Hi,
My friend is a BOSE fanatic even though he's never even heard them. He just finds the site very convincing (He's a very gullible person, he actually wanted to buy that Ginsu Knife on the late night infomercial and the Ab-Flex-O-Minator or whatever. He also paid, get this, PAID one of those penis enlargement web-sties 40 bucks cause he thought it worked).

Anyway, he finds all this scientific mumbo-jumbo to be true, he reads all these words on the features of a TV or whatever like he knows what it means. "Oh! Look! This TV must be great! It has a Three Comb Filter!" "Oh look! This sound system must be amazing! It has the XYGCM-10123723 whatever-majigger!" What I'm trying to ask is... Are Bose speakers really as good as they seem? Because I see some people on here say, "I had to listen to it on Bose speakers, Bleghh!" So are they bad? Is it just hype that makes them seem good?

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"You're goodie little two-shoes! You're goodie little two-shoes!" -- Bad Ash, Army Of Darkness
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I have bose speakers, and like them. I have the bookshelf speakers for fronts and rears, and a bose center channel, and I am happy. In my Opinion bose are good speakers, or better then average. Yes there are better speakers on the market, and yes some of them cost less then the bose, but I bought these before I was a member of DVD TALK. Some people hate Bose, some people hate Polk, its basically personal preference.

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www.dvdprofiler.com/mycollection.asp?alias=FDBOWIE FDBOWIE's DVD Collection</a>

Bose first and foremost is a marketing company as evidenced by your friends wide-eyed adoration "without even hearing them".

My biggest problem with Bose is that for the most part it is nearly impossible to compare them with other products. This is not a coincidence.

Speakers must be listened to and evaluated before a decision can be made.

"Are they as good as they seem"? IMHO, no they are not and despite the nice styling (a poor imitation of B&O) they do not deliver the performance of similarly priced products.

Also with some of their products they use wiring and amplification that must come from Bose. This will be a problem sometime in the future if you desire to upgrade or add on.

Check some of the reviews over at www.audioreview.com. Alot of this is trash talk but this many people are echoing a common theme. A first time purchaser might buy Bose but when they have learned a few things and listened to a few things they soon see the limitations of Bose.



[This message has been edited by Brian Shannon (edited December 29, 2000).]

Those are some good points Brian Shannon..

I would also like to make the following points:

1) Most people who buy Bose buy into their marketing hype as mentioned and/or want the small sized speakers

2) The fallacy is that there are many other speakers systems of equal to much better quality that can be had for less than the bose system (or the same price for much better speakers). There are even systems that are comparable or SMALLER in size.

3) Most of the time is is not possible to compare Bose speakers head to head because they use mass market merchandisers (like Best Buy) to distribute the product and brand it as a 'higher end' product to justify the price. If they were at a hifi/HT store, bose would most likely be a bottom end/entry level system with a higher price than most entry level equipment.

4) Most Bose systems I have seen have very poor subwoofters which puts a big strike against them.

Examples of things that offer better value:

Energy take 5 system costs about HALF of the bose system and delivers better quality.

For the size constrained, Klipsch quintets and a KSW-12 matching POWERED sub cost about $900 (without doing much shopping /negotiating) and come with mounting brackets.

I got my NHT superone/superzero/supercenter and Velodyne 12" powered sub for about the same price as a lower end Bose system and it blows it away. That being said, the bookshelf speakers are a bit bigger, but I can live with the size difference.

Never do what your friend is doing. Never be sold on hype or other people's recommendations WITHOUT LISTENING to speakers. AND, it is important to listen to speakers being driven by the SAME AMP/RECEIVER (preferably the one you have) to really know what they sound like side by side.

p.s. My father has a bose system and thought it was the greatest thing in the world. He did have a space restriction, but luckily he mainly uses them as surrounds. He heard my system and his jaw dropped, especially when I told him it was the same price. HEARING is believing. Listen to a system with a powered sub and you will notice a major difference.

