Why Bose doesn't get into Front-Firing speakers design?

[JSE]

[QUOTE=woodman]Yeah, it's an interesting read all right ... and some of the points he makes regarding why Bose has been so successful are right on target. But IMO, he runs off the road into the ditch at the end of his article when he says:

So does that make the people at Bose bad people?

No, just fantastically wealthy people, with happy customers, who get more respect than most speaker guys out there. "

Yeah, I have to agree with you there. They seem to prey on the uninformed.

True story. I was talking to my wife's boss about a year ago. He was telling me how he was getting ready to buy a Bose system for his $1m plus house because that's what all his neighbors had. He's pretty materialistic. Initially, my stomach started to tighten into knots. But, then I thought I would help him. We met for lunch a couple of days later and we went to Tweeter. We first listened to a Bose system that was about $3k, I think? He was impressed and said, "see, that's why I am getting Bose." Poor man. We then listen to the Boston Acoustic speakers I own. He was BLOWN away. He thought they were the best he had ever heard. We then proceeded to listen to Vienna, Sonus and then Martin Logan. He was like a kid in a candy shop. Needless to say the Boston's fell off the "new" list as well.

Now? He has a 5.1 Martin Logan system driven by B&K components. He totally get's off on watching his neighbors drool now. I have created a Monster. He does not even have the system calibrated and really could care less about doing it. I have to admit I am pretty blown away by the sound. Ah, to have big money!

JSE

[kelsci]

Smokey; some years back, I believe BOSE did have a line of direct firing speakers. They were called INTERAUDIO. There was one store in Ft. Lauderdale in the 70s that was a stereo store specializing in BOSE products. I do not remember how many models they made regarding the bass drivers and whether they had a three way design. A friend of my brothers bought a pair and used a RS SA-1000 intergrated 20 watt per channel amp(one of the few things from RS that had good sound). The speakers played very well on that amp. I remember that this store sold a rather huge power amplifier that BOSE made. I thought that item had rather good sound for a power amp and I believe was expensive.

[Woochifer]

Yeah, I have to agree with you there. They seem to prey on the uninformed.

True story. I was talking to my wife's boss about a year ago. He was telling me how he was getting ready to buy a Bose system for his $1m plus house because that's what all his neighbors had. He's pretty materialistic. Initially, my stomach started to tighten into knots. But, then I thought I would help him. We met for lunch a couple of days later and we went to Tweeter. We first listened to a Bose system that was about $3k, I think? He was impressed and said, "see, that's why I am getting Bose." Poor man. We then listen to the Boston Acoustic speakers I own. He was BLOWN away. He thought they were the best he had ever heard. We then proceeded to listen to Vienna, Sonus and then Martin Logan. He was like a kid in a candy shop. Needless to say the Boston's fell off the "new" list as well.

Now? He has a 5.1 Martin Logan system driven by B&K components. He totally get's off on watching his neighbors drool now. I have created a Monster. He does not even have the system calibrated and really could care less about doing it. I have to admit I am pretty blown away by the sound. Ah, to have big money!

JSE

Pretty insane what marketing and groupthink can accomplish, eh? Friends of mine who worked in AV sales always had to combat the preconceived advantage that Bose had with a lot of buyers. It got to the point that one of those stores paid for their own Bose Acoustimass system so that customers could do their own A/B comparisons, since Bose displays in other stores don't allow for that. They didn't lose as many sales after that.

When I was speaker shopping and overhearing the banter between other customers and the sales reps, at some point Bose always entered the discussion and it was interesting to see how the sales reps responded. One of them cupped his hand over his mouth to "demonstrate" what Bose speakers sound like. Another one proceeded to demo a system in the same price range as the Lifestyle 35. Strange thing is that the customer admitted that the store's comparably priced system blew away the Lifestyle, but still went on about how he thought that Bose had all that "superior technology" in their products. Not sure if the sales rep made the sale.

Another friend got it from both ends. His store finally decided to pick up Bose after losing one too many sales from customers who'd come in, listen to a system that they admitted sounded better, but still wind up buying Bose from a competitor because they just couldn't believe that anything could possibly be better, even if their ears were telling them the truth. When my friend's store picked up Bose, he said that the store had to clear out a dedicated demo room for the Bose products, with no competing products present. During a training session, the Bose reps went into the sales points and did some sound demos. Keep in mind that this store carried Klipsch, Energy, Boston, and Polk among others, and while the Bose rep was chiming on about how great the Bose sound was as the disc was playing, the sales reps were all looking at one another like who's this guy kidding?

