Who Knows Bose?

[admin_exported]

Hi y'all. I have one question and concern which i'm hoping the mass collective can help me with... As a naive but very enthusiastic newcomer to the home cinema scene i have actively sought out the (mostly) unbiased opinions of people in the industry as to the best equipment i should purchase in my price range before actually handing over the readies to ensure i get the most for my money. I was very conscious to make sure everything would be relatively futureproof too.

I am a subscriber to whathifi and gained alot of info from there but still cannot find the info i need. I have ended up buying (apologies for the lack of model numbers - i'm at work) a Samsung 37'' 1080p LCD TV, a Sony Bravia HDMI x4 amp, 60Gb Sony PS3, Panasonic DVD recorder and will soon be upgrading to SKY HD. These are all connected up with Chord Company HDMI leads (which the magazine raved about). I am very happy with these and am comforted by regular reviews, old and new, on some of them.

My concern is this: as a longterm Bose fan after using their headphones for years and after a demo in my local electrical store i committed to buying the 5.1 Acoustimass 6 surround sound system. The decision was purely 3 fold: Price, aesthetics and finally the impressive demo. However i cannot find any external write ups or features on anything they sell! Is there a reason for this? No-one, as far as i can tell uses or reviews Bose products.

Thanks in advance. Someone please ease my paranoia!

 

[Clare Newsome]

If you've committed to buying, nothing we can advise - such as please, please, please hear lots of other kit at the same price-point before buying Bose - will be of much use.

If you're happy, including with the price, then that's all that counts.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

[quote user="Clare Newsome"]
If you've committed to buying, nothing we can advise - such as please, please, please hear lots of other kit at the same price-point before buying Bose - will be of much use.

If you're happy, including with the price, then that's all that counts.
[/quote] Clare is right and you are bound to get some Bose bashers on here soon. All I can say is that my brother-in-law had an Acoustimas set up and it sounded fine. We then went and demo's the B&W MT20 and it sounded much much better (if you didn't know the MT20 is circa £1k). I have a more traditional system than the MT20 and it's again a lot better. So what I'm getting at is, Bose looks good but you can get similar stylish speakers for cheaper and that are better and then bigger more traditional set ups for similar cost and that sound even better. You will only know this for yourself if you go and listen to an alternative.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks, thats fair enough but it doesn't really answer my question. Do you think it is value for money and, more importantly, a good product? I'm aware there are probably better products available for the price but i'm just going on my previous (happy) experience with the brand.

Also could you enlighten me as to why no-one ever reviews their products? Are they immune to critique? Are they the best you can buy? More importantly, are they so sub-standard no-one bothers with them? And why is it only 'general' electrical wholesalers sell them - i have yet to see them in a 'specialist' home entertainment store!

Confused!

 

[Gerrardasnails]

[quote user="Superbiker"]
Thanks, thats fair enough but it doesn't really answer my question. Do you think it is value for money and, more importantly, a good product? I'm aware there are probably better products available for the price but i'm just going on my previous (happy) experience with the brand.

Also could you enlighten me as to why no-one ever reviews their products? Are they immune to critique? Are they the best you can buy? More importantly, are they so sub-standard no-one bothers with them? And why is it only 'general' electrical wholesalers sell them - i have yet to see them in a 'specialist' home entertainment store!

Confused!
[/quote] This is my opinion. No, Bose is not value for money - if you can get better for cheaper how can it be. However, they are not bad products. Apparently Bose do not hand out it's equipment to reviewers like WHSAV. That's why you don't see reviews as magazines can hardly go out and buy £3k of kit to review it. Think of that how you like - are they scared of the review? As for where they are sold; well, the shops that don't sell anything other than Bose have the right idea. They will sound good to a lot of people if there is no comparison. Also you see them in magazines and the Times etc., perfect for people to mail order on the look and the fact they are expensive (must be good!).

 

[Anonymous]

Also, i like to think i strive to get the best i can. Being as i have very limited experience when it comes to the higher echelons of home entertainment i.e. i know the big manufacturers and am confident i can tell a good product over a gimmick- i am still very much in the dark when it comes to specialist equipment. Many average 'tv and video' consumers have never heard of B&W, KEF, Onkyo etc - well i never had until i actively started to become interested in the industry.

Bose was just another brand name in that unknown group to me especially as the same type of equipment was retailing for the same prices.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Gerrardasnails, thats cleared that up for me and actually makes complete sense. Glad you informed me as it seems i nearly fell into the uninformed consumer trap you mentioned.

On the flip side, what would be a great 5.1 surround sound system circa £600?

 

[Gerrardasnails]

[quote user="Superbiker"]
Thanks Gerrardasnails, thats cleared that up for me and actually makes complete sense. Glad you informed me as it seems i nearly fell into the uninformed consumer trap you mentioned.

On the flip side, what would be a great 5.1 surround sound system circa £600?
[/quote] No problem. Do you have a particular style that you are after? For instance, if you want the small cube style speakers, the Mission M cubes are now withing your price range (£1 spare). I've not heard them but they are supposed to be very good. If you can handle bigger traditional speakers, Superfi are selling the Quad Lite 5.1 in Rosewood only for £499 (rrp £999) and the Q ACOUSTICS 1010i 5.1for £499. If you could squeeze a little higher to around the £800 you could get the MA BR2 AV package if you shopped around.

 

[Anonymous]

I must admit it is the compactness and neat design of the small 'cubes' that first attracted me. The clean shape and the nice little shiny silver logo was exactly the sort of thing i wanted. Im not a big fan of wood finishes and also my equipment fits into a cove in my lounge so anything larger would make that area look cluttered and distract you from the main feature - the TV. I was very conscious of the fact i wanted great sound from films and music but i didnt particularly care much to see the speakers.

