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Not sure of the reputation of Bose in the US but over here in the UK 8/10 people would know Bose as a high end, high quality audio company. I'm not sure any ot

Not sure of the reputation of Bose in the US but over here in the UK 8/10 people would know Bose as a high end, high quality audio company. I'm not sure any other audio company could make such a claim in the UK. Every electronics megastore has an elegant Bose section showcasing the hardware in an Apple-esque way.

stonemetal 13y ago
Same rep in the US. It is just the audiophile hipsters who can't wait to show how much they know by bashing Bose.
- lotso 13y ago
  >It is just the audiophile hipsters who can't wait to show how much they know by bashing Bose. Are you implying that Bose headphones and speakers are a great value and quality? Otherwise you are basically trying to paint a group of people as hipsters for what is seemingly an illogical reason.
  - product50 13y ago
    Are you saying it is not?
    - eikenberry 13y ago
      I would. At least not as good as their price point would indicate. In general you can get superior products for less money for most of what they sell.
      - dsrguru 13y ago
        Could you please list those better quality and less expensive alternatives for my edification? :) Especially active noise-cancelling headphones that are better quality and cheaper than QuietComfort. The Audio Technica ATH-M50s mentioned in this thread look like a pretty good less expensive alternative if you don't need low-frequency cancellation, but I'd love an affordable pair of active cancellors for flights.
        ScottBurson 13y ago
        They're not cheaper, but I think the PSB M4U2 ($400) sounds much better than the QuietComfort 15. The noise cancellation isn't quite as good, though. The PSB is nicely designed, too -- for instance, the cord unplugs at both ends, and can be plugged into either side of the headphone.
        dsrguru 13y ago
        Corrective upvote since you answered half the question. XD But yeah, I wonder if Bose's consumer-level reputation of having no competitors that are both better and cheaper is deserved. Hopefully Eikenberry can answer that.
        ScottBurson 13y ago
        Heheh, thanks. I've never liked the Bose sound, but I recognize that they do some things well; those just aren't the things I care about the most. I wouldn't say they're overpriced, though -- it's hard to argue that when their products sell so well. Maybe some of the others are underpriced ;-}
      - 2muchcoffeeman 13y ago
        I have a pair of on-ear Bose headphones that I bought when I didn't know any better. In hind sight they don't sound great. BUT, they are the most comfortable on-ears I have ever owned and possibly the most durable headphones I've owned. The model was recently updated, and I think the changes are improvements. In that light, if you want a really comfortable, quite durable pair of portables, They are a reasonable choice.
    - jellyfish 13y ago
      Anything half the price will outperform what Bose has to offer. It’s all based on deception and marketing. For example, in store Bose displays have to be set far away from other speakers so you can’t make a fair comparison and the demos are played very loud to mask the thin sound quality. You have to stand in awe of their excellent capability to convince so many that their cheaply made 1000% markup junk is worth the money.
      - reeses 13y ago
        The over-ear Quiet Comfort 'noise canceling' headphones are one exception, and I gnaw my own liver whenever I have to replace a pair I donated as a "seat back prize" to the passenger on the next flight.
      - paradox95 13y ago
        Spoken like someone who doesn't know what they're talking about. I worked at the Stanford Bose store for a year. On many occasions we'd let customers bring in other products and put them side by side with Bose. Bose won every time. This was especially true for the Wave Radio and SoundDock. It was also an outdoor mall so if the door to the store was open, which it almost always was, there was a ton of background noise. Didn't matter. Bose always won. Bose is completely overpriced. As is Apple, Monster and a ton of other "high end" electronic brands. But there is no better audio equipment for the average person than Bose. For a home theater or headphones or bedside radio, Bose wins every time....if you're willing to pay. And like I said, I worked in the store, A LOT of people are willing to pay for that quality.
        timc3 13y ago
        My experience, not working in retail, but about Bose speakers and SoundDocks is somewhat different, I say also check X and Y, and Bose usually is dropped. In fact I don't know anyone that has bought Bose (apart from coming in their car or for headphones in noisy environments) that has done serious listening to other systems.
