I acquired an AM-500 Bose "bass module" for $20 last night. Its a model from somewhere between 1995-1998. I figured the price was pretty good and that because it was Bose, it had to be at least decent. I got home and hooked up the inputs to my B speaker channel and left my klipsch in channel A, bypassing the crossover on the module. The module surprisingly complements the klipsch pretty well for what it is, and didnt intrude on the sound signature of the klipsch in a bad way at all (its not boomy or muddy). The module extends down to 40 Hz cleanly and starts to roll off from there. There are some peaks in the frequency range, but nothing too major or immediate. There isnt any port noise and the bass is nice and warm. Id say that it gave me the right amount of extra thump and rumble that my klipsch were lacking, while making the bass guitar notes just a tad more audible. However, over very fast bass passages, things can get a bit sloppy. But the speed of the driver is still adequate enough for anything you throw at it. I also like the way the module looks
I know alot of people here hate Bose and I can understand why. Im personally not very fond of them either. Their stuff is a bit overpriced, over marketed, and over rated by people who dont understand anything about audio. However, I think calling Bose "garbage" is a bit too extreme. Ive heard the Bose 3-2-1, Wave radio, 301, and Lifestyle V20. And to be honest, they all sounded pretty good (except for the 321), just not $1000 good (or whatever the ridiculous price was). But price tag aside, Bose is still decent upper mid-fi stuff. This is deffinitly a temporary sub, and im already looking to make some profit off of it. But for now, im satisfied for $20. And it really dosent sound bad at all. It dosent sound really good either, but its deffinitly not garbage, and its better than alot of subs ive heard.
As far as the Bose systems Ive heard, they seem to have good 3D imaging, soundstage and overall clear sound. But they lack mids and the low lows big time. You can tell just by the sound signature that its targeted for average consumers. It does sound "pleasant", But bose is definitely not natural sounding at all, which makes their systems pretty crappy for critical listening. Its almost like an artificially enhanced sound geared at emphasizing the frequencies that tickle the human ear. Im not one for that kind of sound signature. But I know alot of uneducated ears that prefer this smiley faced EQ type of sound, which is why alot of people like bose.
Just thought id throw that out there.