The Bose system ticked all the boxes. Or so i thought. But i have heard of the Mission brand and ill be sure to check them out. Id imagine a comparison test of the two systems would be pretty much unfeasible though!

Thanks again for your valuable advice. You are a gent.

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="Superbiker"]I must admit it is the compactness and neat design of the small 'cubes' that first attracted me. The clean shape and the nice little shiny silver logo was exactly the sort of thing i wanted. Im not a big fan of wood finishes and also my equipment fits into a cove in my lounge so anything larger would make that area look cluttered and distract you from the main feature - the TV. I was very conscious of the fact i wanted great sound from films and music but i didnt particularly care much to see the speakers.

The Bose system ticked all the boxes. Or so i thought. But i have heard of the Mission brand and ill be sure to check them out. Id imagine a comparison test of the two systems would be pretty much unfeasible though!

Thanks again for your valuable advice. You are a gent.[/quote]

sir, i have a bose system in my home, a bose lifestyle 20 from 1998!!

the system sound very good!! for me is better than a lot of kef and denon and harman kardon systems!!! bowers and wilkins is the best company in sound in the world!! its true!!!

but when some people say bose is trash, that people are extremely wrong!!!

the only comparison i do with bose vs bowers and wilkins are with the sound dock of bose vs the sound dock of bowers and wilkins, and for me the better are the bose, my father also think the same.

in my opinion you should buy bose, because its a good maker of speakers and systems!!!!

but you should listen the bose, kef, denon, etc... and should the best for you!!!! thats what i do usually!!!

and what you think about the bose systems and speakers???

 

[Anonymous]

If you read the previous thread i think you get the impression (well i get the impression) that as good as they are, the Bose range are not the best you can get for the same money. Im not slating Bose, far from it. I was once in the mindset that Bose were the be all, end all of audio. But that was purely down to my naivety and limited marketing exposure. What Hi Fi magazine along with the kindly people on this website have broadened my horizon to what else is out there. Also as much as i appreciate the input, im not going to base my next substantial purchase on your opinion of your '98 technology. I may be inexperienced but i have picked up enough to know that this industry doesn't sit still. Whats state of the art in January is old by May.

I went to the sound and vision show in Bristol earlier this year and have come to the same conclusion as you that B&W are indeed a serious contender in the industry, however they don't cater for my requirements: small, compact and discreet, well performing mini speakers/subwoofer systems. Or am i wrong? As far as i can tell they are leaders in the floorstanding / shelf sized speaker systems that i realistically do not have the property or inclination to buy. I won't be playing much music through them, not much anyway - purely movie surround sound or maybe the odd music channel.

If i am grossly mis-informed please feel free to put me straight and open my eyes to other possibilities!

 

[professorhat]

Well, there's the B&W MT-20 package Gerrardasnails mentions and also, the MT-30 package which includes the PV1 subwoofer - certainly very stylish to look at. WHF rates it very highly, though I've seen divided opinions on this forum. Unfortunately, I've yet to hear it for myself, but I'd say these were definitely packages worth checking out.

 

[Anonymous]

If you look on ebay there's a lot of the speakers you have mentioned for around your budget. I got the M Cubes for 430 pounds-delivered. I'm very happy with them and I have similar requirements to you.

Just finished watching Master and Commander and the sofa actually shook at times- and I weigh 21 stones. They certainly fight above their weight.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

[quote user="professorhat"]Well, there's the B&W MT-20 package Gerrardasnails mentions and also, the MT-30 package which includes the PV1 subwoofer - certainly very stylish to look at. WHF rates it very highly, though I've seen divided opinions on this forum. Unfortunately, I've yet to hear it for myself, but I'd say these were definitely packages worth checking out.[/quote] The MT20/MT30 would blow you away but they are more expensive. You mentioned £600 earlier and the MT30 is out of that range as the subwoofer alone costs £950. You can get deals though. Sevenoaks is your best bet in my opinion (www.ssav.com). There are quite a few shops dotted around the country. I reckon you could get the MT20 for around £900 and the MT30 for about £1250. The MT1s are the satellites in both systems and they can be wall mounted and look very flash indeed (black and silver badges and all that!). As I mentioned before, my brother-in-law had a Bose system before and when we sat down on the sofa in the Sevenoaks store to hear the MTs in action, we were truly shocked how good they were.

 

[Clare Newsome]

Also worth auditioning - in the small and stylish category - are KEF's various 'egg' KHT-range speakers (there's a new 2005.3 model due any day - see here), Monitor Audio's Radius range and the Tannoy Arena range.

 

[Anonymous]

...or the Jamo A405 HCS5

Probably the closest match you'll get to the bose in style terms.
Recieved a good early review from WHF IIRC?

 

[Anonymous]

i changed bose to b&w and the difference is ten fold

 

[Anonymous]

Thank you everyone for your helpful and very valid opinions. I'll be sure to check out the variety of products you have suggested.

 

[Anonymous]

Who wants to know Bose?

 

[Andrew Everard]

[quote user="The specialist"]Who wants to know Bose?[/quote]

Some people, clearly...

 

[Anonymous]

Although not the loudest speakers out there, the MS Alumnis I bought recently have great definition/clarity IMO, and can be purchased well within the budget set out by the OP. Unfortunately I was not able to compare them with anything from KEF or B&W, but I was happy with the price point of the alumnis as they were compact enough for my needs and look great to my eyes.