THE SECRETS BOSE NEVER WANTED YOU TO FIND OUT
Vložit
- čas přidán 16. 03. 2024
- For more of my content subscribe to
@ThatGuyWithTheBeard
Bose, one of the most recognizable brands in home audio is either loved or hated. That has never been more apparent to me than after reading all the comments on my original Bose Exposed video, people either love or hate BOSE. But the one thing reading those comments and doing more digging taught me, it’s that the controversy and conspiracy behind bose goes much deeper than I originally thought. This is a video that I produced for you but more importantly everything in this video is by you. So to all of our viewers, thank you for contributing and continue to do so in this video and in the future. Spam the comments with your opinions because unlike many other channels. We want you to be a part of this one… - Věda a technologie
Subscribe to www.youtube.com/@thatguywiththebeard for my next documentary
My Uncle owns some (most) of their relevant patents, BOSE Stole them for their subwoofers and enclosures.
He was threatened by BOSE and also got, and framed, a cease and desist letter stating from BOSE “We have more money and lawyers than you, we will keep you in litigation forever.” - in much more high tech lawyer jargon obviously.
My uncle passed away, and got exactly ZERO from BOSE, except maybe a headache, Etc… it would be nice for his family to finally get what they deserve, so sad.
He was a speaker engineer for JBL, QSC, AVI, Millson, as well as many others. He was also a dedicated magazine contributer / reviewer. For both home audio publications, as well as auto sound magazines. Back in the day.
I stand to gain absolutely nothing from this post. I just wanted to share it with you. R.I.P - Howard “ACE” Doctor (he had nothing to do with their crappy clock radio drivers! Just their subwoofers designs and enclosures! 🙃🤣)
@@doctersound9630 I guess you could blame your Uncle for not acting on a patent. thats what its for.
He tried. Not enough money to fight forever. They kept him in court until he died. Thanks. Didn't really want to go there... :( @@gregsz1ful
We once had a stereo shop in our town named, "Stereo Dungeon".
They would not let me leave without dragging me into the basement for a 901 demo.
After which I said, "Now I know where you got your name; you drag people into the dungeon and torture them with 901s .
I had a friend with some 901's. You HAD to have the EQ adjusted in a V-pattern (sold separately) for them to even sound acceptable.
@@IntegerOfDoom the EQ is preset for correction except slight adjustments.
The biggest secret that leaked is the phrase.."no highs, no lows, must be Bose" which became a big thing among audiophiles.
It's more like: No highs, No lows, No definition, No depth, No stereo field, must be Bose
We used to say at a previous gig, a self-declared audiophile is not an audiophile. I have yet to see this not be the case 😅
I came here to say this, but ya beat me to it. Lol
I hear that, but how many people out there make a smiley face on their eq? Or have the bass and treble knobs cranked up, just because?
They sold the mandatory EQ for just that purpose.@@mlconley
In about 2005 I was working in a hi fi shop outside of Washington DC, and a young couple walked in. The girl was a gorgeous blonde, and the dude had rugged good looks, but somehow I knew right away that they were going to steal something. We had Meridian, B&W, McIntosh, Runco, Sony ES etc....and Bose. I walked directly back to the manager's office and told him all hands-on deck to watch these people.
Sure enough, the girl soon grabbed the Bose near the front door and ran out with the dude and got into their car. But my manager had been waiting for them outside, so he jumped in his shiity Civic and went on a high-speed chase until he eventually cornered them in a culdesac and called the police.
We both testified them in court and they were both extradited back to Oregon lol. Anyway that's my only good Bose story.
Did the scumbags go down
@@CaptainDarrick She does...often
@@charliesargent6225 Ooooohh
KEEP IT SHORT AND SWEET.
I bought a set of 901s in 1978. They sounded good as long as the room was built for them. If you moved, you started all over again setting up your new listening room. Hassle. Sold them after 6 months, lost $150 in the sale. Bought a set of Klipsch Heresy's series 1 and never looked back. Nuff said.
I was once booted from a Bose training meeting at a dealer for asking too many questions that they refused to answer and then pressing for an answer when they sidestepped them. I'm talking actual spec questions like actual power ratings, impedance, frequency range, etc. The final straw was when I asked whether or not they were manipulating anything in their processing.
Reminds me of having lunch with a well known MLM, asked too many questions that they couldn't answer.
I worked in the audio industry for two decades. I've read probably a thousand or more reviews over the years. I've seen many renowned reviewers when reviewing a new product would state the following... "When we hooked this up to test equipment the specs were amazing, we couldn't wait to listen, only to be disappointed at the actual sound quality". I've never seen a reviewer say.. "The testing results in our lab were so darned good... we didn't bother to listen". Don't you trust your ears to tell you what sounds good?
“… whether or not they were manipulating anything in their processing”
I would assume “yes.” Kind of the point of processing, isn’t it?
If it's not end to end analog then its being manipulated by definition (and to be pedantic, amplification is manipulation too) what kind of a question is that?
@@airthrowDBTI think it was a poor choice of words. I get the feeling they were asking "Is it being fed through an adaptive equalizer that has been coded to automatically tunes specific songs to sound better, just for the purpose of this demonstration?" Or perhaps "Would this audio recording sound normal on any other system, or did it have to be manipulated heavily to sound good on this system? I.E. Is it a" clean" recording, or "boosted" specifically for this product demonstration?"
Edit: Spoiler : It's #2. I've thrown their recordings into a good pro SACD system running on planar magnetics and it is... Bad. It sounds like those YT amateur" bass boost" edits, with the highs spiked so sybilant that it sounds almost like a plastic bag rustling. At least that was my experience when working for a HIGH-END AV/home theater equipment store.
Those planar magnetic towers cost $32K each at the time... more than a couple of decades ago... and that's per speaker, not per pair. Out of my budget, but I sure had fun with them at work!
My opinion of Bose has changed a lot over the last 30 or so years.
When I was young, I thought they were awesome. But that's for a couple of reasons. One, I was buying into the marketing hype. Two, my experience with audio at the time was limited mostly to cheap boomboxes and bookshelf systems. So, just about anything would sound better than that.
But as I grew up and got more into the audio hobby, I learned about how Bose sued magazines that give their equipment a bad review, how their equipment was demo'd (separated from the competition and using music tailored to compensate for their deficiencies), how their speakers were susceptible to foam rot, the cabinets were made from lower grade particle board, how their acoustimass subs would catch on fire, etc. My opinion of them did a complete 180. I was definitely in the camp of "Buy Other Sound Equipment".
Nowadays, my opinion on them has softened. Since they've stopped trying to convince the public that their equipment is high-end, and they've moved into being a more lifestyle oriented brand, I think they have finally found their niche.
No, they haven't changed at all. They try to sell you $200 headphones that are worth 50 bucks. BLOSE CAN KISS MY AZZ
Not a high end brand??? Lol a set of Bose wireless Bluetooth headphones is well over $400
I don’t even think they sound that good as original equipment and cars.
Bose - Anything I hate more than bad sound is when it's coming at me from all directions!
Haha
Love it 😍.... LoL
And when you're paying a fortune for it as well.
The only Boes product I've enjoyed were the NC700 headphones. It does an exceptional job of canceling out crying babies on airplanes haha.
With a public that doesn't know what good sounding mixes are today, all of this is a moot point.
I used to sell home and car audio at Best buy way back in the day (mid 90s). Each brand has their own demo area, but they were steps apart from each other. Customers would ALWAYS come in wanting bose. I'd play a Harry Connick Jr track, and ask them to pay attention to his voice. I'd then have them walk over and listen to the same track in Cambridge Soundworks. (Both sub/sat systems.). 95% of the customers were stunned, and would almost always buy the cheaper better Cambridge. Sometimes, I'd let them hold the satellites, where they would feel light cheap plastic (bose) vs. Properly dense and weighty Cambridge.
