World of Pageantry

I don't understand all the hype that Bose receives with their audio equipment. Everyone talks about how stellar and high quality their products are, but everytime I use them I'm always disappointed. Not to say they are low quality or anything, but they are incredibly mediocre. Esp. for the ridiculous price. Anyone else notice this?

Yep. Bose might be one of the most overrated labels on the market. I got a fancy pair of studio-quality headphones from them once that weren't even as good as the old Aiwa pair I was replacing.

I've never been impressed with their home theater setups, either.

Bose is pretty kool considering they're a major Audio company. I was looking at some Bose Speakers and they're alright they aren't like a major hype or anything but I guess they're ok. I believe they're with Apple/iPod cuz they have a lot of stuff for the iPod but it's alright. I love my Cyber Acoustics speakers, they're good(better than the last ones I had).

My friend recently used a pair of Bose headphones and claimed they were worthy of god-like praise, which I don't really see. I mean, I can't really find any justification to charge $100+ for a pair of earbud headphones.

BOSE is NOT worth their cost. if their equipment was 60-70% cheaper I'd understand why people would buy them. I'm gonna stick to my sennheisers and klipch. I only buy cheapo sony headphones because I lose them so much! Most people who buy bose havent shopped around a bit. There is a reason why Bose does not set up their equipment next to other brands

Bose is the Apple of the audio industry...

JCYS wrote:Bose is the Apple of the audio industry...

Hardly, Apple products are more because they are superior and not really overpriced either.

Anyways, back on topic, I had a Subaru that came with a Bose system that was actually worse than the factory installed system in my old '98 Ford Escort, you couldn't use any bass at all otherwise is was about 98% distorion. My mom just bought a new Infiniti that also came installed with a Bose system and it's pretty much the same story. We also have the Bose "surround sound" system. You know the one that's supposed to sound like a surround sound system while only using 3 speakers, well let me tell you, doesn't sound anything like surround sound whatsoever.

my friend has a Bose system in his house that he spent some insane amount on, i have a Sony Vega home theater system half the cost, twice the quality, gotta love how people will shell out money for that "name" brand stuff.

It's all about the almighty advertising dollar. Bose seemingly advertises their products more that any other audio company out there. (I don't think I've seen another audio company spend the dough for a 1 min commercial about a pair of headphones.)

Therefore, people feel that they are a better company because all they hear is "Bose" and "Bose is good." Because Bose is perceived as top quality more people will buy it and, the more people more people that buy it the higher the prices will go.

The Aceman wrote:

JCYS wrote:Bose is the Apple of the audio industry...

Hardly, Apple products are more because they are superior and not really overpriced either.

NOT in DAPs....there are alternatives to apple that are better....
I haven't looked at apple outside of MP3 players though

As for headphones....I cant justify 100 bucks either, but all the reviewers rave about how great sound quality they are especially hooked up with cowon (and a few other) DAP's.
Honestly though I always want to know how much sound quality matters when you already have a compressed file format...and do they do there sound tests on .wav .mp3, .aac, .ogg or what?

but all the reviewers rave about how great sound quality

They might be good, but compared to what? Ever notice how even an incredibly awful movie still finds good reviews somewhere to put in their ads?

There are ALOT of people who feel passionately that Bose is a superior product, an innovator, at least two steps ahead of everyone else, etc. in the sound engineering field, just like ACEMAN feels about Apple...

See....thus the comparison....

Personally, I have NO use for either company or their products...

JCYS wrote:

There are ALOT of people who feel passionately that Bose is a superior product, an innovator, at least two steps ahead of everyone else, etc. in the sound engineering field, just like ACEMAN feels about Apple...

See....thus the comparison....

Personally, I have NO use for either company or their products...

Yes, but I've based my opinion off of extensive uses of each of the products. Truth is Apple computers are simply superior to Windows in almost every way, true they usually cost a bit more, but you get your moneys worth. Whereas, with Bose you don't get your moneys worth, the product is more expensive than most and there is no noticeable difference in quality for something you could get at half the price. I think most people who champion Bose only do so because they've "heard how good they were" and either never actually used a Bose product, or have used one and are unable to form there own opinion of a crappy product because they've been told it was good.

The Aceman wrote:Truth is Apple computers are simply superior to Windows in almost every way

*cough*GAMING*cough*

In a sense, we're comparing apples to oranges, since Apple is the manufacturer of both the computer itself AND it's operating system, whereas Microsoft Windows is only an operating system sold to computer manufacturers (Dell, Gateway, eMachines, etc.). Also, a lot of the bad rap PCs get is due specifically to shoddy Microsoft products, not to flaws in design or construction. An experienced PC user can replace Windows on his PC and run Linux or Unix; the drawback is that Microsoft's monopoly insures that pretty much all the products you can buy for PCs run from Windows.

Apple computers have a clear edge in graphics and advanced graphic editing. I don't know of a professional photographer that doesn't use an Apple for their work.

PCs still have the edge in software and applications potential, as there are far more products made only for Windows than only for Apple (discounting those popular products that have versions for both).

Beyond that, superiority of individual features is really debatable and customer specific based on their needs.

hardware-wise PCs and Mac computers are essentially the same now... unless for some reason you want to build a computer with an AMD CPU