Bose is sort of the Hillary Clinton of tech — you either love them or hate them, and they’ve got lots of cash.
I’m looking to do either an upcoming column on the topic or, if your responses to this are amazing enough, a simple rundown of wild Bose stories. And so, dear readers, I come knocking for help.
If you have any Bose stories, shoot me an email. Maybe your 3-2-1 system crapped out on you after a day? Do you work at a Bose store and know their sales pitch and have first-hand experience with the type of customer who goes Bose-shopping? Maybe you work at the company and can leak the unpublished internal testing of their sound quality. Or, maybe, just maybe, you love Bose products–the way they block out the screaming kids in the row behind you in coach and fill your living room with badonkadonk-shaking bass.
Anyway, shoot me an email at seth (at) crunchgear.com , or duke it out in the Comments.
The giver of the funniest/scariest/craziest/most fascinating Bose story wins a to-be-determined (probably non-Bose) prize from my personal stash (no promises on how amazing it’ll be.) If your story is particularly dark and/or disturbing, just tell me and I’ll keep your identity hidden behind the veil of anonymity.
Not a fan, but it’s simply about quality. Almost everything they deliver is priced medium to high and quality is marginal. They have fantastic marketing and given most casual listeners aren’t audiophiles (myself included), we can’t tell the difference but think we can.
There’s a saying… “Friends don’t let Friends buy Bose” :)
There are a few exceptions to this. I’ll have to give it to Bose as they still probably have the simplest home theater in a box HTIB solution out there. Their remotes are RF so they work without having to point it at the damn stereo, and it’s pretty much idiot proof since there aren’t many settings other than volume and source.
Their wave clock radios do sound pretty good for a small clock radio for your bedroom, but the prices are pretty outrageous.
That being said, for the price it makes me cringe that friends buy this and think it actually qualifies for Home Theater. The subwoofers are a joke, that isn’t bass. I think to the person who only has ever heard television speakers, it definitely sounds great, but if you’ve heard a real home theater it’s a night and day experience.
The big exception here is their noise cancelling headphone. For $300 yes, they are expensive, but wowzer do they work. I can’t fly without them. It completely kills that engine noise drone, and with an ipod, even with a screaming baby next to you, you are in silent bliss listening to your music. You can do an LAX-NY flight and land relatively fresh without that constant engine noise wearing you down. I have the QC2, which are the over the ear ones, they just came out with a slightly smaller, less dorky on ear for $350. Bottom line is this is definitely the only thing that Bose has done in a class of it’s own.
If it’s speakers and stereo system you are looking for, and want true high fidelity and quality subwoofers you are better off buying other brands. Albeit usually a bit more comlplicated. Denon has done a pretty good job lately with their receivers where it actually has a self configuring microphone you place at where you sit, and it sets all the appropriate speaker levels and latency.
I personally have these bad boys http://www.av123.com/products_category_brand.php?section=speakers&brand=3
Which are gorgeous and their 1,000 watt subwoofer :) They have ok WAF factor, (Wife Acceptance Factor) given the size, since the finishes are so nice.
Bose, usually have very good WAF factor given how small they are and don’t take away from the decor of a room. Another plus.
Can you hear me hedging on my comments? I don’t like the sound quality, but for some people that want small, discreet and better than tv sound qualiy, that is bonehead simple to operate, it’s the right call.
Cheers,
Peter
i worked for bose, i thnk i have your answer. here in florida the bose store is the most greatest in the land of RDG(bose retail channel).bose have relativly small, great sounding and easy to use speakers even your grand ma could set up a bose speakr. their main customers are not “average joes” the true bose customers are not even Doctors and lawyers. they are CEOs and governers. i sold a pair of speakers for a forign minsters, congressman and woman.High rich billionraies.
If you are average income and want bose oops you are out of luck, if you have money and want the best then Bose is thier for you. me and my cowokers hated it when average “know-it-all” ppl with no money aproach our store. we had an obligation of not discreamanitng and listen to thier comments and i saw most of them have found a great place to lay their eggs right here in this blog,.
chears have a good day/
You sir are an idiot! A very bad salesman, uneducated and can barely even use English! You are a perfect Bose fan!
And you sir are an ass hole!!!
Well where to start!!1I bought someMartin logan sourse speakers and a Depth I sub with 3 matinee speakers for my home theater system last year.Paid like 10500 dollars Canadian for the package.Moved to Alberta about 8 months ago.The stuff had never been unpacked at the time.When it got here set it up .Was suprised to find the laminate in the cherry finish was peeling off the source fronts.So called Martin Logan They told me to tkae them into a place called Internatial audio in the city.The sales guy was unreal.Walked in one room he thought I had gone into another!!!Was mortified by how much he cut me down We dont want this ass hole in my store hes a f….this and that for not buying from us blah blah..Anyway finally issue got solved.Went to the Bose store in West Edmonton mall best service ever!!!!Bought a lifestyle 48 had it for 14 weeks did not use the memory so called them up and yip take it in no prob!!!Well got a V30 yesterday and wow sounds as good as my Logans well nearly any way!!!!!Theres my 2 cents Dont know what else to say but bought Martin logans worse service ever bought bose a dream to deal with!!!!!Never go back
If you worked for BOSE, I now think even less of them. For God’s Sake, learn some grammar and how to spell!
Ps did sell the logans for 5200 with a yamaha rxv 3900 was so pissed!!!
I must say, my personal favorite Bose-related adage is “Better Sound Through Marketing”
The idea is simple: stick a bunch of full-page ads in Harper’s and The Atlantic and people assume it’s classy.
Blows appeals to older people with a lot of cash. The designs are horrid and dull…just like Hillary. Sure the sounds is ok, but you can get better cheaper. It has gotten to the point that the name just turns me off.
My Bose story brings back memories too horrible to recount. All I can say is that it involved a much older woman with a propensity for pork products and edible lingerie all while listening to Lionel Richie….All Night Long…. All Night.. Yeah.. All night long – oh no..
I am unclean.
meh
as the others have said, there are better choices at cheaper prices
my experience with bose was a bad one. Years and years ago , i visited my uncles house and was throwing a tennis ball inside. You can guess what hapened next, it hit a speaker and it fell from the ceiling and brought the other speakers with it. They all smashed on the floor. My butt has never been the same.
