Bose blows and then it glows!

[mthomas58]

Originally Posted by Dottore

Bose makes crap these days. Beyond bad.

My mother has a new "high-end" Bose DVD/home entertainment system. Sounds like the drive-thru speaker at McDonalds.

They are a marketing company that sells speakers.

Kind of like McDonalds - a real estate company that sells hamburgers.

[mb911]

funny I have a 10 year old 321 system And was looking the other day at them and thought wow our 10 year old system sure was a deal it still sounds great. I wonder if the quality has gone down since then?

[t951]

Take your bose system apart and look at the quality of the components.....total garbage.

Some body said it before, marketing over research.

And, it sounds like it burns......it stinks! LOL.

So, the worst part is that they use a proprietary system. I can't just swap speakers. I need to replace the head unit (which is so horrid I cannot believe it was approved as a sell-able product).

Since I am job free at this time, I cannot justify replacing a head unit, speakers, etc for this car.

My 83 911 has a sound system that SLAYS this one. AND it has never almost burnt my wife or the car!

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by 924slover

I went to the local napa to there audio guy and he sold me a set of boss audio speakers and they rock!!! they blew any previous speaker i've ever had out of the water. And they were one of the cheapest speakers there but they beat out my old sony's , blaupunkt etc. They hit hard and they are crisp and clear all while being super cheap. They make the other speakers sound like it's mushmouth singing.

My wife works for Roland, who owns Boss.
They make very high quality stuff.
I have a pair of boss studio quality headphones, I've never heard anything more crisp and clear. Maybe because they are actually made in Japan as opposed to China or Taiwan.

[m21sniper]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

Subjective. I have several Bose items including the premium audio package in my Mercedes (which is made by Bose), the noise canceling headphones (QC3), the noise canceling headphones for flying (Aviation-X) and a wave radio. I find all to be excellent products. Never had a problem or issue with any of them and they all work superbly. I neither need nor want enough bass to shake my fillings out, but they can deliver plenty. The operative word is "fidelity", not "shift the audio spectrum of a given song about 6000 Hz to the left then blast it at loud volume", which seems to be what people want these days.

I have several assorted Blaupunkt systems too and those have given mixed results from crap to fantastic. My wife's car has JBL. So far so good. Boring for the most part, but can be forced to sound good at louder volumes if you fiddle with the equalizer settings.

About every six months someone will start one of these Bose bashing threads and I just shake my head... If you don't like it, don't buy it. I think they're fine - certainly better than 90% of the other Chinese-made garbage on the audio market these days.

I'm with you. The Bose sound system in my old Cadillac Catera is the nicest factory car stereo i have ever heard.

I still have old Bose 301 Phase III's that i got in the early 90s and they still sound great. I still use them on my home stereo system. (an Onkyo, also from the early 90s).

I personally always thought Bose speakers sound better than Infinity, or Cerwin Vega.

[m21sniper]

Originally Posted by t951

My 83 911 has a sound system that SLAYS this one. AND it has never almost burnt my wife or the car!

The factory stereo in my 1983 Porsche was total garbage. (Blaupunkt)

[cairns]

"Subjective. I have several Bose items including the premium audio package in my Mercedes (which is made by Bose), the noise canceling headphones (QC3), the noise canceling headphones for flying (Aviation-X) and a wave radio. I find all to be excellent products. Never had a problem or issue with any of them and they all work superbly. I neither need nor want enough bass to shake my fillings out, but they can deliver plenty. The operative word is "fidelity", not "shift the audio spectrum of a given song about 6000 Hz to the left then blast it at loud volume", which seems to be what people want these days.

I have several assorted Blaupunkt systems too and those have given mixed results from crap to fantastic. My wife's car has JBL. So far so good. Boring for the most part, but can be forced to sound good at louder volumes if you fiddle with the equalizer settings.

About every six months someone will start one of these Bose bashing threads and I just shake my head... If you don't like it, don't buy it. I think they're fine - certainly better than 90% of the other Chinese-made garbage on the audio market these days.

I'm with you. The Bose sound system in my old Cadillac Catera is the nicest factory car stereo i have ever heard.

I still have old Bose 301 Phase III's that i got in the early 90s and they still sound great. I still use them on my home stereo system. (an Onkyo, also from the early 90s).

I personally always thought Bose speakers sound better than Infinity, or Cerwin Vega."



You guys desperately need a hearing test.

Anyone who thinks Bose makes great sounding headphones never wrapped a set of Sennheisers around their ears. If you think your Mercedes system sounds great you should try the Logic 7 in a BMW.