The 301s are alright. But that's about it. Acoustimass just sucks in the 100hz to 400hz range. Make voices were just anemic.
it's impossible to get good sound in the 100-400hz range with such a tiny driver that the acoustimass was using. The small speakers ran out before the subwoofer's crossover kicked in
I still have a 90's era Cambridge Sound works system that blows people away for the audio for the size
To be fair, Bose's cube speakers had a little bit of heft to them. I wouldn't say that they felt light or that they looked like cheap plastic. You have to admit that they were pretty sharp looking even if you're not a fan.
@@paulweston8184 @paulweston8184
Compared to the Cambridge Soundworks, they were more expensive, had much less heft, and sounded worse. They did look better. (I sold them in the 90s.)
I had a CSW Ensemble II surround system in the late 90s/early 2000s. I was jealous of my buddy who had the original Ensemble with the 2 woofers vice the box. Great system for the money.
Growing up under the shadow of 1 Mountain Rd, I worked for Bose from '88 to '91. I have stories. We called it "better off somewhere else." Or I called it "better sound through massive equalization"
I graduated from the electronics program a local voc tech school and worked in production, customer service and QC for the original acoustic wave music system and the series II. I may drop a few stories tomorrow, but I'll tell you this; the original AWMS cost $230 and sold for around $850. The series 2 sold for $1k and they got their cost down to $175 (in 1989.)
Please share some inside baseball, I also am an electronics tech who went to tech school, fascinating stuff
Huge margin there! I’d like to hear some stories too!
@@waynez1025 his phone rang. remember...more lawyers than engineers
II have had 301s and 501s back in the day. I still have the 301s They sounded good then and now. The 501s sounded great, but when the surrounds rotted as they did on MANY brands during that time period, it was very hard to get the grill off to work on them. That being said. Bose made some great sounding speakers. Not the best imaging, but they way they spread the sound around the room, it sounded good pretty much all through the room. So... forget the later acoustimass Junk. Don't buy it, but they have made some nice equipment in the past.
I think that Bose made some fine sounding speakers. The 501s, 601s, the original 701s, and the 10.2s - all had a character of their own and had desirable attributes that id consider 'hi-fi'. But this video perfectly illustrated where they went sideways. Much of the technology that Bowe employed was not their own. For example, Bose did not research nor develop technology such as waveguide, transmission line, or bandpass, yet they claimed their R&D developed these 'technologies' which were already decades old by the 70s.
I'm not a Bose fan, but I think brand and marketing should be left out of the equation when purchasing a sound system. As consumers we should be able A B compare as much as possible. Blindfolded would be best to be fair to all brands and designs.After all, at the end of the day it's about the SOUND we personally like better.
Do it that way and you'll never pick Bose. So Bose takes pains to avoid a side by side comparison scenario.
Name me a shop that will let you do a blindfold ab and set that all up for you. Then volume match it and blindfold you. Not happening... The only way it would happen if you bought all the gear to do the ab and return the losing gear. You could do a few peices of gear this way but not dozens. The upfront cost the storage, return delivery and the time involved. If the gear is very high end the shop might set up 3 sets of gear for you, provided you buy one of them and you have like a really good relationship. So most people will have to go on advise of experts like what hifi, absolutr sound etc to narrow it down. Then again the shop might only stock some of the brands not all 😒. So your ab will be severely limited.
Over the years, they have made a load of rubbish alongside some excellent products. However, they are all sold for top prices regardless of quality. So unless you do your research or can return the product, avoid.
@@Turboy65wrong
In the early 70's my Bose dealer would advertise Bose 901 for $99 a pair. But you couldn't buy the unless you also bought $1200 FOR THE MAGIC BOX.
I used to love Bose. I remember hearing the 901’s and falling in love with them. In the nineties, I purchased the Acoustimas 5 speakers because they sounded phenomenal in the showroom. I had to move the subwoofer around a lot in the room and I finally got them to sound very good. Eventually I gave them to my brother in law and I purchased vintage equipment which sounded a lot better. I lost the respect I had for Bose. They aren’t terrible speakers, but there are a lot of speakers out there that are just as good and even better for less money. Thank you for sharing this video with us.
I worked at Sears selling A/v back in the mid/late-90's. Bose completely controlled pricing, and commission. The 301's were the only worthy product they made. RIP Advent.
While Advents were better than Bose, I sold speakers in the late 80's at an electronics store where we actually hooked everything up. There was a lot of fanfare that our small chain was going to carry Advents. When we finally got them in, I thought they were also an overrated speaker.
Purchased 301s in the 90s, then installed vintage altec Lansing drivers, completely woke up the 301s. The Bose drivers were nothing special, but the enclosure was designed well.
Wrong dummy the 901s were the best
@@damonappel Advent had some issues in the 70s, and I believe got bought out. If you heard some made in the mid-70s you would understand their reputation. I had the Larger Advents for several years - really nice sounding speakers.
@oldtop4682 I love my advents do you know what year is the cutoff year for the good stuff?
Hi there the Just Audio team, I feel honered that my the Acustamass speaker series comment 'Complete and Utter Junk' was among those highlighted for this video. I had no idea it would generate 418 replys. I did follow and read them, along with an ocassional comeback of my own. I always look forward to watching your new video's. Thanks.
When I sold stereo’s in the mid 70’s, we had separate rooms for a number of manufacturers. This included Bose but the Bose speakers only collected dust. The rooms with ADS and Bozak speakers would help sell those speakers. They were paired with the best electronics like McIntosh, Nakamichi, Yamaha, and Dynaco.
Macintosh, hell yeah. That's what I'm talking about.
I had a pair bose 301 speakers, yamaha receiver, Panasonic cassette deck technics turntable. It all sounded awesome after I replaced the woofers with rockford fosgate woofers. All this was in the 1980s.
Car drivers in home speakers is stupid plain and simple
I was a Bose Professional Products dealer in the 90's! There were no limitations on how I demonstrated or compared the speaker systems. I sold and installed a ton of 402's, 802's, 502's and the Acoustimass 12" subs. We installed these in churches, schools, civic centers etc and they always sounded great. We had many compliments on the audio quality. I also used these systems to do live sound gigs and only a handful of artists had issues, mostly because someone told them not to use Bose. We made believers out of some. The portability for that time period was amazing! In my opinion they were some of the best speakers ever made for live sound productions. Sadly I no longer have any Bose products (except a Wave radio) as I sold my last system a few years ago. It's still in use today with some of the components nearing 30 years old. I'm still sold on Bose!
Thats cool, I mean you found a particular niche where your customers were pleased with the characteristics of the equipment. But in the end, I have to say that you learned to recognize the correct audience for the product as opposed to just trying to force the product onto any unknowing customers - which says more about your integrity as a salesperson than about the overall quality of the brand. I respect that.
In 1988 i did AB comparison of Bose vs other brands in a room at Circuit City(large US chain) Got 901's I hung from my 10 ft ceiling for front, 401's rear on shelves and 2-201's in series for center. Onkio pro 90 receiver/amp. Still rocks to no end and with no end in sight.
I had some limited dealings with the pro products and they weren't bad, although they were massively equalized. If you understand op amps and positive and negative feedback, that's how they achieve the eq curve - it's amazing at that time what they were able to achieve using a circuit design program called spice.
I’m glad someone liked them.