Once they started carrying Bose, it was great for the sales reps because the commissions on the Bose units are higher and they were more often impulse buys. The customer would come in and ask about Bose. The sales rep would demo the unit, and the customer buys it without demoing anything else. Easy sale, easy profit. My friend would demo other products only if the customer asked, and he did try to move them into other product lines if the customer was open-minded. With Bose, there's no upgrade path, but with a component system, there are more opportunities to add on and upgrade later on, so he was also thinking with his pocketbook. But, very often, the customers came into the store already convinced that Bose was the best, and no demo or comparison was going to disuade them from that belief.

At least your friend was open minded enough to get blown away by a different brand, and believe that something actually was better than Bose. It is pretty easy to create monsters in audio. Just recently, my wife's friend and her husband came over. Her husband is into home theatre (has a full sized satellite dish in the backyard), but had gone with a mismatched set of speakers for years. I had just finished matching my surround setup, so he gave it a listen and was pretty floored by how much better the imaging and overall coherency was. Less than a month later, I heard that he had swapped out his entire speaker setup for a matched top-of-the-line Def Tech set. Ironically, even though those tower speakers physically have low WAF, the sound actually met with the wife's approval. She told my wife, "Gosh, my husband's loud movies don't sound as annoying as they did before!" Who knew that new speakers could contribute to domestic tranquility?

[kexodusc]

I've always handled the WAF or (Fiancee Acceptance Factor in my case) by employing a few simple tactics:

First, always start with:
"Honey, what color do you think would best match the room?"
Followed by a "Well we better go test them in store to see if the colour really matches the brochure"...

Then they get hooked in the sound demo...if there's one weakness most women I know have, it's that they love to shop. Doesn't matter what for...could be chainsaw, jock-strap, whatever. Put it to them as if it's a challenge, find the best deal on this item you can exploit that weakness to no end.

Another trick I have personally is a bit more devious on my part. My finacee is incredibly resentful of my best friend's wife for some reason...Just hates her. For some reason she measures our relationship against there's constantly. So when Ryan gets new audio gear because of a pay raise or something, I usually say something like "Do you remember how nice Ryan and Tanya's living room was, well they've just added $2000 of speakers to it"...
This usually motivates a counter-move on our part.
In the last year I've upgraded speakers, couches and refinished my HT room without complaint about how much money I've dropped just because we were engaged in a battle of one-upsmanship. It's great!!!

Finally, it's not just enough to buy your gear and forget the wife...once in a while you have to invest a few dollars and a few painful hours into "purchase reinforcement". By this I mean go out and buy the latest DTS romantic comedy (I recommend a Hugh Grant flick, these are the least painful and are generally all the same, short, witty, and to the point) or buy her an Enrique CD or something romantic, and give her "limited supervised access" to your stereo....Trust me, this goes along way to preserving harmony. This last step is perhaps the most important, forget to do this and you'll find yourself dumping money in weird european restaurants or brutal local theater performances.

Hope I've provided you all with something useful. Pass on what you have learned, my friends.

[samgupta]

This last step is perhaps the most important, forget to do this and you'll find yourself dumping money in weird european restaurants or brutal local theater performances.

Hope I've provided you all with something useful. Pass on what you have learned, my friends.

That is hilarious! You are dead on with the weird restuarant or brutal local theater thing. I just dodged a 3-ticket package to the Berkeley theater group last night and am well aware of how lucky I am. The deal breaker? The additional "convenience fees" charged by their website.

I'd better run out and get a romatic comedy asap to keep the good luck rolling

[kexodusc]

That is hilarious! You are dead on with the weird restuarant or brutal local theater thing. I just dodged a 3-ticket package to the Berkeley theater group last night and am well aware of how lucky I am. The deal breaker? The additional "convenience fees" charged by their website.

I'd better run out and get a romatic comedy asap to keep the good luck rolling

Compared to some of the "performances" I've attended, Berkeley would be a treat.
You haven't blown money until you've dropped $80 on two tickets for "Kung Fu: The Legend Continues: The Musical" or paid $400 for a trip to Dr. Phil that never even aired on TV.

[agtpunx40]

the episode could have aired and everyone would have known that you went to a taping of Dr. Phil. Of course they still wouldn't have known it cost ya $400.

[kexodusc]

the episode could have aired and everyone would have known that you went to a taping of Dr. Phil. Of course they still wouldn't have known it cost ya $400.

Actually, that in itself is something of a funny story, my girlfriend (now engaged) and her friends gave me the impression this show was less like Oprah and more like Springer or Jenny Jones, with fights, smut etc.