Quote Originally Posted by nightflier
No argument here, but has anyone ever tried to use the bose speakers seperately w/o the bass module (I suppose you'd have to strip the wire)? I wonder how they would compare to a pair of $50 Pioneer speakers from BB?

On a more serious note, isn't Bose just doing what a smart company should do? After all, if a company can lock the consumer into it's own disposable product line, it is doing the same thing Sony is doing with their memory stick, Saturn with plastic car body pannels, and Microsoft with Windows. I'm going to guess that most companies that take this approach are increasing sales and raising the value of their stock. It's a system of commercialization that does not reward quality but quantity. Ultimately, Bose has reached the holy grail of consumerism, which is indicated by the countless buyers who won't even consider anything that doesn't have word Bose on the box.

In the end, every company is doing everything it can to reach the market saturation of the Bose name. There will always be a point where a company's mom-and-pop roots are overshadowed by stock-owners who will dictate production and distribution. And w/o sounding trite, isn't that what we laud as the path to success?

Personally I only consider products from smaller shops like Axiom, SVS, Polk, PSB, and the like. I also try to pay in cash at the grocery store to prevent my buying habits to be sold to the highest bidder, and I buy music from unsigned artists, and I build my own cables, but in the end I can't fight the tidal wave of popular consent. I do what I can...

I think there's a big diffference between what Bose does and what those other companies that you list do. Those other companies don't overprice their products by 4x, and they generally don't put out stuff with features as dubious as the ones that Bose touts. Saturn uses those plastic body panels, and while you may or may not see value in that Saturn doesn't price their cars at $60,000 either. Microsoft Windows may not be the best operating system out there, but they don't charge $800 for it. And the Sony memory sticks may cost more than comparable flash cards in other formats, but they don't cost four times more and/or perform noticeably worse.

Also, your analogy to stockholder interests isn't exactly correct either because Bose is a privately held company.

Bose has successfully penetrated the mass market, and within that market, they have a good image precisely because very few of the specialty products that get touted on this board are distributed through those channels. Bose has carved out a successful niche by basically eliminating bases of comparison. They don't issue spec sheets, they contractually exclude dealers from mixing Bose with other brands in their demo rooms, etc. I suppose it's the holy grail of consumerism to have that kind of name recognition, but they are the devil incarnate with a lot of hobbyists precisely because they're not content to just bask in their sales. They feel this need to put on this aura that everything that they do has to do with advanced technology, or that they do stuff differently because of their "patents" or that they're so important that they have dominion over the decimal place or the word "Lifestyle." Lawsuits are an integral part of their business plan, that's why I have as harsh an assessment of their practices as I do.