raven56706

I am wondering everyone's opinion on Bose speakers. I have heard mixed reactions about them but now i want the people from DVDTALK to answer the question once and for all.

RAVEN

skar

They sound alright. But Bose speakers are simply one of the worst values in consumer electronics. I prefer PSB, Paradigm, Mirage, Def Tech, Martin Logan, Mannepan, KEF, Klipsch, B&W, Infinity, JBL, Boston Acoustics, and NHT speakers to Bose.

kinky

If you want speakers that are marketed well ... instead of those which sound good ... go for Bo$e.

In either case ... read this FAQ before you proceed.

kinky

PS: Where is the poll ???

Movie_Man

I have a set that fortunately didn't cost me a dime (won them), and here's my unbiased thoughts.
The speakers themselves perform fine for typical home movie viewing, but I am underwhelmed by the passive "woofer". It produces so very little bass. The entire set is certainly NOT for the enthusiasts who has to crank up the DTS, but suits my purpose just fine.
As far as value, there are better deals for your dollar out there. But if you happen to find a good deal, they certainly are not awful.

William Ward

Bose aren't bad speakers. They just cost about 2.5 to 3 times more than they're worth. So for the price of just a couple speakers(or the Acoustimass system), you could get more speakers with better performance.

But all your friends that are unaware about the Bose reality(overpriced and overhyped) will think you've got some GREAT speakers!!

Seeker

Bose are good speakers, but they cost too much for what you get.
You can get more for your money elsewhere...


that said, I do have a set of bose 901 that I got 15 years ago, and they are still going fine. they are, in fact, playing at the moment....


OTOH, I have a newer set of NHT speakers which power my home theater...

nekobus

They're not a good value for the money-too much hype and marketing.

JimB

Last time I checked they didn't have any digital input for DTS and there 5.1 wasn't true 5.1, they tweaked it so it's not a pure dolby digital signal. Stay away from any non-industry standard, propriatery stuff.

GMLSKIS

Bose speakers aren't the best but they are great speakers. They might not be as great as the company hypes but they are not as bad as some DVD talkers would have you think either. I have Bose as my rear speakers and no complaints. Bose prices don't change much but occasionaly you can get them on sale a little cheaper like I did.

hypeiv

I think we are talking about the bose speaker packages not the packages with there receiver.

Bose speakers sound good, people on this forum (and audioreview.com) will have you believe that bose speakers sound worse than $300 HTiB systems.

are the bose home theater speaker packages worth the money?

No, if you know your stuff you can easily find a much better system package for the price. I am sure anyone would agree with that.

Mike Meeks

kinky Thanks for the excellent link. Very informative and well balanced view.

X

I've waited and waited, but I can't stand it anymore...

IBBP

DeadGnat

My feeling is that they're overpriced and could sound a lot better, but a lot of the negative opinions might be due to improper setup. The subwoofer in the bose system isn't a subwoofer-it's a mid-woofer and has no business being used as the LFE channel in a 5.1 system. You need to bolster that system with a real subwoofer that can hit those low notes.

Illinois Enema Bandit

Bose are over-priced and over-rated. At the price points that Bose offers their products, you can do far better for less $$

As the saying goes "no highs, no lows, must be Bose"

hypeiv

what if bose were 50% cheaper than they really are... my point is people are so discusted with the high prices (as they should be) that they say they are worse than a $300 HTiB you can get at best buy, which i think is completely false.

Bose Pro

OK, here's my opinion:

It all depends on what speakers you are referring too and for what use.

If we talk about 901's, they are great sound/music preproducing speakers but should never be used for home theater.

What about the cubes? For surround sound, I could only recommend the Acoustimass 15 (5 cubes, powered bass). I would NEVER recommend the 10 (passive bass). The Acoustimass 6 is great for a small room.

Con't on the cubes...the cubes are not the best speakers out there by far. If you wanted the BEST, you would never be looking at a satilite system, rather that be from Bose or anyone else. You would (or should) be looking at towers, a nice full range center, and rears that have exceptional mids and highs. Sats will never give you the full range of sound that a "size doesn't matter" system will.

The cubes bring us to a common issue people have about the passive bass which for some reason people like to call a sub. The bass module is the normal woofers that one would normally find in the front channels (i.e., tower, bookshelf, so on). Bose just seperating the speakers into components. Calling the passive bass module a sub would be like calling the 6 or 8" woofer in a book shelf speaker a sub. It succeeds in producing the regular bass for the speakers, not sub level bass. On that note, as I said above, I would never recommend the Acoustimass 10. It sounds horrible IMO. If you can afford (and want Bose) the 10, save the extra $200 up and buy the 15.

The 301s are one of the best bookshelf speakers I have heard.

Now, for everyone waiting for something new, Bose has just released two new tower speakers.

1st. 601 - Now at most CC and BB, as well as Bose retail stores. The 601IV house 2 6 1/2" woofers and a 2 1/2" tweeter. We just got them in yesterday and I got a chance to try them out. I will be completely honest and unbiased here. I wasn't that impressed. They do sound a lot better than the 501s that it replaced, but still lacked in that real deep bass range. The look sweet and have a nice light cherry color out, but that's a very minute reason to buy a speaker. I think they perform just as well as any other tower speaker in the price range, but I was honestly hoping for something more. But, I believe they are a great price at $599/pair. We have several CC and BB people calling about them, saying they sound great and are anxious for the next speaker out....

2nd. 701II - These are the ones I have waiting for to come out with for a long time. The have a 2 1/2" and 3" tweeter, 6 1/2" mid, and each one has an 8" powered sub. They hook up parrallel through the LFE channel on the digital receivers. From what I have heard from others, they are the best speaker Bose has ever produced. However, I have not yet heard them. Once I do, I will give you a fair and honest opinion. They will retail for $999/pair. From my experience with towers that incorporate powered subs inside, that is more than a fair price for these.

