Opinions on Bose 10.2 II? Haters be damned.

relaximus

relaximus

Consoles 'Я' Us
Having never owned any Bose, I'm intrigued by these that have come up for sale. Anyone have any experience?

If you have no direct experience with these speakers (or the Series I of this model), I don't need to hear your Bose opinions. That is not the point of this thread. Please play nice. ;)

Thanks!
Dave
 
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imo they are among Bose' best speakers. i have not owned a pair but heard them frequently at a video rental store i used to go to alot. i feel they are not the most accurate speakers i've heard by a long shot but they are pleasant to listen to.
 
I was a sales guy for a pretty reputable store in Arkansas while I was in college. We picked up the Bose line of 'Stereo Anywhere' speaker. They consisted of the ones you are considering, also the 6.2, and the 4.2. Their sales pitch consisted of some drink coasters that you could throw anywhere on the floor and ask the customer to stand on them. They would be able to hear a stereo image anywhere in the room. It actually worked!!! The owner ended up buying a pair of them and owned them for quite some time.

You should test them to assure that you be able to live with them. Best of luck.
 
Bose did make some good stuff.

The 1801 and 1800 amps.

I know of one critical audiophile that has the 10 speakers and likes them.

You never know unless you go.

BTW 'internet opinion' is like any other opinion.
Worthless.
 
I like all the .2 series, still regret letting my 6.2's go, and I'd personally grab a pair of 10.2 without hesitating.
 
I bought a pair of these back in the early or mid 80s, can't seem to remember the exact date. I've been pretty happy with them. Depending on the moment, I drive them with a Marantz 4230 or a Fisher 400. They sound great with either receiver.

From some of the reviews I've read, the 10.2 Series II was the best speaker Bose ever made. I know there are Bose haters out there who probably have never listened to a pair of these but I've been happy for over 30 years. The 'stereo everywhere' does work, I can stand in front of one speaker and hear the stereo effect from the other speaker.

If you were in Canton, MI instead of Canton, CT I'd invite you over and we could listen to some vinyl so you could hear for yourself!
 
I had a pair of 8.2s and I would have bought the 10.2s except I couldn't afford them. The 8.2s sound really good but the 10.2s were miles above them in terms of bass and midrange clarity. My 8.2s were 4 Ohms if I recall correctly. The 10.2s will want a good amp to sound its best.
 
Old thread.. but I picked up a set of these locally for next to nothing and because I wanted to try a pair way back when.

While they won't replace my daily drivers... I first put them in my main system, and with a big ol Pass Labs amp driving them, they are surprisingly decent.

Depending on what you like in a speaker... they do a lot pretty well.
 
Having given them a few hours of listening now and tweaking their position in the room I have a few more thoughts.

They do pretty well on clean recordings, instrumentals, classical, some jazz, dire straits, pink floyd, even reggae. Where they start to get a little confused in the midrange is with louder, more congested recordings including a lot of say 90's rock and some metal at more volume. The best way I can describe is is they get a bit congested in the midrange. Some tracks like In the Air Tonight sounds pretty darn great and huge.

The bass isn't bad, and I don't find them bright. The bass while not super deep seems to roll of nice and smoothly somewhere around 45hz and smoothly into the low 30's with a little room gain. I think there is a little mid-bass hump built in, and that's not a bad thing.

Not a bad bargain speaker all in all. Not sure if I will keep them, though the pair I picked up is in really good shape.
 
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Buddy has a pair of those but upgraded the tweeters to peerless paper cones and rebuild the XO. They sound way better than they should with these mods. He is driving them with a 30 WPC push-pull tube amp, the sound is really very good. HE has lots of great speakers but these get a lot of playing time.
 
The tweeters have ferrofluid, which may have dried up after 30 years.

The "Acoustimass" design for the bass is a 6th-order dual-vented bandpass. In practical terms, that means that woofer excursion will skyrocket at frequencies below the passband, even more rapidly than with a typical ported design. And since the woofer is buried inside tuned chambers, the distortion from being driven too hard will be significantly less audible - until it's too late. An active subsonic filter might be a good idea if there's any chance you'll play them loud and low.
 
kfa888 said:
Buddy has a pair of those but upgraded the tweeters to peerless paper cones and rebuild the XO. They sound way better than they should with these mods. He is driving them with a 30 WPC push-pull tube amp, the sound is really very good. HE has lots of great speakers but these get a lot of playing time.
Click to expand...

I've thought about messing around with these a bit.