        jthol 13y ago
        Let's not get all crazy and start acting like you get anything for your money with Monster (at least the cables, I can't speak to the headphones).
  - dsrguru 13y ago
    Their reputation in the US, as far as I've observed, is that they produce the best designed (in the UX sense) and highest quality (in terms of sound) audio equipment in the consumer price range, albeit at the high end of that price range. As others in this thread have stated, their reputation online seems to be much less positive. There seem to be two main groups of people who contribute to that less positive reputation: (1) those with expertise in audio equipment who state things like Bose doesn't have nearly as good range of sound as professional equipment and (2) those who don't provide an explanation beyond "Bose sucks" (analogous to the anti-Mac vitriol that was widely seen until the late 2000s). stonemetal presumably labeled the latter group as "audiophile hipsters" because their behavior appears to be the result of thinking it's cool to criticize products that are popular among mainstream consumers but which they believe to be deemed inferior by experts.
    - tarabukka 13y ago
      > Bose doesn't have nearly as good range of sound as professional equipment It's not about "range of sound", it's about producing sound accurately. A more accurate frequency response won't sound exciting, but you'll hear slightly more of your music because nothing is hyped. It's a matter of personal taste and suitability to the task. I wouldn't mix a song on any Bose equipment, but I wouldn't be frothing at the mouth if I went to a friend's and they had a Bose system. I'd still prefer a £300 pair of studio monitors over an equivalent Bose setup, but that's my opinion.
  - stonemetal 13y ago
    They produce decent quality gear outside of my price range. Is there better gear out there, sure. Is there gear out there that is both unequivocally better quality and better priced not to my knowledge. Bose is competitive with other high end consumer grade audio gear. When it comes to Bose I have only come across two opinions pretty good but expensive or utter crap let me tell you how my hand built tube setup is so much better.
- loudandskittish 13y ago
  That's something I've always wondered about. It seems like at some point it became trendy to hate on Bose - hence almost every online discussion about them having a dozen people show up to say they're overpriced and sound like crap, yet I don't think I've ever seen one of those threads where someone actually names speakers that are better AND cheaper. To my (granted mostly non-audiophile...though I am the type who insists that vinyl sounds better...) ears, they've always sounded pretty good and aren't that expensive compared to most high end offerings.
  - majurg 13y ago
    I would not say they sound like crap, but they do not possess a 'transparent' sound or offer a flat audio response curve that most audiophiles love. Also, the use of noise canceling technology does degrade sound quality to some extent. Of course, these are all audiophile nitpickings that a casual user would almost never consider.
    - jlgreco 13y ago
      > Also, the use of noise canceling technology does degrade sound quality to some extent. So does the use of a jet engine a few meters away. ;) I don't use headphones with noise canceling but I semi-regularly wish I did.
      - ics 13y ago
        The obvious solution here is to just spend so much on the best available audio gear that you can no longer afford to fly.
  - nawitus 13y ago
    >That's something I've always wondered about. It seems like at some point it became trendy to hate on Bose - hence almost every online discussion about them having a dozen people show up to say they're overpriced and sound like crap, yet I don't think I've ever seen one of those threads where someone actually names speakers that are better AND cheaper. In my experience every thread which criticizes Bose offers better alternatives. This is true at least for reddit's r/audiophile.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- jakejake 13y ago
  I don't really understand the hatred because, compared to true audiophile gear, Bose is absolutely dirt cheap. There's a boutique audio store down the street from me that sells RCA cables which are more expensive than a Bose iPhone dock. An entire "audiophile" system is easily in the 6 figure range. If you're into that kind of gear then obviously Bose must be low end equipment for you. For the rest of us, though, I think you pay a little more for Bose and, for that, you get a little bit better sound. It's one step above consumer gear, but still well below audiophile gear. I think it's priced appropriately.
  - andrewcooke 13y ago
