How Come Bose Never Comes Up?

I love BOSE Gen. 1 headphones and it's noise reduction. I have yet to find something better and I listen to new headphones every time I shop live. I also love they are battery operated and not charged.
 
I have yet to hear a Bose product that sounded better than a similarly priced piece of equipment.
 
ryken said:
I have yet to hear a Bose product that sounded better than a similarly priced piece of equipment.
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So what brand noise reduction headphones do you use or you know sounds better then the BOSE Gen. 1 headphones? I am interested in finding better headphones.
 
Falcon_CMH said:
So what brand noise reduction headphones do you use or you know sounds better then the BOSE Gen. 1 headphones? I am interested in finding better headphones.
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Honestly, ive got a pair of sennheiser closed back headphones and they block out a lot of noise without anything playing in them and when I do play any kind of sound through them, I can't hear jack from the outside world. Big drivers and a comfortable closed back padded set of headphones will do the job of drowning out reality.
 
Yeah I tried the sennheiser and preferred BOSE maybe thats a personal preference thing dunno.
 
Falcon_CMH said:
Yeah I tried the sennheiser and preferred BOSE maybe thats a personal preference thing dunno.
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THE Sennheiser?

Sennheiser makes many headphones, from low end (PX100) to high end (HD800, HE90).
 
Not sure which one I tried I'll look into it more but I really need greate noiase cancellation so I can concentratwe on coding and I cannot crank it up because others around me can here through the headphones.
 
I used to own a BOSE AM-7 setup. I thought it was great. Why? Marketing (they spend more than every other speaker manufacturer combined on advertising), and I wanted to justify the $600+ I wasted. My revelation came when I built my first pair of speakers. They were pretty much crap drivers and textbook crossovers. But they were sooo much better than the Bose. I was talking to someone on the phone when I did an A/B switch and they immediately noted the difference enven over the low bandwidth of a land-line. Physics just dictates that you can't get good, loud sound from a tiny plastic cube, especially with cheap crappy drivers.

Now Bose does make some good products, but they're mainly in the Pro Audio realm where they actually have to compete and the pros generally know what they're doing moreso than the average consumer.
 
Falcon_CMH said:
Not sure which one I tried I'll look into it more but I really need greate noiase cancellation so I can concentratwe on coding and I cannot crank it up because others around me can here through the headphones.
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Active noise cancellation doesn't help in workplaces too much unless you frequently work on trains or airplanes since the active noise cancellation cancels out constant rumbling sounds.

Passive cancellation does most of the work.

If active cancellation is a must, look into the Sennheiser PXC450.

http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-PXC-450-Noise-Canceling-Headphones/dp/B000R2PC2M
 
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The BOSE active noise cancelation works excellent for me. But I'll check those puppys out I always strive to find better quality of life/products for myself and family.

Man they look and tech specs seem awesome can't wait to try a pair.
 
Take a look at the full-size Audio Technica noise cancelling sets as well, they sound great and offer better value for money over the PXC350/450 (Though if you have the cash, the Senns are obviously the better performer). In terms of passive vs active, active noise cancellation actually works very well in the workplace as it cancels out the hum of the AC and PC systems while still allowing you to chat with people walking by, this is what I've found at least.
 
hmz said:
Bose is hardly disliked on all forums.

Lots of people still like it and buy it. Check Bose on amazon. Many good reviews though...
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Marketing. Bose is the best, right?

I'd bet 75% of the people who bought Bose never auditioned decent speakers. The best they heard was the specially-tuned Bose kiosk at a Best Buy store or the like (which you notice is set up special - Bose is never allowed to a/b test with other speakers).
 
You do have to give credit to Bose for being successful at what they do, which is to cater to the mainstream community. The people who post here are not mainstream community (which I think is one reason they call it "Hard" forum (though of course it is an ackronym for hardware)). Just look at the "Post your workstation 2011" and you will see that most people's setup here is "not your father's PC". Most of the mainstream public will want a brand name PC and are afraid to take off the side panel to install RAM thinking if they do, their PC wil blow up. I know because I used to be one of them.

Bose caters to people who want semi decent sound but does not want to do the work to get good sound. For this they will pay through the nose to do so and to justify their payment they will say it is the best thing since sliced bread. They want their out-of-the way tiny speakers and not having to think about wiring beyond cables 101. Sound is only part of the equation. They also WANT the marketing so that they can have bragging rights to other mainstream people who fall for the Bose marketing strategy and drool over their setup. For such people and there are a LOT of them, Bose caters really well.

Bose is not the best speakers and for the cost there are much better. Bose is also not garbage and even their PC speakers actually sound better than a lot of other PC speakers out there (albeit at nosebleed prices and compared to the $30 PC speakers which in general are garbage). I listen to BOSE speakers at stores and they are not that bad compared to other cheapo speakrs. Unfortunately they do not justify the price in my perspective but that is my perspective.

Oh and I have not tried their headphones so no comment in that arena.

Bose will get a bad review at places like this forum, HeadFi, Audioholics, AVS, Xtremesystems and others because...well that is not the community it caters to. On the other hand they will continue to sell well because they know exactly who they are catering to and it is not the usual posters in such forums.

