Quote Originally Posted by Woochifer
I think what differentiates Bose from other systems is that they have a much wider frequency gap and that gap occurs higher into the frequency range. This gap is very audible and the tonal imbalances throughout the rest of the frequency range make the Bose Acoustimass systems very poor performers compared to competing systems. The satellite units only extend down to 280 Hz, while the bass module has to go up to around 200 Hz. This means that the bass module is actually going into the lower midrange.

Also, by design the Bose Acoustimass systems require that you patch all of the outputs through the bass module where the crossover is located. This means that if you ever want to improve the bass response by adding a subwoofer, you actually have to keep the Bose bass module connected! The satellite units cannot be individually connected to the amp/receiver.

That Paradigm Cinema system is not ideal either because the satellites can only go down to 125 Hz, but if you use a home theater receiver with a crossover point of 120 Hz, then you have a much smaller gap between where the subwoofer takes over and where the satellite units drop off. And if you ever decide to upgrade the bass, all you have to do is swap out the subwoofer, or buy the satellites individually and get a different subwoofer from the outset. The Paradigm design is an open design that allows the user to upgrade different components, and this is how most other manufacturers design their systems. The closed loop design that Bose uses is another way that they rip off the customers, because it does not allow the user to swap out any components without upgrading the entie package.
Good point, and even now there are probably some packaged sets that don't have that gap which are reasonably priced. I'd be curious about the SVS system for example, among others.

Perhaps most suprising or at least enlightening for me is to see how the Bose speakers cut off just above 13KHz. I don't think it is so much a matter of me not believing it but that I've never seen the numbers specifying it.