bose and its bad rep

nandac

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how many of you guys think bose's bad rep is justified?

i have heard/seen a lot of people complain that bose doesn't publish technical specifications (but they do give ohms and amp wattage) or the small design of its cubic sattelites cannot deliver the full range or that bose uses cheap material.

but their fundamental philosophy is different right?

if sonus faber thinks that making a speaker in the shape of a musical instrument (lute), will make the sound as natural/lifelife as possible, bose focuses on what it defines as psychoacoustics : "the spatial properties of the radiated sound in typical listening spaces (homes and apartments) and the implications of spatiality for psychoacoustics, i.e. the listener's head as a sonic diffraction object as part of the system".

that is its own unique perspective which is radically different from the way audio is approached by other companies.

so little surprise that people who are conditioned to the dynamics of what passes for hifi with most industry products, cannot relate to the fundamental philosophy of bose.

once in an audio showroom in new york, the sales guy told me that you cannot get the full body of the sound from such tiny speakers. but in a bose system, the acoustimass unit which is wrongly identified as a bass unit, actually delivers the midrange. it is a different design not only from the conventional speaker design, but also other small speaker companies like gallo, orb, pinnacle etc whose bass unit is precisely what they claim it to be - a subwoofer.

another complaint is that the material used for speakers is cheap. but i am not sure how valid such an argument is because the material used for the top on a gibson es 335 guitar (one of the most expensive guitars) is actually plywood. gibson deliberately uses this because it gives the 335 its unique tone. but i do fantasize how a bose system would sound with say aluminium sattelites. likewise with better speaker cabling.

i am looking for opinions/feedback from the many audiophiles on this forum who have actually heard bose without prejudice.
 
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I took my non-suspecting wife to the Bose showroom at Connaught place, New Delhi.

Her reaction -
(entry into the showroom)
The system looks nice. The speakers are so small that they can be hidden away. Neat!
(system is switched on)
Sounds nice. Better than the Philips home theater system we had heard in Reliance digital. The voice is not very clear.
(she finds out the price)
Is this the premium for the showroom location ? I can live with your unsightly boxes provided you buy me some new shoes. The sound is definitely better at home. I don't need surround. Stereo is good enough for me.
(she finds out that I just wanted her impression of the system and was not planning on buying it)
Bose sucks ! If you ever plan to go for good sound I trust you but if you want to beautify the room, take my advice and save for the system we saw in Odessa. (Bang & Olufsun Beo system).

My unbiased impression-
Old Bose speakers (901) were good, when they were actually speakers. I don't have a word for what they make now.
 
Midrange comes from a bass module fundamental problem :o Midrange needs to come from a driver which is positioned in the same axis as your ear.

I can go on. But why whip a dead horse again and again in this forum :)
 
I have auditioned one bose 5.1 system

OP already listed one of the issue, the satellite+acoustimass combination is not able to produce bass effectively.

The showroom guys always use demo content which doesn't have much of bass.

I asked them to play Roobaroo song of Rang De Basanti. The bass output was very poor. I asked them to increase the gain on the subwoofer. Surprisingly it was a passive subwoofer and only way to increase bass on the main unit using. But the maximum level also was not sufficient. My colleagues onkyo HTIB produced bass better with a single 8" powered subwoofer. Either the AM module is not getting enough power, or those normal size drivers (not subwoofer size) are not able to produce bass properly.

When they are asking us to pay around 2.5L for a 5.1 system, it should be able to produce entire range well, not just mid to high frequency.

Point on the specifications also correct. I couldn't find the speaker power, subwoofer power, subwoofer driver size from their Lifestyle v35 webpage.
Lifestyle V35 Home Entertainment System
It is not mentioned in the brochure as well.

Bose is OK for music with less bass content. Still the price is very very high.

But I am using Bose Quiet Comfort 2 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones for the last few years. They are good and noise cancelling works very well.
 
the bose acoustimass 5 speaker set only costs 400 dollars. Amazon.com: Bose Acoustimass 5 Speaker System - Black: Electronics

that's cheaper than the cheapest b&w stereo speaker set i think.

and afaik this design is now atleast 20 years old now (though i am sure they have upgraded it in many ways since its introduction).


>Midrange needs to come from a driver which is positioned in the same axis as your ear.

let us suppose you hear a live band play. are all the speakers are pointed exactly towards your ear?

or an unplugged set, where somebody sings and plays the guitar for instance?

pls don't think i am arguing for the sake of argument - just want to question the fundamentals.
 
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>Midrange needs to come from a driver which is positioned in the same axis as your ear.

