Why are Bose speakers so disliked? (1 Viewer)

[MatthewA]

Just curious.

 

[MichaelPe]

I think this forum needs a Bose FAQ.
You may want to try this website:
http://home.earthlink.net/~busenitz/bs.html

 

[Jeffrey Forner]

It all has to do with the cost of the speakers, which can be purchased for a price much higher than what they are actually worth.

 

[Anthony_D]

well Bose is good...but WAY too expensive...do people knock the quality of bose?

 

[KeithH]

Why are Bose speakers so disliked? Ah, let me count the ways. For one thing, Bose speakers suck. They plain suck. Secondly, they are thoroughly overhyped by Bose's marketing machine. Thirdly, one can spend much, much less in buying speakers by a different manufacturer that will kill anything Bose makes. Are these enough reasons?

 

[Darren Davis]

well, of course there is the over-priced factor but I happened to hear some Bose 601s yesterday at someone's house and they were down right horrible. I couldn't believe how badly they sounded. The highs were very muddled, the bass was pretty sloppy and definitely not as low as many front speakers could go, and they sounded very strained at even moderately loud levels. That same house also had some cheap audiophase 5-disc shelf stereo and I thought that sounded actually much better. Keep in mind that these 601s were bought for $600. For half of that price I got my Klipsch KSF-8.5s (I will admit I do like the Klipsch sound) and they absolutely blow those 601s away, IMO. You never really start to appreciate your own set-up until you hear something as bad as those Bose speakers.

 

[Eric Kahn]

If you want to hear how bad bose is, go to a corvette forum and read about how often they fail in older vettes and what cheap pieces of (*^%#) they really are when you pull one out and look at it

all 4 of them were blown in my vette

replacd them with polk audio speakers, was cheaper than the replacement bose speakers

and the arrogance of some of the salespeople in the bose stores does not help

 

[Graeme Clark]

Although I really don't know anything about them, I've always liked the saying I've seen around here a few times.

No highs, no lows, must be Bose.

 

[Dennis Reno]

Ahhh Grasshopper, you come seeking wisdom, no???

Many good points made above. Also, consider the fact that Bose does not release specifications for their product lines. Go ahead, go to their website. Try to find any specs other than power handling and dimensions. Frequency response, sensitivity, impedance - not listed.

Don't get me wrong, these measurements alone do not make a speaker good or bad. But when you spend tons of money hyping yourself as "State of the art sound" and charge pretty steep prices for what appears to be very average (at best) components, shouldn't you at least give basic information about the product? Check out Klipsch, Paradigm, Definitive Tech., etc. They all give specifications. Why not Bose? Guess when you have "Room filling sound" nothing else matters. Just remember, a screaming baby also produces "room filling sound"!

 

[Bruce Hedtke]

a screaming baby also produces "room filling sound"!

And compared to Bose, it's music to my ears
It's not that Bose really makes a "bad" product. They just make an average speaker and market it and sell it as if it were some elite, groundbreaking speaker. If you are mindless enough to listen to sales pitches without actually comparing models, then you pretty much deserve what you get.
Bruce

 

[Ryan Wright]

Come on, people. I thought we all learned the first rule of the Internet: Don't feed the trolls.

Just kidding, Matthew...

 

[Jeffrey Forner]

Many good points made above. Also, consider the fact that Bose does not release specifications for their product lines. Go ahead, go to their website. Try to find any specs other than power handling and dimensions. Frequency response, sensitivity, impedance - not listed.

This reminds me of an incident I witnessed only a few weeks ago. I was in a store listening to this salesman talk to this couple (who happened to have their child along with them) into buying one of those Lifestyle "home theater" systems. The gentleman asked various questions of the salesman, including, "How many watts does this system have?"

The salesman replied, "They don't tell us because we don't need to know. They have all the power you'll ever need."

Ah man. I always crack up when I think about that answer.

 

[Kirk Gunn]

A friend and I were discussing Pianos and he commented on our new digital piano that our daughter uses. His brother is a concert pianist and the conversation turned to the inadequacies of the digital's speakers to punch out the "low end" that a baby grand can.

