Bose -- weird or not?

[panfriedcharlie]

I went into a Bose outlet store out of curiosity. While I was initially impressed with the sounds coming out of the systems, I started to notice some weird effects. It was all kind of sea-sickey -- like something you feel when you when you have two stereo channels out of phase with one another. I also heard a weird kind of pulsing (that I don't hear at home) in the bass guitar. I didn't like it at all. The salesman also demoed a two speaker emulation of 5.1 surround. That just made me feel weird.

What is the general professional opinion of Bose speakers, receivers, etc?

Also, <i>what in the heck</i> are they doing to that audio in terms of DSP to get those supposedly pleasurable spatial effects?

And does anybody knows what records might be out there that use similar processing for effect?

Thanks!

[Theron D]

Bose is all marketing. I recently purchased a Mazda 6 with the upgraded BOSE stereo system. It sounds horrible, no highs, no lows.....we call it BOSE....

TD

[tkheadroom]

BOSE = Bring Other Sound Equipment

[drmorbius]

Paul Harvey seems to like his.

[MichaelAlan]

They have those cool noise cancelling headphones. But for $300....pass. If Bose sounds so good how come they're not in studios?

[chetatkinsdiet]

back in the day, the old 902s on the stands were cool. What was that....mid 60s? The little bedside clock radio/cd players are cool and sound better than my sony dream machine, but what the heck....$250+ for an alarm clock?

Other than that....their stuff is just goofy and overpriced.

I've heard some guys that like those new PA systems that they're hawking all over the place. I guess they'd work ok in the right setting....coffee houses, school auditoriums, etc. They just aren't for me.

later,
m

[lutopia]

I've heard some guys that like those new PA systems that they're hawking all over the place. I guess they'd work ok in the right setting....coffee houses, school auditoriums, etc. They just aren't for me.

What's with those things anyway? Has anyone ever heard them in action? I thought the old Bose PA's were always very weak for live music applications. Are these new things any better? Just curious.

[hammertime]

My dad got one of those little bose stereos, not upon my advice. I never liked the sound -- it always sounded pinched and overcompressed. I actually still have it in the garage, but I prefer my 20 dollar clock radio. I like that commmercial though with Herbie Hancock, where he shows you can't tell the difference between his playing and what's playing on the Bose -- especially if you're watching the commmercial on a t.v. with a 3 inch mono speaker.

[Stephen]

Bose made one good thing: Power Amps. Those bastards were indestructable and had gas to boot. About their speakers: Burn 'em.
Pax, Steve

[glagola1]

I blame Bose for starting the little speaker craze! I'm so fucking sick of little speakers that make a ton of hi's and weird blowy puffy base. Not one bose system makes tight bass.

I miss the good ole days when men were men and bose was just a glimmer in some asswipes eye. You had to buy speakers... and a reciever... and a CD player.

[hammertime]

I was watching "The Kids are Allright" the other day, and the stage monitors on their last tour were Bose. Not that it's going to make me get that little stereo out of the garage.

Bose made one good thing: Power Amps. Those bastards were indestructable and had gas to boot. About their speakers: Burn 'em.
Pax, Steve

[fedexnman]

bose yeah marketing, i like klipsch for speakers and harmon-kardon or denon receivers n cd players, definetly denon on cd players though.....

[chetatkinsdiet]

I'm a McIntosh amp/preamp guy myself. For speakers I've got a pair of Yamaha NS-1000 speakers/monitors. They're like the monster versions of NS-10s...but they sound good....really good. And they can handle the 400+ watts of the McIntosh very well. Huge, heavy speakers...well over 100 pounds ea.
later,
m

[thunderboy]

I was doing my Christmas - oops...Holiday - shopping last week when I happened upon Saks 5th Ave. They have this big Holiday lighting display that they do every half-hour or something. The show includes some crappy Holiday techno music. As I could find nothing else about it to be interested in, I wondered what they were using for SR as it actually sounded pretty good (considering the situation). After a minute of scouring the face of the building, I realized that they had mounted a row of the new Bose personal-PA thingies across the facade. They were obviously weatherproofed, and colored off-white to help them blend in a bit, though the subs were charcoal/black (how I missed them I can't say...).

So that is a situation where their new stuff seems to work out OK.

Of course, the only other time I have heard one was at GC, where they were pumping their CD player through it to show it off. It was incredibly noisy with quite a bit of clipping, though I suspect there was some user error involved in that.

jt

[8th_note]

Comment #1: Bose gear is designed by people who don't really enjoy listening to music.

Comment #2: Bose started their outlet stores because their speakers sound so bad against other brands that they had to sell them in an environment without competition.