Bose: Why Audiophiles Should Stop the Hate

[Nemo128]

If Bose is indeed this "corrupt" then the real question is how intelligent people are...

Well that question is easy... not very.

I hear you, brother. I only fear I may be guilty of the elitism of knowing better. There's a self-indulgence within it. I try to atone by sharing what I've learned much as I can with anyone who asks my advice.

Believe me, I get to be the hi-fi/TV/Computer parts guy to friends and family. I don't know how many Christmas and Thanksgiving diners at families I've spent wiring, reconnecting, reworking the home entertainment strategy - often working with garbage electronics.

Story of my life. Do the people you know also ignore your advice and then expect you to solve the problems that occur due to ignoring your advice?

My only problem with Bose has more to do with their customers. If one more Bose lover walk’s into my HT room, smiles and says, “Not bad, but maybe you can move up to a Bose system like mine some day” I’ll have to toss them off my deck.

My landlady's husband. Seriously dude, your Bose hooked up to your $200 Harmon Kardon playing DVDs puts out better audio than my system outputting BD rips with DTS-MA? Some people deserve to get slapped for stupidity...

 

[son-yah-tive]

I can say a LOT about BOSE, since I'm well familiar with the ACUSStiMESS System. I defended my Bose AM 15s for 8 years taking for granted that Bose made the BEST systems, blind to any other brand. I never thought about why my ears would ring after watching or listening to movies or concerts. I thought it was because I was getting older. One day, when I was new to the Audioholics website, someone just plain told me that I was a FOOL and I was CRAZY for thinking Bose made the best high end speaker systems. That comment woke me up!!(like coming out of a coma) Well, I ended up getting rid of the Bose system after I bought 5 Def Tech Mythos2s from Amazon after listening to them at Best Buy. It was 2700.00 at Best Buy, but I checked out Amazon just before I was going to buy them. Amazon had SILVER ones on sale for 199.00 each! So for less than a Grand I was able to afford the Def Techs out right. Bose somehow had made me BLIND, but now I see and HEAR everything, CLEARLY. I was just glad I found this website, cause I don't know what damage my ears would of had by now with that Bose System. Thank you Audioholics for that straight forward wake up call. Bob.

 

[westcott]

I can say a LOT about BOSE, since I'm well familiar with the ACUSStiMESS System. I defended my Bose AM 15s for 8 years taking for granted that Bose made the BEST systems, blind to any other brand. Thank you Audioholics for that straight forward wake up call. Bob.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I was at a Christmas party recently and was invited to listen to my wife's friends audio system. It was a Bose. He was so proud of his setup with all his compressed audio files on his hard drive playing loudly over his Bose system. I so wanted to tell him how badly it sounded but I just kept my mouth shut and moved to another room.

Should I have said something?
Probably but it would have ruined his mood.
What I will do is invite him and his wife over and let him listen to my system. I think that would be a better way to break the news to him and I will have to say very little. On the other hand, I have meet people that have no appreciation for quality audio or video and would be just as happy listening to a clock radio two rooms away.

 

[markw]

Thanks for sharing your experience. I was at a Christmas party recently and was invited to listen to my wife's friends audio system. It was a Bose. He was so proud of his setup with all his compressed audio files on his hard drive playing loudly over his Bose system. I so wanted to tell him how badly it sounded but I just kept my mouth shut and moved to another room.

Should I have said something?
Probably but it would have ruined his mood.
What I will do is invite him and his wife over and let him listen to my system. I think that would be a better way to break the news to him and I will have to say very little. On the other hand, I have meet people that have no appreciation for quality audio or video and would be just as happy listening to a clock radio two rooms away.

This is the best way to get the point across, but let him lead the discussion to the sound. Unless he's deaf or simply doesn't care about the sound, he'll have to notice the difference in sound. Now, whether or not he chooses to say something about it or not should be up to him. If he cares about improving his system and feels comfortable enough with you, he'll ask in his own time. Egos may come into play here (that's one of Bose's major selling points) and proselytizing doesn't work and could wind up severing an otherwise fine friendship.

 

[Adam]

...proselytizing...

I nominate this as the Audioholic's Word of the Day.

(Yeah, I had to look it up.)

 

[Patrukas777]

I was walking into the mall yesterday and walked through Forever 21 (the kiosk I was looking for was right outside of the store - I swear haha). The music was so darn loud it was annoying and it did not sound good. I looked up to see what speakers they had and to my surprise....THEY HAD BOSE CUBES LOL. I had to laugh. I must give it to Bose though, their marketing has to be one of the best because it has a lot of Merchants and people fooled. One thing that Bose has shown the importance of marketing and how products that are not good quality can be held in high esteem when stroked up.