    i generally agree with you, but when you look at the details it's a bit more complicated: i was surprised when i saw the (low) price of some of their stuff (i have never bought bose, but i looked on amazon to see what people were comparing to). but, at least in the uk, there's quite an industry of small firms producing "budget audiophile" gear that is comparable to more expensive equipment. eg mission, creek, music fidelity value series. and there are new chinese builders like audio-gd who are trying to get in on the market too. also, they are most famous for their headphones, i think, and those tend to be more mainstream (there are not so many boutique headphone manufacturers - i guess you could call grado one, but otherwise sennheiser, beyer etc are pretty mainstream). headphones are common and easy to compare - when you do, bose headphones appear expensive, poorly made (maybe that's not the right description, but they seem "delicate" compared to the sennheiser HD25s i use for travelling) and not that great-sounding. but then their noise cancelling is good, which is what they are charging for. so it's true when people say the sound quality is relatively poor, but also true when people say they are hard to beat for noise cancelling. finally, their music systems seemed to be aimed at "home theatre" (ie tv) while much of the audiophile scene is music-oriented, and the sounds are quite different (especially at lower prices). audiophiles typically care most about mid-range detail, while home theatre is all about the bass. so it seems largely to be comparing apples to oranges and / or people with specialised knowledge being able to find better (but relatively obscure) value, which is often true. [edit: listening to good music on good equipment is a real pleasure. as i said above, you can find this kind of thing at bose prices, if you look around. try asking at audiophile shops - they're not idiots, they know that the top end stuff is not for everyone, and they may well have some lower priced kit too (which they probably sell to their friends, since people who work in retail typically can't afford high end audiophile gear anyway....)]
- jser 13y ago
  The reputation in the US: a company that runs infomercials. The "fill the room with sound" ads are on par with Snuggie and Big Mouth Billy Bass.
- AmVess 13y ago
  Hipster argument is already a tired meme-argument. Bose sucks...because they suck. I'm not an audiophile, but Bose makes some seriously bad sounding products. Yamaha makes some seriously good sounding kit at a good price.
Buttons840 13y ago
To give myself as a one man sample: Bose is the only high quality audio company I can think of.
- gamache 13y ago
  Bose is what you might call "pro-sumer". Bose products to not hesitate to alter and color the sound of the output, if Bose considers the result pleasing. Audiophiles and audio professionals are generally more interested in high fidelity.
  - jedmeyers 13y ago
    Bose products are kind of like Toyota Prius. It is a car for people who do not like driving. Except that Bose products are much more overpriced than Prius.
    - RyanGWU82 13y ago
      I'd compare Bose to a full-size sedan, something like a Toyota Avalon. Toyota designed the Avalon to provide a smooth and calm ride in a luxurious package. So the Avalon's suspension/steering/engine are all tuned for a smooth ride, which is the exact opposite of what car enthusiasts want. An active driver would be happier with a BMW or a Subaru. But if my grandparents drove a Subaru WRX, they'd hate the same qualities that make it enjoyable to the enthusiast. Bose actively processes the input, which does improve the sound quality to the casual listener. It's exactly what those kind of listeners want. Audiophiles want exact reproduction of the original source, so it's not a good choice for their preferences. But by dissing Bose, audiophiles are doing a disservice to the casual listener, the same way as if I pushed my grandparents toward a WRX.
    - andrewcooke 13y ago
      this is unfair. most people don't buy cars for the pleasure of driving. bose is like most cars - trying to appeal to "normal" consumers, giving them something "special" (small speakers with big sounds, or noise cancelling, say - things that are easy to demo) within a price. audiophile equipment is more like the ariel atom - an awesome car to drive, but no-one normal would get one. where would you put the kids? or the shopping? and i say this as an "audiophile" - i love messing around seeing which dac pairs best with which speakers/amp (or hanging rugs on walls...). but i know that makes me not-normal.
timc3 13y ago
B&O and Bowers and Wilkins both spring to mind, both make much better products
nly 13y ago
> I'm not sure any other audio company could make such a claim in the UK. Sennheiser? Personally I'd never heard of Bose until recently, when they started advertising in UK cinemas.