That brings us to the price issue. Most people say Bose is expensive, over marketed, not great value. I am not going to argue with them, not because I believe it to be true, but because why would anyone really consider my opinion when so many others state otherwise? But, what I can say, the sound quality overall on the market for soeakers tends to be exponantional. By this I mean, you pay a lot more for a little better sound...then you pay a lot more for a little better sound...and so on. I think Bose falls right in the middle on this. I laugh when people come into my store and say Bose is high-end. Obviously these people really haven't seen high end. These people haven't gone and looked at a pair of James' speakers, or what a Macintoch amp is. They think Bose is high end because they see it at Best Buy and see the price. What I can only recommend, to everyone, is go out and listen, listen, listen. Bring your own demos, your own music. Hear the speakers the way you want to hear them. Give them all a fair and unbiased chance. Then, make up you mind. Remember, no matter what I say here or what others say, this is just a starting point. The real decision should be made by you after you have properly demoed.

-Jeff

Geofferson

Bose are GREAT for music, but nothing extraordinary for movies and HT.

edclem

thanks for the candor, Bose Pro.
Personally, I'm not a fan of their equipment. But, ultimately, if something sounds good to you, the listener, that's all that really matters.

Jin E

If much of what I write seems long winded, poorly written, misspelled with incoherent misuses of the English language, remember I'm a engineer not a writer

Bose are absolutely horrible for home theater, both their sat systems, bookshelves, and towers. I won't cover the price/quality issues, but only the system designs.

Sats: Nice concept, terrible execution. In theory bass is non-directional, and the accoustimass is supposedly designed to take advantage of this. This is basically how all 5.1/6.1/7.1 systems are designed. A true 5.1 system has 5 full range discrete channels, and they need to be able to reproduce a full range of sound down to DD's LFE cutoff point (something those little satellite speakers don't come close to doing). This is something that can be said for a vast majority of those small sat/cube systems (not only Bose). Because the satellites have a atrocious frequency response you have to have your subwoofer output higher frequency bass in order to prevent a "hole" in your frequency response. Because of the high frequencies that the cube has to reproduce the Bose cube becomes HIGHLY directional. That explosion coming from behind you? Well... you now get half the explosion behind you and half to your right where your cube is sitting. This is of course assuming you're using the low pass crossover in the cube, don’t even think about using the one in your receiver. Most receivers have a crossover around 80-100hz. I can tell you from setting up a friend Bose system that this (80-100hz) is WAY to low for the bose cub/sats... and you will have a huge hole in the frequency response of your system. Also, the Bass from the cube (to me) seemed quite boomy and muddled I would guess that the sub had excessively high group delay, which would give us the boomy sound and distortion we all know and love! Demo Saving Private Ryan or Daylight DTS on a sat/cube system and then a Mini-Monitor style system and you'll hear a HUGE difference. There is no replacement for displacement! They don't sound Horrible mind you. There are better Sat systems out there for the money, the BOSE are nothing special. So yes... I think those AM systems compare favorably to those $300-500 HTiB's. I had luck helping a guy at work with one of those small Sony sat systems. We bought him another sub (identical to the first) and ran the subs in stereo. We both agreed this helped his system out 100%. One sub for the left side of the room and one for the right side. We later put a SAWM40 subwoofer in there so he could actually get bass down below 35hz... another big improvement.

Bookshelf/Speakers: Direct Reflecting, the term itself is a oxymoron! Lets read the Bose marketing hype; 90% of the sound you hear in a concert hall is indirect, the 901's (and all theri direct radiating speakers) were designed to reproduce this concert environment. That's all fine and dandy, but not all sound coming from my speakers should sound like it's in a concert hall. When Buzz Lightyear blasts through space... I want him to sound like he's in space, not in a concert hall.

With the Direct Radiating speaker Bose Basically takes an array of 3-9 speakers, points them in different directions, and voila! A direct radiating array! The problem with a direct radiating speaker array for HT us is the poor directionality, and the introduction of additional ambient information. What you want in a speaker is a nice flat response curve (something the Bose does not have). I can control the playback response of a recording many different ways; speaker placement, preamp/amp selection, power matching between components and speakers, active/passive equalization, to room tuning. DSP modes, etc, etc....

Why lock yourself into a response curve and radiating pattern when these things are easily changed by other means? You want I can product direct reflecting sound from my direct radiating speaker with speaker placement and room acoustics, you will never be able to product direct radiating sound from your Bose speakers. While a ruler flat playback response may or may not be optimal, it is easy to conclude that the speakers should not be the place to tune this response. Speakers best designed with a ruler flat response, and adjust other room/system components to achieve optimal balance for your listening style/ preference/ material.

neilio

I have to agree with most posts out there. Bose are Mid-fi crap. I have B&W's all the way around and they beat the heck out of Bose in terms in quality and value.

Brian Shannon

Go to a store that sells them and compare them to other brands.

In my experience, you either can't compare because of the way they are set up and sold or they are sold through their own store.

Bose is a marketing company. Nothing more.

exm

hey, where's the Poll?

anyway, for speakers that size they aren't bad but anyone who wants some serious quality should not consider these baby-size speakers whether it's Bose or not.

M i c h a e l

Yes, they are bad.

If you want small speakers, look into Gallo Acoustics.

http://www.roundsound.com

Bose speakers have zero advantage over other
speakers in the marketplace, and sound worse than 95%
of the other brands in the same price range.

skar

I spoke to a Bose dealer that told me that Bose either would not let him set it up so you could do direct A/B comparsions between Bose and other brands of speakers or Bose strongly discouraged it. If that is not a bad sign, then I don't know what one is.