@@MrBigShotFancyPants That's the secret sauce with Bose from back in the day isn't it? The end user had to really, really want to dig in and figure out exactly what position, orientation, and mounting method would achieve the sound quality that Bose advertised in their promotional materials. Like you mentioned hanging the 901s - I've done it and I really liked it, but you know, convincing the spouse doesn't always come easy. Also convincing the spouse that despite the substantial investment we had made so far, we really do need a decent sub. Cause you know, The Dude would tell you that the sub really ties the room together.
I still have one of those old acoustic wave designs with a tape deck. For almost 40 years now. I was in elementary school when I got it brand new from my father. These days I use it exclusively as speakers for various devices. The radio still works, the tape deck died decades ago, but it can still blast anything that can plug into it. Most recently it has been hooked up to my Steam Deck when playing it in my backyard.
I have no loyalty to Bose, but given that I have had one of their radios since almost as long as I can remember and have used it a ton, Bose is connected to a lot of my memories over the years. So I do tend to think fondly of them. Though I suspect if I had actually paid for it myself, my feelings might be different.
addendum: I also see some humor in a 40 year old device being used as speakers for a modern handheld. (for a portable, the Steam Deck sounds fine, but as the automotive junkies would say, there is no replacement for displacement.)
The acoustic wave idea isn't original......stromberg. Carlson had a radio back in the 1930s that used the same technique....called the acoustic labyrinth......
In 1994, I trialed the Acoustimass 5 Series 2 system (ported subwoofer, tiny cube satellites). The subwoofer produced a monotone response (despite many efforts to find some sort of acoustic 'sweet spot' in my room), and the tiny satellites produced a top end that was not very well defined. Horn-loading the bottom end by facing the woofer port into a corner of the room helped, but this was a silly place for the woofer to be. Female vocals suffered due to the limitations of the satellites. My view was, and remains, that sub/sat systems might be okay for television and computers; but they do not provide a quality listening experience for music.
Approximately 30 years later and i still love and play my Acoustimass 5 speakers daily.
I have mine as the surround set in my old school analog setup.
I used one of those for sound in a Cafe, if set up well they work very nice for that.
I feel bad for you all. But as they say. Ignorance is bliss.
That is exactly who Bose designs their speakers for, the average consumer who doesn't want to spent any time comparing speakers or listening to them closer.
It's a "hey that sounds quite good" and then forget about it sound.
@@rollingslothmachine3431 once I get my speakers positioned I do hope to forget about them. I need all my time to keep the turntable perfectly balanced and the forces on needle perfect . :-)
I inherited my dads Bose 901s a few years ago that he bought new in NYC back in 88-89. Receiver & amp setup would pump 450 watts to each speaker which is what the 901s were rated for. I just remember as a kid they rocked the house. We used them for a few years for or 7.2 surround system and they did OK and I mean just ok because we couldn’t use the Bose equalizer on our receiver and they were recently replaced with Klipshe towers with atmos built in. The 901s are now in our bedroom with our old 7.2 receiver but via the Zone 2 out, then to the Bose equalizer, and a hi-fi mini-amp that feeds about 250 watts to each speaker and has bass / treble adjusts. They sound amazing again & it’s the best that I’ve heard these speakers in nearly 20 years. Sitting in bed is like being surrounded with sound and it’s great, plenty of bass and zero need for a sub. If that’s something you don’t fancy, turn them the other way, so the speakers are facing you directly lol
I worked for an electronics retailer a long time ago and can confirm most of this. The store loved to sell them because of the profit margin. We were not allowed to do A/B demos, which was weird because we had them in the demo room... On a slow night I decided to tinker with them. On the demo unit I was able to get around the demo and put in the same movie that was on the demo. Sounded horrible. Hooked up some bookshelf speakers and had some one come in and listen. They asked, "why are we listening to the TV speakers? I also did installs and hated lying to the customer about their purchase.
Early in my "DJ Career" (2000's), I used the Bose 802 tops and a 502 BP sub. They sounded great when you had the proprietary Bose EQ module hooked up. You could also put them pretty much anywhere in the room and still get great sound. Not true with most modern systems/subs.
The 3.5” transducers could pump out decent sounds, but REQUIRED substantial equalization to achieve a flat curve.
Great topic. Obviously most of the Bose speaker systems rely on the acoustic of the room they're in. As a Pro Audio engineer I know that
GREAT comparison to monster cables in terms of litigiousness and overpricedness...however, I am uninterested in Bose at any price, but I *DO* pick up Monster AV cables at RePC and thrift stores when I see them in good condition for a couple bucks. They ARE high quality cables.
Bose did actually make a great innovation, but not what you might think.
Self-leveling electromagnetic car suspension, one that functioned quite well to be honest. It was able to keep the demo car silky smooth over a variety of bumpy road surfaces, and kept the car level through corners. No idea if it ever entered mass production, but the idea and presentation of it was phenomenal.
I've had the 901VI version 1 and loved those, in 2007 I sold the 901's and bought the Bose Panaray series 802III, MA12, 502A and the CANNON II, now after almost 2 decades they still sound amazing, (and very loud) with 1 RSP1582 (5.1 setup )and 6 Uma 2000 in mono bridge, 630w each.
Back in 83 I worked for AR. This was in Vogelweh West Germany at the Sound Center. My other friend worked for Bose, and another for JBL. We occasionally played the Telarc 1812 overture. It was funny how many of speakers were able to play the cannons, 6 Hz I think. Not loud, because the German manager would come banging on the sound proof glass doors so irate. The Bose 901s would just blare out some strange muted speaker cones crashing sound. I think the Bose rep realized that bass wasn't it's forte.
Complete nonsense. Nobody can hear 6hz and certainly there is no commercial loudspeaker that can play 6hz at any volume that would be meaningful. Thats ridicules
You do need very large speakers (or rotary drivers) to produce infrasonic frequencies like that.
Now Bose being known for smaller drivers (usually 6.5" or less), it's pretty much a given that they weren't able to reproduce anything remotely infrasonic. Maybe the high-20 Hz range, but that would be the absolute best case scenario
@@Skarfar90 The 901 as a system is designed to play 30 Hz, lower than most all speakers. Typical home speakers fall off below 40. A fact that I can measure. Infrasonic can only be felt. No recordings have infrasonic. Even the movie Earthquake was 16 Hz only played when you want feeling. I shook my windows feeding 16 Hz directly into 200 watt amps into 901s. Need bass guitar speakers, look up Phil Jones and his 5 inch drivers.
I was fortunate enough to be able to listen to various speakers in the barracks, ended up Cerwin Vegas over the 901s.
That's saying something...!
I ended up with Klipsch Fortes.
Ended up with ESS. Those audio stores overseas were awesome!
@@oldtop4682 got my Cerwin Vegas at the BX in Germany, really cool stuff there
Hello fellow barracks Bose basher! I basically inherited an acoustimas system and immediately regretted turning it on. I actually traded the acoustimas for some 301's (Hey, I was trying! I knew Bose were *supposed* to be good!) and found them a dramatic improvement. But then I got some random shit ass beat to hell CV's, and sold the Bose for twice what the CV's cost me, and I reconed/restored them with the profit!
I have a couple of friends who are deep into high quality audio. They consider it bad manners to mention the "B" word without at least first apologising for it.
Why should I care what you friends think and why are you obsessed with being a sheeple?
@@petebusch9069 Why are you even commenting if you don't care? A lot of idiots taking out their bad moods on others here. You seem to be one of them.
@@mikethespike7579 Yeah, you need to find a mirror and take a long hard look mister.
@@petebusch9069 Is that what you did and now you're in a bad mood? Don't take it out on me that you're an utter jerk.
