Bose 141....why the hate?

Had a pair of 901 IV's back in the day. Really liked them at the time as I played my music LOUD. Grew a bit disappointed being stuck w/ their amplifier .
 
It’s not hate....

It’s just that there is allot better out there for almost nothing if you know where to look. If it’s your first time with stereo equipment you will be looking around at different speakers that don’t cost much.
 
I admire Bose. Very successful company, nicely positioned in the market. They aren't really a brand for most enthusiasts, but do a good job wresting a sound that regular Joes and Jills find very pleasant, from small enclosures. Nothing wrong with that. Those who think their prices too high vote elsewhere with their dollars. Maybe even used Bose, but often some other brand for even higher prices.

I pay a little more for my beloved Claussen pickles. Others may think that a waste. So what?
 
Claussen is the only pickle worth eating from a national brand.

On Bose I think it's a combo of pushback against the slavish loyalty they inspire in the uninitiated and the knowledge that for the price, if sound quality is your highest priority, they're well below average.

We all know that guy who says something like "you have to get the Bose, they're the best." Any time someone asks about speakers/headphones/etc. Any attempt to inform is useless, because Bose is the best. It also chafes to watch a friend spend good money on something you know to be inferior and a lot of that irritated energy gets vented online.

From an engineering standpoint, they put a lot of effort into making the least expensive components possible sound "good". I've never been impressed with a Bose product once I've gotten a look under the hood.
 
I admire Bose. Very successful company, nicely positioned in the market. They aren't really a brand for most enthusiasts, but do a good job wresting a sound that regular Joes and Jills find very pleasant, from small enclosures. Nothing wrong with that. Those who think their prices too high vote elsewhere with their dollars. Maybe even used Bose, but often some other brand for even higher prices.

I pay a little more for my beloved Claussen pickles. Others may think that a waste. So what?

Should I be offended? I'm a regular Joe and not a Bose fan.:biggrin:

OTOH, I have two different types of Clausen pickles (Dill Spears, Burger Slices) in my fridge right now.:thumbsup:
 
I admire Bose. Very successful company, nicely positioned in the market. They aren't really a brand for most enthusiasts, but do a good job wresting a sound that regular Joes and Jills find very pleasant, from small enclosures. Nothing wrong with that. Those who think their prices too high vote elsewhere with their dollars. Maybe even used Bose, but often some other brand for even higher prices.

I pay a little more for my beloved Claussen pickles. Others may think that a waste. So what?


Should I be offended? I'm a regular Joe and not a Bose fan.:biggrin:

OTOH, I have two different types of Clausen pickles (Dill Spears, Burger Slices) in my fridge right now.:thumbsup:

At least we can all agree that in the mass market Claussen is the way to go. Delicious pickles you can buy from every grocer in the country.
I've got a mostly empty jar in the fridge now that I need to replace.

As for Bose, eh, they make stuff that sounds ok and costs a lot. Not my cup of tea.
 
As for Bose, eh, they make stuff that sounds ok and costs a lot. Not my cup of tea.

I had a pair of their noise cancelling cans when I was given a desk on the shop floor and later in the hangar at my last job. They were a godsend for working out there, every single person who had to sit out there had a pair. That said, the sound quality was not nearly up to par with their noise cancelling performance. Bloaty bass and eh everything else. I dealt with it because I can't stand to wear noise cancelling headphones without something playing. Feels like they're trying to implode my head.
 
Having grown up owning and listening to Bose products (the Wave radios, assorted headphones, in-home audio systems, 501’s, etc etc), I can certainly say that Bose can churn out some fair products that consistently put out a nice sound. It’s not a sound that is blatantly offensive to the untrained ear. There’s no holographic imaging or precision detail to be heard, but instead the music sort of covers the room like a fog. It’s not so much “boomy” as it is “boomer”. Once you start critically listening, cracks and flaws start to show, but for simple background listening, one can do far worse.
 
Should I be offended? I'm a regular Joe and not a Bose fan.:biggrin:

OTOH, I have two different types of Clausen pickles (Dill Spears, Burger Slices) in my fridge right now.:thumbsup:

From an audio standpoint, you are several standards of deviation off the regular Joe track. From my standpoint, you are a pickle connoisseur. I usually just have the spears. I'll make it two thumb's up for Claussen. :thumbsup:
 
[QUOTE="OMGCat!, post: 11708408, member: 212134"]At least we can all agree that in the mass market Claussen is the way to go. Delicious pickles you can buy from every grocer in the country.
I've got a mostly empty jar in the fridge now that I need to replace.

As for Bose, eh, they make stuff that sounds ok and costs a lot. Not my cup of tea.[/QUOTE]

Maybe not quite as good as the one's mom made herself from our garden back in the 60s and 70s. Pretty big backyard and enough garden to grow fresh veggies all summer and fill a big chest freezer for the off-season, too. Man, we ate like kings then... best turnip greens ever - just go pull a mess and cook 'em up in an iron boiler.

I could see using Bose in a Nursing Home.
 
[QUOTE="OMGCat!, post: 11708408, member: 212134"]At least we can all agree that in the mass market Claussen is the way to go. Delicious pickles you can buy from every grocer in the country.
I've got a mostly empty jar in the fridge now that I need to replace.

As for Bose, eh, they make stuff that sounds ok and costs a lot. Not my cup of tea.