Check this out:

http://home.earthlink.net/%7Ebusenitz/bs.html

PF

BOSE are like training wheels, every newbie has them

Most important thing is to listen to them for yourself. Here's some points coming from a Bose employee so you can get both ends of opinion.

1) Bose for car audio...untouchable (except maybe the Nakamechi sp? in Lexus).

2) Bose Wave Radios...untouchable. Very expensive, but incredible sound.

3) Bose Home Theatre...very touchable. There are a lot of systems out that sound better and at a better price. We never claimed to be the "best" sounding home theatre systems. We claim to have a great sounding system with incredibly small speakers. A lot of people claim that there are smaller speakers on the HT market. 1st. they are claiming size vs. the Acoustimass cubes, not the Jewel cubes which are 60% smaller. 2nd. Find a smaller (or same size) that sounds equal? Also, there are a lot of unique features only found on Lifestyle systems like Videostage 5, a processor that will take any non 5.1 signal and put into 5.1 discrete channels. This is found on all Lifestyle systems (current models). I will admit as someone already said that Bose lacks in the sub area. Wow, we get spanked there. ON our Lifestyle systems, we only hit 50Hz and on the Acoustimass 15, it's only 36-38Hz. I do agree we need to come out with a better sub (praying LOL).

4) Speaker market. Bose has the best selling bookshelf speaker (301) and the world famous 901. Bot of which are amazing. There are speakers better, but we still offer a great sounding speaker.

5) Quite comfort headsets ($299). No one even comes close. FACT.

6) Pro Porduct. Bose has been a leader in the Pro Porduct division, 2nd only to maybe JBL. Bose can be found everywhere from the Olympics, to Staples center, Madison Square Garden, even the space shuttle has all Bose speakers and headsets.

The number one thing to do is listen and demo and keep an open mind.

Good luck.

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My Site

As Bose Pro stated.....I can say from experience that Bose speakers for the home theater are way overrated!!! You are better off purchasing another brand of speakers which you have auditioned at your local home theater store!!!

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http://www.dvdtracker.com/~djones6746.asp


"You know Andy...I never thought it would come to this....Mayberry....Gateway to danger."

Barney Fife

quote:<HR>Originally posted by Bose Pro:
Most important thing is to listen to them for yourself. Here's some points coming from a Bose employee so you can get both ends of opinion.

1) Bose for car audio...untouchable (except maybe the Nakamechi sp? in Lexus).
<HR>

If you are referring to Bose car audio
systems designed specifically for a
particular car model (e.g., the Audi A4),
of course they will sound better than a
competing brand not equalized and located
for that specific acoustical environment.

You're not playing on a level field. If
another manufacturer, say Boston Acoustics,
were to design a system for a specific acoustic
space (such as an Audi A4) they would blow your
doors off. Your reference to the Nakamichi/Lexus
pairing underscores this point.

quote:<HR>
2) Bose Wave Radios...untouchable. Very expensive, but incredible sound.
<HR>

I'd put a pair of PSB Alphas and an inexpensive
stereo receiver up against this thing any day...

Very inexpensive, with incredible sound.

quote:<HR>
3) Bose Home Theatre...very touchable. There are a lot of systems out that sound better and at a better price.
<HR>

Now you're on the right track.

quote:<HR>
4) Speaker market. Bose has the best selling bookshelf speaker (301) and the world famous 901.
<HR>

I love the "best selling" argument. I'll go out now
and buy an "N*Synch" CD -- they must be good, they're
the best selling act around.

Popularity never equals quality -- it never did,
it never will.


Regarding "small size", see: Gallo Acoustics.

http://www.roundsound.com/

quote:<HR>
5) Quite comfort headsets ($299). No one even comes close. FACT.
<HR>

Regarding headphones, see: Sennheiser.

http://www.sennheiser.com/

quote:<HR>
6) Pro Porduct. Bose has been a leader in the Pro Porduct division, 2nd only to maybe JBL. Bose can be found everywhere from the Olympics, to Staples center, Madison Square Garden, even the space shuttle has all Bose speakers and headsets.
<HR>

Don't know about the sound quality of Bose systems in
stadiums, or the one out in space, but here on Earth
folks seeking quality speakers should begin their
search here:

http://www.goodsound.com/speakers.html

quote:<HR>
The number one thing to do is listen and demo and keep an open mind.
<HR>

Yes, listen and demo numerous models in similar price ranges
from http://www.goodsound.com/speakers.html as well as from
Bose.

