Bose is Amazing!!!!

[Woochifer]

I'm not defending the company or it's products and practices, they seem to have happy customers and fill whatever niche they apply themselves to...my main complaint is that it's just always open season on Bose...and some of those complaints seem steeped in ignorance...at least when I go off on a, er...shall we say bit of "audiophile" hoo-haa, I have the common decency to at least familiarize myself with the product so I can use the mfrs. own words and claims in my attempt to undermine it...most of the Bose bashing seems to be just so much sour grapes with little or no substance to back it up...

Quite the contrary, you get a lot of Bose bashing on audio forums precisely because so many people HAVE first hand experience with Bose products and enough knowledge of what else is available in the market to assess how Bose stacks up against the competition. It's easy enough to find Bose products in stores, or listen to them when visiting other people's homes, so it's not like people chime in out of ignorance. Some of the most virulent posts I've seen come from people who have previously owned Bose products.

My own experience with the Wave radios has been through store demos, listening to them on a friend's kitchen counter, and at hotels (many of which use the Wave radios as bedside clocks). I've never trashed them for being a lousy product, because they're not. But, for $350 and now $500 for the new buttonless CD version, they simply offer poor value, especially compared to competing products I've heard like the Cambridge Soundworks radios (which BTW come with both a remote AND front panel buttons). Frankly, the reason why this thread came about is because Bose normally does very well with matching the form with the function for consumers. This new Wave radio just seems like an odd misstep from them, given that making things simple and functional is normally Bose's strength.

Personally, I've got no sour grapes because I've never bought anything from them (I did inherit a pair of 301s that I used as surround speakers for a couple of years). The sourest grapes I've seen have come from people who paid big bucks for a Lifestyle or Acoustimass system and later found that they need to buy a whole new system if they want to upgrade.

Sooo...as long as it's a public forum, people can say whatever they want, within reason of course, and I will respond as I see fit, particularly when I can impeach the credibility of of those simply making opinionated statements.

jimHJJ(...and so it goes...)

We're ALL making opinionated statements here. If your whole purpose for posting has to do with "impeaching" people's credibility, then I wonder what that has to do with the "common decency" that you talked about earlier.

[Resident Loser]

...I have yet to hear any of the Bose products produce their full potential even in a Bose store...a lot of the carping simply seems yada, yada, yada, Bose is bad...so quite the contrary to yours, IMO, it's jump on the bandwagon and have a bash...

Pardon the tangent but, it's been said before and I tend to agree, that applying the same listening parameters to direct radiators and nearly all Bose loudspeakers is not going to tell the whole story.

That quite the contrary to mass "audiophile" opinion, the Acoustimass stuff seems perfectly suitable to HT( which is an abomination of and by itself), ...in fact my first exposure to it was in a PC Richard where they were playing the Eagles "When Hell Freezes Over" DVD, seemed fine to me...I was so impressed, that it was the first disc I bought when I finally got a DVD player(another freebie), which, by-the-by, just plays through my tee-vee...Was it the disc or was it the playback system? I think a little of both...although my reference system has an incredible bottom end and all the other required attributes, the Bose seemed to do a good job IMO. Add simple hook-up and high scores in the WAF category...that's enough for some.

Again, the Wave products couldn't be simpler, and in the right circumstances that's all one may need...and yes, you pay for convenience, it's factored into the price, along with the ad costs...just like prescription drugs and a host of other things...I mean people love ads that congratulate their "good taste" and all...and they love thinking what they own is the "best"...how do else do you account for all the morons running around with their Gucci, Pucci-knock-offs, who can't wait to get to the next outlet mall to buy sub-par, name brand, made-specifically-for-the-outlet-mall goods?

As far as upgrade-ability...that segment of the market most likely doesn't take that into consideration...to repeat, plug'n'play. If they trade-up every year in the car department, they'll probably do it in the stereo/HT one also...Any one who has intentions of using a "building block" approach to their system oughta' know better...if they don't, shame on them...caveat emptor and I have no problem with anyone tellin' those folks the realities involved at the outset...

Finally, to put things into proper perspective, the "common decency" of gathering information about an issue, goes hand-in-hand with "impeaching" the credibility of anyone who profers non-issues...like eutectic solders and Teflon coatings or nit-piks the cost of a replacement remote.

jimHJJ(...I much prefer being informed...)

[Woochifer]

...I have yet to hear any of the Bose products produce their full potential even in a Bose store...a lot of the carping simply seems yada, yada, yada, Bose is bad...so quite the contrary to yours, IMO, it's jump on the bandwagon and have a bash...

But, you get that issue with ANY audio product that you hear in a store demo. If I do in store listenings of competing products, they're all hampered by similar handicaps.