stonemetal 13y ago

Same rep in the US. It is just the audiophile hipsters who can't wait to show how much they know by bashing Bose.

lotso 13y ago
>It is just the audiophile hipsters who can't wait to show how much they know by bashing Bose. Are you implying that Bose headphones and speakers are a great value and quality? Otherwise you are basically trying to paint a group of people as hipsters for what is seemingly an illogical reason.
- product50 13y ago
  Are you saying it is not?
  - eikenberry 13y ago
    I would. At least not as good as their price point would indicate. In general you can get superior products for less money for most of what they sell.
    - dsrguru 13y ago
      Could you please list those better quality and less expensive alternatives for my edification? :) Especially active noise-cancelling headphones that are better quality and cheaper than QuietComfort. The Audio Technica ATH-M50s mentioned in this thread look like a pretty good less expensive alternative if you don't need low-frequency cancellation, but I'd love an affordable pair of active cancellors for flights.
      - ScottBurson 13y ago
        They're not cheaper, but I think the PSB M4U2 ($400) sounds much better than the QuietComfort 15. The noise cancellation isn't quite as good, though. The PSB is nicely designed, too -- for instance, the cord unplugs at both ends, and can be plugged into either side of the headphone.
        dsrguru 13y ago
        Corrective upvote since you answered half the question. XD But yeah, I wonder if Bose's consumer-level reputation of having no competitors that are both better and cheaper is deserved. Hopefully Eikenberry can answer that.
        ScottBurson 13y ago
        Heheh, thanks. I've never liked the Bose sound, but I recognize that they do some things well; those just aren't the things I care about the most. I wouldn't say they're overpriced, though -- it's hard to argue that when their products sell so well. Maybe some of the others are underpriced ;-}
    - 2muchcoffeeman 13y ago
      I have a pair of on-ear Bose headphones that I bought when I didn't know any better. In hind sight they don't sound great. BUT, they are the most comfortable on-ears I have ever owned and possibly the most durable headphones I've owned. The model was recently updated, and I think the changes are improvements. In that light, if you want a really comfortable, quite durable pair of portables, They are a reasonable choice.
  - jellyfish 13y ago
    Anything half the price will outperform what Bose has to offer. It’s all based on deception and marketing. For example, in store Bose displays have to be set far away from other speakers so you can’t make a fair comparison and the demos are played very loud to mask the thin sound quality. You have to stand in awe of their excellent capability to convince so many that their cheaply made 1000% markup junk is worth the money.
    - reeses 13y ago
      The over-ear Quiet Comfort 'noise canceling' headphones are one exception, and I gnaw my own liver whenever I have to replace a pair I donated as a "seat back prize" to the passenger on the next flight.
    - paradox95 13y ago
      Spoken like someone who doesn't know what they're talking about. I worked at the Stanford Bose store for a year. On many occasions we'd let customers bring in other products and put them side by side with Bose. Bose won every time. This was especially true for the Wave Radio and SoundDock. It was also an outdoor mall so if the door to the store was open, which it almost always was, there was a ton of background noise. Didn't matter. Bose always won. Bose is completely overpriced. As is Apple, Monster and a ton of other "high end" electronic brands. But there is no better audio equipment for the average person than Bose. For a home theater or headphones or bedside radio, Bose wins every time....if you're willing to pay. And like I said, I worked in the store, A LOT of people are willing to pay for that quality.
      - timc3 13y ago
        My experience, not working in retail, but about Bose speakers and SoundDocks is somewhat different, I say also check X and Y, and Bose usually is dropped. In fact I don't know anyone that has bought Bose (apart from coming in their car or for headphones in noisy environments) that has done serious listening to other systems.
      - jthol 13y ago
        Let's not get all crazy and start acting like you get anything for your money with Monster (at least the cables, I can't speak to the headphones).
- dsrguru 13y ago
  Their reputation in the US, as far as I've observed, is that they produce the best designed (in the UX sense) and highest quality (in terms of sound) audio equipment in the consumer price range, albeit at the high end of that price range. As others in this thread have stated, their reputation online seems to be much less positive. There seem to be two main groups of people who contribute to that less positive reputation: (1) those with expertise in audio equipment who state things like Bose doesn't have nearly as good range of sound as professional equipment and (2) those who don't provide an explanation beyond "Bose sucks" (analogous to the anti-Mac vitriol that was widely seen until the late 2000s). stonemetal presumably labeled the latter group as "audiophile hipsters" because their behavior appears to be the result of thinking it's cool to criticize products that are popular among mainstream consumers but which they believe to be deemed inferior by experts.
  - tarabukka 13y ago