I guarantee you'll wind up with a model other than Bose...

I'm too lazy to read what the others said. It differs in who you ask. I have a 2 friends who have Bose and totally love them. I have Paradigm and I think they are better, but they don't agree. If you want to know, just listen and compare. One thing I can say though... we tried, and tried and tried to blow the Bose speakers but those things seem unbreakable even with abuse on them... Bose 901's seem to have more bass than quite a few subs i've heard.

quote:<HR>Originally posted by M i c h a e l:
Popularity never equals quality -- it never did, it never will.
<HR>

So true. Look at the Ford Taurus--it's crap.

Anyway, do you know how you can tell that Bose is crap? They don't publish the frequency response specifications of their speakers.

Take a look at B&W's website and you'll see technical specifications such as Frequency Response,
Frequency Range, Sensitivity, Nominal Impedance, Dispersion (horizontal and vertical), Harmonic distortion, etc., on all of their speakers. Most other major speaker manufacturers publish these specifications as well.

Now check out Bose's website. Look at a "product data sheet." They give you a nice photo and the dimensions of the speakers, and that's about it. They can come up with all the fancy trademarked names they want ("Adaptive Energy Summing™ speaker design") but that doesn't make them good speakers.

Well said Michael! I almost cracked up when I read about Bose headphones.

It's hard not to be biased when you work for the company and sell their product for a living.

Feneant, those friends of yours are probably too embarassed to admit they fell for Bose' advertizement campaign. Your Paradigm can have them for lunch any day.

Besides listening for yourself, one also has to use common sense and not buy into the techno mumble jumble, looks and advertizing. The laws of physics have withstand the passage of time and Bose is not about to rewrite them.

PF

pretty much how I feel about Bose:
over-rated, over-priced and too many
suckers around ready to bite!!!

B= Best
O= Of
S= Shitty
E= Electronics

I guess it is pretty clear from reading your posts that you guys haven't heard bose 901s. My god...for listening to music NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING beats them. I couldn't speak for their surround speakers, but I would NEVER buy them, but credit where credit is due. My 901s are from 1974, and my god, they are PERFECT.

quote:<HR>Originally posted by DRAGOn:
I guess it is pretty clear from reading your posts that you guys haven't heard bose 901s. My god...for listening to music NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING beats them. I couldn't speak for their surround speakers, but I would NEVER buy them, but credit where credit is due. My 901s are from 1974, and my god, they are PERFECT. <HR>

Not that I posted above, but...

I've heard 901s. Many pairs. And I lived with a pair for a year (my roommate owned them).

They suck. Really, really bad.

In fact, I'm pretty partial to the argument that the more expensive the Bose speaker, the worse it sounds. It's been true in my experience, tho I haven't heard any of their super-cheap stuff. I think living with 901s for a year was more than enough punishment.

What do the 901s retail for now? $1400? Somewhere around there, anyhow. Please correct me if I'm way off base.

I could eat $1400 worth of $1 bills and crap out speakers that sound better than 901s.

-S

[This message has been edited by stevevt (edited December 31, 2000).]

quote:<HR>Originally posted by DRAGOn:
I guess it is pretty clear from reading your posts that you guys haven't heard bose 901s. My god...for listening to music NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING beats them. I couldn't speak for their surround speakers, but I would NEVER buy them, but credit where credit is due. My 901s are from 1974, and my god, they are PERFECT. <HR>

stevevt - that was a well thought out reply to this. Juat let me agree with you and add I too have heard 901's and my ears took months to recover from the screeetchingly HARSH highs that eminated from the so-called tweeters

