I have Shure E4s and I love them. Excellent sound.

I wouldn't buy Bose - everything they make sounds ok until you hear the competition, and the competition is usually a lot cheaper.

 

I can't sit quietly any longer. Yes, I'm an audiophile and used to be the stereo manager and buyer for a chain of stores so I have been able to make many side by side comparisons of products that the average Joe could never have done and I've found that I LOVE most of the BOSE products!!

They are one of the truest renditions of natural sounds whether it is music or nature sounds.

They don't "color" the sound with extra highs or lows. Many of the other brands cater to the uneducated ear and push the bass which makes the sound muddy - think of a banger's car you can hear for blocks before it reaches you.

For my present media center I have a mixture of the Bose 901s and the Acoustimass system with the teeny, tiny speakers and the subwoofer. I am constantly astounded people with the quantity and quality of sound produced.

I thought I'd be disappointed in the explosion sounds due to a smaller than expected subwoofer but whatever Bose does makes it work like a much bigger sub and it still shakes the walls.

I am building a new house and building a huge media room and have been shopping speakers for over a year now. Once again the Bose won hands down. They have some in-wall speakers that are unbelievable! You'd swear you were listening to huge Voice of the Theater speakers instead of small in wall speakers.

Their little Wave radios have a similar HUGE speaker sound. I don't care for the price but for listening they are great.

I have never heard the Bose sound buds, but I'd be very surprised if they weren't fabulous as well. Bose simply doesn't release a product unless it performs admirably.

Go listen to virtually any Bose system in the sound room of a stereo shop (yeah I know they're didsappearing) and compare it to any other system they have. The Bose may not always come out on top but it will always be in the top 2-3 and it will always be the smallest package of the bunch by a long shot. In other words they'll sound as good as other company's offerings that are 2-3 times larger which makes it much easier to get high end quality sound into a home or car.

 

I completely disagree. I've compared several of Bose's products to their (usually much less expensive) competitors and Bose lost all but two (Bose has an excellent over the ear headset that the comp can't match and I do think their Wave radio is fantastic).

Bose is more of a brand whore product than anything else. Given the same money, I can get you a MUCH better sound out of quality audio manufacturers.

Bose has become more of a consumer friendly audio manufacturer to those "not in the know". That is, people that just want to plug and play...no splicing wires, hooking up optical/RCA inputs etc.

Crap, my plain-jane bookshelf DA's sound better than the 301's.

 

I have a pair of Bose headphones that I picked up from Sharper Image. They're very comfortable and the sound is amazing! But they're not in-ear.

 

I've made comparisons against many more brands and products than it is possible for a person on the street to make plus have had input from other brands of stereo manufacturers. They all call Bose the benchmark.

Yes, you can beat the Bose sound in certain instances, but it takes a lot of money or much bigger equipment to do it.

If anything they make stereo equipment look cheap since they don't blow up the sizes of their products to make them look bigger and therefore worth more money.

If natural sound is what you desire then Bose is the way to get it. If you want heavy bass Hip Hop type sound then grab you a cheap sub woofer and have at it.

Clarity is the key to Bose.

 

I guess it's all a matter of opinion. I had worked with a Radiologist who had spent a majority of his income on audiophile equipment. In fact he had established personal relationships with many of the Vendors.

All I know is, he would spend weeks doing research on all the small things. He even was able to try before buying. He even spent $150 for a 6ft power cord?????

Even in his reading room, I had to design it to be acoustically silent to "preserve" his ears. This guys was dedicated. What can you expect for a guy that gets paid $$$$ and has no wife or kids. Lives on the hills near palo alto, and has 2 rooms specifically designed for his listening pleasure.

 

The inverse is actually true. Pay less, get better quality than Bose.

I've yet to hear of any audio manufacturer list Bose as a benchmark in anything other than duping the public.

Bose has an excellent marketing department, I'll give them that.

 

That's a cheap one

I have 8 foot speaker cables that retailed for more than my beater car



Anyway, Bose is a phenominal marketing company. That's all the credit I give them. Wave radio? The CAMBRIDGE Model 88CD blew that out of the water and was hundreds cheaper. Bose is overpriced garbage.

 

[QUOTE=Ubetit,May 11 2007, 10:19 AM] That's a cheap one

 

In general it sounds like you guys don't have much exposure to quality home audio equipment. $20 a foot is a good entry level price for speaker cable. I wouldn't suggest going over $100/ft though.

Head over to avsforum.com if you want to see what home audio is actually about.

Orb audio is one of the companies that I would suggest over Bose.

http://www.orbaudio.com/