Bose seems to have a place after all, just not in MY home.

[captain_tinker]

Folks,
Happy 4th of July! I went today to the outlet stores in Folsom today with my wife, and was walking around and stumbled onto a BOSE outlet store. My first inclination was to go and walk on the other side of the sidewalk, but I thought, oh what the heck. Why not give it a comparison, so that I can really enjoy what I already have. I walked in and the salesman came up to me to say hi. He told me that they had a presentation in the theater room set up and I was welcome to come and check it out. So I figured why not. I came in with my wife and two kids, and sat down. The first thing I see are these rather large tower speakers on some stands at the front of the room. I tried to see if they were some new Bose model, but it didn't say Bose on them. In fact it was not something that I recognized at all. I looked at the components sitting on the table at the front, and it looked like they were not even turned on. The center channel was a larger 8 inch cubical looking speaker sitting on the table. I thought that was kind of strange. I also spied an accoustimass in the corner behind some fake plants. Other than that, it was a typical small theater room.

So anyway, they started the presentation, and the gist of the presentation was "guys, do you want great sound, but your wives won't let you put up big speakers, and are you not smart enough to fumble around with CD's and don't know how to use a receiver etc, then get these really cool tiny little speakers and this media center and you won't have to worry about all this. At this point I figured ok, that makes sense, there are those who really have a major WAF issue, and then there are those who just don't want to deal with all the equipment. Ok, that makes sense. I guess if those people exist, fine. They don't have to have the nice stuff, more for me. But something was really bothering me about the whole thing. They kept busting on all these large speakers, etc and there were two big speakers sitting right there in the front of the room. Then at some point during the presentation, the salesguy walked in, and pulled the speakers away and I suddenly realized why they didn't sound right to begin with. They were the tiny little one or two inch cubes behind fake speakers! Gotta hand it to the Marketing department. That was a great touch.

Then they played a clip from Master & Commander, where they were firing a cannon. I told my wife to hold the kids ears in case it was really loud. I guess that wasn't necessary. It was loud, but quite disappointing really. It just didn't sound realistic to me, and I didn't feel anything shake. Anyway, after the thing was over, they brought us to another room and showed us a "normal" living room with a flat panel TV in the front and showed us the difference between the TV's speakers and the Bose speakers. There was a little bit of a difference, but the only real difference I really heard was that the sound was coming from further away from the screen, and it was just a tad bit smoother, not quite as harsh as the TV speakers. But not much.

So when he asked if we had any questions, I asked him how they store the CD's in the media center. Was it MP3 or WMA or what? He said it was something called AP3 or something, he wasn't sure. He said it was still compressed, but just not as much. I asked him if it was some kind of a proprietary compression scheme, but he couldn't tell me, he wasn't sure. So in essence it is still compressed. Owell, so was the sound coming from the speakers anyway. Though I have to admit, it wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting. It sure didn't sound like my Martin Logans, obviously, but for those who aren't really into the gear and into the whole hobby etc, but still want to hear music, I guess this would be a good alternative for them after all. It's not for me, but hey, it has a place in the market I guess.

Oh, to top it all off, on the way home I asked my wife what she thought. She said first of all she thought the speakers were ugly. She liked my Mosaics better. !!! She also said she was dissapointed during the cannon scene because it did not boom and shake the place like mine does. She said, I can feel that thing anywhere in the house, but sitting just a few feet away from this one, it didn't do much. (Dang I LOVE my wife!)

-capT

 

[no. 5]

Nice post Cap.

It's good to see a reasonable review of you-know-who, now I'm not trying to say Bose is awesome, but they are not all that bad.... well, for the people that buy them anyways.

 

[Seth=L]

I guess not everything is as simple as B0se, but I just can't fathom spending $2000 or more for simplicity and aesthetics.

 

[davidtwotrees]

I'd like to drop a kerll mono block on a bose cube.

I used to golf with a guy who bought bose well over ten years ago, with the cubes and all. He is an advocate to this day.....

