Pay no attention to that gear behind the curtain! (Bose Demo story.) (1 Viewer)

[Lewis Besze]

TN uses a rather strict 10% thd limit in all SPL data unless otherwise noted.

 

[Matt Stryker]

Has anyone here tried aiming thier speakers at the walls to mimic the Bose Direct/Reflecting Technology?

I tried sitting on my speakers so it sounds like the music is coming out of my ass, but it was too uncomfortable.

I just laughed so hard I almost shot a piece of fried okra out of my nose.

I've lost numerous friends to Bose, even after explaining their inferiority; the worst was a couple that I know who are both EE graduates with speaker building experience. If they are demonstrating something as a product, and are actually using different equipment (Who knows, maybe they'll hide an SVS or bass shakers in the room next) its fraud.

 

[GabrielC]

(2 kids were ripped off buying white van speakers and also the whole Nuance scandal here in Canada).

Nuance scandal? Somebody care to fill me in? I was actually at the mall this past weekend (The Promenade in Thornhill) and I think it was Electric Avenue, or whatever the store is that sells speakers there, seemed like a place I could walk into, unlike the million other clothing stores in the place.
So I go in and this skinny extremely hyper guy comes up to me and asks me how I keep my hair up (I have a partially grown out crew cut). I told him I used gel. His reply "Well, let me tell you, what would you say if I could show you this really cool new technology that will keep your hair up without the gel???"
Uh...ok....sure...why not...
"It'll take just 10 minutes of your time, let my friend here show our new amazing technology to you!"
So one of the store clerks bring me to the back with a setup demo room. He goes through and shows me various spatial sound tests, I suppose to impress me with the "surround sound theatre" effect. Obviously nothing any of us haven't heard before.
The clerk finishes the demo and tells me that he'll ask the skinny guy to come back in. I wait a minute or so and again I find myself having his overly-energetic personality blaring at me again.
"So what'd you think of the system?? Pretty amazing eh?"
sure...it was pretty good...
"Pretty good? Good enough that you'd consider buying them? Have you ever heard of Nuance?"
Nope.
"What kind of speakers do you have at home?"
Acoustic Research mains and surrounds, SVS subwoofer.
Blank look. Pause.
"Well...ok then, how much do you think these speakers cost?"
I don't know, maybe $1000?
"Actually, they're $3500, but what if I could get these to you for $1000?"
How are you going to do that?
"What if I told you that I was a Nuance representative? I'm here to help you out with getting the best price you can on these speakers. All I need you to do is fill out this form for your VIP card and we'll let you into our VIP only demos and sales discounts!!"
What do you need for it?
"Oh, nothing much, a few private details that we will NEVER sell or give away, it's just for our records."
Umm...no, I think I'll be fine...
The rep continues for several minutes, throwing deals at me, anything to get me to sign those papers, I couldn't believe this guy, a 10-year unconditional warranty where they'll replace anything even if drop the speakers off a 10 storey building or kick a hole in them. 35 years in business, the best selling speaker in Canada! Upgrade option each year, only paying the difference in price on the speakers.
I figure it's time to try to leave...soo....
Yeah...so, I don't think I'll be buying those speakers today.
"Oh, of course you don't have to buy them today, we'll give you a year before you have to pay a cent! All you have to do is sign up for this card!"
No thanks...
"Just sign the forms, how hard could it be? It'll take two minutes of your time"
Umm...tell you what, what time does the mall close? 6?
"Yeah the store closes at 6, but you only have until 5 to talk to me about this, really, you won't regret it, just sign the forms."
I'll think about it and come back before 5.
He turned a nice tomato-ish red tinge, boy that was something =)
I walked out, end of story Geez, what somebody will do...so...what's this scam about?

 

[Brett DiMichele]

Gabriel,
Nuance is about as bad as those "White Van Speakers" from
what I have read Nuance (Much like Bose) has custom made
demo media they use (which uses Q-Fonic Sound Tracks) to
try and make thier product look good. Many have been suckered
into purchasing Nuance speakers. Not saying they ARE a scam
but they are hardly as good as mainstream companies from the
reviews that i have read. Plus the way the pushy sales people
are, they must make a 300% comission on the sale.
Which AR's are you running? AR Nut here

 

[GabrielC]

Hey Brett,

LOL, I wouldn't be surprised if they were, I wonder if the store owner realises. I guess they're just happy they can rent out space or something.

I'm started off with 4 AR-208V's as front & rears, with an AR-C225PS and AR-S112PS.

I've since changed the mains to AR-S50's, not quite the top of their line, but they still sound pretty good. I was actually wondering about an extra AR-S50 from somewhere if you remember from the other thread.

I'm not even using the sub and center right now b/c my old receiver only has 4 speaker support (other DD/DTS receiver is downstairs with the HT system), I'm surprised at what the S50's do in the low range freqs.

