Bear with me: so I get this coupon in the mail, and I flip it over, and it says that it's exempt on, amongst other things, Martin Logan equipment. Martin Logan? Since when did Best Buy start selling Martin Logan equipment?!?!? So I do a little searching around, and it appears they're starting a high-end corner in some of their shops, Magnolia Home Theater. No shit! They also sell McIntosh, Sennheiser, REL, and a bunch of other good shit.

Oh, and Bose.

What's next? Pigs flying? Cows coming home?

Yeah I went there one day and to my suprise they had a room setup with a huge tv, some ML speakers and Primare electronics. But it wasn't hooked up!

Interesting, apparently in 2000, Best Buy purchased magnolia hi-fi, which consisted of a seattle chain and the original Oregon stores I am familiar with (I purchased my HD525s from the Clackamas store in '97, the first oregon magnolia hi-fi was opened in Beaverton in '89). They carry a lot of overpriced crap for the most part, but a few interesting bits.

I had no idea this had happened. The local stores haven't changed a bit, but some searching confirms they are now owned by Best Buy (the original stores are now Magnolia Audio/Video and the Best Buy side-stores are Magnolia Home Theater).

Very strange to see a northwest local turn into a Best Buy nation-wide name. I don't think that's a change for the better, but honestly I don't think the stores were all that to begin with. Just interesting...

http://www.magnoliaav.com/stores/storedetails.asp?id=11

Apparently the first stores were in seattle in the 70s, didn't know that either (damn edit limit )

Those poor ML speakers, I'm sure they're going to be mated with a boomy sub and driven by some Sony HT receiver...

I dont care what they carry I still refuse to go there... I cant stand getting molested every two secondes by their ignorant sales team.... that and the lady friend refuses to go there with me too as I always use to play with the sales people and make them look the like the fools they are.

I go there just for computer stuff and know exactly what I need so they get shoed away if they say somthing to me.

The one time I went to Magnolia I asked the sales guy if they had any Grado headphones. They said they didn't, but they had some sennheisers and stuff. He then went on and named some amps and stuff like Headroom. I was suprised they knew anything about headphones! Well I left the store and went next door and got a pair of SR-60s. \

One of the sales guys at the NYC Qualia Store was trying to beef up his resume in front of us by saying he used to work the floor at Magnolia. We were not impressed.