Why Not Bose - Informative Read : Post Your Thoughts on Bose

[TK!]

i love the bose desktop speakers that are sold in pricesmart ... 600$ cant be beat

[acesinghit]

some of Bose MAJOR competitors:

Bang & Olufsen
Bowers & Wilkens
Definitive Technology
McIntosh
Klipsch
Mirage
Polk Audio
NHT
Yamaha
Denon
Onkyo
Marantz
Phillips
Altec Lansing
Becker
Lexicon
Harman Kardon
Mark Levinson
JBL
Infinity

[zorz]

I've heard the Zeppelin already... Impressive Speaker. My personal little story, when I was 15 I learnt just how bad bose was. It so happened that my mom bought my dad a wave radio for his birthday later that day. From the moment my dad listened to the bose, I could tell he was not impressed. Later that same day I took the same bose test cd that comes with the wave radio and put it on my "makeshift" soundsystem ( 2x Quantum Audio 6.5 - $200 in no box , JL 12W1 In Box, 15 Year Old Kenwood 10W Entry Level Receiver, and two bullets ) To everyone's surprise but mine... The $1000 Dollar setup BLEW the $5000 Bose out of the water. Today... my setup still blows away the bose... just things have changed a little since when I was 16

[zorz]

Bose MAJOR competitors:

Bang & Olufsen
Bowers & Wilkens
Definitive Technology
McIntosh
Klipsch
Mirage
Polk Audio
NHT
Yamaha
Denon
Onkyo
Marantz
Phillips
Altec Lansing
Becker
Lexicon
Harman Kardon
Mark Levinson
JBL
Infiniti

To add to that list: Wharfedale, Sennheiser, AKG, Grado, Beyerdynamic, MB Quart, Infinity, Martin Logan, Anthony Gallo .. etc.

But on a serious note... how bose competing with these things, is like a Great Wall/Geely vs a Bugatti Veryron

[gt4tified]

Bose small HT systems are actually not bad for their price, given the compactness. Their larger systems however are waaay overpriced and cannot cope with high sound pressure....take D.A.S. for eg, who will blow any comparably sized and powered Bose system out of the water, the same goes for Meyer.

But some of their products I do appreciate, like their noise-cancelling headphones and the Acoustiwave radio.

In comparison to less expensive alternatives (eg: $30 USD. Wharfedale Modus's and Polk I-Sonic) .. I cannot see any reason why someone would purchase bose especially when the competiton offers better performance in the same critically acclaimed form factor. As for noise cancelling headphones.. I've done direct side by side comparisons of bose headphones such as the triport and the QC2,3 with cheaper alternatives such as Sennheisers, Grados, AKGs, iHarmonix, Beyerdynamic... etc... As far as I can tell, the cheaper alternatives cancel sound better than the bose, at a cheaper price point and sound better doing it. In terms of fit, finish, build quality and warranty, the competition battered bose as well. - My 2 cents

Your opinion is your opinion, mine is mine. If you take a look at when Bose comes out with their products, they do so eons ahead of the competition....better will always come after. I'm no advocate for them but when I owned my first acoustiwave and my first triport, sennheiser and akg had nothing to compare, and noise cancelling grados were more expensive....ponder on that a sec. Conclusion: innovation comes at a price. Bose spend almost as much $$ into research as they do marketing IMHO.

[SR]

sigh

Bose has its market share the company/man is worth around 1.8 billion

compared to many other top brands out there bose still comes out on top for product value

be it tru marketing or r&d and yes there has been a lot of r&d put into bose designs

bose concentrates on physcoacoustics in there designs and reflections based on the room size

also bose spends money on r&d to keep its electronics as small as possible
howver in my opinion Bang and Olufsen have been making small high quality electronics since the the 1920's nad has always been cutting edge with thier designs



i have heard most of the other products listed above and NHT is the best "band for the buck" for overall sound quality

one brand thats missing but will be on the upper end of the scale is DLS but again its another product line designed for the 2 channel home audiophile

most of bose new products on the market now is not geared towards the true audiophile but the average to above average listener who wants a great sound in a small package thats easy to setup in thier home

while the trend nowadays is towards the home "theatre" market bose shines as being a simple easy to setup system
there are those who will look for the true 7.1 setup but then those will only sound good if you have a room designed for the acoustics and place to properyl install the speakers correctly

and i have notice a lot of people boasting about their 7.1 setup but honeslty the room does not have the acoustics to support it

again this is why the bose systems will be the better choice based on its design

bottom line

when looking for a stereo system to install in an already built "tv" room with good stereo separation and above average surround and 5.1 capabilities

what is bose's competition??

