Bose vs. everything else....

daleb

There are actually worse (bad sound, poor quality, etc.) speakers than Bose. And those would fall easy into the category of 'everything else'.

The title of this topic should be "Bose, or higher quality loudspeakers?"

360kid

I agree there are a lot of better systems than Bose, probably a whole lot of better systems. I also think Bose costs too much. But, I do love Bose. People bash the sound you get, but any Bose I have ever heard is crystal clear, you can hear a pin drop. Couple it with a good subwoofer and you have a complete package.

Now am I saying Bose is better than Definetive Tech of Kef, no, probably not. It just burned my eyes reading some one saying an Aiwa mini system is better than Bose. That person is outta there mind.

Bravestime

Totally agree. There are worse speakers out there. I thought overall the Bose I had were good sounding speakers, but for me not what I was looking for.

dave33ca

bose uses thier name and past history to overprice thier newer line of equipment, in other words its over priced and over hyped. A 1000 dollar speaker set-up from paradigm, the cinema 110 for example will BLOW ANYTHING bose has out of the water hands down. JMO.

Loves2Watch

To reiterate, the Acoustimass's bass module responds to 46 Hz to 202 Hz at ±2.3 dB, while the satellites respond to 280 Hz to 13.3 KHz at ±10.5 dB. This is, by the way, the only speaker that I have ever seen tested with a ±10.5 db allowance. Still, this leaves a frequency gap between the satellites and bass module of about 80 Hz! That is 80 hertz of sound that is completely erased within the system's internal crossovers! I wonder how Bose figured out which 80 hertz matters least in the audible spectrum? I will tell you though that that gap accounts for a HUGE loss in midrange sound, which is responsible for the majority contralto, baritone, and tenor vocals in music, and many sound effects in home theater. And let us not forget that the Acoustimass system also ignores audible signal from 20Hz to 45Hz on the low end (deep bass), and 13KHz to 20KHz on the high end (high treble). Do the math folks, this Bose system only produces 13,176 of the 19,980 Hertz in the audible sound spectrum. That's only ~66% of the actual recording being played back to you! Is this the kind of performance you'd expect from a $1300 product?

Now you may like your Bose speakers and that is fine but my purpose was/is to show you the light.

edders

First off, I agree that Bose acoustimass systems have a poor lower mid range. As to the specs though: Crossovers roll off the output, as do the speakers themselves. The specs doesn't mean the system absolutely stops passing the signal at a specified frequency. In this case it means the output at that range is at least 10% below the rest of the audio. That having been said, even 10% really does suck.

fyi, The worst example I saw of BOSE retail salesmanship was at BB. My sister wanted a new speaker system to replace her low end Yamaha. We took some CD's, for music, and some DVD's for video to audition on various systems. To my complete surprise, the BB salesman said all BOSE products in that store were locked into a DEMO mode and would not play our media or otherwise allow a test drive, AMAZING!!!

I guess if they say BOSE is the BEST, then we have to take their word on it. It couldn't just be a marketing scam, could it???

360kid

Wifey and I were in Sam's Club last weekend, remembering this conversation, we went over to the Bose demo and cranked the 5.1 Bose system. Both of us were again, as always, blown away. Both of us wishing we had the Bose.

I don't care if Bose only exerts 60% of the audio spectrum, WHATEVER.... it still sounds amazing to my ears.

Loves2Watch

But if there would have been another system set up next to it (which Bose will not allow) of equally priced brand name equipment and you could have done a A/B comparison you would definitely hear the dramatic difference in high quality sound of the non-Bose system. This is the point that the original post was attempting to make. For the money there are much better sounding systems available.

360kid

Agreed, I still like Bose though.

dolphy

I know my B&W loud speakers sound better than any Bose. No Highs, No Lows, Must Be Bose.

Codes20

How original...

gotensan02

I don't know if this was mentioned before, but there's a reason why retailers 99% of the time have BOSE displays by themselves and that is to make it difficult for the consumer to compare the sounds to other brands.

cooter10

wow, didn't know Bose was so horrible?!?

imagine, in seven years i have thrown over 100 parties, watched hundreds of movies, and listened to thousands of hours of music, yet never realized how bad the sound was coming from my Bose speaker system. i guess all my guests were being polite and disguising it with their enjoyment.

I wouldn't make a good audiophile, it'd take all the fun out of listening to music

btufail

funny u mentioned that. i've read articles that bose tells retailers like BB not to demo their equipment next to any competitor. how true that is? i don't know. and i own bose and been happy with them but know there are better systems out there. i'm kinda in the same predicament as the O.P. i wanna replace my acoustimass. i don't care about how loud it goes but quality and accurate reproduction but i also don't wanna brake the bank. been looking @ Energy & Mirage nanostats.

Loves2Watch

Those are both excellent speaker systems. This one as well - http://www.accessories4less.com/make...-BLACK-/1.html wouldn't break the bank and would make you wonder where all of the music you have been previously missing came from.