A couple of Bose threads popped up a little while ago which begs the question...
How did they get to the position they are in?
This Thanksgiving, my wife and I had her family over for dinner. They hadn't seen our new house since we did some remodeling so we showed them around.
I showed her dad my office/listening room. I've got around $20,000 worth of some of the highest reviewed audio equipment I could afford.
Granted a lot of it doesn't necessarily look like it's very great stuff (I'm guessing a non-Head-Fier would laugh at the fact I paid ~$300 for the Grado RA-1 by it's looks alone), but some of it certainly demands attention. I've got tubes sticking out everywhere and even if you know nothing about it, I would assume you'd think it's nice stuff capable of producing some great tunes.
Anyway, it's not that I'm trying to be an elitist here or say look! look! I have expensive audio stuff. I'm just leading up to the punch-line...
So, we then go take a look around the living room and here is where I get steamed. I'm slightly embarrassed to say, but I've got a Bose CD-3000 unit in the living room. It was the only 'pretty' thing that the wife said would fit with the decor. I got it for a really good deal and it makes music. It's truly the last thing that I would have picked, but it's at least a way to get music to that room in a small package that had some WAF. She didn't want wires, speakers, etc, but this is besides the point.
Anyway when we get in there, her dad and brother RAVE about the stupid Bose. "How do you like it?" "I'd love to have one of those." "How does it sound?"
WHAT?!? I just showed you some pretty incredible audio gear and you pick this thing to oooh and ahhh over?
This exact thing happened when my wife had some of her friends over recently. We showed them around the house, including my 'audio room' and as soon as we get to the living room... BAM! "Oh wow, how to you like that Bose?" "I just got a 1-2-3 system and I love it!" Ahhh! Granted, these people also scoffed at the idea when I offered them a Guinness or Stone IPA which I had in my fridge when Bud Light was the other option. It's the King of Beers! "How do you drink that Guinness crap?"
I guess my question is: How can people be so brainwashed into believing Bose, Monster Cable, and similar companies are the pinnacle of audio? I understand advertising plays an ENORMOUS role, but still it should really only be able to get you so far. You have to produce results at some time.
I've thrown together cheap $300-400 systems (speakers included) that stomp the Bose into the ground.
I try to explain this to them when we have people over, but it just makes them mad. They view me as a blasphemer and act as if I don't understand good audio equipment. Finally, I basically cave and say, "Yep, Bose is probably the best, I'm just an idiot, here is your Bud Light."
So, I'm not here to bash Bose. It's OK stuff, the CD-3000 I have does an OK job. It retails for around $1200. I paid around 1/4 of that. For $300 or so, it's an OK system. It's certainly nothing special by any means.
In closing, I've worked some things around with the wife and she is finally letting me set up a 'real' system in the living room. The Bose is now for sale and I'm replacing it with either a McIntosh Amp + Squeezebox to some nice Onix speakers or an Onix SP-3 + Squeezebox to the Onix speakers.
It'll be nice having that damn CD-3000 out of the house since it's all anyone can ever talk about when they come over. I guess they'll be unimpressed with the junk I replaced it with though.
How did they get to the position they are in?
This Thanksgiving, my wife and I had her family over for dinner. They hadn't seen our new house since we did some remodeling so we showed them around.
I showed her dad my office/listening room. I've got around $20,000 worth of some of the highest reviewed audio equipment I could afford.
Granted a lot of it doesn't necessarily look like it's very great stuff (I'm guessing a non-Head-Fier would laugh at the fact I paid ~$300 for the Grado RA-1 by it's looks alone), but some of it certainly demands attention. I've got tubes sticking out everywhere and even if you know nothing about it, I would assume you'd think it's nice stuff capable of producing some great tunes.
Anyway, it's not that I'm trying to be an elitist here or say look! look! I have expensive audio stuff. I'm just leading up to the punch-line...
So, we then go take a look around the living room and here is where I get steamed. I'm slightly embarrassed to say, but I've got a Bose CD-3000 unit in the living room. It was the only 'pretty' thing that the wife said would fit with the decor. I got it for a really good deal and it makes music. It's truly the last thing that I would have picked, but it's at least a way to get music to that room in a small package that had some WAF. She didn't want wires, speakers, etc, but this is besides the point.
Anyway when we get in there, her dad and brother RAVE about the stupid Bose. "How do you like it?" "I'd love to have one of those." "How does it sound?"
WHAT?!? I just showed you some pretty incredible audio gear and you pick this thing to oooh and ahhh over?
This exact thing happened when my wife had some of her friends over recently. We showed them around the house, including my 'audio room' and as soon as we get to the living room... BAM! "Oh wow, how to you like that Bose?" "I just got a 1-2-3 system and I love it!" Ahhh! Granted, these people also scoffed at the idea when I offered them a Guinness or Stone IPA which I had in my fridge when Bud Light was the other option. It's the King of Beers! "How do you drink that Guinness crap?"
I guess my question is: How can people be so brainwashed into believing Bose, Monster Cable, and similar companies are the pinnacle of audio? I understand advertising plays an ENORMOUS role, but still it should really only be able to get you so far. You have to produce results at some time.
I've thrown together cheap $300-400 systems (speakers included) that stomp the Bose into the ground.
I try to explain this to them when we have people over, but it just makes them mad. They view me as a blasphemer and act as if I don't understand good audio equipment. Finally, I basically cave and say, "Yep, Bose is probably the best, I'm just an idiot, here is your Bud Light."
So, I'm not here to bash Bose. It's OK stuff, the CD-3000 I have does an OK job. It retails for around $1200. I paid around 1/4 of that. For $300 or so, it's an OK system. It's certainly nothing special by any means.
In closing, I've worked some things around with the wife and she is finally letting me set up a 'real' system in the living room. The Bose is now for sale and I'm replacing it with either a McIntosh Amp + Squeezebox to some nice Onix speakers or an Onix SP-3 + Squeezebox to the Onix speakers.
It'll be nice having that damn CD-3000 out of the house since it's all anyone can ever talk about when they come over. I guess they'll be unimpressed with the junk I replaced it with though.