its not going to be the loudest nor is it going to be the best audiophile sound but its easy and it works for the average listener who probably wont appreciate true audiophile sound anyways

[noobie]

? Why buy a wave radio when you can buy a Polk I-Sonic which sounds Legions better for half the price or even a Wharfedale Modus that costs $30us and sounds times upon times better?

Because neither of these alternatives advertise the way Bose does. I've certainly never heard of them, and I suspect that most people have not either.

Bose has done marvelous advertising for their product, the other manufacturers have not.

[zorz]

? Why buy a wave radio when you can buy a Polk I-Sonic which sounds Legions better for half the price or even a Wharfedale Modus that costs $30us and sounds times upon times better?

Because neither of these alternatives advertise the way Bose does. I've certainly never heard of them, and I suspect that most people have not either.

Bose has done marvelous advertising for their product, the other manufacturers have not.

I agree on this, bose spends alot of time and effort creating their brand image and markets very aggressively as well.

[crazybalhead]

Anybody knows or has owned a bose piece of electronics long term? Two people I know had the electronics fail. One an acoustimass 2.0 syustem from a few years back, and more recently a wave radio.

I heard both, and was not impressed. I also suspect the people who bought it fell for the marketing.

[RBphoto]

Bose = Rice

[SR]

Anybody knows or has owned a bose piece of electronics long term? Two people I know had the electronics fail. One an acoustimass 2.0 syustem from a few years back, and more recently a wave radio.

I heard both, and was not impressed. I also suspect the people who bought it fell for the marketing.

never had the electronics for long
did a few home installations for people and they all sounded great for the purpose the owners wanted it for

used the older acoustimass speakers years ago and they never failed to impress(late 80's early 90's)


we bench well bed tested the wave radio about 8 years ago

i say bed as the comparison was done in a hotel room against a jvc bookshelf sysem the waveradio was purchased for someone as a request

wave radio $500US
jvc bookshelf system $300us

both sounded great
bose was a 1 piece unit the jvc was 3 pieces as well as a little bigger
bose remote range was far better than the jvc

was it worth the 200us difference............

well lets say i still own 2 of the jvc units
but as a 1 piece unit the bose was still the best on the market

both units use 3" full range speakers
the jvc uses a tuned ported enclosure for each one
the bose uses the patetented waveguide enclosure

both units had similar bass output and if the rear of the jvc speakers were placed close to a sold background ie wall or cabinet there was a slight increas in bass response due to the rearward firing port

the wave radio did give a bit wider soundstage than the jvc with the speakers placed same distance as the bose

[ruffneck_12]

Bose MAJOR competitors:

Bang & Olufsen
Bowers & Wilkens
Definitive Technology
McIntosh
Klipsch
Mirage
Polk Audio
NHT
Yamaha
Denon
Onkyo
Marantz
Phillips
Altec Lansing
Becker
Lexicon
Harman Kardon
Mark Levinson
JBL
Infiniti

To add to that list: Wharfedale, Sennheiser, AKG, Grado, Beyerdynamic, MB Quart, Infinity, Martin Logan, Anthony Gallo .. etc.

But on a serious note... how bose competing with these things, is like a Great Wall/Geely vs a Bugatti Veryron

doh forget Kef

[ek4ever]

bose is the best i heard n the only thing i wud buy

Strange enough I often had the thought that Bose was more hype than substance....that was confirned the first time I heard a system with PSB speakers coupled with a SONY STR-DA5400ES THX certified receiver....it was comparable in price (still less) than the Bose Lifestyle system but the Sony-PSB combination sounded waaaaayyyy better......Cambridge Soundworks with a Yamaha processor also sounds much better that Bose flagship Lifestyle....in the end Bose only has name

[ek4ever]

ever heard the bose sys in an audi.....sweeetttt

No match for the Panasonic ELS system in Acura vehicles

[gt4tified]

*sigh*

All this talk about Bose is getting me bored. When allyuh start to talk about brands like Renkus Heinz, Meyer Sound Labs, Community and Radian, lemme know.