@@petebusch9069 I see that you do what all jerks do and delete comments you don't like. But I know that read them first. BTW, you're a jerk...
We have a six figure + audio system and we are not a Bose fan except for one product…the 601 series III. Those speakers work really well in the rear of our home theater system with their multi- directional tweeters. Bought them in the 80’s and still use them today. The woofers have been re-foamed of course but they have a spectacular sound in the bed layer of our 7.2.6 system.
Yeah I could see those multi directional Bose sets working as surround speakers. I want to eventually create a similar design with better components, I bet it could sound massive.
In the late 80's or early 90's, I went to one of those "speaker reveal" demos where they reveal the tiny cubes. In that event, they were actually bold enough to give you a copy of the demo CD they used. In the room, I was indeed relatively impressed that the sound was so full from such small cubes. However, when I took the disc home and played it on my moderately-sized, but good quality Teac bookshelf speakers, I noticed something was wrong: there was practically no bass on the 1812 Overture segments. What should've stressed my speakers to reproduce sounded flabby and hollow. I think I was eventually able to compare it to a real 1812 recording and the difference in low bass was mind-blowing.
Bose deliberately sacked the EQ on their demo CD to make it impossible to overtax the low end on their speakers in the demo sessions.
Yeap - I got sucked into one of those while browsing... having spent a ton of time in the car audio world - I understood that there are the laws of physics involved - which are really apparent when it comes to lower tones. I think this is why they also had people stand closer to their small speakers...
Interestingly enough - today - the studio speaker world - atleast they are fair and say that the speakers are for near vs. mid vs. large room sizes...so atleast you have very general idea of what they are meant for in those use cases...
Buy
Other
Sound
Equipment
Just finished painting a Bose LT MB12 sub (PA system for large gigs) ... They sound wicked. Clients love them and request the LT system.
I have a set of Gen6 901's and if you pair them with a decent amp AND are using the equalizer that came with them which is VERY necessary AND put them about four feet from a reflective wall they sound pretty decent. That's on the Speaker A position on an old Harman Karden 100W/ch amp. The speakers I have on the Speaker B position are an old set of Yamaha NS-8390's with 8" woofers. These Bose are set up EXACTLY like instuctions direct. If I did an A to B demo you would always pick the Yamaha's as the better sounding speaker from about 2 to 10 feet. If you move farther back I'd bet you'd pick the 901's.
Both those sets are currently running with the much hated Polk cheap subwoofer ( with the rat trap removed and a towel shoved in the port). The 901's definitely need a subwoofer.
Some Bose products have their place. Their bigger speakers are pretty good in larger places. The smaller systems (AM-5) are terrible in big rooms. The AM-5's work well in my wifes office via an old Sony receiver using her computer as a source.
Bose told us not to call them subwoofers, but to call them "bass modules."
Cause they weren’t subwoofers. They were actually just base drivers. The crossovers were in the cabinet along with (at least in the late 90s) some incandescent light bulbs that would fire off if you turned the volume too high (would get rid of some of the excess juice so the speakers wouldn’t sound like absolute garbage).
@@bkstarkey the bulbs were there since day one, they did the job well and protected the speakers from blowing. I reworked dozens and maybe a few hundred of them that were retail returns, blown bulbs was by far the most common failure mode.
Just get some nice Polk audio or JBL speakers and you’ll be fine.
i have a pair of Bose 501 series 3, modded the crossovers on em a bit and had to rebuild them as the wood had disintegrated, now they sound soo much better! i love em!
(i did hate them in their stock form, found them to be very bassy initially, now they're perfect)
I always hear about all these draconian restrictions for Bose retailers, but I’m starting to wonder if that’s just an urban legend. I specifically remember hearing them at two places:
1) The audio demo room at the Base Exchange on an Air Force base. Bose speakers were connected to the speaker matrix switches just like everything else. They had Acoustimass systems like the Redline and Jewel, the tower model (401), the VS100 and similar Model 101… But lots of other stuff, too.
2) A local home and car AV dealer had a demo room where I discovered Beyond the Mind’s Eye playing on LaserDisc, on a set of Acoustimass speakers. I was a late teenager, and thought it sounded great. I saved up and got the LCR set for Dolby Pro Logic, and used VS100s for the rear. I later learned they weren’t the pinnacle of audio excellence, but they were fun and I have great memories of enjoying music and movies with them.
The point being, that demo room had all kinds of stuff in it too - not just Bose. I think I got to see a MiniDisc for the first time there, come to think of it. And a Phoenix Gold Cyclone. Not that that has anything to do with anything, I just miss that place and all the cool stuff they had.
The biggest audio mistake I made was buying the Bose 901s in 1972! I traded them in one month after purchasing and took a big hit. Bottom line their sound sucked.
I love my Klisph "The 5's" with the Kilisph sub. Never had much interest in Bose products, just kinda intuitively knew to stay away.
I agree, had the fives and the nines, both of those are a revelation, for their size it's absolutely nuts, best bang for the buck in my opinion. Tweeters great, bass is great, finish is great, no complaints.
One of my neighbors had his own radio show back in the `60's, `70's and `80's. When he moved out about 20 years ago, he was throwing out his Bose 201's. I grabbed them and hooked them up to my stereo. Up to that point, I had a set of Pioneer column speakers that could shake the house. The sub on one of them went bad around the same time I found those 201's so, I was replacing the Pioneers with the 201's and they sound just as good at the Pioneers when I first got them..
They do sound good. I think I have 4 sets of them around here. I have 2 sets of the old Bose CL7's(?) that sound great!
I inherited a "shitload" of the old Bose speaker systems from 201's to 901's. The speakers were built good but the particle board enclosures really suck. lol
I've owned several systems over the years starting way back in 1976. I've run Pioneer, Yamaha, Phase Linear and other receiver/amplifier setups. I've paired those receivers with everything from JBL to BIC Venturi to Altec Lansing speakers. But by far the best sound system I ever had was a Yamaha 100w per channel amp running a pair of Bose 901 Series II Direct Reflecting Loudspeakers. The 901's could comfortably take everything the Yamaha could give them.
Classical music was incredible off both vinyl and CD. Rock and Roll was concert-like. Heavy Metal was head bangingly awesome. But here's the thing --- Bose 901's are designed for only one application. They MUST have a rectangular room with at least an 8 foot ceiling.
They MUST be located along the narrow wall, equidistant from the long walls on both sides, equidistant from the back wall and either (depending on the circumstance of the audience) at head height when sitting or at head height if the audience is going to be standing. A large room is a must. Seperation of the speakers MUST be at least 10 feet.
A room with a carpeted floor is good, hardwood floors are best. Wood paneling is best but the most commonly found painted sheetrock is suitable.
They sound like shit when simply placed on the floor. They sound like shit when placed 6 feet apart in the corner of a room. They sound like shit when placed too close to the corner, wall or ceiling of a room. They sound like shit when placed too far apart. This is why they are so maligned. They are very picky when it comes to setup.
I had the chance to run my 901's with a 200w Phase Linear setup and they were incredible. No distortion at very high volumes. I would put my old setup against anything running today. I currently have a matched pair of 901 Series VI speakers. Sadly, I have not had the opportunity to set them up for over 10 years. I don't have the right architecture.
The Bose 301s I recommended to my parents are still putting out great sound 30+ years later. And the little blue tooth my sister got me for Christmas sounds a lot better than anything I had previously to hook up to my phone. That said shitty tactics by companies always make me refuse to buy their products.