So why does Bose not come up much in this forum? Well because we are not the correct market for Bose products and marketing.
 
bose is not discussed here becuase of several reasons:
1. they are overpriced for what you get.
2. they have low wattage speakers. (i like really loud speakers :D )
3. they are targeted at older folks, who usually dont know much about technology, and dont want giant speakers in their house.
4. bose speakers and headphones arent exatcly audiophile quality, although they are decent.
 
spaceman said:
Better? ok

5.1

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=300-694

Stereo

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=300-650

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=300-633

Bose isn't terrible. Just overpriced. The midrange is non-existent, bass is flabby at best and the highs are not smooth. That $200 AM3 should be $100.
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Not to mention a HUGE hole in the freq response between the "sub" and the satellites. The litte cubes wont go below 240hz or so, and the sub wont go that high.
 
GreenMonkey said:
Marketing. Bose is the best, right?

I'd bet 75% of the people who bought Bose never auditioned decent speakers. The best they heard was the specially-tuned Bose kiosk at a Best Buy store or the like (which you notice is set up special - Bose is never allowed to a/b test with other speakers).
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This is so true. Bose never allowed this stuff, but when I was working @ circuit city, we put them in our demo room with other speakers consisting of Boston Acoustics (CR, VR Lines), Polks, and Klipsch Synergy series. We had most people just close their eyes and asked them what they liked best. I don't remember anyone ever choosing any bose setup. It was always fun haggling their reps too. Loved his face when I brought in my Senn HD580's & Beyerdynamic DT-250's to test against the Bose headphones they gave us to demo :D
 
Yeah the bose do not stand up to other headphones in their price range. Hell, I can get a pair of $20 iems the meelectric m6s that will kill any of their earbud or iem offerings.

So yeah. Bose just is another example of people buying into marketing and not knowing any better. $$ through ignorance.

So help folks out and let them know that there is better gear for less or the same price.
 
hfk said:
Bose is just one of those things people like to hate. Their products are pricey but not necessarily bad performers. I listened to a Bose home-cinema system in a store once and was surprised to find it actually sounded really good.
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+1

With the exception of their car audio products, Im usually pretty impressed when I hear how good they manage to make small speakers sound. Their products definitely are not accurate or flat, but the reason is because the Bose sound signature is usually equalized to make it sound good to the average consumer. There's usually never any low bass and the highs sound artificial.

I used to "hate" Bose products and told myself to never buy Bose because of all that was said about the company from people claiming to be audiophiles...but everytime I heard a Bose product I couldnt help but actually think "wow this actually sounds pretty good."
 
I think i've mentioned it before but if your lookin for small form factor and decent sound then Mirage or Orbaudio will blow the shit out of a Bose system. I've got a 5.1 Orb Audio setup and its excellent for its size.
 
dydx said:
I used to "hate" Bose products and told myself to never buy Bose because of all that was said about the company from people claiming to be audiophiles...but everytime I heard a Bose product I couldnt help but actually think "wow this actually sounds pretty good."
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They don't make bad products and if you need tiny speakers, they are one of the only good choices. The problem they have is that for more things, they don't justify their money. Like take their 901 speakers. They sound ok, but they are $1400. For less than that you are talking about something like SVS MTS-02s which are much better sounding.

I don't hate Bose systems, but there are few situations I could see recommending them in many cases.
 
Sycraft said:
They don't make bad products and if you need tiny speakers, they are one of the only good choices.
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Orb Audio Complete 5.1: http://www.orbaudio.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=35 $1,200

Mirage Nanosat MX 5.1 (no receiver): http://www.miragespeakers.com/na-en/products/mx-5-1-overview/ $1,200

Bose complete 5.1: http://www.bose.com/controller?url=...component_systems/lifestyle_v_class/index.jsp $2,250
Lowest priced complete 5.1: http://www.bose.com/controller?url=...component_systems/lifestyle_t_class/index.jsp $1,800

Orb Response: 28hz - 20khz
Mirage Response: 46hz - 20khz
Bose Response: ???

Now I looked all over Bose's site for speaker tech specs and couldnt find any...none in a few different manuals I looked at nor on the website pages themselves. Now I know you didnt say they were the best option in small speakers...but looking at price AND techinical performance (as audio is subjective after all), i'd say they're nowhere near one of the good products. As was stated earlier, Bose is crap now and their only success comes from being able to market the shit out of their shit and keeping it simple for the much much older crowd or the technically inept.
 
Bose is not nearly as bad as conveyed, and that review on intellexual.net is flawed--all speakers look terrible in the old S&V measurements because they were in-room; you should see some of their other reviews that $5k speakers were doing +/- 7db in their tests.

As for their satellites, they were the Apple before the Apple; they sell lifestyle products. The difference is the hate train has gotten a bit out of control.
 
The difference is that unlike Bang & Olufson and Apple, they don't actually sell premium products for a somewhat inflated premium price. Just mediocre products at an inflated premium price.
 
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