Those bose speakers in the music section of Best Buy...

Went looking for some new music yesterday... Man, all the BB's I went to had those tiny little bose speakers just blaring. Now, I haven't heard these bose speakers for a while, and I may be biased towards the sound of my system , but, these might be the worst sounding speakers I have ever heard. I was shopping so fast just to get the heck out of there. The sound was so bad it is hard to describe. It had this crackling static electric muddy sound to it, and the sub, they had cranked was distorting so badly. It didn't take long to start developing a nice headache. I was half-inclined to ask a salesperson for a set of noise-cancellation headphones so I could shop in peace. Now, I am not that old (32) but, if this is the type of speakers kids listen to today, no wonder they can't discern the higher quality of SACD or DVD-A? I think even a SACD would sound like crap through these bose speakers. Man...

 

I have never liked Bose speakers, old or new. I am a big fan of vintage Acoustic Research speakers, like the AR-2 and the AR-3, or for a small system, AR-4x's. I can certainly tell the difference between formats. Fidelity is very important to me when I listen to music. I am not really a fan of digital formats. Vinyl is my favorite format for ultimate listening pleasure. I am probably the only person my age who cares about fidelity.

 

Bose isn't all that great ... I went speaker shopping with a friend. He's not Mr. Audiophile and didn't have the patience to go to specialty stores. We went to Best Buy and Circuit City. BB was horrible.

When we went to Circuit City, the guy was nice enough to demo a bunch of speakers, and most of them - even at less cost - sounded better than the Bose ones.

 

Not to defend BOSE but anything in a Best Buy on display is going to be abused. I actually crouched down to look at a center channel speaker they sold on clearence, just for curiosity. Of course the drivers were punched in.

Plus, that setup of BOSE cubes are sure to be co-op for display. Best Buy didn't just think they should put cubes in the music area because it sounded the best. The music CD that rolls constantly is also a label co-op. "Best Buy Radio" with that drippy guy pushing the music people people aren't buying...

Best Buy is good for what you can get from it. Otherwise, leave asap...

 

Im 19 and I care too. We are not alone..I hope so.

 

Egad, I had a computer emergency today, and effing Best Buy... ...the only place a person can buy a power supply at 11am on a Sunday morning. They were glad to see me leave: I told the guy behind the counter his power supply prices for his crappy brand were about double what I can buy them for elsewhere. ($79.95 for a 400 watt power supply? I can get a name brand for half that!) I ended up getting one that had one of those effing rebates, so it will only cost me $45 for a $30 power supply. I let the guy know behind the counter exactly what I'd do if they screwed me out of yet another rebate as well. For the cashier: "for as much as you're charging for this junk, you should be GIVING me a free extended warranty!" I LOVE that place--great place to release pent-up angst!

Anyhoo, yes...I had to walk past the music department and those stinkin' Bose Acoustimess speakers were blaring their trash at the masses. I couldn't help but shake my head at why anyone would buy those atrocities. They even make mid-fi sound good. All I hear are highs and upper mids coming from somewhere in the rafters, and some ugly mid-bass thump coming from the middle of the store somewhere. I did glance at the high-res department: it's definitely not being restocked. It's shrunk even more from the last time I'd been there.

I was out of that store within 10 minutes. Every time I walk away from there I detest it even more. Oh, but I DO have a link on my receipt to take a survey! (Bwa-hahahaha!) I'll post it here if there's not a unique ID I need to enter.

 

Bose Wave Radio...and how to make it sound good!

Found this URL some days ago, .. I'd mailed it to myself and saw it just today.

I haven't read thru all of it yet.

 

I heard a dysfunctional Lifestyle home theater system on friday. That had to be the most horrible thing I have ever heard. Huge midrange suckout. The only thing worse I've heard was a pair of 901 series IV. Made music downright unlistenable.

Here's a good link
http://www.intellexual.net/bose.html

 

Great link Ian!

This musta been what I was hearing or NOT hearing...

"the fact that they rely on one small driver to reproduce midrange and high frequencies together. I'm referring to the satellite cubes, which are forced to reproduce signal from 200 Hz to 20 KHz."

"...Bose tries to recombine two imcompatible audio principles, giving you, in the end, the worst properties of both. Though they are perfectly capable, no other consumer-market speaker company even considers building these pre-equalized miniature dual-driver "crossover-less" satellites because the resulting performance is evident in the sound produced, or rather, not produced."

"...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 leaves a frequency gap between the satellites and bass module of about 80 Hz! 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!"

I work with a couple guys who are bent on getting one of these Acoustimass systems. They said they were blown away with the sound at the Bose specialty store. I think I will send them the link.

 

I have coworkers who live and die by Bose. Anyone know what the sensitivity rating of a Bose Speaker is? Its audio for people who don't want to have to learn anything.

"ADAPTiQ® audio calibration system Available only from Bose, this patented easy-to-use technology analyzes the way your room’s dimensions and other variables affect sound, then automatically adjusts your Lifestyle® system for optimum performance from movies and music"

 

Wow! What'll they think of next? True pioneers to invent something like that...why, they should even call themselves Pio...

Hey...wait a minute!

 

Egads, I had no idea the frequency response measured out to that. I could hear the midrange suckout, and to me the highs always sounded "steely" and very edgy. But look at that decibel tolerance in the cubes: friends, ±10.5 dB is a variation, worst case, of 21dB!! That is a LOT of "volume" missing or peaking at certain frequencies! It sounds to me like the highs are peaky around 8-9kHz (probably boosted), so they must drop off from there. So not only do these cubes not cover all the spectrum, they can't even do it smoothly! The bass module is at least a bit smoother, but I think that 46Hz is generous unless the bass module is room and/or corner loaded. It just seems to plod and thud in the bass, sort of like last year's Steely Dan concert...bass is boomy but actual notes are ill-defined.

