3 ms·

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 f

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....)]
driverdan 13y ago
You completely missed the point. For what Bose products cost you can buy something with better quality sound or you can buy something with equivalent sound for less. Audio Technica, Beyerdynamic, Sennheiser, Sony, and others make better products for less money.
- jakejake 13y ago
  No they don't. The other brands make equal products for similar price, but they also make cheaper products for less money. Bose just doesn't have the cheap product line. You can buy a piece of junk Sony stereo or you can buy an expensive, high quality Sony system that is as good as Bose or any other consumer brand. With Bose you can only buy their top-of-the-line version, which is "pro-sumer" level stuff. They don't offer cheap products, and they don't offer audiophile products either. Now if you want to debate about sound quality, yes Bose has a very distinct sound that may or may not be desirable. Particularly audiophiles do not want the signal processing that Bose stuff tends to give you.
mseidl 13y ago
I am an audiophile, and you're sorely mistaken. You can get _really_ good sound quality for very 99% less than what you claim. A 6 figure sound system is a high end system. I don't believe in those expensive cables or directional ethernet cables, or power conditioners. But, like most things there is a sliding scale and diminishing returns. A 6 figure audio system would be a 100% of what you could achieve but for 2-3000$ you can get 90+% of the 6 figure system. I can't remember what magazine it was, but a couple of years ago competing against very expensive gear, a ~300$ NAD amplifier beat out other 5 figure amps for sound quality. and 2000$ speakers were the runner up up 40.000$ speakers.
- stan_rogers 13y ago
  You don't even have to go quite that far up the scale. A small NAD integrated amp (or even the 7225 BBE receiver if you really want a tuner) paired with, say, a pair of Paradigm Titans (or the equivalent-range PSBs or similar) and the sources of your choice would be quite satisfactory at about the same price as the Acoustic Wave with CD changer. The problem is that now you have to pay attention to placement to extract what the system has to offer. That, in a nutshell, is where the Bose all-in-ones make their living — they're nearly oblivious to placement. Imaging? Not great by any stretch of the imagination, but as long as you'r in the same room as the system, it has some. There's no sweet spot, but there isn't a sour spot either. Same deal with interference suck-out. $5K-ish, spent the right way and set up properly, will give you a system that will let you imagine you can tell whether or not the stand-up bass player had a beard. But to really get to that level, even with an unlimited budget, you really have to care about the system as much as the music it plays. Placement matters. The room matters. And I'm as willing to play that game as anybody (nobody who isn't would ever have bought a Basis Debut Gold Standard turntable with a Wheaton Triplanar tonearm mounting a Koetsu cartridge back when it mattered), but I understand that arranging your speakers, your furniture and your life around the requirements of a stereo system isn't for everybody. Frankly, a Bose box (or, in a time long past, a set of 901s instead of "real" speakers) gives better results in most cases when placement is an afterthought (if it's ever a thought at all). Does it cost more than it "should"? The markup over materials may be high, but it sells well enough at the price that nobody's been inclined to reduce prices, so I'd say not.

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....)]

driverdan 13y ago

You completely missed the point. For what Bose products cost you can buy something with better quality sound or you can buy something with equivalent sound for less. Audio Technica, Beyerdynamic, Sennheiser, Sony, and others make better products for less money.

jakejake 13y ago
No they don't. The other brands make equal products for similar price, but they also make cheaper products for less money. Bose just doesn't have the cheap product line. You can buy a piece of junk Sony stereo or you can buy an expensive, high quality Sony system that is as good as Bose or any other consumer brand. With Bose you can only buy their top-of-the-line version, which is "pro-sumer" level stuff. They don't offer cheap products, and they don't offer audiophile products either. Now if you want to debate about sound quality, yes Bose has a very distinct sound that may or may not be desirable. Particularly audiophiles do not want the signal processing that Bose stuff tends to give you.

mseidl 13y ago

I am an audiophile, and you're sorely mistaken. You can get _really_ good sound quality for very 99% less than what you claim. A 6 figure sound system is a high end system. I don't believe in those expensive cables or directional ethernet cables, or power conditioners. But, like most things there is a sliding scale and diminishing returns. A 6 figure audio system would be a 100% of what you could achieve but for 2-3000$ you can get 90+% of the 6 figure system. I can't remember what magazine it was, but a couple of years ago competing against very expensive gear, a ~300$ NAD amplifier beat out other 5 figure amps for sound quality. and 2000$ speakers were the runner up up 40.000$ speakers.

stan_rogers 13y ago
You don't even have to go quite that far up the scale. A small NAD integrated amp (or even the 7225 BBE receiver if you really want a tuner) paired with, say, a pair of Paradigm Titans (or the equivalent-range PSBs or similar) and the sources of your choice would be quite satisfactory at about the same price as the Acoustic Wave with CD changer. The problem is that now you have to pay attention to placement to extract what the system has to offer. That, in a nutshell, is where the Bose all-in-ones make their living — they're nearly oblivious to placement. Imaging? Not great by any stretch of the imagination, but as long as you'r in the same room as the system, it has some. There's no sweet spot, but there isn't a sour spot either. Same deal with interference suck-out. $5K-ish, spent the right way and set up properly, will give you a system that will let you imagine you can tell whether or not the stand-up bass player had a beard. But to really get to that level, even with an unlimited budget, you really have to care about the system as much as the music it plays. Placement matters. The room matters. And I'm as willing to play that game as anybody (nobody who isn't would ever have bought a Basis Debut Gold Standard turntable with a Wheaton Triplanar tonearm mounting a Koetsu cartridge back when it mattered), but I understand that arranging your speakers, your furniture and your life around the requirements of a stereo system isn't for everybody. Frankly, a Bose box (or, in a time long past, a set of 901s instead of "real" speakers) gives better results in most cases when placement is an afterthought (if it's ever a thought at all). Does it cost more than it "should"? The markup over materials may be high, but it sells well enough at the price that nobody's been inclined to reduce prices, so I'd say not.