Is Bose the most successful speaker company?

[Kain]

Think about it. Bose makes crap speakers, charges like 100% more than they are really worth, and still makes them sell like crazy.

[tpg]

Despite how horrible their speakers are some people jjst don't have a good enough ear to tell they are bad. My friend has some... I could not stand to listen to them. The price makes people think they are good, so they buy them thinking they are decent... and can't hear the difference. But they do appear to be more popular...

[kenratboy]

Business wise, they kick @ss. I mean, they have like 3 people doing R&D, and 1000's in marketing and sales! What a way to make money.

Anyway, you know they all drive Porsche's with the Bose option, how else would they afford it?

[skonopa]

It is because they have such a huge marketing campaign and able to sell them in just about everthing including the corner market. Yeah, they may sound like crap to us that have a clue as to what good sound should be, but to the typical John Q. Public that walks into the local Best Buy, those Bose are going to look and sound high-end compared to that junk sitting next to them in the display.

Also, how often does "WAF", as in Wife Approval/Acceptance Factor come up. It seems that the women like those cute little speakers and not the big behemoths that we all seem to like.

They also appeal to the "yuppie" set with the sleek looks. A classic example of "form over function".

I'll admit that Bose is not "the worst" speakers out there. I have certainly heard worse, but the problem I have with Bose is that it is probably the worst price-to-performance ratio - at least in the realm of what "normal" consumers can afford. You can get speakers of equivalent quality and performance for much less than what Bose is asking. Also, for the same amount of money that Bose wants for their stuff, you can get much better speakers.

Bose - Buy Other Sound Equipment

Bose - Built Of Shoddy Equipment

[DrWho]

lol, to be honest i think what bose does is kinda cool. granted it sounds like crap, but i think it's cool how they use fake sounds to make something very close to the real thing. we've got both bose and klipsch PA systems at my church. yes the klipsch is way better, but the bose is fun to try an break...crank up them bose without the special pre-amp thing and they sound really funny it's cool to note u get the same sound when u use the pre-amp with the klipsch speakers. i don't know how it all works, but it's kinda cool to see what they're tryin to do.

(btw, the speakers im using are like 10 years old...i've never had the chance to try out the newer pro-audio gunk from either company)

[Mighty Favog]

I once worked at a store that sold the Bose 901, 601, 501 and 301's. The 601 is the only one I remotely liked the sound of. The 901's just had absolutely NO bass pressure at all. Even after figgiting with the little EQ box you ned to run them. They may have looked elegant but YECHHHH!

Yes, WAF does go up because now she has more room for doilies, Oprah and Martha Stewart creations.

[kenratboy]

Yes, I think Bose looks good.

Also, Bose is the only audio equiptment I would enjoy destroying! I would feel bad about destroying a pair of Yamaha bookshelfs, because they are the best they can be for the money.

It's like car and airplane nuts. It is physically painful to see a nice car or airplace get destroyed, but for me, dead Bose makes me happy.

[audiogod79]

k

[cluless]

You guys have almost come up with a new syndrome....

Bose-a-Phobic..

[skonopa]

Aww man, I was listening to some of that KLH junk. Man, does it sound horrible. To tell the truth, the Bose stuff sounds much better. I did a side-by-side test between the KLH (forget the model number) and the Bose 701s just to see if a $110 pair of speakers would sound better than Bose's $900 pair. Nope, the Bose was a much better sounding speaker in this case (and to give Bose credit, the 701s are actually not a bad sounding speaker - if I had no choice but to go with Bose, I would take the 701s). We are talking very boxy, muddy sound from the KLH towers and the KLH subwoofer is so friggan boomy and muddy, it made it painful to listen to. But than again, what do you expect from a pair of $110 floorstanders and a $99 sub?

In the local Best Buy (yes, I was bored one saturday afternoon), the nicest stuff they had was the JBL Studio series. The JBL S312 actually had a very good sound to them. Very tight, clean bass and nice, clear highs that actually exhibited some good dynamics. But for the same price, I'd still take the Klipsch RF-3 II over them.

[Stephen328]

BOSE is aweful. THey really have the advertising down though.

[marksdad]

BOSE RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!! oops, please excuse me i was thinking of my klipsches. BOSE SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[PYRO]

One word........stupidity!

[lovedrummin]

tblasing,

I had a pair of the Bose 601s that I bought in 1980. At that time they were a good speaker and I also thought the 901s were not worth the extra couple hundred they wanted for them. When I started getting ready to put a surround system together I began looking at the Bose cubes. Then the young lad at BestBuy let me hear the 301s and I figured if I was going to go with Bose I'd go with 301s all around with a center channel and a sub. Then a friend played his Energy Take 5 system and Bose was completely out of the question for me. Then I was checking out Klipsch Synergy, Polk, Mirage, Sanus Faber, back to Klipsch and finally ended up with Klipsch RB5IIs,RC3II,RS3IIs and a KSW12 sub. The Klipsch speakers gave me the goose bumps that I got back in 1980 when I bought the 601s. I Love My Klipsch. It's like hearing alot of my classic rock for the first time.

[minn_male42]

I feel that it comes down to this. Bose systems have limited and poor frequency response. This has been shown by outside reviewers (http://www.intellexual.net/bose.htm) This reviewer shows the frequency response of the bose stuff.

People who love bose do it for one of two reasons.

a. They are truly ignorant of the basic facts about audio systems, what is out there, and what good audio really sounds like.

b. They are trying to justify their expensive plastic boxes mounted on their walls. "Of course it sounds good, I spent $2500 on this system." (or $1000, $1500 or whatever)

If you have done any research online...(yes, taking it for what's it worth) don't spend a dime on bose with out listening to alot of other stuff first. If you don't bother to listen to other stuff, then you deserve what you get.

[E3T]

I just removed the BOSE..."stuff" from my church and am (little at a time) replacing with KLIPSCH. Just the little I have put in, the sound is very noticably better.

[jdm56]

Let's break down "successful"---

"suc", as in SUCKS;

"cess", as in CESSPOOL. And we all know what is in cesspools;

and "full", as in full of s--t (the stuff in cesspools).

So now we see that "successful" as it relates to Bose, actually means "sucks cesspools full of s--t.

Obviously then, Bose is indeed very successful!

[Dale W]

Come on guy's tell me what you really think !!! hope no one from bose visits our little gab group or they might insert a demon cookie and kill us all lol .

success by bose is measured in shear sales numbers "NOT QUALITY " you have to remember these guys are on contract with some big players like general moters. thats no small fish and garbage or not numbers are numbers.

Now i'm not 100% talking out my *** today, i did own a pair of those 801's with the multi directional tweeters on the top.And yes i cooked them but good, too much rye and not enough woofer. OH WELL!! bought them at a garage sale for $200.00 canadian and we drank that much in rye so it all balanced out the next day.

[pgh]

A friend of mine told me the other day that he recently had the chance to spend some time with Sidney Greenstreet, employee #1 of Bose.

Or was it he said - DID some time?

Anyway, I believe Mr. Greenstreet's title is "Head Pimp And All-Around Good Liar."

Bose IS the great prostitute of the audio industry.

I hope Klipsch can avoid that pitfall. Sure seem to be "growing"/expanding awfully fast.

I've told this story before, but my first visit to Hope involved a tour of the factory, and my guide was an Electrical Engineer from MIT, who worked in the Klipsch R&D department.

Kinda makes you wonder why he was giving tours!?

MIT's where Dr. Bose taught Wood Working 101, ya know.

Anyone gotta mint - I have this nasty Bose taste in my mouth.