Out of curiousity, how do you think AR stands in comparison to other brands like Paradigm, Energy, PSB, ...? I was considering the possibility of one day getting new speakers, but am not sure yet which way to go.

 

[Brett DiMichele]

Gabe,
Ahh that's right I remember now
I would always say listen to as many speaker offerings as
you can and let your own ears decide. I personally love my
AR9's and wouldn't replace them with any other brand of
speaker with exception to a pair of Def Tech BP2000TL's perhaps.
One thing is for certain the Hi Res Series and the Stature
Series from AR are some of the best constructed cabinents
I have seen even at a 3x the price range.
For what I paid for my AR9's there is absolutely no other
speaker in the price range that compares IMHO and even if
I had paid full retail ($999.00) I still feel that the list
of competitors is very narrow.
But as I said above, Listen then decide. Not everyone has
the same taste in speakers and that's why we have hundreds
of successfull companies.

 

[Henry W]

After reading this thread I decided to stop by the Bose store in the mall near where I live and do the sound demonstration. We went through the whole thing and the Bose rep made it clear the sound was generated by the silver device sitting on the table which was not hooked up to anything. After the demonstration I asked the rep where the amps, preamps, etc. were that generated the sound and why the silver device was not hooked up to anything. She said all the amps, preamps, etc. were in the subwoofer and that there was a device in the back playing a DAT tape just for the purposes of the demonstration. I asked to see the DAT tape player. She unlocked the room and showed me the equipment. There was an equilizer, an amp, a preamp, an Onkyo CD player, and numerous other devices in the audio racks along with a host of wiring. One of the devices was labeled Bose 100 Amplifier. Several devices were labeled Tagmet and one was labeled Tagmet 38. It all looked like a very expensive custom audio set up to me. It was very apparent to me Bose was making their speakers sound very good with an expensive home theater set up and leading the customers to beleive it was all done by the silver device sold for a few hundred dollars. What do you call that?

Best regards-Henry

 

[Cam S]

This whole Bose story is amazing. I was recently at a rather wealthy clients house, and he had a nice setup full of the reference speakers from Klipsch (RF-7's front and rear, RC-7, and the matching surrounds) and I was pretty impressed with it. We were chatting about the Klipsch's that we both own, and how nice they were, but he paused for a second and said to me "these Klipsch's are nothing, you should see what I used to have", and I was thinking maybe Dynaudio, B&W, DefTech etc etc, but to my amazement he said "I had a set of them Bose speakers". I was shocked that he bragged about once owning them, and told him that they are horrible, so he says "horrible? do you know how much I paid for those things". I couldn't believe what he was saying, since he had these nice Klipsch speakers, nice amps, etc etc, but yet he still thinks the bose were better. HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE??? Maybe because he paid so much for them, he automatically thinks that they are the best, bar none, regardless of how the ACTUALLY sound.
Bose makes me shiver everytime I see them in the stores, ARGHHHHHHHH

 

[Pat K]

I was at one of those Bose demonstrations at a Bose store in Grove City, PA. I knew right away those stupid curtains were covering those little cubbies. The demonstration was stupid anyway, everything played was all midrange. There was absolutely no demonstration of deep bass. I asked the guy how come there was no bass, and hes like "some older people dont like bass".. then they try to make you fill out this little card.. stupid bose people, $3500 for what.. POS

 

[Kevin_Rathgeber]

I have to reply to the encounter that GabrielC had because I had almost the exact same meeting regarding Nuance speakers at International Audio at the West Edmonton Mall in Alberta.

I went through the whole demo and was fairly impressed by the demonstration. However, the speakers they demoed for me were outrageous. The speakers were about 7-7 1/2 feet high, weighed 400lbs each and had a 500Watt amp in each speaker. Price was $5400 Cdn/pair.

He indicated to me that the technology they had in their speakers has never been duplicated and has 22 patents on it. He indicated that CDs had a certain amount of information on them and all other speakers on the market are only able to process about 40% of the information on that CD. Their speakers (Nuance) could process 90%-95% of the information on a CD which is why they sounded so much better.

They promised me the whole deal if I buy them from the rep who "Was only here today". They were going to drop $1500 off the price and on top of that take my old front speakers and sub for what I originally paid for them 1 1/2 ago. That was another $900.

I told them I wasn't interested in those ones so they tried to sell on some smaller sets. This went on for about 10 more minutes. To try and get out of there I indicated that I would need to discuss with my girlfriend who I am quite serious with.

There response to that was - "She is only a girlfriend right? You don't have to discuss something like this with her, you are still on your own."

Nice try guys - I must say that is stooping pretty low to get a sale.

They kept trying by throwing every bit and piece at me - 9.9% financing; 12 months no interest no payments, it just kept going.

