I saw a pair of KEF Reference 2's in a Goodwill store last week....whats up with that???

[Guest BobG]

Your dealer in S. Florida is not providing accurate information. The Synergy line is not discontinued. It is available at Best Buy. The Reference line is available at A/V Specialists. Your dealer may be one with whom Klipsch no longer does business.

[TauRus]

BB guys seem to promote other brand speakers more than Klipsch. The two BB stores in my area placed Klipsch speakers in the the fartherst corner of the section and immediately in front of that shelf they placed the boxes with KLH speakers. No visible Klipsch logos, nothing, and if you do not pay specific attention you may not even notice the Klipsch speakers hidden behind Bose and KLH.