Question:
is bose the best sound system?
Pikolo
2011-04-05 23:30:47 UTC
is bose the best sound system?
Six answers:
Veato
2011-04-06 01:03:36 UTC
No, not at all. They're ok but for the money you can do better. Clever marketing and technobabble sell Bose stuff. Check out proper audiophile forums and see what they say.
Paul in San Diego
2011-04-06 13:02:14 UTC
In a word, no.



When Bose first started off in the 1970s, they sought to develop innovative speaker designs that theoretically would produce a sound experience that no other product could deliver. And, whether those innovations delivered superior sound quality was highly debatable. But, they aggressively marketed their products in a wide variety of mass media, capitalizing on the fact that, if you tell a lie enough times, people will believe it.



Their first innovation was what they called a direct-reflecting speaker system. Quite simply, the speakers were either two-way (woofer and tweeter) or three-way (woofer, midrange, and tweeter), where the tweeter had an adjustable vane (panel or wing) in front of it, where the listener could direct a selected portion of the high frequency sounds toward the sides of the room. Since the high frequencies are very directional (the listener can easily tell where they're coming from), the theory was that the sound would then bounce off of the side walls, creating a wider spatial effect. And, I suppose that's fine, as long as only one person is listening from the exact same place in the room all the time.



Their next big innovation was to have a speaker with an array of 4-1/2 inch drivers that would reproduce all of the audible frequencies from 20 Hz to 20 KHz, instead of having large speakers (woofers) producing the low frequencies and small speakers (tweeters) producing the high frequencies. The idea was that, if you needed a certain surface area on a speaker cone to move enough air to produce the low frequencies, why not use an array of smaller speaker cones with a similar total surface area all firing in unison? And, why not use that same size driver to produce the highs? They could then point the drivers in all different directions and achieve their "direct-reflecting" system without the movable vanes.



The problem is that the smaller speaker cones moving in unison could not reproduce the low end as faithfully as one large woofer cone. And, the 4-1/2 inch cones were too big to move fast enough to effectively reproduce the highs. So, Bose included an equalization (tone control) unit that boosted the high frequencies and it boosted the harmonics of the low frequencies. A harmonic is a multiple of a given frequency. For example, if you have a 20 Hz (very low bass) signal, you can boost the signal at 40 Hz (20 Hz x 2) and it tricks your brain into thinking it's hearing an actual 20 Hz tone. So, they were boosting the upper bass signals that their drivers could reproduce, hoping that people would think the lowest frequencies were actually there.



Well, it didn't quite work. The result (I think, as do most other experienced audio listeners) that Bose speakers are very boomy and muddy at the low end, due to their inability to faithfully reproduce those frequencies. And, they're very hissy at the high end, due to the extreme equalization (tone boost) at the high end. Hence the running joke, "No highs, no lows. Must be Bose."



But, Bose's marketing worked. They advertised in all kinds of media: Radio, TV, newspapers, magazines, etc. So, everyone has heard of Bose. And they tout their technological innovations that are unlike any in the audio industry (which is true, because no one else thinks it's any good). They also charge premium prices for their equipment, which leads people to believe that it's top-of-the-line equipment. But, those high prices are a smokescreen to make people think Bose has quality products, as well as a way to recoup their large expenditures on mass marketing.



I suppose, though, that there are some Bose fans out there who think it's the best thing since sliced bread. And, that's their prerogative. Bottom line, though, is that the best equipment out there is the equipment that you think sounds the best for your money. And, if that's Bose, so be it. But, you're really missing out on a lot of superior - and less expensive - products on the audio market.
anonymous
2011-04-06 06:29:24 UTC
Is this a real question? From the way they advertise their stuff one would think that they are the very finest, most accurate audiophile quality sound gear available. There are people called "audiophiles" who constantly strive to archive the finest, most accurate and realistic reproduction of sound. They have forums and discussion groups. One would think, from the Bose marketing, that most of them would have Bose equipment. They don't and quite frankly, in those circles, Bose is considered a joke. Have a look for yourself:

http://www.Audioasylum.com

http://www.Avsforums.com

http://www.audioholics.com/

http://www.audiophiletalk.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl

There are more but that is enough.

In a nutshell, Bose equipment is designed to trick the ear rather than to reproduce accurate sound. For instance when one listens to a true high fidelity system one will hear the entire audio spectrum. The thing that impresses most people who have never heard such a system is it's ability to reproduce very high treble and very low bass. Bose mimics this by designing their speakers to produce a sharp spike in the 7,000 cps region for treble and one in the 55 cps region for bass. There is little to no response above and below and there is even a hole in the lower midrange, a region they have determined is unimportant. This allows Bose to eliminate the need for tweeters and midrange speakers. This cuts costs but it also causes considerable distortion and is far from accurate and realistic reproduction of sound. However most people can't pick up this distortion and lack of fidelity. They hear highs and lows and that's enough. If Bose gear was on a price level with, for instance, LG equipment, this might be acceptable. But it's rather high priced. Deceptive if you asked me.
agb90spruce
2011-04-06 06:31:36 UTC
Some people like it, but no-one with any knowledge of audio would EVER say Bose is the best. About the best I can say is it's not the worst. To put it bluntly Bose is over-hyped, mediocre equipment sold at an outrageously elevated price to gullible people who don't know any better.
BANG P
2011-04-06 04:24:29 UTC
Nope.
Mopar Muscle Gal
2011-04-05 23:31:31 UTC
yes it is

its amazing


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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