[zorz]

ever heard the bose sys in an audi.....sweeetttt

No match for the Panasonic ELS system in Acura vehicles

....and Dynaudio Systems in VW/Volvos , or Harman Kardon's In Mercedes or Mark Levinsons in lexus vehicles

[zorz]

Btw anyone every find it strange how bose doh talk about Sound Stage, Imaging, Dynamics, Tonality, Impact, Detail , etc.? The only thing I hear them talk about is how it does sound so much bigger than it actually is and how "clean" it does sound.

[SR]

thats because the market they go after has no clue about those terms hence why people buy bose

good marketing strategy as once again i say it
not everyone is an audiophile with a backgrpund in physics and acoustics

specs are meaningless for those who dont understand them

which is over 90% of the home audio market

[SR]

*sigh*

All this talk about Bose is getting me bored. When allyuh start to talk about brands like Renkus Heinz, Meyer Sound Labs, Community and Radian, lemme know.

need yuh to take a listen to my new backporch system

[zorz]

@SR

The question I asked was rhetorical, but dsi, I know exactly where you comming from.

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

bose is the best i heard n the only thing i wud buy

Strange enough I often had the thought that Bose was more hype than substance....that was confirned the first time I heard a system with PSB speakers coupled with a SONY STR-DA5400ES THX certified receiver....it was comparable in price (still less) than the Bose Lifestyle system but the Sony-PSB combination sounded waaaaayyyy better......Cambridge Soundworks with a Yamaha processor also sounds much better that Bose flagship Lifestyle....in the end Bose only has name

Klipsch with a Pioneer Elite 23TXH sounds pretty good too, the Klipsch are a little too bright though.

one day I'll afford some PSB floor standers

[OffshoreMarketing]

i want some b&W but i wudnt complain if i had some bose either

[SR]

gemini self powered

i have the NHT's to sell if yuh interested
1 pr NHT ones
1 pr NHT zeroes
and a single NHT zero for centre

http://www.nhthifi.com/OutdoorOne as an example

[ek4ever]

I spoke to the guy in the store with the PSB demo and apparently this line is more readily available in Canada than the US....the store actually keeps a Bose system on hand for comparison...

and while these maybe good factory installed systems "....and Dynaudio Systems in VW/Volvos , or Harman Kardon's In Mercedes or Mark Levinsons in lexus vehicles" the Panasonic ELS is the only true 5.1 staging system installed in an automobile

[SR]

bang and olufsen in the audi q7

auditioned this already as well as integrated dvd headrest screens into it

factory systems sounds really good and soundstage and imaging is great
but then take a look at the research that went into it

http://www.bang-olufsen.com/advanced-so ... generation

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

B&O have always been avant garde - never actually heard one of their systems though. I am sure they sound as good as they look.

[SR]

have a look at the website

i dunno but i have yet to find an american brand that can compete with a european brand when it comes to audiophile grade systems

some come very close but there is always ear fatigue

FOCAL
DLS
Bang and Olufsen
Bowers and Wilken
Dynaudio


all way above the league when it comes to audiophile grade speakers and designs

and i have heard them all

sadly none of which i can afford

[gt4tified]

i dunno but i have yet to find an american brand that can compete with a european brand when it comes to audiophile grade systems

Amen. Preach brudda, preach!

[dsaint]

Great if you like Jazz music IMO. If you want good surround particularly for movies BOSE is definitely not for you. A lot of the BOSE systems that are advertised as Home theatre systems (e.g. Acoustimass series) actually miss a pretty large part of the sound spectrum.

[zorz]

@ek4ever, check out the HK systems in mercedes.. they are true 7.1

@Duane 3NE 2NR, B&O used to be similar to Bose in terms of their 'hype'. At one point in time I actually owned a B&O A8 Headphone and it was all hype and no performance. Recently I heard the B&O system in the '10 Audi A5 and was presently surprised... guess that B&O are avant-garde now.