 

[deedubb]

I wonder if Bose fans are brainwashed by propaganda into thinking that Bose sound is "good sound" and everything else is inferior. I've heard some Bose stuff that is mediocre but certainly nowhere near worth what it costs to buy the stuff. IMO, their Acoustimass HT stuff is just painful to listen to at moderate to high volume. I'm sure I'd have a headache and blood dripping from my ears if I had to watch an entire movie at loud volume with those speakers.

 

[agarwalro]

So the Bose bashing bandwagon keeps rolling...

 

[Stutz320]

bose never did anything for me

 

[jonnythan]

Screw Bose and the whole Acoustimass garbage.

There's nothing inherently wrong with direct/reflecting technology for music. It fills a space with music very well, even if there will be no imaging.

The problem is with their crappy little cubes and no-bass Acoustimass module, especially when used for home theater. People pay good money and get tinny, muddy sound where they can't understand the dialog on the screen.

 

[adwilk]

I nominate this as the Audioholic's Word of the Day.

(Yeah, I had to look it up.)

I was thinking the EXACT same thing when I read that... Gonna use that later

 

[caper26]

Seriously dude, your Bose hooked up to your $200 Harmon Kardon playing DVDs puts out better audio than my system outputting BD rips with DTS-MA? Some people deserve to get slapped for stupidity...

I like to refer to it as a "high 5, to the face"
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...He was so proud of his setup with all his compressed audio files on his hard drive playing loudly over his Bose system. I so wanted to tell him how badly it sounded but I just kept my mouth shut and moved to another room.

Should I have said something?
Probably but it would have ruined his mood...

I overheard some older dudes in the locker room at the gym the other day talking about BOSE clock radios. FFS, the excitement, honor, and snobbishness was sickening...I thought they were going to tug each other off! Some other friends of mine always like to drop the "Bose" name when talking about their setups. Another friend of mine said "it must be good because I could hear from across the street". My local church ecen has Bose as it's PA system... I am no genius, but ripping off a church ..........
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My only problem with Bose has more to do with their customers. If one more Bose lover walk’s into my HT room, smiles and says, “Not bad, but maybe you can move up to a Bose system like mine some day” I’ll have to toss them off my deck.

This made me LOL at work!!
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Some people just like the aura of snobbishness that Bose exudes or, to put it another way; "These are not the droids you're looking for."

These are not the droids we're looking for.
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...For the college kid who is struggling, or the mom just looking for a good gift for her husband/family, it's way up there with the same junk Monster pulls. It is a gross use of knowledge, and enforced by their sales tactics.

This is what really bugs me about the whole thing. If you watch the info-mercial, you know there are lies in there. For someone who really can't afford it, and they fall for the trickery, when really they could have saved over half the money spent on something better, and paid off a household bill of some sort, really bugs me.
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Cost + quality = value.

I think Quality divided by Cost = Value
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How dare you design, market, and sell a product that millions of people are overwhelmingly happy with and ignore a small handful of nerdy snobs that get off on parameters and prefer numerical data over perception.

I don'think anyone here is strictly a "numbers person" but rather know and prefer GREAT sound quality...and like the numbers to back this up, or use the numbers in tweaking or building systems, etc....

I've read SO many posts here of the guy-

"I used to own Bose" "I got Bose for my first real HT setup"

Usually followed by "And I finally realized how bad it sounds"

 

[Gannu]

Auditioned KEF, revel, B&W, etc. what really stood out were the Bose 901's. Only the dynaudio came close. Was really surprised. It's been a wonderful listen for over 2 years now.

 

[caper26]

That is all that matters. At least you made an informed decision and didn't decide to buy Brand-X before even auditioning any others.

Enjoy !!

 

[awakenedmachine]

My complaint with Bose stems from my experience with purchasing their Tri-Port headphones a few years ago. I was completely new to expensive audio gear, not even close to what you'd call an audiophile and I was sold on listening to their demos at Best Buy, which obviously were connected to an amp, if the demo pair themselves weren't a special specimen because they sounded incredible, but I've never been able to get the ones I bought...okay I got them for Christmas ...to sound as good as they did at the store. (And I realize the music is specially engineered to bring out the best, but still...) So now years later I'm wary about their Companion 5 system, which I'm interested in because once again, the demo set at the store blows everything else away (as far as computer speakers go), but will it sound like that when I get them home? I'll definitely keep my receipt. I suppose I have to thank them though, because that experience with the demo set me on a path to find music that sounded incredible and I've found that, with other brands.