Ooo. Here's a good thought. Bose Cube- WILL IT BLEND!?

 

[Seth=L]

I'd like to drop a kerll mono block on a bose cube.

Might be tough to crush the almighty B0se cube with a Krell amp, let alone the knock-off brand Kerll.

 

[davidtwotrees]

Well, yeah. I wouldn't use a krell to drop on a bose.....but the kerll? Meh.

 

[Audioholics]

People often don't realize that Bose atually sounds pleasing to the ear - it's just not dynamic or accurate. And their marketing found out long ago that people (read: women) want perceived bass, not necessarily bone-crushing, room shaking bass.

So they have their market and are catering to it. We just try to find those people who CAN do better (i.e. are allowed to) and educate them on their options.

 

[davidtwotrees]

Plus there is always the legacy of Dr. Bose........who seems to be made into a Thomas Edison of sound......and I think it comforts the Bose buyers to know that there is a father figure behind the product, the omnipitent Dr. B, who will take care of us if we just listen to the cubes.........

 

[j_garcia]

They've been doing this same demo for years. I've seen it at least 5 times and it keeps getting funnier every time.

Last time I was there I asked the guy "What happens if one speaker breaks?" WOW, he didn't know what to say. "Can I add different speakers, say if I already had fronts and a center?" "Um, No, you can't."

I was particularly irked by their auto EQ pitch so I asked the guy if I could bring in a CD of my own and hear it in that room and as expected, no chance of that.

 

[Rock&Roll Ninja]

"Does the $4000 Lifestyle system play these new HD-DVD (or Blu*Ray) disks I just bought across the street?"

 

[agarwalro]

"Does the $4000 Lifestyle system play these new HD-DVD (or Blu*Ray) disks I just bought across the street?"

LOL. Nice one.

I have to say, the first time I heard of Bose back in India, the marketing had me believe it was the best money could buy (other than the super expensive boutique speakers like B&W Nautilus) and when I went to the showroom to do a demo, I was bowled over. At the time, the nearest best thing I had heard was a boom box. Needless to say, when I heard the price (as much as a new car in India), my jaw hit the floor.

Today, ten years later in the US, I know that for the price, anyone can put together a considerable better rig, not only in terms of sound quality but also capabilities for connectivity, expansion and upgrade. All it takes is the ability to look behind the marketing propoganda and actually want to put together a genuinely good setup and not to get a setup spoon fed to you because you have the money to spend. The correct attitude combined with some research and effort to do demos.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

Not to turn this into a BOSE bash or anything...

There was a time in my life when I owned 2 lifestyle systems. One was in the family room and the other was in a dedicated HT room. These two systems came with a new wife and I was pretty excited about all three additions. I put my Yamaha AVR, Yamaha CD player and Klipsch speakers in the storage closet and never really thought to much more about it. At times when watching movies or listening to music it just seemed boring. I got where I seldom did much watching or listening and figured it was just a stage of life that I was in. Well; long story short, I ended up getting rid of all 3 additions and never really missed any of them. I hooked up the old system and started enjoying music and movies again or maybe I was just enjoying being single and everything seemed better.

Well a little later down the road; I had a new GF and we moved in together and guess what; the big, ugly speakers were a no-no. She surprised me with a HTIB on Christmas(Sony Dream System) Well, I hooked it up, acted happy and again didnt really enjoy music or movies much but she loved the little set-up much more than the big, ugly speakers.

So is there a place for BOSE or anyother HTIB...you bet there is. Is that place in my house...no way.

 

[mr-ben]

I've seen this demo myself - it was pretty good I thought. The selling point for Bose, at least with the cube speakers, is really about the small size and convenience. I think of it like the MP3 of speaker systems - you get a lower quality compressed sound, but the convenience and appeal of small size. Yes it's overpriced for the quality of the sound, but that's not their selling point. The small size seems to really matter for a lot of people, including several that I know personally, much more than the quality of sound or price.