I still have mine too. Just now starting to wear the surrounds. Probably didn’t help by running a onkyo ts dx 989 into them. I like it loud af. So after a small hole on the surround started I decided to buy all new set up. Harbinger 12’s tops. Harbinger v18’s bottoms. And two monster 15’s. Yep. That did it!!! What? Someone say something??
Def gotta limit exposure to no more that 10min at little over 1/2 volume. Still feeding the PA system off the onkyo though, with 2-15” old school Sony floor speakers and an array of bookshelf speakers with all the levels set individually for the prime level of capacity for each. Sorta blending both. Cool to turn on the “normal system” then if I want lots more decibels I turn on the p a systems too. Any of this make sense to anyone???
Are you paid by bose...?
@@tubical71 No. I think I just have different expectations. I never experienced the Bose displays mentioned, only heard speakers other people owned ,this in the very early '80s. Which is why I recommended them to my parents after listening to their frustration, and dismay, at the quote someone gave them for installing a stereo system in their very large and open living room space (many thousands of dollars). I had no further experience with Bose until my sister got me the blue-tooth speaker as a Christmas present. Is it the best sounding speaker? I don't have a clue because I haven't heard every speaker. Am I satisfied with it? Yes, it serves its purpose which is to improve the sound quality over the speaker in my phone.
As a young hi-fi fan in the 70s, the Bose 901 was something to aspire to. I was also gobsmacked the first time I heard the Acoustic Wave. But I knew that any room I had was not the right context for these things. The nail in the reputational coffin here is the former salesman talking about the sound-enhancing hollow pedestal. Maybe Bose should sell those.
I worked at a electronics store and we had a Bose room. I brought in my ESS speakers to the store once, just when Dire Straights "Money for Nothing" came out. We (all sales staff) went in the room and cranked through all the systems playing that song. That's when i settled on the Onyo receiver and, Teac multi-CD player, which I still own. The ESS speakers i later sold because they were too big for my condo I had and settled for a Bose system. I'm still kicking myself for that.
I own a pair of 501's from the 80's, and are still sounding good,
and yes, any speaker system is going to sound different at home, or in a different room.
Speaker placement and room acoustics make a big difference.
Every time I'm leaving Boston on the 95 I look at the factory and I spit out my window
In those surround and stereo systems with small sattelites and a bass module it was more like "only highs and lows, it must be Bose". Those lacked some frequency range to properly cross over between the bass module (atleast they did not miss use the therm Subwoofer like too many do today) and the sat's..
It worked pretty good for movies for what it was. But that's about it... NOT a musical system at all.
The stereo imaging on Bose speakers is horrendous. I owned a pair of 301 Bose speakers to replace a pair of Avid speakers with dying crossovers and thought they were pretty dull sounding speakers. The cabinets were light, the drivers and tweeters were nothing special. This may seem hyperbolic, but the only speakers that I had owned that were possibly worse than the Bose were a pair of Morse/Electrophonic Air Suspension speakers that came with one of those all in one receiver 8-track combos with a Garrard record player. Also if the 901 was made correctly, it would not need that equalizer.
Back in the early 1980's I bought a set of 601's when I was still in college. The sad thing today is kids only want some bluetooth speaker that works with their iPhone. I do vaguely remember the Bose section being separate from the other hif-fi gear in the store. They replaced my RtR speakers that I also bought after my freshman year. I had those 601s until 2004. The foam around the drivers was completely rotted and would crumble if you touched them. I gave them away to a junk hauler. I don't know if he re-sold them or took them to a landfill. I've also had two pair of noise cancelling headphones. I have to say those worked quite well when I was on planes. We also have a Bose radio (I think called the wave) that belonged to my father-in-law. It still works and is in our bathroom. I use it every time I take a shower. But, I learned a long time ago that their speakers were not very good.
Thanks for sharing those stories!
I can't speak to the later BOSE line but I own a pair of working 901s and they sound pretty freaking good and compare well against my JBL 4312s.
Interesting. I have a pair of 4312s in my studio and way prefer their laser focused, clean high end over the Bose I've heard over the years. Of course I mix a lot on Yamaha NS10s (The industry standard cheap/expensive speaker clone) Which is closer to what most people listen to these days. I track on 4312s for accuracy, and mix on NS10s (well I bounce back and forth). Also my room has some bass issues so I (hate to say this), check the low end in my car just to be sure :).
I still own my 1979 JBL 4311's hooked up to my vintage 1979 stereo system. I will never sell any part of my system. They only upgrades that I will ever attempt is if I win the lottery cause I will start with the properly designed listening room. Then it will take some time in listening and then $$$$$$$$$$.
ok bose employee ok
I had a pair of Bose 301s that, when properly place in the room, sounded incredible. I thought I had blown them, but the foam collar around the bass speaker had just deteriorated. I found a kit to replace that foam, and now my son uses them. Those speakers are over 40 years old and they still sound really good.
My first big speaker purchase as a teenager was to save up for a pair of the original wood-grained rectangular Bose series II 301’s. This was before the dedicated listening rooms and I remember their sound was better than the JBL and real close to the Polk Audio speakers next to them which were more expensive. And now, more than 40 years later, my younger brother still uses them to listen to his vinyl collection. They did and still do sound amazing. Now… their headphones and their Acoustimass… well you might as well pack mud in your ears.
Nice story Scott! Thats super cool that they have gotten so much use!
I remember Polk.
I worked at Circuit City in the late 90’s and although we always had a dedicated endcap display for the Bose Lifestyle system, we were allowed to demo any of their other speakers in our primary listening room. And I can tell you that I sold quite a few Polk RT25’s after demoing them against the Bose 301’s.
I have a nice set of 301's i use as surrounds. Dont try to use them as main's. I think thats why the hate, they aint designed for that
I can only comment on the one Bose product I actually owned although I did try their noise cancelling headphones when I was flying a lot and they worked very well especially compared to other noise cancelling headphones I tried. I also noticed that the USAF used them on their P8 Orion and other aircraft. They really pioneered that product and it worked well.
When I first saw the original Bose 901s in a store window and the price I thought who would pay $476 for that? Three years later I did along with the pedestals and frankly for several years I enjoyed them very much. In those days I was not a critical listener yet. My alternative was AR3a. In those days many speakers had rolled off high ends especially because of the way dealers who hated AR exhibited them. So what did I get for my money? 18 table radio speakers? No, 18 drivers we'd now call midwoofers manufactured by CTS and hand segregated into three lots by hand (later done by computer in series II) that handled 30 watts each and had a cloth roll surround for their acoustic suspension function, two small but sturdy wooden cabinets, and an equalizer unit made with precision one percent and five percent parts. So money wise I didn't feel cheated at all. So after several years I went overseas so I boxed them up and forgot about them for several decades. Then one day many years later I took them out and didn't like them anymore. Now I'm an engineer and so when I don't like something I once did I want to find out why and what I could do about it if anything.
First of all the putty that sealed the drivers to the wood had dried up and cracked. The cabinets weren't air tight anymore. I called Bose and they said they considered the product unrepairable but offered me a trade in for 50 percent off on their latest version. I declined and instead resealed all of the drivers with clear GE silicone caulking. right where the rim of the basket met the wood. The next day I pushed one cone in and all of the others popped out instantly proving the systems were air tight again.