On a completly unrelated note, i read a few years ago, the company bose invented airless tires. I wonder what happened to them…
I’m impressed with the degree under which they control the listening environment in stores like Frys. In a place where there is a lot of ambient noise and speakers blaring, BOSE has their own section where they do a good job of sound isolation. This leads to a lot of sales, but I bet they pay a premium on the space.
Even about 10+ years ago, they would take the effort to put a elliptical dome to show of their home theatre systems in Sam’s Club.
Their way of handling bass is very clever too. By pumping up the secondary harmonics they give an auditory illusion that tricks your brain into thinking you are hearing a much larger bass than you are.
The combination fooled me enough that my first home theatre system is a BOSE. I gave it to my father where it is being used today. As usual, it was overpriced and with poor bass response.
I also have a set of Quiet Comforts which work well in very high noise environments. There is a problem when the noise level gets really low and I end up with a little feedback. Also, I wonder how much of its fabled performance is because their system has a large gap between the pickup mics and the ear, and how much is because they’re good headphones?
For the price, I’m pretty certain there are better things out there. But if we are going to bitch about price and marketing, then why not bring up Bang and Olufson? BOSE has its niche, but I’ve moved on.
I have a boss that I have followed for the past few jobs and his philosophy is simple there is no such thing a bad product just a bad price.
Bose is fine, the quality okay, but not for the money. I would noy buy them for myself but find use them. I do fee that they have better sound then the average speaker. However with my hearing buying Bose, would be like buy an 80,000 dollar car for a 2 mile daily commute.
I used to have a pair of the Bose QC2 headphones, the over-the-ear kind…until I spoke with the manager of a Bose store in the Mall of America in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He said that if my QC2’s had a ‘defect’ – wink, wink, nudge, nudge – I could trade them in for a new pair or pay $50 to upgrade to the new QC3’s.
Needless to say, my QC2’s just happened to have a ‘defect’ the next day…a ripped ear pad…and sure enough, I traded them in and paid the money for the new QC3’s.
It’s likely that each Bose store gets some sort of bonus for the number of QC3’s they move each month/year so I’m sure they’re getting something out of it too.
With that said, I now have a new set of headphones that have better noise reduction and I only had to pay $50. I had the QC2’s for over a year! If you have QC2’s and want the new QC3’s, it’s worth a call to your local Bose provider, or call Bose directly, to ask about the ‘defect’ policy. :)
I thought Boss was pronounced -who’s the boss- as a child. This has done terrible things for the brand recognize in my head, to which I’ll never recover.
You make no sence
I used to sell TVs and audio equipment for a major department store. The usual commission rates were between 2 and 6.5 %. There were only two brands that paid 10.5 %: one was Bose, and the other? Well, Monster Cable, of course.
Sometimes when business was slow, we would take apart the $2-3,500 Bose stuff and bet on who can guess the value of the sum of all the parts in them using the Newark catalogue. I don’t think we ever found anything by Bose made with more than a $300 worth of parts…
Jules — aren’t most of the speakers basically made with cardboard?
Big box store and uninformed customers.
Several years ago, I worked for a local big box. I know this is shocking, but this big box was very interested in profit. Our district was having a rough month in terms of overall revenue and profit and was running a contest. The store with the highest amount of profit by the end of the month won a large store-wide party and some extra bonus prizes, such as Hi-Def TVs, etc.
The month was almost over and several stores were neck-to-neck. Our GM decided that it was time for us to do everything we could to win, so we should steer all customers to high-margin products. We all began selling the items in our departments with the highest dollar amounts of margin. The motto was ‘ATTACH ATTACH ATTACH!’ and the goal was to attach high margin goods to anything that was low margin in order to keep our margin percentages and dollars high. People began to compete within the store to see who could attach the most extreme margin items to the lowest margin items. People were trying to sell vacuum cleaners to people who bought a usb cable, people who bought a cd were taken to the Car Audio department for an attempt at selling a Subwoofer and car stereo, but I saw one particular customer make the most extreme purchase.
An older Asian couple, with a bit of a language deficit, came in and looked at buying a computer. The associate who started to help them also happened to be a former used-car salesman and he definitely used the ‘tricks of the trade’. The customers purchased one of out least expensive computers, they were taken to appliances and sold a Dyson, and finally, the salesperson took them to home theater and sold them two, 3-2-1 systems ( about $1000 each and VERY HIGH MARGIN ). He was rewarded with balloons and a store-wide round of applause.
Later, I asked this person how they sold them the Bose systems. He said, well they had a second computer at home and wanted some decent computer speakers for both machines. He sold them $1000 computer speakers.
They don’t make $1000 computer speakers
Well, I did end up with the Bose companion 3 speakers and I have to say for the cost – they arn’t all that bad at all.
What a lot of people forget about the lifestyle systems is the fact that they have some intelligent features for sound newbies… think of another under $3500 sound system… that has Umusic (music storage system), Adaptiq (sound callibration), Bose link (links all Bose systems together), wireless speaker links…
And, does it in a small elegent package with ‘reasonable’ sound… and for movies I dont think the Lifestyle systems perform different than my local so called ‘high-bracket’ cinema.
Noise cancelling, well yeah those sets are expensive.. but pilots have acclaimed the Aviation X so I guess Bose is building on it’s reputation there.
The 301s, reasonable speakers if you try and get your dealer down a bit on price…
901s… unconventional but realisticly fun speaker.. sound different, but I wouldnt say it was horrid.. it’s enjoyable but not accurate.
I think what audio boffins are looking for is a Studio reference speaker, Bose is the Live music speaker which tries to bring a concert hall home even when sometimes… it can sound naff…
I was once told.. a normal speaker will have 10″ bass ? 6.5″ mid? and a tweeter?
But. the bose 901 has 9 4.5″ drivers… add that up.. which has the most surface area?
But, there’s a lot of science behind that and it may not be true that using all full range drivers is best, though Bose has built a speaker mainly on that. :-s
Anyway, what makes me wonder.. is people say their products are of shoddy quality inside, parts are crap, etc… but.. I’ve yet to see my companion 3 speakers fail.. and I’ve yet to hear of anyone of my friends whom owns Bose say theirs has blown, and one guy has had his 301s for 15 years.