Maybe not quite as good as the one's mom made herself from our garden back in the 60s and 70s. Pretty big backyard and enough garden to grow fresh veggies all summer and fill a big chest freezer for the off-season, too. Man, we ate like kings then... best turnip greens ever - just go pull a mess and cook 'em up in an iron boiler.

I could see using Bose in a Nursing Home.[/QUOTE]

That's one of the biggest things I miss about having space, being able to have a garden.
We all used to pitch in for our "victory garden" every summer. Tomatoes off the vine with a sprinkle of salt, pull carrots and rub the dirt off on your shirt to clean them off. Delicious.
In the fall we'd can tomatoes, make jam, pickle eggplant.
Getting misty eyed just thinging about the old days.
 
Run of the mill opinion seems to be that Bose haters are not welcome, but Bose lovers are just those willing to settle for less ... huh.

Got three sets here - the VS1 as center channels on both my dedicated music and video systems, a pair of Bose 161's filling in the back half of a hafler array on the rear channels of my quad system, and a pair of early production 201's as primary drivers in the living room. All are in the house for a reason, doing a rather admirable job for my purposes, and in fact, running rings around anything else I've tried for those purposes ... what the Bose engineers do with reflections and phasing is simply amazing sometimes.

So there ... pflubba pflubba pflubba ... ;-}
 
Run of the mill opinion seems to be that Bose haters are not welcome, but Bose lovers are just those willing to settle for less ... huh.

Got three sets here - the VS1 as center channels on both my dedicated music and video systems, a pair of Bose 161's filling in the back half of a hafler array on the rear channels of my quad system, and a pair of early production 201's as primary drivers in the living room. All are in the house for a reason, doing a rather admirable job for my purposes, and in fact, running rings around anything else I've tried for those purposes ... what the Bose engineers do with reflections and phasing is simply amazing sometimes.

So there ... pflubba pflubba pflubba ... ;-}

Yes, settling for much less size in a small room (like in a NH, which are often semi-private) makes sense to me. And Bose does that pretty well, imo, with their all-in-one products.
 
One thing I am fairly certain about Bose; when I am pushing up daisies Bose will still be there. Can't be said for the overwhelming majority of speaker/audio brands.

/return to ritual hating
 
I can throw some info here too. I did own a set of 601s and loved them, w/ the right power amp they were fine. Most have heard the rap against the 901s because of their finicky placement issues, use of the EQ that must match that series and after series 2 all those drivers had foam surrounds,that's a lot of drivers. Now in the '80s when the housing market was exploding in a good way my boss decided to become a Bose distributor of the 3 room amps and the family room H/T Acustimass Systems. For a 1st time home owner it sounded ok. The 3 room amp systems w/ high hat speakers a sub and volume control were audiophile nothing but great for background music. The H/T system went for $5k w/ no wiggle room the same sales pitch as Saturns used to have. People just ate them up and as many alarms we installed almost an equal number of Bose Systems went in also. Now not so much anymore.
 
I remember when the 901’s came out that was back in my AR days. I remember we didn’t like the active equalizer. We had vapors about cheap speakers made to sound good. The biggest thing we hated was the “A” hole dealers that sold them. You listened in a room optomized for their direct/reflexed sound. Good luck getting that sound at home. But the salesman. The ones we ran into acted like if you questioned their self perceived massive intellect you were a speaker Luddite. These were the same salesman who sold, what was than called bass reflex speakers, while the AR crowd enjoyed the tight sound of our speakers. These bozo’s gloried in making manhole covers in the street rattle. In those days ported speaker for the most part were awful. There were exceptions, The gigantic Warfedales were one.
 
I remember when the 901’s came out that was back in my AR days. I remember we didn’t like the active equalizer. We had vapors about cheap speakers made to sound good. The biggest thing we hated was the “A” hole dealers that sold them. You listened in a room optomized for their direct/reflexed sound. Good luck getting that sound at home. But the salesman. The ones we ran into acted like if you questioned their self perceived massive intellect you were a speaker Luddite. These were the same salesman who sold, what was than called bass reflex speakers, while the AR crowd enjoyed the tight sound of our speakers. These bozo’s gloried in making manhole covers in the street rattle. In those days ported speaker for the most part were awful. There were exceptions, The gigantic Warfedales were one.

Bingo! I used to work for a marketing company that sold hi-fi gear to the PX system in Germany - Luxman, DBX, Cerwin-Vega, Nakamichi, Polk-Audio and others. What I absolutely hated was when the Bose rep would come into the speaker demo room and take over the whole space. When they moved other makes of speakers they would wire them out-of-phase so their product would sound better when they did the A/B comparison. Unfortunately, for one of them, I entered the room as he was messing around behind my Polk Audio display. I asked what he was doing and he had the balls to tell me that Polk's were meant to be wired that way. He was escorted out of the store by the manager within minutes.

To me - bose is all about the marketing. There's no doubt it's effective. That's why seemingly everyone knows of Bose - and thinks it's the best available. But with the pricing control that Bose imposes on it's sellers, the price for their products implies that it must be the best. But the reality is the prices charged is needed to pay for huge marketing budget.

I had the opportunity to meet Dr. Bose in 1973. He came to the store where I then worked in the warehouse as a bench tester. He asked how I liked his products. I told him that I didn't care for them. He replied, "Well, you have an untrained ear." Yep - even an untrained ear will tell you what it doesn't like to listen to.
 
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