B&W in best buy

It can only and inevitably lower the prestige rating by association. And prestige is a hard-earned value in high-end audio, and a very important one in commanding premium prices by the manufacturer.

My understanding was that BB was only going to carry the 600 series but it sounds like they have moved up the line. I have not seen higher end speakers driven by MACs around here, but I will keep looking.

Existing B&W dealers typically carry the whole line. And, as much as they would like to sell just high end speakers, they also sell a lot of low end and mid range ones, especially if they also sell home theater. If they have to compete with Best Buy on a significant part of the line, I would not be surprised to see a signficant number of dealers drop B&W and Classe and find another alternative.

Most everything is made in China these days. No big deal where it is sold.

from what i've read, best buy is trying to salavage its magnolia investment, which has foundered, by taking it further upscale in terms of both products and shopping experience. their earlier iterations of the concept flopped because of the economy, bad customer service and the brilliant strategy of axing their higher-paid, more knowledgeable salespeople. frankly, i'd be surprised that even if properly executed this version is successful--there's too much price competition in an quickly-shrinking market + high-end buyers may be unwilling to wade through the cacophonous din to get to the fancy goods. fwiw, everytime i'm at best buy the high-end section is virtually deserted--i've never seen anyone actually buy anything there.