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March 2020 by Lish D.
My home theatre setup had become a living nightmare. I'm highly sensitive to sound, and had been suffering an extremely unusual and intermittent audio clarity issue for six months. Sometimes movies would sound fine, but sometimes the audio would sound absolutely horrid - anything from a high-end scraping sound (just in CERTAIN scenes) to weirdly muffled bass, and everything in-between. Many "big" sounds, like gunshots or explosions, came across sounding nerfed - like the listener was wearing earplugs. Sometimes the DVD seemed to be the problem, because the audio would warble back and forth between speakers without any visual cues to sync to. And none of this was consistent across devices - for example, I played a new DVD on 3 different DVD players, and each sounded awful /in a different way/! I've long been a tech n**** and I know how to isolate and troubleshoot a system, but there just wasn't any consistency in the issues I was seeing and I was starting to become physically sick from how bad and uneven it sounded.As the problem worsened, I figured it had to be the receiver. Some microchip or other /must/ be going sour; it was just too broad a problem. Due to the complexity of my setup, I first replaced the receiver with an identical piece of new old-stock from eBay - which, after two hours of effort, I found to be half DOA - it got power but wouldn't recognize much else. Exhausted, I called in a professional to help me upgrade to a new receiver, which resulted in a great new receiever and /some/ of the sound problems being resolved. We agreed the speakers had to be replaced next... but my experience with that person turned terrible as he bailed on our appointment after I'd taken the day off work to accommodate him, and then harassed me by text for weeks after I stopped responding. (This write-up is located at if you want the FULL story).So when I walked into Magnolia Audio at the Northgate Best Buy, I had just been rudely stood up, and was in a high emotional state about getting this problem resolved before it actually drove me insane. I walked up to the first person I saw, Doman Soohoo. Fortunately for me, Doman was absolutely exceptional to work with. He sat down with me and listened to me, and was caring and supportive of the stress and pain I'd been through. He told me about his experience working at Magnolia for /over thirty years/, and about some of his other customers that he had helped through similarly stressful situations. I realized later that Doman was building trust with me by telling me these stories, and it worked wonders on my emotional state. My audio over-sensitivity is definitively worse when I'm upset to such a degree, so validating me in the way he did was a true kindness not often seen in retail environments today.Doman took me into a listening room, and told me a ton about speakers and how today's receivers interact with them. He played audio for me through various sets of speakers (without telling me which set was playing - a brilliant move that circumvented my established paradigms), and listened as I described the sound quality back to him: this set sounds flat; this set has a round, full sound; this set sounds as good as the last set but more rich; et cetera. Turns out I identified those specifics correctly, and Doman agreed I have a VERY good ear... which I honestly wish weren't so good, haha - Doman had also mentioned old CRTs, and I immediately expressed that not only could I hear their high-pitched whine, but I can tell you if an old CRT is showing a white or black screen based on the pitch of that whine. @_@I watch a lot of movies, and explosions had sounded the worst - so Doman played movie explosions in the listening room until I found a set that sounded crisp and clear to my ear. He didn't make me feel rushed or pressured while we did this, and even said, "If you don't give up, I won't give up." What a wonderfully supportive thing to say - and bes
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August 2019 by Vlad Balan
No good demo music.
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July 2019 by Bill Fry
See Dooman
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March 2019 by Maggie Astolfi
I cannot say enough good things about Ray and Fernando. From the moment we walked into the store, Ray walked us through our tv-purchasing options. He was informative, efficient, and helpful--without being too pushy. From there, Fernando ensured we had the best sound-system and wall mounting options + took care of all of the billing, install coordination, and ordering. He also made sure we received the best prices by searching the systems since Magnolia, Best Buy, and Geek Squad all have different SKUs. We left the store feeling confident in our purchases (which is important considering how much money you might spend on home-theatre setups!), and more informed about the various options.
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January 2019 by Alec B.
Awesome experience, this is definitely the place to come for the highest quality audio equipment at the best price. Amazing team of associates, they were very helpful and got me exactly what I was looking for.
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July 2018 by Cassidie A.
Terrible terrible experience. I'm upgrading my theatre to Dolby Atmos and looking for help and looking to purchase immediately. The guy at the desk who works for Magnolia HIFI design inside bestbuy Northgate, had a. HUGE lack of service, did not get up from his desk , but continued to ask me random questions that weren't specific to my needs. He looked annoyed and made me the customer feel like an annoyance. Finally realized the level of service I was dealing with, I asked him direct questions and added specifics that he kept saying he wasn't aware of , or just not knowledgeable. I'm getting uncomfortable and just shocked that he was not trying at all to offer options, or take the time to give me a few details. He was quick to leave the room, left me hanging, and basically lost a 12K thousand sale. Terrible. I wondered the front to see if anyone else would approach me on a weekday and since I was the only customer in the magnolia design center space , amongst 6 employee guys in shirt and ties just hanging Nobody else approaches and asked if I needed help. I'm so disappointed
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October 2017 by 백패커워싱턴
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February 2017 by Survivor Men
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