[mythtv-users] Looking for high WAF in-wall speakers!!

Meatwad meatwad.get.the.honeys at gmail.com
Thu Jan 19 00:27:20 UTC 2006


Greg Woods wrote:
> I was surprised to see all the anti-Bose venom here. My Bose system
> (with the cube speakers) works pretty well for us, that's all I know.
> The cube speakers are also very easy to mount and position pretty much
> anywhere you need them. 
> 
> I'm not an audiophile, but I am sound-sensitive and was one of the first
> to adopt CR02 cassette tapes (I'm giving away my age here) because I
> couldn't stand the hiss on the older-style tapes, and I had to learn to
> use "audacity" in order to make listenable OGG files out of some of
> those old tapes, so I'm not totally deaf to audio issues.
> 
> Also, Consumer Reports rated the Bose system very highly in their tests
> of surround sound systems. They do unbiased tests with sound frequency
> meters and trained experts as well as ordinary users to evaluate the
> sound. I'm not going to try and argue audio science with people who most
> likely know a lot more about it than I do. I only know I like my Bose
> cube speaker surround sound system.

All right. I was a little strong when I called their in-walls 'awful' 
earlier but then I've had the benefit of routinely listening to a very 
wide selection of loudspeakers for over thirty years. From the classic 
Advents to the esoteric Magneplanars to a HeathKit DIY AM radio.

What I'm getting at is that if YOU were to A/B test your Bose with, say 
some Canton Plus MX and the 10" sub, you would most assuredly choose the 
Bose because that's the color/timbre of sound your brain is accustomed 
to hearing. Without prolonged exposure to a variety, you'll have little 
to differentiate "good" from "better" to "outstanding".

For the first year after I installed some dealer demo Triad Bronze 
cabinets into my brothers newly built media room, he kept coming back to 
me and saying how the Acoustimass sounded so much better to him. One 
afternoon, his wife let me in to swap them out for the Bose which sat in 
the basement TV room unused for the whole year. I waited until he 
returned from home and had the mini-gun helicopter scene from the matrix 
queued up (one of his favorite scenes so he knows it very well). The 
Bose went on Ebay, the Bronze went back and a bunch of M&K's I took on 
trade went downstairs.

There are many reasons I don't care for Bose, not just the fact that 
nearly every "rule of thumb" of speaker design is broken when their 
marketing guys sit down at the drafting table. There are the frivolous 
lawsuits they've doled out regarding the "Digital Lifestyles" trademark. 
There's the many, many millions of US taxpayer's dollars wasted on an 
Air Force contract for active noise cancelling headsets. The project was 
scrapped because Bose thought it'd be a great way to dump useless, 
outdated proprietary parts from their inventory. The headsets were 
completely ineffective. As an active member of the general aviation 
community, I can tell you that the general aviation versions are almost 
*always* sitting in the rear seats for the wife and kids.

Here's the kicker: That 2" driver inside the cubes is made in China. It 
costs Bose less than 1 US dollar to purchase. It is nearly identical to 
the speaker that was in my HeathKit AM radio from the mid '70s. If the 
Acoustimass systems were sold at the same cost as the Theatre In A Box 
speakers, I wouldn't be so venemous. But they aren't. They are selling 
into MY entry level market price point only with Home Theatre In A Box 
quality. And that affects my ability to educate my customers about wise 
purchase decisions.

HTH


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