I had a set of Klipsch 5.1's that blew the 901's away (and the 5.1's are not great speakers, but they were $600 pair)

quote:<HR>Originally posted by DRAGOn:
I guess it is pretty clear from reading your posts that you guys haven't heard bose 901s. My god...for listening to music NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING beats them. I couldn't speak for their surround speakers, but I would NEVER buy them, but credit where credit is due. My 901s are from 1974, and my god, they are PERFECT. <HR>

Well, I guess this is a great example of the subjectivity of human hearing. I lived with my roommate's Bose 901's for *FIVE* years, and while they were ok, they suck in comparison to my modest NHT setup costing half what the 901's cost in *1983*!

I by no means have a fantastic setup, but my NHT 1.1's and powered SW1 sub along with a 150-watt Kenwood amp and an inexpensive passive graphic EQ (to temper the inherent chestiness of the 1.1's upper-midrange) more than better the 901 setup I lived with for so long. I was absolutely amazed at the additional soundstage, depth and clarity of bass, and overall smoother sound.

I'd also like to poo-poo Bose Pro's contention that the wave radio is untouchable in sound quality by a comparably-priced, comparably-compact executive stereo setup. I have a JVC MD-9000 executive system that I paid about $325 for a year ago. Granted, it is a bit larger than a wave radio, but can fit in roughly the same space. My parents bought the $500 Wave Radio with CD, and the JVC system makes it sound like a portable AM radio. It has better frequency response, much better bass, true stereo with a decent soundstage -- oh, and it has a minidisc recorder-player built in to boot. My point is that the Wave Radio may be a good choice for the audio-impared gadget-minded folks out there, but it is far from untouchable. Please.

jriems

I have a set of Bose bookshelf speakers that I got about 3 years ago at an unbeatable price (free). I really like the speakers, but I am less than thrilled with the subwoofer. I have my Denon receiver maxed out on the bass, but it just doesn't deliver as much as I expect it to.

I have to disagree with you Dragon.I used to own a pair of 901`s back in the early 80`s and at that time I thought they were fantastic.As I got deeper into quality equipment,I came across a pair of Dalquist DQ-10`s with the Dalquist sub&crossover and powered by a Crown DC300.I got them really cheap and I could not believe what I was missing after listening to them.The accoustics have to be near perfect for the 901`s to sound respectable.

[This message has been edited by brilon (edited January 01, 2001).]

I saw this little poem some time ago in DVDTalk:

No Highs,
No Lows,
Must be Bose.

hehehe...cracks me up every time.

BOSE is evil, they sound terrible and are horribly expensive. For that price range you can afford MUCH better speaker.

quote:<HR>Originally posted by Bose Pro:
Bose for car audio...untouchable (except maybe the Nakamechi sp? in Lexus).<HR>

Ha!!! This makes me wanna laugh. Bose car systems may be one of the best stock car stereo speakers but they are not even close to the best. Apparently you never heard of brands like MB Quart, Illusion, Focal, CDT Audio, etc. Hell, even my 2 pairs of Infinity Kappa full range speakers sound far superior to those crappy Bose speakers.

This all goes back to the point that for the money you spend on any Bose product you can get something far superior in the same price range. I am certain that I could put a much better speaker setup in a car for the price that the whole crappy Bose speaker system cost.

the cheap nakamichi soundspace clock/radio/cd sounded better than the wave to me and it's 200 less...

Bosepro just one comment. I find the wave radio hard to listen to! The EQ bump changes male voice making them unrecognizable to me. A good example is listen to Howard Stern's voice on one.

[This message has been edited by bfrank (edited January 02, 2001).]

If I am looking for something similar to the Bose WaveRadio/CD, what should I get?
I want something small to put in a bedroom that will be used to wake up to the radio, and go to sleep with CDs, but I don't want a cheapie clock radio. Only two I've seen are Bose & Cambridge Soundworks. Any other ideas?

There are a bunch of $300 "lifestyle" radios around. Look at JVC, Pioneer, JBL and others. Just go in any Circuit City or Best buy.