Originally posted by: Harleyman
There is a lot of dicussion about Bose speakers being inferior and not worth the money. Some posts posture with authorotative sounding data to back up, what amounts to, an opinion.
Consider this:
Opinion: "I believe that Bose is suck."
Fact: "Sending localizable frequencies to the subwoofer will compromise soundstage and imaging."
An opinion is an assertion that has no factual support -- READ: most of what you wrote.
Value is a matter of perception and changes consistently. I find it quite amusing that the people who think that Bose speakers are crap and overpriced reply with an arrogance that only they know what is best. Arrogant replies only show that the person writing is not quite confident in himself or herself and has to scream louder and be condescending in order to make a point.
Value, in the denotation and connotation that we us it in, means performance/price ratio. Performance of a loudspeaker is sound quality, as we are arguing here. If you believe that performance of a speaker is "how well it matches my living room," or "how cute my wife thinks they are," then that is a different matter. Sound quality (SQ) is subjective, yet it can still be quantified in terms of frequency response, amplitude linearity, phase linearity, and distortion. We can more subjectively describe SQ with terms such as detail, soundstage/imaging, and tonal balance. Using all these criteria, Bose are vastly inferior to the overwhelming majority of offering from other manufacturers in the price range.
But, what's most disappointing in some of the replies is the attitude that everyday lay-people are too ignorant to know the difference between what is considered good speakers or bad speakers. Instead these replies stink of "my values count and what others think or say is unimportant."
This is largely incorrect. Performance of a loudspeakers can be described and quantified by the criteria I mentioned previously. These are characteristics that the audio community agrees are important, and are qualities that are improved in higher-end products. If you take the time to read some audiophile publications (instead of your Crutchfield catalog), you would know what I'm talking about. It's not a matter of "my values," it's a matter of the values established by the CONSENSUS of audiophiles.
Now, to the Bose speakers issue. I don't own Bose, but I must admit that I am impressed with the sound which comes from such small speakers.
And here is the root of your response. You are obviously not capable of differentiating Bose from a high-quality speaker -- in fact, you are impressed by Bose "quality"!!! Thus, either you, yourself, are not capable of appreciating high-quality sound reproduction, OR everybody else must be arrogant and opinionated idiots. Well, OF COURSE you are able to appreciate good sound!! Therefore, everyone else must be arrogant and opinionated!!! It's called cognitive dissonance -- nobody wants to believe that they couldn't tell a $10,000 electrostatic from an Optimus (Radio Shack). Unfortunately, most people can't tell, and it's not a big deal. Most people, when trying to identify aspects of sound quality, will focus on "highs" and "lows"...they'll say stuff like "man, those speakers of nice highs!!!"....because some idiot cranked up the 12kHz EQ band up +12dB and the untrained listener hears more of the last octave or two.
The worst problem, unfortunately is the problem of psychoacoustics -- that is, people's expectations of how a speaker should sound vastly influence their overall perception of that speaker. For instance, I could take some Optimus (Radio Shack) speakers, cover them up with a blanket, and say that these are $25,000 B&W Nautilus speakers and asked ppl what they thought of them. Most people would reply: "Wow, these are the absolute best I've ever heard!!!!" In reality, they would have been listening to piece of junk. Corollary: Bose and people's impressions of Bose.
If you cannot honestly evaluate aspects of speakers, like tonal balance, detail, and soundstage, then perhaps it's best to admit that you really can't tell the difference!!! Because you probably can't!!! And if you can't tell, why spend money on a more expensive set of speakers??? OTOH, you can visit your local high-end dealer, and sit down for a little why and listen -- who knows, you might realize what you've been missing all those years.
I don't presume that people who buy Bose are so ignorant about what qaulifies as a good speaker that I would insult their ability to make a choice.
BY DEFINITION, if a person purchass Bose, then he/she is ignorant about what qualifies as a good speaker, according to the aforementioned criteria.
Valsalva