bose cube alternitives ???

[sts9fan]

I have a friend that is desparate to buy bose cube speakers(he works for them). I have been tring to tell him the are other cheaper alternitves but I am not sure which brands make good small speakers that are comparable but better. Any suggestions?

 

[hammong]

If you friend -works- for Bose he can probably get a substantial discount, negating part of that "expensive performance" argument people make about the Bose gear. For the microscopic size of the cubes, the Bose systems don't sound bad, and where space is of top concern, there aren't many other options.

The most common suggestion around here would be to go with a nice set of bookshelf speakers, a dedicated subwoofer, and a quality receiver. The price of the three components would be about the same as a mid-line Bose component system, but with more flexibility and potentially better sound.

Greg

 

[markw]

Again, price may be an issue.

Dunno what kind of price he'll wind up paying and, let's face it, people just love that Bose mystique. It's hard to go against name recognition that strongly ingrained in the Americian subconcious via media bombardmant and saturation. ...not unlike Monster cable.

But, in terms of ultimate sound, I think that either the Athena Micra 6 or the .5 setup will outperform the Bose setup any day.

Then there's the Hsu Ventriloquist, but that requires a sub to round it out.

On to the Mirage Nanostats... and on and on and on.

 

[sts9fan]

He gets around 25% which imho is still too much money.

 

[Red]

Dunno what kind of price he'll wind up paying and, let's face it, people just love that Bose mystique. It's hard to go against name recognition that strongly ingrained in the Americian subconcious via media bombardmant and saturation. ...not unlike Monster cable.

But, in terms of ultimate sound, I think that either the Athena Micra 6 or the .5 setup will outperform the Bose setup any day.

Then there's the Hsu Ventriloquist, but that requires a sub to round it out.

On to the Mirage Nanostats... and on and on and on.

The Bose system will also need a sub to round it out. Not sure which Bose he is looking at...one of the Acoustimass series I assume which is gonna run between $1200 and $1400.

I married into a Bose Acoustimass 15 system - 5 cubes and a sub....finally got to replace it. Having to keep on the smaller is better theme for the WAF, I ended up with the new Energy Take series...LCR for the fronts and center and SAT for the left, right and back surrounds plus a Velodyne DLS 3750 sub...all for $1500.....in addition to very similar price point, it is set up for 6.1 and the improvement in sound quality is what you might expect - night and day

 

[Die Hard Yammy]

Here's the thing, if he wants just Bose cubes he can't just get cubes he must buy the complete ACOUSTIMASS SYSTEM. I do work for Bose so trust me when I say u can't run Bose cubes by themself they must be run off the BASS MODULE otherwise you'll just blow em up. I'm curious to know why this so called BOSE EMPLOYEE doesn't know more about his product or what he wants. Why didn't he just say he wants an AM-3 or AM-10 or AM-15, not BOSE CUBES. Also I'm not at liberty to say but Bose discount is pretty substantial which is something he should also know as AN EMPLOYEE.

If he truly is an employee he should be able to pick up an AM-6 and a receiver for well under $1000 bucks!

 

[Die Hard Yammy]

I'm sorry guys but this Bose employee thing has really tweaked me out! If he is a Bose emlployee where is he working out of Tolleson South Carolina, Framingham Mass., Stow Mass., where? If he can give me the name of the Canadian sales manager I might belive he's an employee, and if he truly is he should take some time to learn about the product he's selling. It's no wonder most people are clueless when it comes to understanding BOSE and there philosophy, it would seem our own employees are, in this case, the root of the problem.

My apologies if anyone is offended by this, surely that was not my intention, I just bothers me that someone who supposedly works for a company can know so little about their product, and how to get it.

 

[Audioholics]

If he truly is an employee he should be able to pick up an AM-6 and a receiver for well under $1000 bucks!

That will be hard to beat for the WAF and "impress your friends" factor provided you can live with the inherent limitations placed on you by the system (most people can).

