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Bose - why the bad press?

I would have said that working with appalling (for recorded sound) acoustic spaces was what Bose do best, some of their custom installations in cathedrals for example. How the hell do you make a system echo less?

That said I don't think some of their speakers are that bad. Think of them as a poor man's Shahinians!
 
bottleneck said:
Its hard to believe no-one in this entire thread has stuck up for Bose.

They make some great sounding products. They have a large number of very happy customers.


this stick-poking is very easy.

It's like finally NAIM and LINN owners have a brand they can throw mud at. You'd think they'd be sick of that kind of thing!!
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Let's right that wrong then.

The Bose 1801 was an incredible sounding power amplifier in its day and the first of the high-output power amps to hit the market back in the late sixties IIRC.

To Dr. Bose's credit, he stated there was no point in the 1801 going below .1% THD and IM as you'd never hear it and it may require circuit changes which could harm the sound. Regardless, it sounded better by a mile than any other amp I had heard in those days.

regards,

dave - Naim owner
 
bottleneck said:
Its hard to believe no-one in this entire thread has stuck up for Bose...
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I agree totally.

Most of the criticism being hurled at Bose in this thread could be applied to a large number of hi-fi companies. Companies whose products are owned by people making these critical comments about Bose.

It's like schoolyard bullying with the nerdy kids picking on the even nerdier kids.
 
Bose 301, 501 and 901 were the popular models in the 1970's, they were beyond my means at that time. I instead purchased Large Advents from the same store which also carried AR, JBL and Infinity.

I have fond memories listening to 901's hung from the ceiling jamming tunes at a bar I used to frequent.
 
I just cannot believe people are sticking up for them. A pair of Warfedale Diamonds or Kef Crestas are MILES better at a fraction of the price than their ordinary speakers and their satelite/sub systems are even worse (IMO of course).
 
how about people 'fessing up to the Bose they own?

I have some Bose 'on ear' head phones for my Ipod.

I tried multiple pairs of cans, and these to me made up for the dreadfully thin sound of the ipod.

I think they are better with the Ipod than Senn's I tried, Grado's, and a number of others.

If Bose stick to the mid-range, lets not forget some call it ''the all important mid-range''
 
I DJ's for a few years at a well trendy winebar('77-'82) that had 8 pairs of 901 mk 2's dotted about and driven by 4 1800 power amps, Chiltern 10/2 mixer and 2 SP10's/acos lustres/stanton 680 el's-sounded ace.
 
I bought my father-in-law a Wave-Radio/CD some years ago. He loved it and my mother-in-law still listens to Radio 4 on it through the night. I thought it was too expensive, but was perfect for the job required. Bose fills a niche and there's nothing wrong with that. Most people buy TV's based on how they look whilst they're off - one might say the same for some buyers of audio. They wouldn't thank us for complicating their lives.
 
I think they are famous ONLY because of the 901.
Is it accurate? No!
Is it a really fun party speaker? Dam right!
A pair of those little buggers will rock the house with your favorite Led Zepplin, or Motorhead. Not the worst I've heard on other stuff either.
It is also nothing like the plastic crap that they are making now
 
I remember aspiring a few years ago to owning the kind of domestic kit that would be as good as the sound system in the local town centre pub with Bose speakers all around.

To me now this sounds dreadful.
A couple of years ago I was in a restaurant playing music through a rather modest speaker system yet the music itself sounded quite engaging. I could follow the ryhthms and melodies of different musicians more easily than in the speed drinking shitholes with music playing via Bose.

It turned out that behind the counter into the modest tinny pub speakers there was an Arcam Alpha 8 SE CD player and amp. That really brought home to me that speakers first ideology was just plain wrong. It wasn't an assault on the ears that killed conversation. It was just music.
 
I was once at a Bose dem at a hifi show in Manchester when the little 5.1 system was demmed. As one poster has mentioned the small satellite speakers were shrouded, only after the dem did they reveil the tiny speakers, the sub etc. The dem was very, very impressive (around 14 years ago). They did however use a massive cinema screen, not a tv. The film/soundtrack was a custome Bose demo thing, so the sound could have been optimised.

This (as was pointed out to me some years later) a bit of a psychoacoustic trick. The bigger the screen the better the sound. Any one with a big telly and a big sound system, try watching the same film on a tiny portable but the same sound system.....doesn't sound the same......don't believe me......try it.....(films not stereo audio though).

This applies to cinema sound which I think is generally appalling but can sound impressive with the big screen, but listen with your eyes closed........
 
Three reasons to dump on Bose:

1. Technical: their satellites are too small to properly mate with the subs, leaving a hole in the mid bass.

2: Commercial: they pass off their under-performing, cheaply made garbage as a quality product.

3: Moral: They are a litigious bunch of pricks.
 
I like the litigious bunch of pricks comment. Any litigation as a result of this statement would simply confirm this as truth.
 
DDave said:
I think they are famous ONLY because of the 901.
Is it accurate? No!
Is it a really fun party speaker? Dam right!
A pair of those little buggers will rock the house with your favorite Led Zepplin, or Motorhead. Not the worst I've heard on other stuff either.
It is also nothing like the plastic crap that they are making now
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... there's nothing quite like the 901 today. Full range, heavily EQ'd and fun FUN FUN!

But it's not hifi as we know it, and neither is the Bose of today.

James
 
midcm1 said:
The film/soundtrack was a custome Bose demo thing, so the sound could have been optimised.
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Perhaps Bose sounds good, you just need the ability to set it up properly ;)

Yes, their kit isn't the ultimate in Fi and can be bettered by cheaper kit but that's missing the point - the market for this are people who want to buy a small system to play their James Blunt and David Gray CDs on and are looking to make a statement and buy a "name". Really this is no different to the choice some of you have with food or coffee or even cars. Yes, a battered old Astra SRI shitbox with suitable mods could slay a lot of cars on the Nordschliefe but you'll still buy a 320 or 911.

WRT the posters who moaned about Bose not putting prices on their ads, well, Naim, Meridian, Linn etc don't either
 
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