I guess it’s all down to each to their own…. if ya like it.. buy it. :-)
There will always be better vaule for money products… and sadly Bose isn’t value.. your paying for the design and brand.. and of course their engineers which would out-smart any other!
What is interesting here is the number of people considering themselves to be “audiophiles” but not willing to give Bose credit for everything they do well. Bose is indeed the masters of marketing, so you have to set that point aside and not come back to it everytime. We hired an electrical engineer who spent 22 years with Bose. I picked his brain all the time. I wanted to know if what I had heard about their quality was true. He always pointed us to several “parts sites” and would show us the parts they used for their basic packages. Everything else was a “trade secret” he said. He said that they did more in house thatn outsourcing and that you would be surprised at the testing these systems underwent. I have a Bose system based on his recommendation and I can tell you it is not paper. And for clarification, their bass modules are supposed to trick your mind, that is by design. By providing more surface area through smaller subs, they can provide a response that rivals larger setups with less power and distortion.
All that being said, can you get a better setup by forking out $4000 on a compent system? Absolutely. Are you going to find a system for $700 that is going to provide you with the ease of setup, use, small size and sound as the 3 2 1 systems, probably not. I also have an Infintiy system in our living room, and an Onkyo system in our “play room” that were equally as expensive, much larger, and required another amp. Guess what? The Bose blows them all away. You have to buy for taste. Bose isn’t the best, you have to know that going in. But they are good.
BOSE is crap and anyone who says otherwise has obviously never listened to a pair of B&W Matrix or Dynaudio Contour speakers. I will hand it to them on one thing though. They have an excellent public relations/marketing department.
Yea but B&W matrix + an amp and source cost about 20x that of a bose hifi, why don’t you just compare a mini to a lamborghini.
A note to all of you who are slagging of Bose your arguments are poor, made up and pathetic.
i simply love bose…
because of it’s sound quality and because of the story behind it’s invention…..
it’s simply marvellous and ammazing…
See, another one. Poor English and no grammar, loves Bose! There is a theme here. Come on now, for so many reasons, Bose are JUST AWFUL!
hei i am planning to buy bose acostimass 5 series speaker systems
i know it is expencive i stay in india, i heard lot about bose audio, and its noise reduction sound system.
i got impressed with its innovative sound quality in produsing plesent music.
pls do suggest me about purchasing bose,
if not bose any other best product which gives best music.
Oh look, another one! If you are dead inside, slightly deaf and have never listed to anything else, ever. Buy Bose, you’ll probably love it!
If you want ‘the best’, a phrase that has somehow found it’s way on here!!!! Buy Bang & Olufsen, sheer class!
have a 03 gmc with the best sound system that gm has to offer the bose. I have had two speakers blow with out high sound levels. both speaker were on the drivers side (4 door crew). It appears that the name is there but not the quality that you would expect from bose. I believe that the had to cut quality control to meet the prices of gm.
System sounds great when the speakers are new.
both love and hate bose. love their older products, 901 , 1801, 4401.901 is still a good loudspeaker with spacious sound, but very picky about room settings and amplifier. many of their other products are a combination of very high price and trendy design. a exampel of a good product in todays world is their noise cancelling headphones, but still to pricy.
I had many stereo systems before and no speaker offered me the “non fatique” sound that Bose does. I have the 301/161 setup in my house. The bass could be lower but I think it has to do with the room their in. Once cranked the bass comes alive as hell and I can simply not get them to distort or die. Room filling sound is incredible….imaging is sligtly lost to this but you cant win both.
“Bose” to me is synonymous with “quality.” Whilst there may be controversy over the ‘best’ speakers, personally my experience with Bose has been a satisfying one, may I say, it exceded my expectations. From the moment you open the box, you’ll be happier for its purchase. Customer satisfaction seems their moto, from the ‘welcome’ note as one opens the box, to the very screws that fit it together, all testify to the quality of a well-designed and built product. Then as you turn the throttles of volumes up, cristal clear sound radiates from the speakers, completely free from distortion. Yes, I’m a satisfied customer, and would recommend Bose to anyone wanting to buy a product that will give lasting service and quality sound. One word sums it up……perfection.
Utter garbage!!! People who buy Bose usually get “steered” into them by sales people. Whose who know, don’t do Bose. Like my grand pappy used to say” No highs, no lows… must be Bose.”
No not really, the Bose staff are quite relaxed and helpful somtimes recomending other non-Bose components.
As my “grand pappy” used to say, “you get what you pay for”
BOSE=Buy Other Stereo Equipment
If you install a BOSE system in a 6″x6″ closet then you will be pleasantly surprised. But in a 12″ x 20″ room they can’t compete with similarly priced products. I’m just glad a friend steered me away from Bose.
PS: Who won the contest? It’s been over a year. What was the prize?
I bought a Bose radio about a month ago and just love the sound. I bought an external antennae to try and get my favourite station in -about a hundred miles away – and while I can get the station in it is still scratchy. So, for the high price I am disappointed and will probably have to buy something else to improve reception.
L love my bose radio and speakers. My radio is not working and I need to know where I can take it to be repaired. We live in De Soto, Mo. which is just south of St. Louis. Is there a repair place in St. Louis? It was manufactured in May of 1995 and Life style 5 the only numbers I can find or 01701-9168. I like it very much and I miss the radio. Please help me.
1-800-367-4008,
Monday – Friday: 8:30 AM – 9:00 PM ET
Saturday: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM ET
Sunday: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM ET
I had heard about bose speakers , very recently i experienced bose sound in a bose store and when the demonstrator asked my opinion about my bose experience i simply had no words to say , because for the first time in my life i heard “SOUND” yes sound . I had never experienced such crystal clear sound which soothed me.Its a qualitywhich was not available in INDIA before.In INDIA we have “sony” ,”philips” , etc, but comparing others with bose is simply funny.Now i have fallen in love with bose speakers and whenever i wish to hear music i used to take one of my friend to a bose store and enjoy music.The only thing is it is to much costly for me but i appreciate its costing because of its quality.Thanks to MR. AMAR KR. BOSE . I wish someday i will also have a bose speakers system .
