is bose any good?

[dkmesa 10+ year member]

Bose does not make the best factory car equipment. Their bass drivers tend to be very lacking.

I refer to my factory Bose speakers as Bose. Funny Fact- I have never owned a car that didn't come with it.

 

[BoomBoomBoy 10+ year member]

Bose car audio leaves a great deal to be desired.......

 

[jmanpc 5,000+ posts]

my friends factory bose system in his 95 maxima is pretty good. no midbass, though.

 

[BoomBoomBoy 10+ year member]

I think the problem with all factory stereos is the engineers who design them with budget parts and placement locations. You'll always be better off buying aftermarket top quality components vs. the expensive mark-up stuff dealerships offer. The exception may be head units, but even most of them lack any real kind of features.

The only factory system I've ever heard that was worth a **** was a Mark Levinson system in a Lexus 430 LS which was a $5,500 upgrade.

http://www.lexus.com/models/LS/features/pricing.html

 

[jmanpc 5,000+ posts]

i dont see why auto manufacturers can't install a real system- no funky EQ-ing, decent drivers, and durability. I've never seen a factory speaker use a poly cone. I've seen rubber surrounds on factory speakers, though. I have hardly seen one that doesn't have an undersized motor.

Like my van came with the infinity system, but the speakers were very cheap- small VC's, paper cones, weak foam surrounds, tiny motors, and if you look at the speakers funny and say "Power" you can see the voice coil singe a little bit.

I guess it all comes down to $$.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

Until the majority of the market wants audiophile sound in the car, it isn't economical for the automakers to care about delivering it. The Bose systems are the perfect example of what results from catering to what the mass market wants. The sound is pleasing, not accurate but pleasing. The overwhelming majority of people don't know accurate and would rather have pleasing as a result. You ask the majority of people what high-end sound is and they will answer Bose. It's only because they don't know any better. These are by and large the same people that listen to music on an HT setup and think it sounds great because they are surrounded by the music. Since the factory Bose setups are good enough for 90-95% of the people out there, the automakers are not going to change for that 5-10% who want better.

Honestly, I'd rather they not try to put better stuff in the car from the factory. Just would end up paying more for the car to get stuff I'm still going to replace.

 

[toolfan89 10+ year member]

we have a 2000 cadillac deville with the factory 8 speaker setup 5 mids two tweeters and an 8" dvc sub and its freakin bad *** for just factory

 

[phantom240 5,000+ posts]

I havent had my own stereo in so long, the stock systems in my (really my dad's but i drive it to work on my car) 93 lincoln town car and my friend's parents' 04 mazda MPV sound good. LOL.

Bose is okay. Nothing great though, and not worth the money

 

[Jake95 10+ year member]

wow, im kinda suprised that you all say this, my parents have a bose wave radio, and our nissan altima has a bose system, and that thing rocks man! the bass is real nice, i mean, i havent heard any real competitions speakers, or anyting like that, but for some daily tunes, it produces real nice music.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

^^^ It's all about frame of reference. If all you've ever heard is a basic factory stereo, boomboxes and the typical home stereo, your basis of comparison is not that high. When placed alongside these things, the Bose systems sound pretty good.

For the average consumer, Bose is seen as high end. To somone looking for accurate audio reproduction, Bose is a four letter word. Not only is the source highly EQ'd, information is synthesized as well to get the psychoacoustic effect that they are after. This is exactly the opposite of accurate reproduction.

Here's a little test for you: Find a true high end home stereo shop. If the shop carries Bose, go elsewhere. Get a good CD of some sort that is well recorded, Dire Staits "Brothers in Arms" is a really good choice and listen to it on what you think is the best sounding system that you have access to. Get familiar with how it sounds on that system. Take that same CD to said high end store (dress well, jeans and a t-shirt won't get you in the door) and ask to demo some good speakers in the $3-5k price range (that's per speaker BTW). Realize that this will probably totally change your outlook on what sounds good and you will quickly be wanting to upgrade everything you own. If you aren't ready to do that, leave this experiment until later.

 

[samson 10+ year member]

Just swapped some bose for yamaha because the yamaha's just plain sound better. And I've never been real impressed with the bose accoustimass systems. So I don't have the highest opinion of bose. BUT I did have a friend a few years back that had some bose tower speakers. It was a real funky desin where the mid and tweets were on top and the woofer was internal. Now those speakers kicked some serious ***. But they cost some $$$ too. Guess maybe it all depends on what line.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

I remember the ones you are talking about. Good job of filling the room with sound, but still won't compare to the sweet spot on a set of high end speakers.

 

[Lil Poot 5,000+ posts]

the 901's? my dad had some of those, they werent bad, but way expensive for what they were.

 

[samson 10+ year member]

I agree, too expensive for what you get. Bose thinks outside the box, I'll give them that much. My cousin had some that I swear had like 12-16 3" speakers in front and I think 2 in back, if I remember right. I wasn't real impressed with those, but they were unique. Gimmicks are fun for show.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

Not the 901s, which are as you mentioned WAY overpriced for something that is far from high fidelity. Bose actually had a tower type speaker a few years back that was another in thier direct/reflecting design that had the low freq drivers in the body of the tower like normal but the mid and tweet were angled up and out on the top outer corners of the unit. The whole top of the unit was a grille to cover them up.

These should be them. http://cgi.ebay.com/MINT-Bose-10-2-Serices-II-Tower-Floorstanding-Speakers_W0QQitemZ120075537479QQihZ002QQcategoryZ64616QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem