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The first time I heard of Bose was back in 1987. It was at a band rehearsal. One of the guys handled the rental of a PA for vocals. He brought in these black plastic boxes that looked like oversized lunch boxes, the covers snapped off with some clips, and then mounted them on tri-pods. I'm not sure if they were active or externally powered by a powered mixer. I was thinking there is no way these things are even going to be heard given our instrument amplification set up, but they sounded awesome. Never heard vocals that clear before in a rehearsal space. They were definitely overachievers. I was pretty amazed.Other than that, I heard the much talked about Wave radio at a local audio dealer, and thought it sounded like crap. I don't know that much more about them though.Cheers
Bose bashing is a complex phenomenon. The most righteous and hateful among us couldn't doubt the business model and I seriously doubt even a Bose owner would choose the sound A/B'd with what most of us would consider "acceptible".I heard a hi-fi guy say once that one's frame of reference is limited by their experience. This is necessarily true, as your own personal best could be bettered but it's really a hypothetical exercise until it actually happens. Ignorance is bliss.I think there is an essential disconnect in our minds about who is actually buying Bose products and the reasons they do so. It's generalizing, but I bet the desired function is to get better sound than a boom box. A necessary parameter is WAF. The cuboids accomplish both with flying colors. These folks don't care if there's better sound to be had. Is it 2"x2"? Ha, your giant speaker is so gaudy. Are you still in college?As audiophiles, we mistakenly assume others have the same passion for sound. My wife for instance thinks of (or admits to) sound in strictly binary terms, either we have some or we do not. If we accept this mentality in "our" customers, our goals become quite different indeed. And in that light who's the real genious? Based on sales, we're just a speck within a subset and not worthy of pursuit.Look at the bright side, buy Bose and be done with upgradeitis. We say they don't offer value, but how much would it save not to be swapping gear all the time?I know they've practiced heavyhanded tactics in their business and that's a different story. In a free market, it's hard to disparage their business model though. Know your customers, right? As it turns out, the ladies are the determinitive demographic.
I have to credit Bose for advancing more awareness of audio or HT to j6pack (at least those I know who enter into audio or HT). If they are more curious then we have wonderful internet to learn and choose the alternatives.
Gotta remember, this was way back in '87. At that time, the sound clarity they delivered for a small standmount PA speaker was really good. Mackie and Genelec didn't exist back then in PA, it was mainly Peavey and Traynor, and Martin and a few others.
what I find crazy is that no company has stepped up and challeged them in the big box stores. If Johnny fat wallet goes to Best Buy and wants "Top of the line" bose it is. There is nothing else in the price range. I am shocked that B&O are not in the US very much to compete.
Kenk,I am of course, excluding HTIB systems. Bose outlet stores can be found in virtually every major city in the United States. You will also find their displays set up in nearly every major US territory. Sure, there are other major players in the game; Harman International, Polk Audio, Paradigm, Dali, Bang and Olufson and of course, B&W - but none of those companies have exlusive outlet stores (well, B&O aside). You sure as hell haven't seen them holding contracts through the military exchange (AAFES). Roll your eyes as much as you'd like, but on average, Bose rakes in more cash in one week than some well known botique brands will make in a year.
I had 4 Bose 10.2 floorstanders in my hometheater system for 18 years and loved every minute of them. It wasn't til I got into "internet audio" and with it an "internet education" that I realized I wasn't suppose to like them so much. So I graduated from "internet schooling" with a Masters in B.S. Of course I had to upgrade to high end audio now and with a lot of help, most of it right here at AC, I now surely do have a hometheater/music system that totally blows away what I had back in the precomputer awareness days. It's funny when I think back how much I thought those Bose 10.2 loudspeakers cost me, like to break the bank buying 2 sets. But that purchase alone didn't add up to what I paid for 1 set of Odyssey Lorelei's, and of course I bought 2 sets of them too. Yep I have a better setup now and I'm still paying off credit cards 3 years later. Back in my Bose days, I never had a credit card balance. Guess I'll be paying off my "Masters in B.S." student loan for many years to come. It was well worth it IMHO. Robin
Quote from: satfrat on 24 Dec 2006, 11:03 amI had 4 Bose 10.2 floorstanders in my hometheater system for 18 years and loved every minute of them. It wasn't til I got into "internet audio" and with it an "internet education" that I realized I wasn't suppose to like them so much. So I graduated from "internet schooling" with a Masters in B.S. Of course I had to upgrade to high end audio now and with a lot of help, most of it right here at AC, I now surely do have a hometheater/music system that totally blows away what I had back in the precomputer awareness days. It's funny when I think back how much I thought those Bose 10.2 loudspeakers cost me, like to break the bank buying 2 sets. But that purchase alone didn't add up to what I paid for 1 set of Odyssey Lorelei's, and of course I bought 2 sets of them too. Yep I have a better setup now and I'm still paying off credit cards 3 years later. Back in my Bose days, I never had a credit card balance. Guess I'll be paying off my "Masters in B.S." student loan for many years to come. It was well worth it IMHO. RobinI thought I was the only one.......... I also had 4 Bose 10.2's and at the time they did what I needed them to do. Not that long ago I had the chance to directly compare a set of 10.2's to a set of Monitor Audio GS60's and was telling everybody that would listen "the Bose really aren’t that bad...give them a chance" that was until we actually started playing something. It wasn’t even close and in all honesty, I'm not even sure it was fair. The MA's had them for lunch in every way possible.At the end of the day however it was still nice to sit down with a set of 10.2's again. I have no idea why, but it was!“Hi my name is John and I have owned a Bose product…….can somebody point me in the direction of the recovering Bose owners meeting…..please?”And then there was the time my wife bought me a wave radio for Christmas one year , but that is for another day. The meeting is starting soon.
