Ahhchh! Bose!!!

CobraJet said:

Are you sure the previous owner didn't strip out all the "good" stuff? Funny, I'm ditching my fancy new Focal Chorus 716V speakers for my "old" Bose 901's. Maybe my "old" ears just prefer the audio range of the 901's over the Focals.

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Ed Bishop said:

Bose's motto is "Better Sound Through Research" but as critics have pointed out, their slogan should be "Better Sales Through Marketing" since they seem to be much better at selling their stuff as opposed to making great electronics. That doesn't mean all their equipment is bad--I've heard good things about some of their headphones--but what they're really selling is convenience, as in the Wave radio, and their small satellite systems that don't take up much space but do offer decent sound--for not much space. But anyone who truly wants fine sonics would do better to buy components of quality. Bose's success has always been about size--their shelf speakers sold very well even though they sounded like utter crap. Their Wave radio sounds good for what it is--but that ain't much, and nothing an audiophile would be interested in. And for what you get for your money, Bose has always been somewhat pricey, not least because all that marketing and advertising costs a lot and Bose has to pass that on to consumers, which is why they offer payment plans. They're the Fingerhut of electronics, but it would be unfair to say everything they sell is crap, because--perhaps by default--they do have some quality items, but it's easier to go to a Best Buy or local electronics store and hear it for yourself, than trust Bose to tell you how great their stuff is. And their speakers have been notoriously dissed from the outset.

ED

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Ed Bishop said:

Bose's motto is "Better Sound Through Research" but as critics have pointed out, their slogan should be "Better Sales Through Marketing" since they seem to be much better at selling their stuff as opposed to making great electronics. That doesn't mean all their equipment is bad--I've heard good things about some of their headphones--but what they're really selling is convenience, as in the Wave radio, and their small satellite systems that don't take up much space but do offer decent sound--for not much space. But anyone who truly wants fine sonics would do better to buy components of quality. Bose's success has always been about size--their shelf speakers sold very well even though they sounded like utter crap. Their Wave radio sounds good for what it is--but that ain't much, and nothing an audiophile would be interested in. And for what you get for your money, Bose has always been somewhat pricey, not least because all that marketing and advertising costs a lot and Bose has to pass that on to consumers, which is why they offer payment plans. They're the Fingerhut of electronics, but it would be unfair to say everything they sell is crap, because--perhaps by default--they do have some quality items, but it's easier to go to a Best Buy or local electronics store and hear it for yourself, than trust Bose to tell you how great their stuff is. And their speakers have been notoriously dissed from the outset.

ED

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holland123 said:

Home audio and car audio are such completely different animals that how one manufacturer performs in a home system is not relative to how it will perform under 12v conditions. I have a friend who also loves his 901s and in his home system I have to say they sound very good. He, like the previous poster moved up from 501s as well. I think you get used to how something sounds and you like it and change comes with difficulties. Beauty is in the ear of the beholder. Audio enjoyment is actually as personal a choice as the brand of toothpaste that you like.
That being said I can tell you that bose speakers for the 12v market have never been embraced by car audio professionals for one main reason: power handling. They just can't seem to make a speaker that can handle significant amperage. They had some factory tuned systems that sounded very good but under low power conditions. Pushing a bose 12v system to even 0db for much longer than 5 second bursts will likely blow the driver. I would hazard a guess that our original poster here probably has several blown speakers. When a speaker blows it doesn't always have a rattle sound. In a car system often times the driver windings will blow and it will not allow the cone to travel in and out in which case it will sound very tinny. This problem is common with some brands like bose if they have been pushed too far. I have listened to a bose 12 speaker factory system that was outstanding with a harmon kardon dvda player. That is until the speakers started to blow.

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