Come on, in India they design one of the better brands, Cadence (http://www.cadenceaudio.com/), in a whole different league than that Bose garbage (unfonrtunately price wise as well). There’s absolutely no reason to get Bose garbage, especially when you’re tight on budget. You can do a LOT better for a lot less money.
I love poeple who say Bose sound is garbage. They say, “you can’t hear the highs nor the lows…and their bass isn’t blowing you away”. There is a reason for that. Good sound…high quality even does all of these equally well. If you hear a speaker and your reaction is “wow listen to those highs” then that means it does highs better than lows. If you say “feel that bass” that means it is over emphasizing the Lows. If it sounds like nice fluid sound, then it is perfect. People argue that “you can’t change the bass level or touch the equalizers on thier products.” There is a reason. Bose knows that if you touch your EQ (every True audiophile has a bunch of different EQ settings they like for each genre….) you are changing the way the sound is supposed to sound. Who wants to change a million different EQ sliders in each sound? I know I don’t. Also, I never once…never ONCE heard any sort of Distortion at high volumes from a Bose speaker. Anyone who claims Bose is a terrible product obviously is a wanna be Audiophile.
I am not an audiophile. I am a musician. I like speakers that make recordings sound like live music – horns, strings, drums, piano – etc. Bose never did that for me – they never seemed to have the dynamic range required to make anything other than elevator music sound right.
For comparable money, I’ll take a Klipsch setup over Bose any day of the week.
This isn’t the 70s anymore, nobody is using EQ these days. I don’ know where you’ve been living all this time, but it sure ain’t anywhere where there’s music being played.
Just tell me one thing: have you ever heard anything else than the cheapest Best Buy set up as a reference point? Have you ever been to a live concert?
Doesn’t it strike you as weird that there’s nothing above 13kHz with Bose, there’s no bass, and there’s a complete gap around the 80 Hz band?
And finally: no distortion? Please…
I think your nonsense about EQ is a giveaway what your quality reference point is, and I’m pretty sure it’s cheap all-in-one crap.
“there’s a complete gap around the 80 Hz band?”
-> Sorry, typo, meant to say 280 Hz obviously
Yup, that’s right, there’s a whole range of frequencies in the important midrange (where lots of instruments and human voices are) missing!! This is even worse than the fact they have nothing above 13kHz, as if that alone wasn’y bad enough.
Ever wondered why Bose do not, EVER, publish any meaningful numbers about their equipment, like frequency curves? Well, there’s your answer. They are right about hiding their numbers in shame.
For the price there’s no way you can find worse. If you get a 75 % discount, then maybe yes you can find something worse. But in my view the point in buying smart is finding something better; rest assured Bose make it really easy for you, as no matter what you buy around their price point will be better.
love
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE WITH THE FIRST GENERATION LIFESTYLES48 AND THE PRESENT ONE. ARE THE NEW CUBES PAPER CONED .
After reading alot of negitives about Bose – I went home and re-evaluated my Acoustmass 10 system. I have had many audio systems/speaker systems and I really like the Bose. It has a small footprint and sounds great. IMHO you need a good amp to drive the speakers(I’m using an 85W Yamaha). Are they expensive – YES!!!!
I’m not shy about returing products(computers, cameras, new car),
I would have taken them back and still could – I think their fine.
There is a differance between just being LOUD and rattlin’ the windows and rich even sound. People really need to relax – it’s just speakers…….
Bose is not one of the best speaker in the World. it is the only speaker which is leading in todays market the Quality of sound is ossam we can’t even think to compare this speaker with other existing speaker in market. the one thing i like in this speaker is that the size of the speaker is soo small but the sound quality is tooooo loud. and it is one of the best home theater. Good Job
One question: How come that even cheapish computer speaker packages (well, the upper class as far as computer speakers go) are able to get a THX certification, and Bose isn’t?
OMG Ann Onimus they havent got THX!!!!!!!!
How can you have the cheek to say bose is a marketing gimmik when you want speakers with THX?
my Bose radio was very good the first few years..I’ve had it quite a while now…was impressed with the radio a friend had…music quality has been going down slowly, and I can’t find anyone to try fixing it…it’s my only radio (except for Amateur transceivers), and my car…don’t even want to consider sending it back to Bose for repair, and so, I will not buy another…just toss this one when the sound gets worse…other Amateur operators tell me similar stories…sorry, Bose….Herb Wreden
My Bose radio wasn’t durable. The hand remote stoped working after 6 months. You can no longer set the time etc. either. It has been on the same table for a year and is never bumped. We have changed the battery on the remote 2 times. We brought it for service and they said unplug it and wait a minute. THAT helped the remote twice but that is about it. WE now have a laugh moving the remote all over the room and up close and far away etc. and once in awhile the sensor will adjust the volumn for 3 seconds then you have to start all over. To set the time we unplug it until the time stuck on Bose matches the real time. This product was great for 6 months but now we use it as a clock when the clock is working.
I am a professional film sound mixer. Trust me, BOSE is a joke! It’s low quality inaccurate components with fantastic marketing and good looks. It’s not that the average user can’t tell the difference; people are so foolish and uneducated in this country that they will judge a sound system on how it looks. The price is so unbelievably high people think it must be good.
People in this country are uneducated and foolish to belive you are a professional! Maybe your having a joke.
As a person with a lot of experience with different brands, I must say I like Bose a lot, and I am mostly pleased with the systems I have bought from them. Not all their systems are perfect, and not all of them are made from the same materials or sound the same way at all, but they are all good in their unique way, with minor exceptions. These are standards that all Bose systems I have heard or own meet:
1) Clear sound: many of them go crystal clear, while other speakers are a little lacking, such as the Cinemate, or have a little too much treble for certain songs or movie scenes, such as the Companion 5. But overall, they reveal a lot of detail you can hardly hear in other speakers among the highs, especially with their headphones.
2) Little or no distortion: It is VERY hard, even using unconventional methods such as connecting Bose computer speakers to the headphone-out of a receiver and pushing the treble, bass and volume to insane levels, to get distorsion out of a Bose system. The only systems I have heard distort (and just a tiny bit) are the Companion 2 and the iPod sound dock, and obviously at the highest volume settings.
