Ok. Need non-BOSE advice for friend. (1 Viewer)

[ChrisLazarko]

Ok guys, got a friend who's father is stuck on Bose. I've shown him my Klipsch Quintet's and for the most part I think he liked them, but he is still fixed on the cubes from BOSE. He likes the whole CUBE idea, and is pretty set on it. Now I just want anyone who has some quick experiences with BOSE in terms of owning them and then upgrading. If you liked them, if you love them, hate them, etc. I will show him these posts as well as any other information I can round up.

Also. Please post what kind of BOSE speakers you had (he is looking at Acousti-Mess series), please say what you upgraded to. He has an Onkyo TSX-R501 reciever and would hate to see the Bose on them.

 

[Tyler Cookson]

I work at circuit city and deal with the bose systems a lot. What series is it that he wants? I dunno what to say, they are alright, but for their price class they absolutely suck. If he has space for normal bookshelf speakers get some nice ones. if he has the money, and absolut minimal space, and still wants decent sound, then I say just get them. I may get flamed for it but seriously, some people just like the very small look of the bose systems.

 

[SethH]

Look at the Hsu Ventriliquist series. They aren't much bigger (if any) than the bose and you could pick up an Hsu or SVS sub to go with it for well under the price of bose and you'd have 10 times the sound quality.

 

[ChrisLazarko]

How about someone with someone who actually had a BOSE system and upgraded to a satellite system??

 

[BryanZ]

I'd second the HSU Ventriloquist/VTF-2 (around $660 delivered). For not nearly as much as the Bose he could get a much better system with cubes to boot. He'd save over $325 by going with the HSU combo and could use the savings for:

1. DVD player
2. DVDs
3. CDs
4. Whatever else his heart desires

 

[SethH]

I understand that this is what you're looking for, but honestly, in most cases, people do not upgrade to a satellite system. Usually people start out with a satellite system and when they realize how much they're missing they go to bookshelves or floor standers. There are no miracle satellite systems out there. Some do sound much better than others.

The reality is that usually when people realize how much they have wasted on a bose satellite system they decide to make sure they do it right the next time which for most/many means a slightly larger speaker setup. I hope someone does chime in that has made this upgrade you're looking for, but most people I have interacted with went from bose to something larger.

 

[Alex Prosak]

No B**e ownership experience here but I suggest checking out the Rocket Tyke system from AV123. They're on sale right now for $399 from $499. They're certainly not the be all, end all of speakers but they're definitely better than B**e too. A friend of mine picked up a system and he's quite happy with it.

 

[ChrisLazarko]

ok anyone?

 

[JeremyR]

Well... I haven't owned Bose, and don't know anybody with the Acoustimass series, but have generally kept an open mind with regards to their speakers and haven't ever been impressed with the flat, dull, uninspired sound of the Acoustimass series speakers but always figured the rest of their speakers were probably of reasonable sound quality. You can tell your friend I was wrong. I posted this earlier, but I went to my father's house this weekend and he has a full Bose setup, with their 301 Direct/Reflect speakers, the VCS-10 center, and the Bose 161?? multipurpose surround speakers. I couldn't believe how dull, flat, and muddy sounding his Bose were as compared to my reasonably less expensive Paradigm setup consisting of Titans/Atoms and the CC-170. Theoretically, it makes sense that they aren't going to sound good. With a single driver in each of the cubes, and no tweeter to speak of, it seemed to me the Bose sound like they have a forced mid-range because they lack any brightness. There's no detail, I dare anyone to pick out the crisp sound of the crashing of a cymbal out of those cubes. Their regular speakers sound terrible to me, the acoustimass are only going to be worse.

 

[Eric C D]

Chris, there are two problems with the AM series. One is the inherent problems with any small satellite system. And agreed - most people when they upgrade go up to at least bookshelf to get the better performance. In the price of the Bose systems, there are quite a few good bookshelf/sub systems that will sound far superior.

But If your friend is absolutely set on a small satellite system, you would still be helpful to guide him to other products (such as the Quintets, the Ventriliquists, or the Tykes). They have powered subwoofers which will give a lot more oomph on the bottom end. Besides drawing power from the receiver, the AM bass module has to go up to 200 Hz(which is more localizable).

The AM's satellites are documented only down to 280 hz while the other system's satellites go down to the range of crossovers (say 100 to 150 Hz) on the receivers. And if you're keeping track, you just caught a freq gap between the upper range of the bass module and the lower end of the cube satellites. If you want to know whether that's important or not, check out the freq range of a male bass voice.

Finally, the freq response is not very flat on the AMs (to say the least). There is a real spike around 7k Hz which makes you think you're hearing full range when youre in the demo room, but is actually exaggerated in that narrow band, and will show up when you listen to it for a length of time.

Friends don't let frends buy..., and all that. Good luck,

 

[John Garcia]

Tell him you will beat him silly if he buys them. Simple as that. Friends don't let friends buy Bose.

 

[maxMXM]

I had a lifestyle 5 which i inherited from an uncle (he now has lifestyle 20 i think). It had 5 satellites and the 'bass' module. Last christmas, when i took interest in this HT stuff, i bought a Yamaha system (HTR 5640, NPS 261 6.1 speaker system, and upgraded the Yammie boombox with a Velodyne 8")
Cost 1/5 of the Bose, and sounded infinitely better.

On a side note, i actually received a complain from a neighbour 2 floors below because of what she described as "a 747 taking off"

Well there's the Velodyne for ya' (i don't even put it that loud: usually -35db from the receiver, and about 10am dial on the sub)

 

[Steve Lucas]

If he is set on the Bose, make sure he gets one with the cube center channel that connects back to the bass module. In my living room I have the AM-5 system (bought in college, 161's for the rear and the VCS-10 center and it absolutely sucks!! You can't understand anything comming from the center channel.

Just to redeem myself, in my dedicated HT I bought Paradigm Monitor 9's, CC-370, ADP-370's, SW-2200 and a Klipsch IW-250 for the rear center.

Steve

 

[Justin Ward]

That's one of the best Bose-related statements I've heard.