No highs, no lows, it's Bose? Yes but why. I identified three things wrong with the frequency response. Two were in the bass and one in the treble. The speaker had a well known FR rise in the upper bass of about 7 db at around 250 hz. Bose had said in his white paper that he wanted the resonant frequency to be above 180 hz so that the phase shift at resonance would be inaudible. He got that wrong and as a result not only was the resonance frequency too high but the speaker was underdamped. The size of the box and stuffing control the resonance frequency. The bass rolled off at 12 db per octave and crossed the 1 khz output at about 95 hz continuing to descend so that even with 18 db of boost, the speaker's output was considerably lower than needed. This is one reason people played these speakers at ear shattering levels to hear deep bass. The simple fix was to add additional equalization removing both the rise and the fall. This resulted in a speaker with no muddy upper bass and low bass that proved Julian Hirsch's measurements were correct easily reaching 30 hz flat with no distortion and capable of room shaking bass within its limits. It would take 4 pairs to equal what my one pair of Teledyne AR9s with two 12 inch acoustic suspension speakers could do. This is due to the excursion limits of the drivers and the fact that they can only handle 270 watts per channel. With the additional boost of around 12 db, four pairs would require about 1000 watts per channel. The Crown 2502 drive core II amplifier is ideally suited for that. My most powerful amplifier is a Marantz 930 receiver that has about 128 wpc. When pushed you can see the room lights dim. 😄 The below 40 hz 10 db shelf filter on the equalizer came in very handy.
Fixing the treble was a much harder problem that took four years until I was satisfied. The midwoofer drivers make for unacceptable tweeters. Gordon Holt was right when he said their inertial mass was too high. Even if it wasn't, dispersion of a 4 inch driver in the top octave would be awful. The solution was to design an array of inexpensive tweeters, 3/8" polys, my favorite, suitable crossovers, and make the system biamplified. Six per channel were needed. They cut in at about 9 khz using single pole crossovers. One hangs from the upper lip of the cabinet using a bracket just above the midwoofer, there are three on the back, and two fire straight up at the ceiling. I was surprised how little output it took, my 100 watt per channel JVC 500 receiver loafing along. I was also surprised at how much difference the upfiring pair made. Both receivers have built in equalizers, there's the Bose equalizer, and I use a Radio Shack disco mixer with dual 7 band equalizers as the master preamplifier. All of them had to be carefully adjusted.
The end result was worth every bit of the effort. This is now a full range system whose tonality is very accurate across the entire audio spectrum. Plenty of highs, plenty of lows, no 8 foot wide violins or singers, retaining all of the special attributes of the direct reflecting principle with none of the flaws. As for the quality of the parts Bose used in this model and series II, I am very satisfied that they are very high quality. They are now 54 year old and work perfectly, much better than new. If I didn't have a much better experimental system I invented, I'd be listening to them a lot. But the EEAS prototype sounds so great I listen to nothing else. It's much more fun for me being an engineer than a shopper. A lot cheaper too.
Or you can age your way out of needing any real treble.
@@bluelithium9808 Or Fletcher-Munson it if you can't wait.
We've had a Bose Wave that we got used. Enjoyed listening to it during meals. One day the cd play went on the fritz. I called several repair shops who said they wouldn't touch it. So, I watched a few videos, ordered the capacitors ($7 for 40 panasonic brand mixed types), replaced the bad ones, and it works perfectly now. It's not for blasting. We enjoy it.
Thats great Tom! Yeah we don't work on them either but great to hear you fixed it!
Dont have all products but have had my 301s since 82' and they still sound amazing. Have them on a platform hanging from the ceiling and only replaced one tweeter shipped to the mt. and done promptly under warranty years ago.
I can sum it all up in two words, Martin Logan.
If you were using 201s or 301s for background they are OK but a good $200 bookshelf speakers would blow them away.
Dude still doesn't know what "bait and switch" means ... and there's a LOT of misinformation in here... but I guess that's what you end up with when you build a video from the insufferable comment section of a CZcams hate video and try to pass it off as "facts".
Never said any of this was facts
You're kinda on one of those type channels here. We watch his videos on lunch at work just to hear ALL the things he gets "wrong with such confidence" and have a good laugh. Not just this Bose stuff. Classic example of a good talker but not a real experienced audio guy, and doesn't check his facts or figures or references beforehand or make corrections afterward. It's all about the views here, not the reputation.
@@leonardoyoung9908 dude I love it!! Correct me in the comments haha
@@JustAudioHiFi wasn't talking to you or correcting you. Was talking to the DBS guy. And was more "agreeing" with you. You "never said any of this was facts" right? That's what you do right? You just talk all knowingly with your cool CZcams announcer voice like it's official but none of that matters to you as long as you're hitting those numbers. Right? I mean it's obvious. You just said it.
@@JustAudioHiFi ... Hahaha Hahahaaaa... "Bose Revealed 2 - The secrets Bose doesn't give a $h!t about cuzz they ain't even real!!" 🤣😂😅
When it comes to the Wave radio, it's a nice unit as even at very low volumes, the sound makes it to places you don't really expect it to go. My father had his in his kitchen and could clearly hear the music far from the radio. I was astonished by that feat.
It was great to see you with Cheap Audio Man in the first part of the video…you both always have great content..I may have to do a road trip to your store this summer.
Awesome! Thank you!
Back in the 80’s, my buddy’s older brother was in the Navy, stationed in Japan. He had a set of 901’s shipped home with explicit instructions that they were not to be opened until he returned home. Well, one Friday night we were hanging out at my buds house, drinking some beers as his folks were out for the night. We couldn’t resist the temptation, and we unboxed those 901s and rocked the house . Compared to the crappy speakers I was used to, they sounded pretty good to my 20 year old ears!
Bose was founded by Amar Bose, an Indian (India) American entrepreneur. You like my speakers or there will be trouble
Did he say "Someone is gonna get a hurting real real bad??"
I found the electronics in them were quite iffy. For instance, I bought an Acoustimass 12 in the late 90s at the Bose outlet store in Huntley, IL, and they were always offering a free system to go along with it. For this system, they gave away a free Bose Wave Radio. That's the first clue the markup was huge, but I wanted the smaller speakers. The LED digital readout on the CD player portion of the system died shortly after the warranty expired. I didn't experience this, because I had upgraded to the even smaller speakers and had given the system to my parents. With my upgrade they threw in a smaller system the Acoustimass 3 with the CD player. I thought that would be a nice wedding gift for my sister, so I pulled the trigger. I was proud of my gift. The problem is they didn't immediately use it. It sat in the box for two or three years until they bought their house. It didn't work new out of the box. Obviously, the warranty had expired.
They used to give you all kinds of free systems to get you to buy into the larger systems.
I was a BOSE Pro Audio dealer in the 80's and sold many of the Bose speakers for sound reinforcement PA systems. We were not restricted on demonstrations. Customers paid the premium because of the small size and wide sonic dispersion of the BOSE 800 speakers. Our finding was that extremely high power amplifiers (400 Watts/Channel or more) helped with the inefficiency of the speakers. I tried to blow up a set of BOSE 800 Series II using a Carver amp (450/Channel) cranked to just below clipping and played a CD through it for 8 hours. neither the amp or speakers died.
Nice story! Thanks for sharing!
Hi, we also had two 802 'tops' and one sub... If someone was, asking for it.. Usually we rent EV MT and turbosound systems...that 802 was so bad... Please read my above comment on that... I hooked them up to our crest audio 8001 - 1500watt/ch and another bridged one for the sub and see what they could take and do until they reached their limits....not much more...than using the original bose electronics....
That was because of the light bulb inside the speakers that limited the true power to the voice coils to about 100 watts, regardless of amp power. The bulb was wired in series with the drivers, and at low power it did nothing, but as you approached about 100 watts, it would begin to glow, and its resistance would rise, limiting the current through the drivers. That's why they didn't blow, and it's why they got all mushy as you raised the volume.
.@@ScottGrammer That's interesting. I had opened up 802's to replace a speaker that had failed, but didn't really examine them closely and a unaware of the bulb. I had installed bulbs in some speakers for protection in some permanent installations to protect speakers from careless operators.