3) Very good tolerance to EQ modifications: If you are an “audiophile” at all, you would know how to make Bose speakers sound more like the taste you like, regardless of the “default” or standard sound Bose intended you to hear. If you are an audiophile you should know how to get bass levels out of their acoustimass modules beyond what anyone could imagine, with proper placement, and the right hardware to push them as far as possible. Every little change to any of the EQs is clearly noticed, and personally, I might once in a while, if I am bringing the speakers to a party, boost the bass response of the systems, or push the volume further with a bolume booster, but for personal listening, I like them the way they sound by default.
4) Proper amounts of bass and well-balanced, full and complete sound, in many cases vibrant, deep and resonant: If you believe a subwoofer is there always to rattle your house, shake your desk and make your clothes vibrate, you are wrong. In real life, when live music is played in front of you, or when something explodes or a random loud noise is made, you dont always feel the low part of the noise, sometimes you just hear it. This is why I like bass response from Bose (especially the one from the Companion 3 and the 321GSX). I got to admit it is not always accurate to what the artist, director or game developer heard back in his studio when he or she was working on the sound, but that is not what matters. What matters is that even if different in some cases, all the details are there, audible. To me actually, Bose speakers have enhanced sound when compared to THX Certified speakers.
…Which leads to two negative aspects of Bose speakers:
1) They are not good for composers, artists, developers, directors, etc. For that there is the Bose professional-audio line or the THX certified speaker brands. And why do I say they are not? Because Bose speakers, as you know and can see, are mostly tiny or they don’t have all drivers regular speakers have: Tweeters, Mid-Range drivers and Huge subwoofers, therefore to deliver the excellent, full and complete sound experiences with their smaller drivers, which is almost always enhanced above “accurate” sound, they rely on “tricks”, and when comparing the original recording to the way it sounds on Bose, which is much better most of the time, it is clear then that if you were to make music on a Bose system, it would not sound the same way in those unenhanced speakers. Therefore you should avoid using them for this.
2) Some of their systems, or should I say, only the Companion 3 and 5, offer excellent sound at low and medium volumes, but when you start going to the maximum or try to push it beyond the limit, the bass seems to stay behind. It doesn’t disappear, but it just doesn’t go up any further, and it would be better if they did, then these speakers would be perfect. Apart from that the only criticism from me is directed in general to many of their systems, which don’t go as loud as others within the same category, but hey, maybe I would be deaf by now. Who the heck needs volume levels as high as 105dB?
I own Klipsch speakers, and I have toroughy tested Logitech, JBL, Boston Acoustics, Sony, Wharferdale, Onkyo, Denon and Polk speakers. I can tell you Bose speakers are pricier than some of these brands, but also cheaper than others such as B&W and the higher end models of some of the mentioned brands. However, I can tell you one thing, with proper placement and with the right hardware, Bose will nearly always outperform the other brands most of the time, with smaller speakers. You can always buy and return them within 30 days if you don’t like them.
In the headphones department I have heard Sennheiser, Koss, Sony, among others, and I can tell you: Bose In Ear headphones might be pricey ($100) but they have great bass response as well as amazing comfort and very well balanced sound. I have seen Sony in ear headphones as high as $80, and noise cancelling In Ear headphones as high as $400, which the Bose in ear headphones lack, but they sound great for their price and size, better than the cheaper headphones of the same category. Sony in ears tend to reach louder volumes, but it is not good for your hearing and louder doesnt equal better sound quality. The noise cancelling QC2 are excellent, great sound quality, deep bass response, and excellent sound isolation.
If you dont want to believe any of what I have written, that is okay. But for now and years to come I will always trust Bose. I’ve had some of them for years and they don’t break, they are made of quality parts. To those who said their drivers are all made of paper or carton, you are wrong as well. I have seen metal and plastic drivers as well on their speakers.
Who are you going to believe? The one who owns Bose systems and compares them to other brands? Or the one who blindlessly attacks all Bose systems released without even hearing them? If you have eyes, see. If you have ears, listen. Don’t listen to people who don’t make up their mind about something by theirselves, and instead repeat blindlessly what someone else said, without even knowing if its true or not.
Where are you getting your cool-aid?
Hi i am in a search of buying a bose wave stereo if anyone has one for sale for reasonable price please leave a message here and i will reply .I would love to also buy a stereo system.I love the sound of bose.
You have no soul, or ears! Get a grip and a clue!
Price aside, Bose make a great speaker for home theaters. If you like listening to explosions and helecopters flying over you head, and you have the money, then there is really no need to look anywhere else. However, they really do seem to lack that mid-range (think breath of a tenor sax, or depth or a marimba) and are therefore not the ideal speaker for dedicated audiophiles. The only way you will get that nice depth is through a tower. Most wives hate towers, so Bose has a pretty good wife-pleasing speaker size, and that counts for something.
I have a Bose Companion 3 system, and it’s the best-sounding set-up I’ve ever heard for the size and the price. The clarity is amazing to me, and if Bose is striving for “life-like,” they hit the mark 100%. After having the Companion 3 in my room for almost a year, I honestly wonder where all these anti-Bose trolls come from. I don’t mind particular criticisms, but anyone who says Bose is crap or Bose is a joke is a person who has no credibility.
You can’t have had many systems then! Bose is for the uneducated and ignorant!
Bose blow! I have heard many acoustimass speakers and LifeStyle systems, had the demos and unfortunately in a previous job installed numerous Bose home cinema systems, even after advising customers against them! Some people will never learn!
Never had an installation without some sort of faulty kit, awkward to set the truly limited multi room side up. Plastic, crap, gimmicky, over priced, over marketed junk! Shocking build quality and the DVD quality beggers belief!
Sound is terrible, boomy, false bass through the Acoustimass unit and overly bright treble from the plastic Jewel Cubes, and a big hole where the mid range should be.
It says it all when they market a really low dynamic range as a plus feature! That’s the difference in volume in a movie between the quietest sound (wind in the background or talking) and the loudest sound (a big explosion). In real cinema and proper Dolby Digital the dynamic range is set to maximum to achieve a lifelike cinematic experience. How many times have you heard a building explode at the same volume that you talk??!! With the Bose you have no choice!