I don't own Bose, but I don't listen to MP3s either.

 

[satish536]

LOL. Nice one.

I have to say, the first time I heard of Bose back in India, the marketing had me believe it was the best money could buy (other than the super expensive boutique speakers like B&W Nautilus) and when I went to the showroom to do a demo, I was bowled over. At the time, the nearest best thing I had heard was a boom box. Needless to say, when I heard the price (as much as a new car in India), my jaw hit the floor.

Today, ten years later in the US, I know that for the price, anyone can put together a considerable better rig, not only in terms of sound quality but also capabilities for connectivity, expansion and upgrade. All it takes is the ability to look behind the marketing propoganda and actually want to put together a genuinely good setup and not to get a setup spoon fed to you because you have the money to spend. The correct attitude combined with some research and effort to do demos.

i was in the exact same situation, feels so much better to be informed and not buy into marketing gimmicks.

 

[captain_tinker]

The guy told me that Amar Bose actually pulled a similar bait and switch years ago when demoing the 901's. I guess at the time those were considered "small". So he popped them into a large speaker box, and pulled them out after people went gaga over them and showed them how small it was in comparison.

I had him demo the 901's he had in the studio too, and truthfully those sounded WAY better than the cubes did. But they were also running on an Onkyo receiver and an Onkyo CD player. So there could be several things at play here. Sure size doesn't always matter, to a point, but components sure do. The little bitty cubes, even though they were plenty loud and filled the room just fine, still sounded tinny and lacking. But as agarwalro said, all he had heard up until them, and probably many others who walk into these places, were just walmart special boomboxes. Yeah, they sound better than those. Definitely. No question about that. Then there is the issue of cost. I personally don't think that this system warrants quite the price tag on it, but considering the idea that most people think that higher price = higher quality, and in a lot of ways that is true, they may be led to believe that this is a high quality product. And in some ways it is. Just think about it for a minute, for what it is, a tiny little speaker in a tiny little cube to be able to put out the kind of sound it does, even if it doesn't compare to regular tower or bookshelf speakers, it really does a good job of it. I have to say I am impressed. Not impressed enough to buy it over my Logans and other gear, but for those who don't care about the sound quite as much, and just want to hurry and get something installed to hear music with and still sound better than their boombox, well this is it.

*shrug*

Owell I'll stick to my stuff. I'm a gear head and I admit it. I actually finally admitted this to the salesman after I had him show me all this stuff. I told him that while I was impressed, and I felt that these products had a place in some instances, that I was truthfully a gear head and that this was a hobby of mine and I liked the big components and the big speakers etc. I had room for them, and they didn't intrude and my wife was ok with them. I told him what I had and his eyes got all wide, and said "Wow!" He knew exactly what I was referring to, so I figured he was probably familiar with other stuff besides just being a Bose drone. So I described what I had and he said figured that probably sounded awesome. I admitted that they did. Then the last thing I told him was that if I were to do an A/B comparison between my system and the one he showed me there would be no comparison. He said I was probably right. He then told me to enjoy it and we parted company.

Finally, last night for the 4th of July, I popped in my Telarc 1812 Overture SACD and just went to town. I could feel my sub pounding out on the bass drums all the way down my hallway and in the other rooms. Aaaahhh.... Now that's the way it's supposed to feel!

Then my wife and I were discussing what had happened earlier and she asked, so what if that media center thing breaks? There goes all your music, all the cd's, etc. I knew I loved her!

-capT

 

[hemiram]

The only time I ever heard Bose stuff sound decent was when a friend had a pair of 901's hanging from the ceiling by chains, each being driven by a high end amp (I had the same amp, it was a copy of a Mark Levinson). It was a decent sized room. He had one of the early "time delay" units running some AR-38's for the back surrounds. It sounded ok, but as an eaperiment, we switched the wires around on the amps, and the AR-38's sounded a lot better as the "fronts" than the 901's!