They had these triangular plastic speaker frames and were 8-1Ohm speakers wired in series. If one failed, the entire system went dead.
The coils on the speakers were edge wound aluminum without insulation which provided the greatest coil density
Bose uses tricks to prevent speakers from blowing. As one stated the trick with the bulbs... The more modern way they do it, is through electronic EQ of the sound. As soon as you approach the limits of the cheap drivers excursion abilities... the system Auto EQ's the sound, to limit the bass levels.. to keep the drivers from Distorting.
Its one thing to have protection against blowing speakers... and quite another, to severely NEED it, due to using the cheapest, low quality drivers, that have very little Excursion, and very little actual power handling capabilities.
If you removed a single bose driver, and tested it without their special EQ electronics, you would not only be unimpressed, but also, would likely accidentally blow it, with a few watts worth of power. There are boom box speakers from Phillips, for example... that can handle 20x the power, and put out 1000x better sound (for a fraction of the price).
Bose 901s are legendary
And the 1801 Amplifier was a monster.
The accoustimas were not made for audiophiles but the general public and they pretty much out sold everything
I’d agree
💩💩💩💩
I sold home and car audio at The Good Guys in the late 90's and early 2000's. I hated Bose's sound quality, and I never understood why people bought it. You can't get good high or low frequency sound out of a 2" midrange speaker with no tweeter, and their cheap band-pass sub sitting behind your couch isn't going to fill in everything else that's missing.
My 'Secret Find' of the mid-80's was a Pair of Genesis Physics Corp 320's. Have had to have the woofs resurrounded a couple of times; they mate up with a pair of Realistic T-110's and an old pair of KLH Model 6s, wired up in a special manner all together .. and sounds better than many 'high-end' speakers that cost 10,000 dollars a pair. My setup blows them away :) Great for movies AND music with no EQ change, just monitor the volumes (I use L and R amps). Been using this setup since 1987 and will until the day I die. !
I used to own different Bose speakers and systems. The old speakers (like 501 series V, Acoustimass 5 series II bass module, Bose 601 series II) could produce a lot of low frequencies. They are not the best speakers I’ve owned but they’re enjoyable. Great 👍 video.
I had 201s and 601s. Both were decent in their category had to sell the 601s - needed the money. Now I mostly use a soundlink or MINIRIG III.
The word "BOSE" just looks like the german word "Böse" that means "Evil" ;-)
Coincidence?
In dialect Swedish it means trash.
I’m 1975 I worked across the alley from a job shop that was making the drivers for Bose. The manager there told me it cost them about 2 dollars to make each one.
Back in 1992, I got a pair of Bose 201 speakers to use for surrounds. On systems of the day, both rear surround speakers got the same signal and I don't think anything above 7 kHz was sent. I had them on top of 2 bookcases on the back wall of the room and they worked great for that purpose. Later on in 1998 when I upgraded to a Dolby AC3 / dts system, I replaced them with larger full range speakers and moved them closer to the listening area since they got full range separate signals.
I have a pair of 901s circa 1976. They lack the bass if put in a big room. I still use the 901s I have,they've been rebuild but I use them as middle guys,the frequency response I send to them is 15k-300hz. I got subs underneath em and a piezo above em. Yes they do not like power but ,with this arrangement I have they do sound awesome!
You mispronounced one of their products. It's called the
"Acoustiass". Your welcome. 😉
Hahahaha
Stay away from that cheap audio man !! He’s all strung out on caffeine 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂👀
Haha
Not nearly as much as I am... 😬
Yeah I'm not a big fan of him
Yup, and before you know it, he'll have you shilling Sith Audio products too lol.
I had two big HiFi Speakers for my second Stereo System in the kitchen and wanted to replace them by a tinier solution while the Stereo System itself should stay as it is. I knew that The old Acoustimass Systems AM15 are cheap to have but that they are not really good but I was so interested in the concept that I bought one for 50 bucks. Of course its size is really cool. The form factor is unique although it's not a beauty but I had only one solution for placing the speakers in the room, so the woofer went under the Stereo System and the speakers on the kitchen wall and it sounded really like junk. I never heard something that originally cost that much and sounded that bad.
The "Bass Module" comes surprisingly deep if you turn the loudness on, there goes something under 50 Hz and it's not that muddy how people often tell BUT the problem is the crossover. The subwoofer must be placed between the 2 cubes, then it's not that bad and sounds acceptable, but if you place the module in the left rear corner for example and the 2 cubes in front of you it will sound as if the Bass blows your brain out from left rear and the Mids and Highs hurt your ears from the front. And the stereo separation is not really noticeable, everything sounds "somewhere in the room". But what is cool about it is that they have no sweet spot. It didn't matter where I went in the room, the sound didn't change that much.
I then bought 2 Canton XL Plus which are much bigger, as I noticed then, and a Yamaha YST 150 for cheap. The difference between the acoustimass and the sound I got now is very very far.
My parents had old and worn out speakers in their big living room, I replaced them with the Bose acoustimass, the Module and the cubes all placed on one wall and I really like it. In that position it's perfect for what they use it: Listen to the radio in the background on a big room. The old Grundig Amp has a fitting Loudness for it and after I played a bit with the Bass and Treble Sliders I found a Setting that fills the room without disturbing. The music sounds as if it was everywhere in the room, it's pretty cool but it's far away from hifi. The Speakers before were placed one behind the sofa in the left corner and one in the right corner. Although they were pretty good magnat Speakers from the 70s they sounded like shit because they were placed completely wrong but my parents didn't want to place them somewhere else, because they aren't interested in good sound. Because I can place the cubes on the big wall unit I got no problems with muddy sound or missing highs now, it's everywhere in the room and it sounds really ok. For 50 Bucks it's absolutely perfect for my parents. And as I said I really love the form factor. But for 1000 or 2000 Bucks it's just a bad joke, the built quality and the design looks as if it was from a cheap component system, the speakers itself look really "simple", like from out of a cheap Boombox.
It would have been ok or even good for 200, maybe 500 Bucks or so, but it was much too expensive.
Not everything was or is bad. The headphones are quite good and worth the money. The BT Speakers somewhere a few years back were reference but that's also a problem: If they once have a good working product they don't change it that much for years and everybody buys it because they think "Wow, it's BOSE, IT MUST BE THE BEST…", but now there are BT Speakers which blow every BOSE Soundlink out of the room at the same size, and when JBL or Sony or LG or all those other brands come with new generation speakers in most cases they are improved, with better sound, louder, longer battery power etc… but BOSE only changes the design and uses the same technology without improvement for the next 20 or 30 years.
yeah, the soundlinks still aren't bad but other brands have much better speakers for the same price or even less and yes, the headphones are really good but other brands have better headphones and the price span varys much more, when there is a special offer.
About 30 years ago I bought an "Acoustic Wave" - but I grew to hate the muddiness and lack of treble. It got the job done, but wasn't worth the price. I did, in the end, get a lot of use out of it, though - back in the '90s I used it as a mobile PA amp for people speaking at group meetings, and it genuinely worked very well for that. Come to think about it, the darned thing is still in my basement somewhere.
Way back when...I bought a Bose AM-5 system. It wasn't my first choice for sound quality, but, it was adequate, and my wife loved the small visual impact on the room. Move forward 40 plus years. I still have them, and I don't have many complaints except low bass power. They are antiques now and my wife still likes the non intrusive looks. All in all I don't find Bose products (I've had others) to be bad not stellar. Acoustically they favor mid range...in all....that all that can be said.