You can achieve much superior results with proper hi-fi at a fraction of the price! I’m sorry but if you love Bose you are deaf, know no better or just plain dead inside!
Phew! I feel better now!
I was comparing bose 161 SE Environmental and bose 251 Environmental speakers to my 4-way KLH outdoor speakers. The KLH speakers put the bose to shame, the bose 251 Environmental speakers sounded too flat if you know what I mean. The bose 161 ES Environmental speakers were suffering on bass and treble. My KLH speakers have two woofers and a midrange and a dome tweeter. I have then connected to an Optimus sytem 600 amp. They sound so clear, and I can not even got it turned up half way until the neighbors start complaining. They live about 500 feet away. If I had bose speakers I would even complain, because it would sound like sh*t.
Well, I’ve read all kinds of reviews and participated in all kinds of arguments on forums and such about the “bose sound”. I have a pair of the Triports and I stand behind them. I love them, and while I’ll admit they don’t have excellent mid-bass, they have brilliant extra low end response. The triports have the best bass I’ve ever heard from headphones. I love seeing just how low the freq. response on these things are. I’ve gotten Triport headphones down to 10hz without distortion of any kind, that’s LOW! I also own a pair of Sony MDR-V6’s and the bose still blows them away. The Grado’s are tacky looking and HUGE. And the sony’s just have a really tight response, that I personally don’t like, compared to the triports. But in the end it all comes down to what YOU like and not what someone says sounds good. Everyone is unique and has their own tastes. If you like it… buy it.
I have some QC2 Noise cancelling headphones. The crappily made plastic cover that holds the metal notch to adjust the size has broken, easy to see how they break, the plastic is so thin its a joke. I called them to buy a replacement but I have to replace the entire headband!!!!!! I will tape them up and use them as spares and go buy some far vbetter and cheaper Sennheissers. My first and last Bose purchase. Its over hyped crap.
I will have to disappoint both Bose fans and foes alike. The reason is simple: I intended to purchase a Bose product which was the QC3, but I ended up returning them. Here’s the story:
I had the lust for the qc2 head unit for quite some time, but I did not find the price justified so I settled on the stripped down version, the triport AE. I don’t have a lot of bad things to say about those head phones but there’s no particular reason to praise them either, they are OK, but for the price there are a lot of options far better. Recently I was on the market for a pair of noise canceling head phones or ear plugs, the Audio Technica ATH-ANC3 was my first choice, though the sound canceling and isolation worked as expected, the sound was disappointing. I tried several others including the Sony MDR NC60, but I did not hear what I expected in that price range so I went to Bose and tried the QC3. They gave me a demonstration in the store simulating the roar of jet engines while I was trying on the head set.
The noise canceling seemed to work well, and hooked up to my 5.5 generation iPod, the sound was stunning so I purchased them. The price came out to $375 with tax, they included a second battery for the noise canceling circuitry, and I had a 30 day trial. I left for a trip that included a four hour flight both directions so I had the experience to try them in the environment they were designed to perform.
I found absolutely nothing to complain about the noise canceling, they worked great, but I’m not a frequent air traveler, I work in a noisy place but those units are not suitable there, they would be destroyed the first day, so their primary purpose would be audition. I decided to try them rigorously and compare them to other options. I wanted to see how they perform compared to mid-range ear plugs so I selected the Shure SE-310. The Shure plugs were winning handily in term of accuracy and clarity, but the QC3 won out in term of comfort and full-rich sound. This experiment led to the destruction of my iPod, I had to replace it. Unfortunately for Bose, the sound characteristics of the new iPod classic is very different that of the iPod video initial release. With the new iPod the Bose QC3 failed to defeat not only the Shure SE-310 but my Sennheiser cx-300 plugs that I own for over two years. After comparing the cx-300 with the QC3, the little Senns were winning on every metric.
I had no choice at this point but to return the QC3, and I found no problems whatsoever, Bose honored their commitment to refund the purchase within 30 days, no questions asked. They were very courteous, patient and professional when I made the purchase and also when I made the return.
I would be hard pressed to bash a company who provides this level of service. I can recommend anyone to try any of their product, do some research and compare. If Bose comes out on the top, then it works for you. Any purchase made can be returned, so what is the reason for trashing Bose? Any electronic store carries their product, while you have a hard time to find anything decent from Sennheiser for example. Whose fault is that? I ended up ordering a pair of cx-95 plugs from Sennheiser to complement the cx-300 which is a bit bass heavy; I wanted to have something more balanced. While the cx-95 is an awesome pair of plugs, you cannot buy them here in the United States, maybe directly from Sennheiserusa with some luck. Again, I don’t see how and why people keep trashing Bose. They have excellent marketing, reasonable product line though their prices are very high, they are fare.
My experience with Bose was a positive one, I’m truly grateful to them for allowing me to try the QC3.If I was a frequent air traveler I would have definitely keep them, but unfortunately that unit is not suitable for audiophile listening. Other than that, it’s a phenomenal product, top of the line noise canceling unit, for air travelers or those who work in a noisy office environment the QC3 would be the best option.
Bose suffers from the same thing Microsoft, Walmart, Mcdonalds and the New York Yankees .. been at or around the top for so long..people need to find an excuse to hate ‘em.
But… when you are at the top for as long as this group has …you must be doing something right.. (or evilishly wrong)
The Bose bashing group that have posted here.. all seem to be complaining about the same things… not enough Bass…which tells me they listen to Hip Hop, not music …this rules them out of the Bose family…because Bose is for Music…not jibberish.
Or..they are bitching about price… which rules them out again…because if you cant afford something..how can you give it an honest assessment? Friends dont let friends buy bose? Please …
I recently retired my 5.1 JVC System in favor of a Bose 3-2-1. In part because I wanted to make my wife happy and reduce some of the speaker wire clutter. The other was the name Bose…which is synonymis with Clarity and Quality. Wow! This system sounds fantastic in my great room… the sound bouncing off my cathedral ceilings. Sure I dont have as much surround….but the quality and clarity of the Music is phenomenal. Once you master the systems settings… you are free and clear.