Soon after, the discussion migrated to HT and his Bose Lifestyle system..... He could not understand the frequency hole of sat/sub systems, nor the lack of specs on how "low end" his Bose "sub" would go. I've watched a few movies at his home and am unimpressed.

Some people just want to hear what they paid for.

 

[ChrisMatson]

I finally saw one of those awful Herbie Hancock infomercials for the Wave Music System. I wanted to find out some specifics on the performance of this $1000 curiosity, so I sent off an email to Bose. Here is my original email and their response:

Hello Chris,
Thank you for your inquiry. There is a great deal of variety in response-measuring techniques. Most of these techniques neglect how a listening environment can affect the response. On top of that, there is no clear and easy methodology for comparing responses. Each company uses a different means of measuring frequency response.
Our feeling is that response curves are a poor customer tool for comparing systems. For this reason, Bose elects not to publish curves.
Bose does offer a 30 day test of our Acoustic Wave Music System so that you may use the system in your own listening environment and evaluate it yourself.
For more information, or to place an order, please call the toll free number below.
Thank you for choosing Bose Corporation
Lee Miller
Customer Support Team
Bose Corporation - Contact Information
US Telephone: (800)999-2673, ext. E1
International Tel: (508)766-1099, ext. E1
Fax: (508)820-3465
Email: Link Removed
Office Hours: Mon-Fri 8:30AM-9:00PM, Sat 9:00AM-5:00PM (EST)
Visit our Website: www.bose.com

 

[Brian Perry]

Chris,

That response says it all. It's one thing to not advertise specs, but to refuse to provide them to those who ask is very revealing. It reminds me of a visit I made long ago to Long John Silver's, the seafood restaurant. They had just introduced their new baked fish which they touted as being nutritious, and they even provided pamphlets listing the calories, fat grams, etc. When I asked for a nutrition pamphlet for their "regular" deep-fried fish (which as you may know, is a fat bomb) they said, "Oh, no, we don't give out information on that item." In other words, you don't want to know.

I will give Bose credit for one thing. Their user interfaces are sometimes quite nice. The Bose stereo in my old Infiniti J30 had a really nice display that illuminated the relevant controls based on which source was selected. The actual sound of the stereo was underwhelming, though.

 

[Scott_G]

I understand how specs get used incorrectly at times.

I mean say you had 200 HP in a Yugo. That doesn't mean you can use it well.

But, you still want to know right. I don't know of any car manufacturer that doesn’t list HP, gas mileage and so forth.

You know these systems can't match up on specs. They don't go low or have high power.

That being said, for 95%+ they sound great and are better than the rack systems lots of people have.

Bose has done a good job of “filling the room with sound”. Lots of people like that sound, but not next to a well setup system.

How about this, Choosy people don’t choose Bose.

You do your research and listen to a lot of systems. Most won't choose Bose

 

[Bruce Berti]

Hasn't this subject been beaten to death and back?

 

[Kiet_H]

Graeme :
"Although I really don't know anything about them, I've always liked the saying I've seen around here a few times.
No highs, no lows, must be Bose. "
Actually I think the saying goes more like
"No highs, No Mids, No lows.. must be Bose"

 

[Kiet_H]

Brian:

"I will give Bose credit for one thing. Their user interfaces are sometimes quite nice. The Bose stereo in my old Infiniti J30 had a really nice display that illuminated the relevant controls based on which source was selected. The actual sound of the stereo was underwhelming, though."



Not all of the systems in the cars are designed by Bose. Bose actually only designs the speakers and not the system.

 

[TimothyW]

Everybody here seems to knock Bose without a second thought. I give Bose credit for being able to put together a small package and combining it with effective marketing. When I first looked around for speakers, the brand name Bose was everywhere and they were the first brand I checked out. At the time I was quickly and easily sold, but I did lots more research . I did like the small size, but I definitely did not want to trade off sound quality for it. Basically, if you want something tiny and are willing to trade off on sound quality , then Bose is for you. They *do* have a marketable product, just not to most of the enthusiasts here on this forum though. And Bose probably has the highest WAF (Wife Approval Factor).