Just attributing the heat that Bose takes in various audio forums to some bandwagon bash mentality just doesn't sync with the fact that so many regulars on this board and others HAVE owned Bose products and have done valid comparisons with competing products. I had a pair of 301s in my home for two years, and base my opinion that its a below average speaker for its price point on actual listenings and home comparisons (some of which were done under blind conditions). Sure, some of the Bose bashing goes overboard, but the most common complaints about their products -- poor value, substandard performance relative to competing products at the same price point, lack of upgradability, etc. -- are pretty applicable across much of their product line.

Again, the Wave products couldn't be simpler, and in the right circumstances that's all one may need...and yes, you pay for convenience, it's factored into the price, along with the ad costs...just like prescription drugs and a host of other things...I mean people love ads that congratulate their "good taste" and all...and they love thinking what they own is the "best"...how do else do you account for all the morons running around with their Gucci, Pucci-knock-offs, who can't wait to get to the next outlet mall to buy sub-par, name brand, made-specifically-for-the-outlet-mall goods?

And again, the whole purpose of this thread was to point out that Bose probably outsmarted themselves by going to this buttonless remote-only design on their new Wave radio. Has nothing to do with snob appeal or designer prestige, but a simple matter of functionality, which is the design aspect that Bose normally does very well compared to its competitors.

As far as upgrade-ability...that segment of the market most likely doesn't take that into consideration...to repeat, plug'n'play. If they trade-up every year in the car department, they'll probably do it in the stereo/HT one also...Any one who has intentions of using a "building block" approach to their system oughta' know better...if they don't, shame on them...caveat emptor and I have no problem with anyone tellin' those folks the realities involved at the outset...

I've followed this forum for about four years, and these are some of the most oft-repeated questions you'll see -- Can I upgrade the subwoofer on my Acoustimass? How do I plug different speakers into my Lifestyle system? Telling those Bose owners that their $3,000 investment requires a whole new system to upgrade it is not what they want to hear, but it's the reality. Boards like this one are one of the few places where they will hear about the drawbacks to Bose's proprietary, nonupgradable systems. Think they'll hear much about it in a magazine, on the radio, or at a retail store (the largest of which all carry Bose, and where Bose products give them the fattest margins this side of Monster Cable)? Saying that a consumer should know better presumes that the information is readily available for them to consider.

Finally, to put things into proper perspective, the "common decency" of gathering information about an issue, goes hand-in-hand with "impeaching" the credibility of anyone who profers non-issues...like eutectic solders and Teflon coatings or nit-piks the cost of a replacement remote.

jimHJJ(...I much prefer being informed...)

Uh, sounds more like argument for its own sake, but maybe that's just me.

The general part of my post re: familiarizing myself with the facts to do battle against the "audiophile hoo-haa" promoters was just that..."general"...everything from wire that went into space to revealing the true purpose of eutectic solders, IEC connectors and CAT5, Teflon coated wire...If it now extends to what seems to be conjecture and/or hearsay from Bose bashers, so be it! So many balloons and me with my little pin, what's a boy to do?

I guess not. Conjecture and/or hearsay from Bose bashers? Sounds more like contrarian speculation on your part. I hear a lot air escaping, better be careful with where you stick that pin. Might hurt yourself.

[Resident Loser]

NFText

[jxnew]

my former nextdoor neighbor had the accouistmass cubes. decent(just decent) sounding for movies (forget the woofer though). overpriced. period. its hard to say good things about it when you listen to it and harder to say bad things about it especially when the neighbor is nextdoor guy and when he seems to be overly happy about it.
but someone calls Bose 'unethical'?? what is so unethical about pricing it high if there are people to buy for the price they put? there would be tons of people who believe anyone who spends 60k on a Hummer is a complete idiot. does that make the company unethical? what about the 28k virgin mary sandwitch that was sold in ebay? will the lady who sold it go to hell because she is unethical? may be she should have ended the auction when it crossed 9.99 and gave it away to the guy who bid 10? there are millions of people who believe Mr.Bush went to war for oil? Does it make this war unethical? hmm.. may be yeah. okay wrong analogy. But the point is that, Bose's clever marketing/product design guys had the brains to 'think for' a lot of cute-tiny-hip-speaker-with-big(doesntmeangood)-sound-loving people and market it it to them. I call Bose smart, not unethical. Will I ever buy the tiny cubes? NO. Will I buy their wavesystem? NO. Will I buy their towers for my rec room? YES, if i get a real good deal.

[nightflier]

This thread was getting so long, I had forgotten who started the thread. I stand corrected. But, hey, ResLoser, you took the ball and ran with it.

Worf, you started this, you may need to end it....

[Worf101]

This thread was getting so long, I had forgotten who started the thread. I stand corrected. But, hey, ResLoser, you took the ball and ran with it.

Worf, you started this, you may need to end it....

I just gave my opinon based up on what I'd read---------------------------------------> over here....
and dealt with through use of the first Wave Radio... Simple as that..

Da Worfster