Listen to some Jazz or Classic Big Band sound, or Classical… and each instrument is equally clear…even the bass and bass drums. Shoot…throw some old Big Band Sound ..saxophones, trumpets, trombones and they sound like theyre giving you a live performance. Gene Krupa’s manic bass drumming will dispel the notion that Bose does not define bass.
Be it Classical, Rock and R&B, all the real music sounds great on my Bose.
“you must be doing something right.. (or evilishly wrong)”
Yes, evilishly wrong in Bose’s case.
I love the fact the Bose lovers are so smitten with their excessively overpriced, so called Better Sound Through Research crappers that they miss the whopping frequency gaps…that is why we say there is no bass, because the ’subwoofer’ is far from being a subwoofer in the true sense of the word. I was actually disappointed to see someone writing here they have no highs either….the way I see it any Bose that I have installed or listened to (yes installed, about 15 units from LS28 through to LS48’s) have a major lack of mid range as well, where most of the vocals are, http://www.intellexual.net/bose.html. I feel horrible for the people who have these boxes. Example…Satelite freq response 280 Hz to 13.3k Hz at ±10.5 dB ‘Sub’ 46Hz to 202Hz at ±2.3 dB….where is the mid freq 202Hz to 280Hz??? You certainly don’t see Bose publishing their specs because they are an insult to audiophiles intelligence….in Lamens terms, Bose do not produce high quality sound as they claim to do (+-10.5db holy crap that is a dip/peak the size of the grand canyon.
In summary, overpriced, over churched up by sales people, good for the tone deaf. Pieces of shit.
Absolutely right. One look at that frequency response curve on your link says it all. Whoever claims to get proper sound out of these must be on KoolAid.
People: just for the sake of it, go try and find a dealer who’ll be willing to demonstrate a Bose system in a direct comparison to other, similar priced or cheaper, brands. Good luck finding one!
Well, for those die hard Bose lovers, I have a piece of land in Florida for you!
I work in a Bang & Olufsen store, there is a place that sell Bose around the corner. I love embarrassing Bose equipment with some real high end kit. It’s not even close when when it comes to sound quality, build quality and design!
I know there are some people who don’t quite get Bang & Olufsen or have perhaps never been to a store to have a listen. I had, what I now realise, a poorly informed opinion of B&O, then, I went into a showroom for a look and listen, truly breathtaking, honestly, go and try it!
Like I said I’m now lucky enough to be working with this amazing stuff and it’s incredible the amount of care and attention that goes into development.
It REALLY grinds me when people ask how we compare to Bose, I then proceed to show them we are in a different league altogether.
No tacky plastics and paper speaker drivers here! All made with top notch materials like 99.9% pure Aluminum that is produced by Bang & Olufsen. powerful, digital ICEpower amps built in to the speakers, normally one for each drive unit, partnered perfectly and only amplifying the frequencies relevant to it’s driver.
Anyway, I digress, Bose makes my blood boil, tacky, gimmicky, poor quality tat! I have had the misfortune of installing this junk on many occasions, the quality beggars belief! The Lifestyle systems are a joke and don’t even get me started on the 3.2.1 system. Plain awful!
For those who’re not willing to read the truth referred to in the above hyperlink, I just copy and paste a small section here (I could’ve taken more, but this is jus to give you an idea – there’s quite a bit of text there):
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! Is this the kind of performance you’d expect from a $1300 product? Most speakers in the same price range are able to respond from 15 Hz to 25 Khz and all modern media formats, from vinyls to DVD, record these frequencies as well. Though these are peak frequencies that most humans can not hear, the pressure produced from 15 Hz and 25 KHz frequencies can be detected physiologically, and will in fact have an effect on the harmonics of the music you listen to. So why does this “industry-leading” Bose company only produce about 52% of the sound of it’s equal-priced market competitors? Good question…
Well, I found this a couple of years after the fact, thought I’d add my two cents anyway — some user experiences, in brief:
1) Bose in-ear headphones: They don’t make the jack right, it bends and breaks way too easily — quite a little failure, such a small thing rending a not-cheap set of headphones entirely useless, and it could’ve been resolved if they’d made a more sturdy jack for the thing. The sound is not quite as rich as with Vmoda headphones. They work fairly well, though, those other failures considered.
2) Bose Companion 2 speakers: What the heck? I bought some, pulled ‘em out of the box, plugged ‘em in all correctly, got zero response. I plugged ‘em into an iPod, still got zero response. I really wish that those Boze gee-wizards would’ve just put a little LED on the speakers — it would’ve been so simple — so in order to indicate if the speakers ar even getting power as one might like to expect.
I mean, this is some messy stuff to get from a company supposed to be so galdanged professional and “cutting edge”, right.
Well I feel like joining into this rant fest.
Today I bought the Bose Companion 3 speakers on sale (I’ll be honest, their normal prices are indeed far too high). Got it all hooked up, and to test: Percy Granger’s Lincolnshire Posy for Wind Band. Out of the suite, I chose movement’s one and six, which are my personal favourites. On low, and high volumes, they blew me away. Despite all the poor reviews, I had no distortion. It was crystal clear. The clarinets sounded woody! The timpani’s were booming, the trumpets were righteously brassy. The sound had texture.
I will admit I’m no audiophile, but I am a musician, and my music has to sound right. I will say it’s definately not the best set for metal (with tweaking, it works, but still not the best), and my rock it’s pretty good. Classical and jazz though blow me away.
These are not a hip hop set. Not in the least. If you listen to real music, these will sound utterly fantastic. I’m thoroughly impressed. A little EQ tweaking, and my other genre’s also sound great.
The build quality is solid, and the bass is balanced. Balance is the key word here. It is NOT thumpy and overwhelming. It blends into the audio spectrum nicely.
It doesn’t have a full frequency response? Physics may say so, but do _I_ notice? No! It sounds amazing. Your frequency devices can say whatever they want. You’re overanalysing this! Take them home and plug them in. If you like them, look: you made a decision by yourself! You thought for yourself! Step in the right direction.
Didn’t like them? At least you tried to make an unbiased opinion. Take ‘em back.
