I know the Bose brand is somewhat of a taboo in most hi-fi audio forums, but I still find it quite interesting to discuss. I'm sure many of you have wandered into a Bose store before. You know the usual setup...each product on it's little shelf, perhaps a LCD screen above it.
I took a friend of mine to a Bose store in Washington this past summer and we had an opportunity to sit through one of their "theater shows" featuring the top-of-the line "Acoustimass" system. Clearly, this is designed for people who probably don't know that much about speakers/sound engineering (hence the target market for Bose) and people who care about design. Having just come from a high-end private retailer (where I demoed a few Martin Logans and other much less expensive brands), I was really struck by the difference in sound quality between the Bose and the other brands. The Bose bass response was pathetic. My $300 multimedia speakers sounded deeper and had more authoritative deep bass than this system. The mid/highs sounded...ok, but were a far cry form the sound of the Logans, or even the lower-end B&W and Polk speakers.
My friend, who I had been arguing with for a long time about the quality of his Bose system, finally turned to me and agreed that he had been ripped off. Here's a guy who wanted good sound, yet was too lazy to comparison testing with other brands outside mass-merchant stores. He was even more surprised when he learned that for less money than his Bose system, he could have purchased a much better system ala carte. Long story short, a coworker of his was planning on buying a Bose system for his family room, but after having talked it over, is now looking into getting Definitives.
Either way, you've got to give the Bose people credit. Obviously they're doing something right if they're still pulling in decent sales numbers. Women love Bose. College kids, who think they're impressing their friends, love Bose. I think I'll stick with my multimedia speakers and upgrade when the time is right
Anyone else ever had similar experience at the Bose store?