    > Bose doesn't have nearly as good range of sound as professional equipment It's not about "range of sound", it's about producing sound accurately. A more accurate frequency response won't sound exciting, but you'll hear slightly more of your music because nothing is hyped. It's a matter of personal taste and suitability to the task. I wouldn't mix a song on any Bose equipment, but I wouldn't be frothing at the mouth if I went to a friend's and they had a Bose system. I'd still prefer a £300 pair of studio monitors over an equivalent Bose setup, but that's my opinion.
- stonemetal 13y ago
  They produce decent quality gear outside of my price range. Is there better gear out there, sure. Is there gear out there that is both unequivocally better quality and better priced not to my knowledge. Bose is competitive with other high end consumer grade audio gear. When it comes to Bose I have only come across two opinions pretty good but expensive or utter crap let me tell you how my hand built tube setup is so much better.
loudandskittish 13y ago
That's something I've always wondered about. It seems like at some point it became trendy to hate on Bose - hence almost every online discussion about them having a dozen people show up to say they're overpriced and sound like crap, yet I don't think I've ever seen one of those threads where someone actually names speakers that are better AND cheaper. To my (granted mostly non-audiophile...though I am the type who insists that vinyl sounds better...) ears, they've always sounded pretty good and aren't that expensive compared to most high end offerings.
- majurg 13y ago
  I would not say they sound like crap, but they do not possess a 'transparent' sound or offer a flat audio response curve that most audiophiles love. Also, the use of noise canceling technology does degrade sound quality to some extent. Of course, these are all audiophile nitpickings that a casual user would almost never consider.
  - jlgreco 13y ago
    > Also, the use of noise canceling technology does degrade sound quality to some extent. So does the use of a jet engine a few meters away. ;) I don't use headphones with noise canceling but I semi-regularly wish I did.
    - ics 13y ago
      The obvious solution here is to just spend so much on the best available audio gear that you can no longer afford to fly.
- nawitus 13y ago
  >That's something I've always wondered about. It seems like at some point it became trendy to hate on Bose - hence almost every online discussion about them having a dozen people show up to say they're overpriced and sound like crap, yet I don't think I've ever seen one of those threads where someone actually names speakers that are better AND cheaper. In my experience every thread which criticizes Bose offers better alternatives. This is true at least for reddit's r/audiophile.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
jakejake 13y ago
I don't really understand the hatred because, compared to true audiophile gear, Bose is absolutely dirt cheap. There's a boutique audio store down the street from me that sells RCA cables which are more expensive than a Bose iPhone dock. An entire "audiophile" system is easily in the 6 figure range. If you're into that kind of gear then obviously Bose must be low end equipment for you. For the rest of us, though, I think you pay a little more for Bose and, for that, you get a little bit better sound. It's one step above consumer gear, but still well below audiophile gear. I think it's priced appropriately.
- andrewcooke 13y ago
  i generally agree with you, but when you look at the details it's a bit more complicated: i was surprised when i saw the (low) price of some of their stuff (i have never bought bose, but i looked on amazon to see what people were comparing to). but, at least in the uk, there's quite an industry of small firms producing "budget audiophile" gear that is comparable to more expensive equipment. eg mission, creek, music fidelity value series. and there are new chinese builders like audio-gd who are trying to get in on the market too. also, they are most famous for their headphones, i think, and those tend to be more mainstream (there are not so many boutique headphone manufacturers - i guess you could call grado one, but otherwise sennheiser, beyer etc are pretty mainstream). headphones are common and easy to compare - when you do, bose headphones appear expensive, poorly made (maybe that's not the right description, but they seem "delicate" compared to the sennheiser HD25s i use for travelling) and not that great-sounding. but then their noise cancelling is good, which is what they are charging for. so it's true when people say the sound quality is relatively poor, but also true when people say they are hard to beat for noise cancelling. finally, their music systems seemed to be aimed at "home theatre" (ie tv) while much of the audiophile scene is music-oriented, and the sounds are quite different (especially at lower prices). audiophiles typically care most about mid-range detail, while home theatre is all about the bass. so it seems largely to be comparing apples to oranges and / or people with specialised knowledge being able to find better (but relatively obscure) value, which is often true. [edit: listening to good music on good equipment is a real pleasure. as i said above, you can find this kind of thing at bose prices, if you look around. try asking at audiophile shops - they're not idiots, they know that the top end stuff is not for everyone, and they may well have some lower priced kit too (which they probably sell to their friends, since people who work in retail typically can't afford high end audiophile gear anyway....)]
jser 13y ago
The reputation in the US: a company that runs infomercials. The "fill the room with sound" ads are on par with Snuggie and Big Mouth Billy Bass.
AmVess 13y ago
Hipster argument is already a tired meme-argument. Bose sucks...because they suck. I'm not an audiophile, but Bose makes some seriously bad sounding products. Yamaha makes some seriously good sounding kit at a good price.