I currently have a Bose system in the Porsche. I have the Logic 7 in the BMW. Every one who has heard them both say the same thing- jeez when you hear them side by side the Bose sucks.

There's a reason they refuse to provide specifications for their products and there's a reason the only glowing reviews they get are from the Boston Globe or some schmuck they paid for. There's a reason they end up in pawn shops and thrift stores so quickly. And if anyone is shifting an audio spectrum it's Bose- try googling the Bose eq curve- they fatten the lower midrange to make you think it sounds good.

You guys bought marketing- not quality. Friends don't let friends buy Bose.

[t951]

Originally Posted by m21sniper

I personally always thought Bose speakers sound better than Infinity, or Cerwin Vega.

Well, those are all bottom of the barrel speakers. (Infinity has made some decent stuff at time, but mostly hit and miss).

Compare Bose with quality speakers:

For home, B&W, Paradigm, Wilson Audio, etc and then it's funny how crappy they sound

For cars; MB Quartz, Polk audio, etc. once again they sound like garbage.

Either way, what ever sounds good to your ears is what you should go with.

Ever since I heard nice audio years ago I have been a bit more picky.

But picky or not (my wife is not), these Bose speakers sounds HORRID.

[imcarthur]

You forgot Focal - both home & car.

Here's an interesting link. BOSE BLOWS

Obviously a man with an agenda but the key thing is that no Bose speaker ever has a reasonably flat & consistent frequency response. They refuse to publish a frequency response curve & always have. They use no tweeters - only midrange drivers. That means that there is no response above 10kHz & very spotty results above 6KHz or so. The human ear hears out to 20kHz. Focal's Be tweeter & B&W's diamond go up to 50kHz . . . For bass, they play tricks too. It doesn't need a smooth curve - you just bump it in the right places & the great unwashed think they have great sound.

Bose is the spray-on cheese of the audio industry.

Brilliant marketing with little substance.

Ian

[sammyg2]

I used to have a pair of these, sounded pretty darned good. If you had the watts to drive them. It would take a whole bunch to over-power them. they weighed around 300 lbs each. OK for the house or studio, prolly not practical for a car.

[m21sniper]

Originally Posted by cairns

You guys desperately need a hearing test.

Anyone who thinks Bose makes great sounding headphones never wrapped a set of Sennheisers around their ears. If you think your Mercedes system sounds great you should try the Logic 7 in a BMW.

I've never heard of "Sennheisers", and how much does a set of those headphones cost anyway, out of curiosity?

Originally Posted by cairns

I currently have a Bose system in the Porsche. I have the Logic 7 in the BMW. Every one who has heard them both say the same thing- jeez when you hear them side by side the Bose sucks.

Again, logic who?

Originally Posted by cairns

There's a reason they refuse to provide specifications for their products and there's a reason the only glowing reviews they get are from the Boston Globe or some schmuck they paid for.

Seems to me like they just got a few glowing reviews right here my friend.

Originally Posted by cairns

There's a reason they end up in pawn shops and thrift stores so quickly. And if anyone is shifting an audio spectrum it's Bose- try googling the Bose eq curve- they fatten the lower midrange to make you think it sounds good.

Funny, my Bose speakers have been sitting on my entertainment center for about 20 years now, and they still sound good.

My home stereo system has(or had, when i had the room) Infinity(center surround), Cerwin Vega(front), and Bose 301 Phase IIIs (rear surround). The Bose sound just as good as the Cerwins or the Infinity.

Originally Posted by cairns

You guys bought marketing- not quality. Friends don't let friends buy Bose.

They sound good to me. I have some hearing loss from my army days, but i have heard plenty of crappy stereos in my day, and none of them ever said "bose" on them. If they sounded like **** to me i'd be the first to say so.

[m21sniper]

Originally Posted by t951

Well, those are all bottom of the barrel speakers. (Infinity has made some decent stuff at time, but mostly hit and miss).

Compare Bose with quality speakers:

For home, B&W, Paradigm, Wilson Audio, etc and then it's funny how crappy they sound

For cars; MB Quartz, Polk audio, etc. once again they sound like garbage.

Either way, what ever sounds good to your ears is what you should go with.

Ever since I heard nice audio years ago I have been a bit more picky.

But picky or not (my wife is not), these Bose speakers sounds HORRID.

I think you guys just have more money than you know what to do with, so you feel a need for $1-2000 dollar stereo speakers.

