What are in these Bose speakers anyways

Bose was a professor of EE at MIT; a bit amboyant from what students have told me. Since their first commercial break-through, the rear radiating little box with a V shaped back, I've always thought Bose stuff sounded a bit gimmicky . But for some applications the Bose "magic" is appropriate: The sound system in our 2000 MB 320 wagon is excellent. OTH, stereo in our 2000 Porsche Boxster is amazingly good as well, so maybe audio for autos technology has improved generally.

db

Used to work at an audio store. Fixed speakers. Saw some Boses come in. They used very cheap parts. Very cheap paper cone tweeters and woofers. The crossovers were also with cheap parts. They may have good engineers (don't know, never meet one of theirs), but the parts they used was sad.

I suppose, Bose do serve a nitch in the market, their marketing has hyped up the product so that for most people, the Bose badge is desireable. They charge a premium for their product for their hyped up badge...people feel good buying their prodcuts.



Cheers,

Rich

Bigkidz,
I never heard that one before. That was funny.

In the late ‘70s, my buddy managed an audio shop.  They carried Accoustat, SOTA, ESS, JVC, some other brands that I don’t recall, and Bose.  The Bose rep came in one day to demonstrate a way to really impress people and boost sales.  He put on a Red Rider LP, started a track, and turned one of the Bose 901s around so that the ports faced into the room.  He then produced a lighter, lit it, and held the flame a few inches in front of one of the ports.  At a certain point in that song, enough air came through that port to blow out the lighter’s flame.  “Dang!!  Not only do those Bose (pronounced “Bow-Zee” by the upstate SC audio cognoscenti) sound good, but they can blow out my lighter, too!”  It’s hard to imagine a stronger or more practical selling point.  I don’t recall our being able to replicate that amazing feat with the Accoustat 4s! 

I Love, actually hate it, when I tell people that I’m into “Stereo stuff”, that I have cryogenically treated receptacles for my $200 power cords, and my room is treated with thousands of dollars worth of acoustic panels, and there response is “oh, cool, I’ve got a bose soundbar and it sounds like the movie theater!”  I’ve actually learned how to swallow my own puke indiscreetly, while smiling and replying “oh?! I bet it sounds great!”.