newby needs help

[jt525]

hi all,

i'm planning to buy accoustima 6 or 10 by bose. any other brand recommendation? basically looking for speakers that are small.

thanks!

JT

[markw]

Athena Micra 6
Athena Point 5
HSU Ventriloquist
Mirage Omnistats
Mirage Nanostats
Didn't mean to slight any other brands but the list goes on forever.

[kexodusc]

Read the above post again...it's full of better speakers that will save you a ton of cash. ;)

[drseid]

All of the speakers recommended by Markw will sound much better than the Bose speakers, and are all good choices IMO.

I will also add the Gallo Acoustics Micros to the list... They are about the same size as the Bose, but subjectively they look better, and they sound *much* better.

---Dave

[Geoffcin]

hi all,

i'm planning to buy accoustima 6 or 10 by bose. any other brand recommendation? basically looking for speakers that are small.

thanks!

JT

Looking for a "lifestyle" type product. The sattilites are just as small as Bose, but built to much higher specs. The Gallo subs are also MUCH better than any Bose sub too. For HT or Audio, Gallo is the clear winner over Bose.

[N. Abstentia]

I would go with the Bose...if you want overpriced junk that are known as some of the worst sounding speakers on the planet.

But, if you want good sounding speakers that are built good go with any of the above mentioned brands.

[jt525]

Thanks guys, I will check them out one by one.

[Lensman]

hi all,

i'm planning to buy accoustima 6 or 10 by bose. any other brand recommendation? basically looking for speakers that are small.

thanks!
JT
Just about all of us have been there. One day, you wake up and decide you want a nice audio system. But what do you buy? You really haven't given it much thought before. And you don't know anyone who's really into sound. In fact you've really only heard one brand advertised on TV: Bose. But you don't know what's out there, and you want to make an informed purchase. So what do you do?

Well you go to the usual electronics stores and look around. You see they have lots of speakers. But even when they're hooked up you can't really hear them. It's just too noisy. But maybe it's not that important. Maybe they all sound pretty much alike. They sure do look a lot alike. Among them you see the Bose speakers and the first thing you notice is how small they are. Tiny, tiny little boxes that would be almost invisible in your home. How cool is that? Of course there are others who make small speakers. But most of these companies make cheap looking stuff and sell them in places like Wal-Mart. So Bose is really the only one that seems to have some level quality. Plus Bose is reasonably expensive. So they must be good, right?

Then you check out the ads in audio magazines. And you see really nice stuff, none of which you've ever seen in a store. All made by companies you've never heard of. But none of the ads have prices. Well, you know what that means. If you have to ask... But wait, there's an ad for Bose. In with all the other really nice looking stuff. And at least you HAVE seen Bose in stores. And you KNOW what they cost.

So maybe you're still not satisfied and you go online. Once again, Bose is easy to find. But almost none of the other stuff is available from anybody. Well, if no one carries it, how good can it really be? And where would you get it fixed if it broke? You don't want to spend a sizable chunk of cash only to be stuck with dead, soundless boxes.

At this point, most people make their buying decision. And this is why Bose sells so many speakers. And once again it is proof that a well orchestrated and funded advertising campaign can do more to sell a product than the product itself.

You, however, are still not totally satisfied. You want the best you can get for your money. So you've looked and researched and looked some more until you finally ended up here. Rest assured, you are among friends. We want you have a more fulfilling audio experience and are happy to advise. Though each of us has a different opinion of what is "best", there are a few things we, almost without exception, believe:

First, Bose is not a good buy. It's not that their speakers don't work. It's that they don't work especially well and are sold at unusually high price points. This is a bad combination. I won't go into details. But if you want more information to justify this statement, just ask about Bose on the various audio forums like this one or do a search on audio sites across the internet for them.

Second, audio is a very personal thing. Though you would think sound is sound, it isn't. The whole reason there's so many different brands, models, sizes and types of speakers is that there's not one uniformly agreed upon best way to make a speaker. A speaker that sounds unbelievably good to one person can sound horrible to another. As a result, the only way to buy a speaker and really be satisfied with it is to listen to it first. This means buying anything unheard off the internet is not a good idea.

Third, the usual electronics stores are not the best places to buy speakers. This is not because you can't find good speakers there. There are a few. But you already know you can't actually hear them and you know these stores operate by selling volume based on low pricing. The stores know this too, so they select their inventory based on maximizing profit margins and the assumption their customers' main deciding factor will be price, not quality of the audio. Though you can find some good speakers in these stores, you'll only know by buying them and taking them home to listen to. This is a pain so you're unlikely to do this with everything in their line. Thus, it's unlikely you'll ever know if you really bought the best speakers you could.

So what can you do? Surprisingly, the best thing is to get out the phone book, find all the high-end audio stores in your area, and visit them. There are several reasons:

First, though it would seem like these stores are filled with snobbish people who will look down on you if you want to spend anything less than five figures. This is not the case. Specialty audio shops are like other small businesses. If anything, they are more reliant on sales to individual customers than chain stores and you are likely to be better treated by them. They also tend to be much more knowledgable. Unlike chain stores, most staff selling you a set of speakers in a these stores have undergone the training needed to professionally install elaborate home and business audio systems.

Second, they carry products in similar price ranges to the better stuff in the big chain stores - and competively priced with offerings from Bose. Though you won't find five-piece surround systems for $49.95, you can find speakers starting at $200/pair. The companies that sell speakers in these stores realize the importance of offering products in a wide range of pricing is necessary to draw consumers away from the competitors such as chain stores.

Third, you'll actually see those speakers that are advertised in the magazines. The reason most of these speakers are not sold in high-end stores and are not available on the internet is not their price. Instead, the companies that make these speakers have made a conscientious decision to build and support a strong dealer network. This means the number of dealers for a manufacturer is restricted to one or a small number of stores in any area and dealers for their products are typically prohibited from selling their products online.

Fourth, you can actually hear the speakers, often in settings simulating a home environment, and compare different makes and models. Be sure to take favorites with you as these stores do not have stock in-the-can recordings for you to hear. Instead they encourage you to listen to things you know, so you can tell when speakers sound better or worse then you hat you've been used to hearing.

Fifth, service and support is better. Though speakers are not particulary complex devices and often can last decades, things can happen to them. Manufacturers of speakers sold in specialty stores will service them for a much longer peiod of time and the stores themselves almost always provide better service on troubleshooting and repairs.

To justify this insistence on specialty shops, consider another couple of other points easily verifiable looking on this and other forums where people discuss audio:

First, you'll be extremely hard-pressed to find anyone who has ever bought speakers from a specialty audio store then reverted back to buying them in mass-market chain stores

Second, people tend to fiercely defend the companies whose speakers they bought from an audio dealer as the best to any and all comers.

As others have stated, there are countless brands to choose and people can name things endlessly. But the best thing you can do is to go out and listen to what's available yourself. So hit the shops, let us know if you have any questions as you make the rounds, and tell us what you ended up with.

[mjon99]

Excellent post Lensman!

That should be required reading for anyone considering purchasing their first pair of speakers.