Midrage is directional and hence a single source cannot produce the desired stereo effect.

Low bass is not directional and hence a single source can suffice and can be place anywhere onthe room as desired..

Live music is live.. It is not engineered to be produced with 2 speakers and hence no stereo effect.
 
let us suppose you hear a live band play. are all the speakers are pointed exactly towards your ear?

or an unplugged set, where somebody sings and plays the guitar for instance?

pls don't think i am arguing for the sake of argument - just want to question the fundamentals.

When you listen to a band, all sound is Omni present. Recreating it in ones room needs to take into account many criteria.

The art of recording and physical design of loudspeakers and its limitations requires that the midrange and high frequencies be approximately in the same axis as your ears while you are seated. Single driver full range speakers take it to the next level by getting the mid-range and high frequencies coming from a single point which is in the same axis as your ear. This is the reason why they sound extremely coherent in the mid-range.

These are fundamental design criteria for loudspeakers. And proven time and again.

For arguments sake, try inverting a 3 way floor standing speaker (keep it on the floor on its head) and play ;)
 
>Live music is live.. It is not engineered to be produced with 2 speakers and >hence no stereo effect.

interesting. because that is what bose claims to be aiming for.
 
Is Bose Good or bad? Its good for those who think its good and vice versa. Audio is so subjective that debate based on facts is difficult.

However, I definitely feel Bose to be overpriced (other than their 201and 301 bookshelf speakers).

About full range speakers, I fully agree(from my own experience) to what squarewave says, with addition that removal of crossover circuit from the path may give some more advantage. On eshould try the least to artifcially dividingsound into mids/his/bass etc.
 
guys, apart from technicalities - for which i am not sure we have the full information - because if the midrange is in the acoustimass module which if hidden away, then the sound would be horrible - but bose atleast has the reputation of having "good" or "decent" sound (so there is something there that is not clearly understood) i would like some opinions on how bose sounds as well in a typical stereo setup - with their direct reflecting speakers and the acoustimass.
 
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>Live music is live.. It is not engineered to be produced with 2 speakers and >hence no stereo effect.

interesting. because that is what bose claims to be aiming for.

Correct. Their philosophy includes direct and reflected sound. That is fine and works well in certain conditions. But they are still doing it with a pair of loudspeakers which are either 3 or 2 way. All the rules for loudspeaker designs apply No ? :)
 
Correct. Their philosophy includes direct and reflected sound. That is fine and works well in certain conditions. But they are still doing it with a pair of loudspeakers which are either 3 or 2 way. All the rules for loudspeaker designs apply No ? :)

i don't know man - i know little about such things :-)

i have owned some bose systems in the past and have enjoyed them.

though in the last few years i have moved on to more traditional hifi.

but still trying to understand what makes the bose sound.
 
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Guys! I have owned the top of the line lifestyle 48 for 4 years... in one line... it is at best a background system for music. With its multi zone, internal hard disk, rf remote, expandability, etc. it is quite feature rich.

For movies though it is not half bad. Overpriced but not bad. The midrange through acoustimass is a misconception, it is only a bass module. The tiny speaker's are full range and supposed to produce midrange also which they do but not very well for the price.

Without price consideration, I feel Bose is thrashed more than its fair share. With price considerations, out deserves to be thrashed as much as it is done.

Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk 2
 
Are you trying to compare a Bose with B&W?

On one hand I'm amused... but then again why not? I'm sure Bose outsells B&W by a wide margin. Most people in US go for Bose. Maybe they don't know better but they do. Even my sister has both a stereo setup and HT setup of Bose. Bose Lifestyle or something along those lines. Definitely expensive when compared to separates and even HTIBs from the likes of Onkyo but the SQ was not bad.
 
Most of the commercial bollywood music outsells Indian classical music :)

Which means it is better right... more people appreciate it. The Beatles are rated No. 1 only because they sold more records than anybody else. Otherwise any band from The Eagles, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd to Led Zeppelin could lay claim to be the best.
 
Well people from a guy working at Bose ( Yes please dont bash, I am absolutely neutral - have Onkyo 3500 HT receiver connected with Jamo floor standers :D in my living room), I only have to say Bose is more about convenience , comfort and is not aiming for an audiophile enthusiast tweak tool. As the OP says Psychoustics play a fundamental role in our systems , and if it sounds good than why not.

I have seen systems far more expensive but unfortunately with all the hassles of an amp and connectivity, some of these just don't sound convincing. However polk and jamo are absolutely lovely to hear, however my folks would get a heartache looking at the sheer complications involved in using em.
 
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