You stated the key to Bose success: your wife loved the minimalist appearance! Dr Bose knew most women disfavored large, room filling steroids which were common at the time. This is what started Bose on the trend of going from 901s to the AWMS (with minimal controls) to the wave radio to the SoundLink. It’s definitely a consumer product, targeted at couples with a decent balance of form and function. Simple and elegant but decent sound.
In 1988 i did AB comparison of Bose vs other brands in a room at Circuit City(large US chain) Got 901's I hung from my 10 ft ceiling for front, 401's rear on shelves and 2-201's in series for center. Onkio pro 90 receiver/amp. Still rocks to no end and with no end in sight.
A bunch of years ago, I had an experience with a 2008 SAAB 9³ Turbo. It had a Bose stereo in it and IMHO that car had the BEST factory "stock" system I had ever experienced! It sounded so good and was so loud.. the more I raised the volume, the louder and BETTER the system sounded! I just didn't understand it. It did make being broken down on the side of the road a little better! I demonstrated some Black Sabbath for the cop that stopped to check on me.. He agreed! Lolol 😎
Interesting. My wife's 2015 Impala LTZ has Bose and being deaf in 1 ear I believe whatever my Equinox has is equally good..
Your ears must be broken, or things changed for the worse with the newer cars. My Dad has a fairly new 911 Turbo S with Bose crap system. I could barely listen to it when I first drove his car. It was literally the worst stock system I have ever heard. I came to this assessment even before seeing the logo on the speakers. My new 911 maybe a bit slower, since it's just a Carrera 4S but it has Burmester upgrade. It actually sounds as good as the car looks and drives.
Genreally Bose (and others) are paid by the automaker to stick there name on the sound system. They rarely have any involvement in the actual design or components used. One automaker may use great components and tune the acoustics to perfection, and another automaker may use utter crap and not bother to do any tuning. So ignore the labels and listen carefully if the sound is good or not. Best to use a USB with non-compressed audio (FLAC, others) to test out the audio.
From my military time in the late 80s... The post exchange (store) they sold Bose. Yes they were expensive, but I could get them on layaway. Few options when overseas. I bought a set of AM-IIIs Hooked them to a Sony amp. Never looked back. I added onto the AM-IIIs with a brand called KLH for a center and 2 surrounds. They were a lot cheaper. I am still running those same speakers 30 years later. All of them. Have gone through several amps, but the speakers won't quit. Now with the new receiver amps that have the self/auto setup for the EQ and room balancing, is it the speakers or the receiver that makes them sound good? :)
I used to have a pair of Bose 901 IV, people would always tell me no highs no Lows they’re BOSE, but man I played the Telarc version of Tchaikovsky‘s 1812 overture, and those speakers were swinging back-and-forth all that bass and air that speaker pushed out was absolutely amazing!!
In college I got to sample just about every sound system out there in the mid to late 70s. Bose always impressed me as being ordinary speaker hardware in nice cabinets. In the "average speaker" catagory, JBL was so much better.
I remember going to Circuit City in the mid-90s. They had a dedicated listening room and I remember seeing a set of JBL's that were very similar to the Bose Acoustimass 5. The satellites my have been different, but the bass was virtually identical. However, I can't find any information about them. I was wondering if Bose took action or if anyone remembers these speakers? I also think this channel is awesome.. Thank you
In the 70s, my parents gave me a new pair of the Bose 901 series 1V as a college graduation gift. I enjoyed them but didn't like the active equalization. I didn't feel deceived, and I appreciated their spatial sound qualities. Sound issues are subjective, so please note that not all Bose speaker owners were dissatisfied...
Yeah I love the 901's! Thanks for sharing, may see this in part 3!
15 YRS AGO A GUY SOLD ME A NAD T750 FOR $40 PLUS SAID THESE SPEAKERS GO WITH IT, 901s W/O THE EQ. BOTH STILL SOUND GREAT TODAY! BOSE OUTSTANDING STEREO EQUIPMENT!!
Interesting hearing other sayings about Bose. The one I heard was a bit different from what you stated. It was...
Just highs and lows? It's gonna be Bose.
To me, this makes sense since they have tweeters and subs, but offer no midrange speakers.
I still have my 601 Series 3 and 301's...absolutely fantastic speakers then and now....although now I just drive them with Pioneer AV system with latest audio surround codecs. Back in the late 80's when I bought them I drove them with Carver Silver 7's....oh I wish I had kept those amps! Traded them in on Mac's which were great too, but I liked the Carvers just a bit more. The Mac's didn't turn my living room into a sauna like the 7's though.
In 1986 I worked for Silo in the audio department, and we had no restrictions on how we demoed Bose speakers. I routinely did A B comparisons. We carried the .2 series speakers. 10.2, 8.2, 6.2, 4.2, and 2.2.
I liked them. No doubt there are better speakers.
I still use a pair of 6.2 and 4.2.
I love bose and I've used bose for many years.. They sound amazing especially the ultra ear buds.. Best sound I've ever heard.. And I've a pair of 901's series 5 for many years...
“Bring other sound equipment” gets my vote.
This was really a fantastic video and what memories.
I was in the Marines in 1977 and stationed at Camp Hanson in Okinawa. They had a huge store that was nothing but Stereo equipment. Of course, all the Japanese stuff, and stuff that wasn’t even released yet in the States. Payday after payday I would pay off one layaway, and put something else on layaway. The speakers were the last things I bought, and they had a whole wall of speakers. I remember everyone seeming to spawn all over the 901s I didn’t get it. I thought they sounded like crap, but even over there there was a big push to buy them. I went with the Kenwood, KL888’s. I still have the same system today. Thanks! And yeah, I hate Bose.
Nice story! May see it in part 3?!
I have the 900 soundbar with 700 surrounds and dual 700 subs in my bedroom. I paid 50% of the retail price. It sounds great, looks premium, is modern, reliable and doesn’t turn the room into a man cave. It works seamlessly with all kinds of content from the Sony tv, Apple tv and X-box with consistency. Yes, I could get an av system (I had an Epi/Technics and I love them), but this system has been objectively (Rtings) and subjectively (Andrew Robinson) tested to be good. It fits my purpose and I didn’t need to destroy the walls of the rental unit for cable management and then do it all over again when I move. It’s 2024, these systems have gotten really good for their purpose and I like it.
I will say back in the 80’s when one of the woofers in my 301’s got taken out during a party, I drove to their place in I think Framingham to buy a new woofer. While waiting for the speaker, a guy with what looked like a prototype walked by and asked me if I wanted to get a quick tour. I did and it was pretty cool. Still have the 301’s in my garage.
At 1:35, good guys might have been the lone exception to not having a dedicated room. I remember in my younger days seeing Bose Am5 speakers in the regular sound room with all the others. I specifically remember the salesman A/B Bose with sub/satellite speakers from Polk Audio. Wow what a night and day difference with the Polks for the win.
Nice story! Thanks for contributing
MAN!! I was BOSE everything back in the 90's while stationed overseas. BOSE and Klipsch were heavily pushed in the BX/PX.
I still use Klipsch today due the price/ signal to noiuse ratio's for my lower mid level systems.
Not sure if the story about dedicated room is true or if we were out of law, but I worked in a provincial audio/video store (Atlantic it was called, in province of Quebec, Canada) in the begining of the 80s. Yes, we had a closed listening room with amps, cassette decks and speakers who contained Bose 301, 501 and 901s, but they also contained JBL, Cerwin Vega and many other speaker brands. About 7 pairs in total with only 3 from bose.
👍
Similar experiences...back in the day...I eventually purchased Klipsch Heresy cabinets.