I've never heard anyone call Cerwin Vega or Infinity "bottom of the line" before, i guess you must be at a whole different level of income than me if your idea of "cheap" is Cerwin Vega. Cerwin Vegas certainly may not be "premium", but you are the first jackal i've ever met who actually called them "cheap." I paid $300.00 a piece for my CV's almost 20 years ago. To me, and to people with regular middle class incomes, that is a lot of money, and they are very much considered "top end" when compared to magnavox, panasonic, technics, etc, etc. When i think of cheap stereos i think of Pyramid, or Panasonic.

LOL...

Honestly, you are a stereo elitist who is complaining that Bose speakers do not sound as good as top-top end speakers that probably cost 2-3x as much. What a surprise!

I paid about $400 for my Bose 301/III's almost 20 years ago, they still sound good, they have not broken down/ripped, and still handle my 400w Onkyo home stereo system(also "low end" crap by your definition, i'm sure) no problem.

[island911]

I'm with Snipe on this. Bose has some good stuff. --Whining about it not being good enough... wtf?

The OE Bose system in my wifes MBz I like a bit more (better balance) than the Bose system in my Cayenne, but both are far superior to any othe OE system I have heard. ...and MORE than adaquate for a rolling sound system.

Oh, an the Bose QC2's are the best for comfortable noise-cancelling headphones. Feel free to whine about the cost.

[m21sniper]

A friend of mine once gave me his old Bose 901 equalizer, and i hooked it up to my Onkyo. It totally transformed the sound of the whole system, made it sound like i spent 10x the price on it that i really did (i was using 12"x3 CV's, Bose 301/III's, and an Infinity Sterling for speakers). Unfortunately the ravages of time had it's way with the switches in the old 901 eq, and i was unable to get it repaired, as no manuals were available at the time(this was about 15 years ago.) REALLY bummed me out to have to go back to pre-901 eq days.

[david914]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

I used to have a pair of these, sounded pretty darned good. If you had the watts to drive them. It would take a whole bunch to over-power them. they weighed around 300 lbs each. OK for the house or studio, prolly not practical for a car.

Those are awesome speakers. Not super accurate, but clean and loud. Super efficient. Believe it or not, the originals were only rated for 50 watts RMS if I remember correctly, but at that power level would blow you away. I still have a pair of the 511B horns up in my attic.

[Dave L]

I bought these when I was 23 and working retail so they certainly were not too expensive. Perhaps a little more than Bose of Cerwin Vega but not a whole lot more. I listened to speakers back to back and determined that these offered the best sound (IN MY OPINION) for the money. Sound is subjective so some people might preffer Bose or something else but the only way to test speakers and hear the differences are to test them back to back.

B&W DM602

[imcarthur]

B&W? Now THERE is another POS . . .

Just foolin' ya . . .

Bill:

Here is a the graph of the 901 Eq.



Assuming those are 5dB jumps, that is a whole whack of eq at BOTH extremes.

Ian

[Dave L]

Originally Posted by imcarthur

B&W? Now THERE is another POS . . .

Just foolin' ya . . .

Hey they sound GREAT with my Ipod

[cairns]

Guys they're your ears and it's your money- but I would encourage anyone who is buying something new to avoid Bose- or at the very least compare their systems with others comparably priced before they buy. There is simply far too much value out there to warrant buying the crap from Framingham.

Here's a quick primer on surround sound: The A-B-Cs of Surround

Logic 7 is a Harmon Kardon proprietary product. I know it's used in BMWs but don't know what other cars might use them. I think Aston Martin uses them but am not sure.

Sennheiser makes a whole range from headphones from cheap to expensive. Here's a link to reviews: Headphone Reviews :: Headphone Review System As you can see from viewing the site there are a whole range of headphones out there.

And here's a link to a place that sells good quality moderately priced equipment: Audio Advisor

I have 35 year old speakers that I paid around $400 for too. JBL 4311s. Until I got new crossovers and refoamed them I thought they sounded pretty good. But no speaker is going to last that long and still really sound good as the materials degrade- the surrounding foam becomes stiff and brittle, electronic components wear out as does the paper and other materials in the cones themselves. The 4311s were the sine que non of their day- used in recording studios throughout the world- for example, they were used to mix Abbey Road. And while they still sound good they are no comparison for the B&W 805s or 804s I use in my surround system- much less the 801s I use for the stereo. (or the Dynaudios I would LOVE to have).

If you think they sound good I challenge you to bring home a new moderately priced speaker (say a B&W 600 series) and A/B them. I promise you will be amazed.

I just hate to see people through their money away on crap. And Bose, in my and the vast majority of opinions, is pure crap. You can do some research and listen before you buy or just believe their hype and think you're getting good sound.

[David]

I think the key is that Bose caters to car companies. I know they used to have, and I assume still have, their own test track.