Buttons840 13y ago

To give myself as a one man sample: Bose is the only high quality audio company I can think of.

gamache 13y ago
Bose is what you might call "pro-sumer". Bose products to not hesitate to alter and color the sound of the output, if Bose considers the result pleasing. Audiophiles and audio professionals are generally more interested in high fidelity.
- jedmeyers 13y ago
  Bose products are kind of like Toyota Prius. It is a car for people who do not like driving. Except that Bose products are much more overpriced than Prius.
  - RyanGWU82 13y ago
    I'd compare Bose to a full-size sedan, something like a Toyota Avalon. Toyota designed the Avalon to provide a smooth and calm ride in a luxurious package. So the Avalon's suspension/steering/engine are all tuned for a smooth ride, which is the exact opposite of what car enthusiasts want. An active driver would be happier with a BMW or a Subaru. But if my grandparents drove a Subaru WRX, they'd hate the same qualities that make it enjoyable to the enthusiast. Bose actively processes the input, which does improve the sound quality to the casual listener. It's exactly what those kind of listeners want. Audiophiles want exact reproduction of the original source, so it's not a good choice for their preferences. But by dissing Bose, audiophiles are doing a disservice to the casual listener, the same way as if I pushed my grandparents toward a WRX.
  - andrewcooke 13y ago
    this is unfair. most people don't buy cars for the pleasure of driving. bose is like most cars - trying to appeal to "normal" consumers, giving them something "special" (small speakers with big sounds, or noise cancelling, say - things that are easy to demo) within a price. audiophile equipment is more like the ariel atom - an awesome car to drive, but no-one normal would get one. where would you put the kids? or the shopping? and i say this as an "audiophile" - i love messing around seeing which dac pairs best with which speakers/amp (or hanging rugs on walls...). but i know that makes me not-normal.

timc3 13y ago

B&O and Bowers and Wilkins both spring to mind, both make much better products

nly 13y ago

> I'm not sure any other audio company could make such a claim in the UK. Sennheiser? Personally I'd never heard of Bose until recently, when they started advertising in UK cinemas.