Bose, Yamaha, and Onkyo oh my!

SgtCheeseNOLS · 01-31-2008, 07:55 PM

So this is my first post, so I will also introduce myself. I am currently a senior at Florida State University. I am Active Duty in the US Coast Guard, where I am currently in the CSPI program where they pay for my education before I become an officer.

I currently share a nice Yamaha 5.1 system, 1000 watts with my roommates. We have a nice setup on our entertainment system.

Now I am moving out next fall to live with my girlfriend, and will probably be my future wife. I want to start building up my permanent Entertainment system, including the TV, speakers, etc.

So here is the deal, I am wanting to spend about $500-700 for the receiver, speakers, and DVD player. I know that Bose has "Companion" system and the "Lifestyle 6" which run in the $400-600 range. But then I heard an Onkyo system that sounded VERY nice...but the speakers were fairly large. Then I have always been impressed with the Yamaha we have now. So I am torn between the 3 brands. I like Bose for its small size, I like Onkyo for its price and what I get for it, and Yamaha because they have never let me down since I had it.
So if someone could please help me figure this out. I always hear from people that BOSE (Buy Other Sound Equipment) and that they suck...but they have 1 nice feature, clean sound with small equipment. I like that, and its something I would prefer over a Onkyo 7.1 that will take up a lot of room. I will be living in apartments for the next 10 years in the military until I get an officer rank high enough to get a nice home.

If someone could give me advice on why and why not I should get a certain brand, and if there are "small" speakers that would compare with the Bose from either Yamaha or Onkyo. I don't need specific models and such, but just know there are options that sound great. Thanks!

Robert_J · 02-01-2008, 07:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SgtCheeseNOLS

I always hear from people that BOSE (Buy Other Sound Equipment) and that they suck...but they have 1 nice feature, clean sound with small equipment.

I had a long reply planned but this link explains it so much better and has hard data to back it up.

Others will jump in soon with small speaker options. I'm not a fan of small speakers so I'm not up to date on the options available.

-Robert

Doug_H · 02-01-2008, 09:39 AM

I won't go into the downside of Bose, it is there and the link provided by the previous poster covers it.

Some small speakers to consider would be Mirage, which has a number of options that are pretty impressive for their size. Gallo speakers are also considered very good for their size. Both of these options look very nice as well.

nolesrule · 02-01-2008, 09:41 AM

Noles don't let Noles use Bose.

Bose probably sounds "clean" because certain frequencies are missing that they are unable to reproduce. That is actually NOT a good thing.

If you search here for Bose, you'll probably find threads that contain suggestions for small-size speakers from other companies that will sound much better (mainly because they are real speakers) for the same price or less.



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