Wonder if he is using these? As for the crossover, did he just replace the caps, or mod it? Simply wondering.

https://www.parts-express.com/peerl...-full-range-paper-cone-woofer-4-ohm--264-1126
 
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DEP14 said:
Wonder if he is using these? As for the crossover, did he just replace the caps, or mod it? Simply wondering.

https://www.parts-express.com/peerl...-full-range-paper-cone-woofer-4-ohm--264-1126
Click to expand...

The Bose 10.2 II had a nominal 8 ohm impedance, including in the tweeter range. It also had about 87dB/2.83V sensitivity. And finally, it had fairly flat response to 20kHz (at least close mic'd). Put all that together, and the suggested "tweeters" would be poor substitutes or upgrades.
 
DEP14 said:
Having given them a few hours of listening now and tweaking their position in the room I have a few more thoughts.

They do pretty well on clean recordings, instrumentals, classical, some jazz, dire straits, pink floyd, even reggae. Where they start to get a little confused in the midrange is with louder, more congested recordings including a lot of say 90's rock and some metal at more volume. The best way I can describe is is they get a bit congested in the midrange. Some tracks like In the Air Tonight sounds pretty darn great and huge.


The bass isn't bad, and I don't find them bright. The bass while not super deep seems to roll of nice and smoothly somewhere around 45hz and smoothly into the low 30's with a little room gain. I think there is a little mid-bass hump built in, and that's not a bad thing.

Not a bad bargain speaker all in all. Not sure if I will keep them, though the pair I picked up is in really good shape.
Click to expand...

No, they aren’t a bad sounding speaker. I still have a pair in my stash. They don’t get played as often as some of my more favored speakers, but I don’t plan on getting rid of them either.
They fill a certain niche for me since I don’t have any Ohms at the moment. They are sort of like a poor man Ohm when it comes to imaging. Doesn’t have the same detail as an Ohm be it does give a fairly broad soundstage regardless of where you are sitting.
One of Bose’s better efforts. 10.2 and 601 are much less picky than 901 for placement and room treatments. Both can surprise given Bose less than stellar reputation for accurate sound reproduction.
 
Stop me if you've heard this one before but.

back before the virus shut everything (including my favorite shop) down, I was in, and saw they had a pair of 10.2 someone had brought in.
Being a fan, as I've said, of the .2 series, I said i wanted to hear them, and proceeded to move, then hook 'em up and give em a listen.

underwhelmed was definitely the name of the game, bass was there, but lacked clarity, same for mids and highs.

they did not impress.

Then I unhooked them, and wired back in the vandersteen 2cs that had been hooked up previously. (that I had NOT been listening to before the switch)
Wow! the Vandersteens trounced the 10.2 in every conceivable way, from clarity, to musicality, to bass extension, I mean, it was no comparison at all.
I know, the Vandersteens are much more expensive, but honestly I could not believe how much better they sounded.

I was surprised, because I expected the 10.2 to sound much better then they did. (yes they had been refoamed)
 
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Y
jazzmans said:
Stop me if you've heard this one before but.

back before the virus shut everything (including my favorite shop) down, I was in, and saw they had a pair of 10.2 someone had brought in.
Being a fan, as I've said, of the .2 series, I said i wanted to hear them, and proceeded to move, then hook 'em up and give em a listen.

underwhelmed was definitely the name of the game, bass was there, but lacked clarity, same for mids and highs.

they did not impress.

Then I unhooked them, and wired back in the vandersteen 2cs that had been hooked up previously.
Wow! the Vandersteens trounced the 10.2 in every conceivable way, from clarity, to musicality, to bass extension, I mean, it was no comparison at all.
I know, the Vandersteens are much more expensive, but honestly I could not believe how much better they sounded.

I was surprised, because I expected the 10.2 to sound much better then they did. (yes they had been refoamed)
Click to expand...
Yeah not going to sound good in direct comparison to a Vandersteen of any sort.

They aren’t in the same league as my RTR HPR-12 Magnums with the ESR-6 electrostatics either. They are what they are. A mass market speaker for casual listening with a wide sweet spot and to some extent soundstage..

That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if the internal 8 inch woofer for the band pass didn’t have something wrong with it. If I were buying I would pull the bottoms and see if there were visible signs of problems. I would also ask if they recapped them. They are getting old enough now for specs to drift.
The pair I have don’t sound horrible, but they do lack detail and smear some instruments. Can’t be helped much with the design they chose. Everything is a compromise.
 
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