 

[Die Hard Yammy]

It's not hard to beat if you're an employee trust me, $1000 you could probably get a DVD player too.

 

[sts9fan]

Ok first off you don't have to know anything about home audio to work at bose(or any other audio company for that matter) Second he works on the mountain. Not the main new building the smaller old one. FYI I also work on the mountain road for another company not bose. So this being the fact I know many bose emplyees (encluding my landlord). Lastly why would I be pretending to know a bose emloyee?

 

[Die Hard Yammy]

OK, OK so he works for Bose. It wouldn.t be the first time iv'e talked to someone who claimed to work for Bose and talked a lot of smack OK
.

 

[Die Hard Yammy]

The bottom line is this:

Every day I hear a lot of criticizm about Bose, wheter it be the price, the look, the quality, the performance, the marketing, the hype. the truth is WE do make good product, and there are more than enough people out there every day who think it's good enough for them to fork over the cash for a system. The problem is when people compare Bose to other products that are designed to perform in a totally different way than Bose intended their product to do, also alot of people base their opinions of Bose on the demos they've heard in Best Buy, Circuit City etc. Until you take home a Bose product and hook it up PROPERLY you can't make an accurate assement of it's performance. Once you put it in a practical environment, and follow basic setup provided by Bose, you will truly see that although expensive, performance is something Bose strives for.

 

[Shadow_Ferret]

Well, if you love Bose so much, why are you a die-hard Yamaha fan?

 

[jaxvon]

I'd call this proper, but whatever. Any company that uses paper tweeters in a speaker cannot be striving for performance. Period.

 

[Die Hard Yammy]

Show me where I state that I love Bose. I'm simply defending my company the best way I can. Just because I work for Bose that doesn't mean I can't show preference to another product or company. I know people that work for Ford and they don't drive Fords, but they will defend Ford vehicles when someone puts them down. I'm also not saying that Bose is the best either. I think we all know that's not true. But for the experience they try to bring their customers they do a pretty good job.

NOW CAN WE FINALLY TALK ABOUT SOMETHING OTHER THAN BOSE, LIKE......I DON'T KNOW, THE ORIGINAL QUESTION WHICH WAS?
Oh yeah, what do you recommend other than Bose?

Well, I personally like 5.1 compacts from POLK, KEF, Energy, just to name a few, but you should really try to hear everything out there to make a really good comparison, and make the best choice for u.

 

[Rock&Roll Ninja]

HSU ventriloquist system, or maybe a Def-Tech cinema system?

 

[Shadow_Ferret]

Die Hard,
Sheesh. I was joking.

Polk has a few good smaller offerings. I really liked the sound of their RM6900 system.

 

[BMXTRIX]

I think if you are looking at small, unobtrusive, with decent sound, then in-wall is the way to go and one-ups cool factor by a long shot, but won't really win on price. Good in-wall speakers can be fantastic and in-wall/floor subs can really round out the environment. Sonance and Speakercraft both make in-walls/ceilings that will blow you away and are much cooler than a tinny tiny speaker in a room - setup properly or not.

The biggest problem I have with Bose other than Monster-like selling tactics, is their exteremely stupid insistence on using proprietary connectors. No company using non-industry standard hookups will ever get a dime from me as they are making it clear that the LAST thing they really care about is customer service.

 

[WmAx]

I have a friend that is desparate to buy bose cube speakers(he works for them). I have been tring to tell him the are other cheaper alternitves but I am not sure which brands make good small speakers that are comparable but better. Any suggestions?

Infinity Primus 150 speakers
http://www.electronics-expo.com/product.jsp?x=PRIMUS150&zipz=11001

Parts Express 10" subwoofer
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=300-632

Any surround reciever with a good crossover built in, set to about 100Hz with a minimum 4th order slope rate.

For about $400-$500 USD total(2 speakers, 1 subwoofer and a reciever), you should be able to easily find something that surpasses the Bose cubes, which I must add, I find to be a terrible product as far in as sound quality is concerned.

-Chris