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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Joseph @ Nov 9th 2008 2:16PM
Choosing the best speakers is very tough. What they should publish is the worst mainstream speakers. ...Bose
cwnyc @ Nov 9th 2008 6:07PM
Could not agree more! Great comment!
However, I think BOSE has a predatory and bullish reputation of taking any and all threats to their reputation to litigation. Examples? Let us see:
The famous lawsuit against Consumer Reports for their not so positive review in 1970. Consumer Reports won but BOSE took the case all the way to Supreme Court in 1984. Consumer Reports won again.
Lawsuit against Cambridge Soundworks for using the word "life style" in their ads as BOSE claims they own the word in any electronic device advertising. Cambridge Soundworks settled out of court...
Lawsuit against CEDIA (Costume Electronics Design & Installation Association) for using the word "Life style"... CEDIA at this time partially won.
Lawsuits against JBL speakers... Settled.
Lawsuits against Infinity Speakers... Settled.
BOSE has so much $ (you do not see ANY other electronics companies taking out informercial slots all over the place) made from marketing involving questionable ethics and can afford prolonged and vicious court battles, so maybe that is why no one dares to publish any bad things about BOSE...?
Maciej @ Nov 9th 2008 3:47PM
Could S&V have published that story in any worse way? A slideshow? C'mon, a slideshow is appropriate for slides, not for paragraph long explanations... showmanship people. And professionalism; take some classes
Sean @ Nov 9th 2008 8:35PM
very interesting. Bose. Couldn't agree more with you guys on that one.
clara @ Nov 9th 2008 10:30PM
Bose has done some really interesting and innovative work so they deserve some credit there. But sadly their sound quality is still below what you'd find in any real audio store (except their own hee hee!).
cwnyc @ Nov 10th 2008 3:34AM
True, but most other electronic companies also have just as many innovations and inventions under their belts. However, you do not hear them taking matters into such vindictive and unethical levels? What about Dr. D'Apolito or Bob Carver? Inventions and innovations in the audio world is not exclusive to BOSE, and BOSE did not get that many new technologies out anyway, AND they are mostly in the past... Some of the technologies being marketed are just re-makes of old ideas, such as a long folding bass tuning ports used in their radios. Guess what? That is just a transmission line loading design, now made with plastic, which was already in existence and was used by all sorts of loudspeaker manufacturers way before Dr. Bose even attended MIT and started making speakers in the 1970's...
Only BOSE is practicing in deceptive and trickery advertisements to fool the general public who are not familiar with the technology, AND only BOSE is using its litigation power for intimidation and threatening purposes. Taking 14 years to challenge an article Consumer Reports printed in 1970 from small courts all the way to the Supreme court in 1984 is obviously not for monetary compensation but to threaten and set an example to other electronics manufacturers. Most other manufacturers being taken to court by BOSE just settle out of court now days to avoid the never ending high legal cost as BOSE is known in the industry to be tenacious and vicious, and have the $ to pursue. Now BOSE is even targeting CEDIA!
BOSE, very few and small inventions in the past, but tons of unethical practices today... Do some research and read about it....
clara @ Nov 10th 2008 11:57AM
Your points are certainly true. Maybe it's that their products are of innovative design. They seem to have built the first compact stereo loaded with transmission-line. Their compact pc speakers, with their slot-firing dual passive radiators is pretty neat, and really kicks for tiny speakers (although it's still not as good as my Aego system). They also have an electric active suspension design for cars, although it's too heavy and complex to use.
That's all I'm saying. They've got... uh... neat stuff.
clara @ Nov 10th 2008 1:10PM
(first post failed)
Actually, come to think of it, yamaha had a compact stereo with transmission line-loaded speakers (coupled with early servo tech) about a decade before the wave radio.
Oh well.
GhostDoggy @ Nov 11th 2008 4:48AM
Bose isn't the only company doing predatory marketing. How about dem Monster products?
But, when it comes to speakers it is difficult to be able to evaluate one against the others. First, most cowsumers go into the big box stores where there is way too much ambient noise. Secondly, the do not calibrate for the environment (would be difficult).
If you manage to get to a boutique store, maybe they have a small environment where you can compare speakers, but what if you are comparing manufacturers that are not carried by the same reseller--make comparison tough.
Finally, the content and delivery of the speakers is just as important as the speakers themselves. You can take a set of speakers and between, Denon, Pioneer, and Sony (just examples) and get completely different-sounding audio coming to your ears.
Heck, I did not think I had ears that could tell the difference, but I was proved wrong. And I am so happy someone sat me in a listening room with my back to a selection of 8-10 different sets of speakers all being driven by the same content and pre-pro and amp.
cwnyc @ Nov 11th 2008 2:18PM
Yes, Monster Cables company also use deceptive and hyped advertising to fool consumers who are not educated in the consumer electronics market to make a super high profit margin. Analogue cabling is only concerned with resistance issues, as the other 2 laws of electromagnetic physics, capacitance and inductance, are not significant in practice and application here. So, yes, Monster Cable also preys on the uneducated. IF only consumers are educated... HOWEVER, Monster Cable does not sue everyone....
Your observation is correct. To be a authorized BOSE dealer, a merchant has to agree to specific guidelines set out by BOSE, specifically to deceive and rip off uneducated consumers.
The study of psychoacoustics is known to ALL consumer electronics. Basic and well known facts of psychoacoustics include the inaccuracy of human hearing memory without direct side to side A/B comparison, that human hearing will always prefer sound sources of louder sound pressure as superior if factors such as total THD is kept under 3% (which is EASY to do even for low fi products), and that human hearing is non-linear at different sound level pressures, especially the bass frequencies.
SO, BOSE mandates that all BOSE authorized dealers to set up BOSE demonstration areas where shoppers CANNOT perform direct side to side A/B comparisons with competing products from other consumer electronic companies. To keep these uneducated shoppers at the booth and act on impulse and emotional buying (as you see in one of BOSE's informercials:"It took all but 5 minutes for me to decide to buy BOSE!"), BOSE provides their own demonstration materials designed to hide the flaws of their speakers such as severely irregular frequency response with a huge gap between the sats and sub, and poor spatial characteristics, and emphasize the mid bass and high frequencies to fool human hearing. That is why these demonstration DVDs mostly contain LOUD sound effect tracks with bomb blasts or metallic clashes, etc. You do not hear well recorded solo or chorus male and female vocals, strings, pipe organs, etc. An educated consumer would bring their own demonstration materials that they are familiar with for direct A/B comparison listening in CONTROLLED environments, which you cannot do with BOSE products.
On top pf that, BOSE mandates that authorized dealers to give their sales persons significantly higher commissions than other manufacturers, something like > 6%. There are also rumors that BOSE used to dispatch sales representatives to be disguised as ordinary shoppers to hang around BOSE booths and pretend that they are overwhelmingly impressed with BOSE products to assist with the deceptive sales hype.
So, with the material and manufacturing cost of BOSE products being far inferior and cheaper than the competition (one way tiny paper drivers with small magnets, plastic speaker housings, lack of passive cross overs, etc, the list goes on), sales persons having extra incentives to push BOSE products, and the endless deceptive demonstration practices and informercials aimed at impulse buying, no wonder BOSE has so much $ to sue everyone!