My next point is try the new systems. Maybe you hated Bose before, but they are allowed to improve, aren’t they? If you have, I won’t press my argument.
And if you’re stuck on your over-analytical sound graphs, and can’t believe that they don’t supposedly create certain frequencies, take a chill. Think about sound: it bounces around. Using “tricks” you can create all sorts of fun effects through mixing/bouncing soundwaves.
And still, in the end if that doesn’t happen, think about Bose like a placebo. It may not be doing what I think, but I think it is, and I am happy with what it does. Who’s really getting fooled? You with your frequency charts, or me, relaxing here and listening to music that I think sounds great?
User satisfaction matters most in the end. I love ‘em, and if you want to say I have no taste in music, I would invite you over to listen to some Holst or Vagner.
But that’s my opinion.
So, basically what you’re saying is that it doesn’t matter how bad it sounds, because you’re happily fooling yourself. Intresting POV. Thanks for giving me insight in the psychology of Bose buyers. Now I’ll go and try selling Yugo to gullible buyers. Hopefully a lot of Bose owners will come in.
Funny yeah saying hes fooling his ears well I had some Marin Logan stuff I bought 8 months ago in Halifax Canada source fronts matinee center and surrounds and DepthI for a sub some very nice gear.Well before I got is set up moved to Edmonton Ab and sent the stuff out 3 months later.When it arrived unpacked it and noticed the laminate on the fronts was peeling so talked to martin logan and they said to take it to a local dealer named National audio.When I arrived was given the cold shoulder like I was some alien.Went into a demo room while they figured what to do .They thought id gone down the hall .Heard the sales guy say dont want this useless ass in my store not buying anything .Was totally horrified what I heard!!!Finally got the issue looked after much fighting with logan.Well when my new speakers arrived was so dissappointed sold them for 45 percent of what I paid!!!!Washed my hands of one of the supposed best companies out there.Went to the West edmonton mall to the Bose store bought a ls48 system there the sales guys were great.Bought a new bluray and some more stuff to hookup and surpassed the imput levels on the 48 system.Called them up after 14 weeks told me to take the system in they exchanged it no problem.Funny such a bad company gave me the best service ive ever had.And Martin logan gave me the worse hands down!!!!Never again will I buy Logans!!!!Now the music quality the Bose sounds great and I dont know?Ive owned Logans and Paradigm studio 100s v 4s as well as Jamo and sure may be more of a sound stage.There better be for 20000 plus dollars.But if I had my time back would have bought Bose the service was great and in my opinion so are the speakers.Its funny how some condemn saying your ears are lying to you well just cause I go to the ford dealer lot to buy a car and pick one you dont like am I dumb or stupid ?No I just prefer something different and Id chose bose Sorry Martin Logan with your shitty customer service.And thank you staff at West Edmonton Mall Bose you made my shopping so much easier in the future!!!!!!
There are two key reason’s as to why I hate Bose. First, the product is very simply crap. An independent study http://tinyurl.com/8bppya , that I would recommend referencing in your article, actually shows that Bose’s best product only produces 2/3 of the range of sound that humans can hear. If that isn’t a testament to the mnemonic Buy Other Sound Equipment, than it is certainly proof of the addage “No highs no lows, it must be Bose.” Secondly, the componly literally spends more money on marketing that on research and development. Anyone who is familiar with high end audio knows how essential this is. These same people no doubt know the name Klipsch. Klipsch recently released a new line of loudspeakers entitled the Palladium series. This project brought together some of the greatest engineers from all over the world and gave them the reigns. Klipsch literally told the design crew that time and money were no object. The only perrogative the team was given was to make the most perfect sound equipment on the earth. That is the sign of a company concerned with how their product sounds, and not scamming the ignorant into buying a mediocre product.
Like any company with broad range of products, there are good and there are bad products. I am not an expert in sound quality, I judge it based on how it SOUNDS TO ME. Overall, I am pleased with Bose products and for example, Accoustimass 6 II was a disapointment to me (dont like passive sub) wile Lifestyle V30 sounds great! Mediamate’s were overpriced (299.00 when they came out) for the sound (or the way it sounds to me) but Companion 5 is absolutely stunning, it really feels like youre front row in a concert. Bose earbuds are excellent and sounds well balanced between high – mid – and base but QC2 are lacking in base. So, instead of hating or loving particular brand, spend time testing – there are plenty of bose stores around, just go there and listen. You may not like their pc speakers, but will love the theater systems and etc. What I have said here, is not considering the price and aestetics, just the way it sounds to me. I dont care how much it costs, only my perceived quality. I would be happy with anything unless I think it is quality TO ME. Sometimes that works out cheaper, sometimes not. I do have a thing against the people who say it “simply sucks for the price” – please suggest the alternative that you have actualy tested and judged fairly. Dont post some idiotic-hatefull reply to my post, I simply say what works for me.
I think the answer to that question is that many people hate Bose for pretending to be something it’s not. Sure there are positive sides to their products, like size and being unobtrusive to integrate in your interior and all that. But one thing they do not deliver, not even close, is good music. They simply cannot compete with dedicated audio brands on sound quality. They will always lose against similar priced and even cheaper competitors. If they would advertise fairly about their positive qualities nobody would complain, there’s a huge market for them out there full of people who don’t want a cluttered interior in order to get higher sound quality, which is perfectly fine. In the small size factor Bose kicks ass fair and square. But to advertise and insist on their alleged sound quality is nothing but a blatant lie. Liars don’t earn respect. It’s fairly easy to know a bad performing product when looking at measurements, and Bose has no place in the world of decent audio. Its place instead is in interior designing, where it excels. If they wouldn’t misrepresent their technical qualities (or lack thereof) they wouldn’t get this much flack.
Also the way Bose reacts to anyone who dares to tell the truth isn’t exactly helping to earn them respect. For example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bose_Corp._v._Consumers_Union_of_United_States,_Inc. Any other respectable corporation that makes objectively proven inferior products would react by improving said product and ask for a second chance review, which would only be fair. But not Bose. They rather attempt to curtail freedom of speech and the free press. What do they have to hide that they prevent to have their products tested? Why do they refuse to publish any technical data about their products?