Finally I just said I am leaving and never came back

I am glad I found this thread. The information I have found here has been very enlightening

 

[GabrielC]

Hey Kevin,
Yeah, it's pretty bad what people will do, glad you got out of there with your wallet intact too
Isn't there something that people should be doing about this kind of advertising (false on their information such as the CD reproduction), especially since they do it in fairly well populated malls. I'm sure there are people that do fall for this kind of thing and end up getting ripped off...

 

[Chuck_C]

I had to go to an the outlet mall in Niagara Falls, NY yesterday with my wife and had a couple of minutes to go into the Bose store. I walked around trying to take everything in for the few minutes I had to spare. I had about 3 salespeople try to latch on to me but I was "just looking". They do have nice impressive displays. There were a lot of people in there with glazed eyes drooling over the expensive items. Prices were steep for what you get. I'm glad I could look at everything with jaundiced eyes after getting educated here. I even got a peek into the "back room" in the demo area. I didn't have time to stay for the show.

 

[EricHaas]

Well it's nice to see that others can verify my experience.

 

[David_Stein]

Pat: when im not at school i live near grove city. i may have to visit that store. i have some friends who would get a kick out of this...

 

[Craig_Kg]

First this:

TN uses a rather strict 10% thd limit in all SPL data unless otherwise noted.

Hmmm. The bass module is good subwoofer then?? Does everyone agree with this? Is the only problem with Bose Accoustimass speakers in the tweeter modules?

 

[Matt Gordon]

Hmmm. The bass module is good subwoofer then?? Does everyone agree with this?

No, not me. I wouldn't consider a subwoofer with a "primary bandwidth" beginning at 32 hz to be "good." But maybe that's just me...
To each his own, I guess.

 

[jeff cr]

who cares what kind of equipment they have hooked up to their speakers. it's all subjective. every time i walk into a store selling speakers, they always have high end components driving speakers. case in point, my friend has a $900 pair of klipch spekers. the speakers sound awesome with a Denon reciever. we decided to hook them up to a cheaper Onkyo reciever, boy these speakers suck. so how do you know if it's the speakers or not( in this case it isn't). all the bose bashers out there should try buying a pair and then audition 5 or 6 receivers with them, then let people know if they suck. as far as marketing and price, maybe if people quit bashing them they wouldn't need to market so much and could lower their prices. it's amazing that this company can survive with all the negativity. And don't say it is marketing because if a company truly has a crappy product they can market all they want and they will not survive the competition. by the way i don't own Bose i just get sick of hearing it. okay i vented.

 

[Jim Prillaman]

who cares what kind of equipment they have hooked up to their speakers.

What if they're trying to sell you the receiver/DVD transport that they claim to be using to drive those speakers, when that equipment is not what's being used? That's the biggest concern I have with the reports here. The Lifestyle 35 is a $3000 package with five cubes, a "bass module," and a little silver box that is DVD transport, processor, and amp all rolled into one.
As for speaker sales -- if I go to an audio shop and audition a pair of speakers, I will be able to take into account what gear they are using ("yeah, it sounds great, but that Krell amp is worth more than my car -- my little receiver at home may sound a little different...") because it's right there in front of you. If they were to use very high-end gear and conceal it from me, I'd consider that bad business and take my money elsewhere.

 

[NickSo]

Lol, i woldnt be surprised if they had a big honkin SVS behind that curtain too since Subs are non-directional, they could easily pulll it off.. oh no, im givng them ideas! :p)

Great thread, im showign this to all my Bose-loving 'friends'

 

[matthew_rm]

Against NUANCE I am!

I was impressed by their demo. Big Yamaha Reciever, (for some reason, I wasnt able to touch it..) And Dance Music. Very loud, very Clean. Very nice. Nice tight fast bass. Cool highs. However, It was a CD which I would have to say THEY did something to/and/or the speakers had built in EQ.

Here is something that I think no one here has said: I baught Nuance. Being under 18, I have not had to much experinece with this stuff, and was sucked into buying a $900 10" 200W sub.

Well, it wasn't that good of a sub. I can see why people brag because of how much they pay. I DID! Yet, the whole time I KNEW something wasn't right.

It was a friday night, I had a frined over, and I was showing him the sub. Volume on everything was LOUD, high and you could feel it. But you really couldn't feel the sub to well! (Or at all)

With some music up loud, the gain at max, and freq. cut off around 50Htz? Still, not much output.

It was a 2ch system, so I know it was the sub. After about 10 Minuts of me trying to show this thing off, a horrible smell! Some popping noises, then followed by laughing. THis pile of garbag died. The amp fried for no reason! CRAP

The store has a no return policy. I still had to try. I braught it to them, and asked them to take it back. They were going to fix it. But I wanted at least store Credit!

I asked them for Credit, and he told me that It was only going to be used on another Nuance Product. I was pissed! So were my parents LOL.

After a coupla weeks, and some "words" with the owner, he Kindly gave me a refund. I don't think I'll ever go back their....Well, mabey for laughs.

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Did anyone else have an experience like that with A/V stuff?