I'll go out on a limb and say these Acoustimess systems are Bose's cash cow. These systems sell in large volumes. Those drivers are probably mass produced very cheaply, and the cabinetry...is it plastic? Wood? Either way, economies of scale probably dictate that the actual componentry cost is dirt cheap...and if a lot of automation is used in assembly, labor to assemble them coudl be cheap as well. Are they even made here in the Americas?

IF anything, Bose is guilty of marketing. They price it high to give it an aura of high-end and, like I learned in a marketing course, their pricing positions them squarely in the market of affluent types who want something as "plug and play" as possible with perceived high quality. Also a case of selling sizzle and not steak: look at how loud and boomy that movie sounds through those little tiny speakers!! And unfortunately, to most of the tin-eared public, the Acoustimess IS high-end sound.

 

Not in the US since the early '90's.

 

Interesting. Bose: your sweatshop speaker company.

 

Especially interesting when you look at the price of that junk.

 

I'll copy what i posted late last year in another Bose thread that was different from this but basically deals with the same issue. What I see again from these comments is that most people who care about sound quality don't really get the 'reason' most people buy Bose. I think from my experience in dealing with so many people who buy Bose, that there are two reasons beyond the marketing, which is a contributing factor no doubt that effect there decision. The reasons are #1, aesthetically the Bose fits into there lifestyle. #2 the Bose sounds good enough to them. People who care about the sound quality of there speakers first, are a minority in our consumer "price is king" driven society. So, as an audiophile or someone who cares about the sound quality or whatever you want to label yourself as, just don't try to rationalize why people settle for the bad sound. To them there isn't any settling, they buy the Bose because to those people sound is not the main reason for buying the Bose and that to those people Bose sounds good enough....



original post-
Well let me try to actually address your specific question. At the same time let’s not give Bose more free press sense they already do such a bang up job at advertising there product that it’s practically the first thing most people think of when you say home theater system. At any rate, I think it's important to differentiate exactly what Bose you’re talking about. Most likely you’re talking about one of their home theater systems that is possibly the full-blown unit with a control center (receiver) and all. Just as an aside the cube and woofer system was really nothing from Bose before modern home theater took over and helped them make some real money. As someone who installs systems the Bose acoustimass systems though I don’t sell them, I am often asked if I think they sound good. Well good sound is a subjective word. I often turn the question around and ask them what they listened to and what they thought of the Bose sound. More often then not I will hear that the sound was good enough, but that wasn’t necessarily the best sounding of what the customer had heard, but their were other issues the Bose satisfied and that was why the system was purchased. Here are the other issues:

1. Design issues of how the speakers “look” and fit in with the room and how they “look” to the significant others.
2. Hovered at some preset price point the customer had in mind
3. Offered good "enough" sound

Now I list these in order of what I have come to feel are the most important things to these customers in their choice of Bose systems. Notice where sound quality ranks. Now of course I am saying most of the customers I deal with feel this way, not all of them. Indeed there are some that are as concerned about sound quality above the other issues. That isn’t a typical Bose customer however if they do. I think a fact that audiophiles miss is that often the sound quality of what is popular, which in this case is Bose, happens to be good "enough" for the majority of people who buy it. “Good” enough because it satisfy other issues and it still provides sound for them.

 

When I saw the title, I knew this must be a "Bose sucks" thread!

 

I thought the KLH and Sony speakers were worse!

 

What I hate about BB is the squaking intercom system. Those horns they use could kill an army of locusts! And, it's LOUD! I have to keep my ears plugged when ever I go in ther! No kidding!

 

When they first opened up the Best Buy around here with the Bose system it didn'T sound all that bad (for background music). But not the speakers are shot, distorted, HORRIBLE! How can a major retailer have a system sound like that? If your trying to sell music shouldn't it sound it's best? Jeez, 50 feet away are new speakers everywhere!

 

Yeah, but, remember, BB isn't exactly for the audiophile, and audiophiles don't make the decisions. For the casual music lover, Bose is good enough, and is thought of as "high end". Besides, Bose probably gave BB a great deal.

Bose is where they are in the public opinion because of savvy marketing to the masses.

 

I didn't mean for this to become a bose bashing thread...but if the shoe fits... I just couldn't beleive they would position these horrible sounding things right at the corners of all the music section aisles...and have them cranked! Man, talk about ear bleed. I would think if you want to sell music, you would at least give the music the best opportunity to sell itself? But, I suppose locating these speakers in their respective areas are challenging. I would suggest they string up pairs of Klipsch or Tannoys in the ceiling rafters and let those bad boys loose.

 

They don't crank up the music at the BBs around here. They might disturb the HT crowd. Now, those TVs are turned up waaay too loud!

 

In my opinion, Bose focuses more of its resources on marketing rather than research. They have impressive displays that, on their own, probably blow a lot of people (non-audiophiles, i mean) away. In a Fry's store, i heard someone leave the Bose demo room saying, "Do you mean i can have that great sound in my home without huge speakers that take up too much space and limit how i can arrange my furniture? I'll take it!"

Waddaya gonna do?

 

I'm trying to remember what answer we should give our friends and acquaintances looking for a good sounding small speaker. Are Gallos OK??

It's one thing to bash Bose, but if you can steer folks into a better alternative, that's the key.