In praise of Bose...

[raleighnut]

I'm glad you said most instead of all.

I've got a pair of these driving my (B&W) speakers,

 

[bruce1530]

Bose kit is like Marmite.

No - not brown and sticky - it divides opinions. People love or hate it, but nobody is neutral!

I do some work in pro audio, and I have a few Bose units in the back of the garage. If set up well, they sound pretty good - but it’s a strange design philosophy - take a speaker with a strange audio response, and match it with a controller that has an equally strange, but opposite, response. I don’t think I’d buy them today - those particular units are 80s/90s technology - but I’m not going to be getting rid of them in the near future. There’s a couple of jobs I do for which they’re perfect.

Back to headphones and an earlier original question, which was about Beats. They’re not really proper audio devices, they’re fashion accessories...

 

[raleighnut]

Bose kit is like Marmite.

No - not brown and sticky - it divides opinions. People love or hate it, but nobody is neutral!

I do some work in pro audio, and I have a few Bose units in the back of the garage. If set up well, they sound pretty good - but it’s a strange design philosophy - take a speaker with a strange audio response, and match it with a controller that has an equally strange, but opposite, response. I don’t think I’d buy them today - those particular units are 80s/90s technology - but I’m not going to be getting rid of them in the near future. There’s a couple of jobs I do for which they’re perfect.

Back to headphones and an earlier original question, which was about Beats. They’re not really proper audio devices, they’re fashion accessories...

901s ?

 

[MarquisMatsugae]

I've got a pair of these driving my (B&W) speakers,

View attachment 152953

Bloody hell.
I hope you live on the moors

B&W,top speakers

 

[raleighnut]

Bloody hell.
I hope you live on the moors

B&W,top speakers

Nah, I live in an ex-Council semi, mind you Scott next door has a pair of Bose 301s bolted to his lounge wall.

 

[MarquisMatsugae]

This is mine,only about a foot long and two inches depth.
But for something so small it packs a punch .And it has an ugly speaker pattern,but I didn't buy it for looks.

 

[MarquisMatsugae]

Nah, I live in an ex-Council semi, mind you Scott next door has a pair of Bose 301s bolted to his lounge wall.

Must be like Battle Of The Bands in your street

 

[raleighnut]

Must be like Battle Of The Bands in your street

Not really, but we both respect our right to 'turn it up' every now and then, if you look at what volume my 'pre-amp' is at it isn't really that loud as a rule but it has the capacity to reproduce music at realistic levels and enough 'headroom' on the poweramps not to 'clip' when doing so.
I've posted this tale on here before but cannot find the post so I'll tell it again,

I used to work 12hr nightshifts finishing at 6 then cycling home and treated mornings like my evening bearing in mind Maz (my partner) and both Scott and Kayleigh (next door)were all at work in the day

I got home from work gave Maz a kiss then she left for work and then I made myself a mug of black Coffee, poured a large Single Malt and rolled a 'fat one' sat down and turned the stereo up. I noticed a bit of distortion so thinking it might be a loose/oxidised connection somewhere I started disconnecting leads and cleaning them then re-connecting, still there. I cleaned every plug and wire but no still there. Half an hour later and still not sorted it I'd finished my Coffee so went through to the kitchen to put the kettle on, the distortion was much worse in there but I soon found the culprit. The heater elements in the toaster were rattling away like billy-oh. ....................................true story.

 

[MarquisMatsugae]

Not really, but we both respect our right to 'turn it up' every now and then, if you look at what volume my 'pre-amp' is at it isn't really that loud as a rule but it has the capacity to reproduce music at realistic levels and enough 'headroom' on the poweramps not to 'clip' when doing so.
I've posted this tale on here before but cannot find the post so I'll tell it again,

I used to work 12hr nightshifts finishing at 6 then cycling home and treated mornings like my evening bearing in mind Maz (my partner) and both Scott and Kayleigh (next door)were all at work in the day

I got home from work gave Maz a kiss then she left for work and then I made myself a mug of black Coffee, poured a large Single Malt and rolled a 'fat one' sat down and turned the stereo up. I noticed a bit of distortion so thinking it might be a loose/oxidised connection somewhere I started disconnecting leads and cleaning them then re-connecting, still there. I cleaned every plug and wire but no still there. Half an hour later and still not sorted it I'd finished my Coffee so went through to the kitchen to put the kettle on, the distortion was much worse in there but I soon found the culprit. The heater elements in the toaster were rattling away like billy-oh. ....................................true story.

Brilliant.
All this talk of of hi fi systems makes me want to ditch my idea of gettting the other Bose speaker.
I miss my Technics that I sold for a song 4 years ago.Not the creme de la creme of audio systems I grant you ,but it produced great sound.
I would go more "upmarket" though,expensive but worth it to have my love of music (as the artist intended )

 

[bruce1530]

901s ?

No, 402

 

[Tim Hall]

901s ?

No, 402

"What's that....a three-ninety-six?" "No, a thirty-three-fifty" "No, sh*t..!" I thought it was a four fifty four"

 

[StuAff]

a cheap pair of Sennheiser PX 100-II's

Cheap, definitely not nasty. I have the original version, still going strong after years of use. I recently won a pair of KEF M500s, and they are terrific, superb output, comfortable and excellent sound isolation, but definitely not in the same VFM bracket (!!).

 

[GlasgowFinn]

PS Can't write "hifi shop" without thinking of Mel Smith.

This one?

 

[Goggs]

Cheap, definitely not nasty. I have the original version, still going strong after years of use. I recently won a pair of KEF M500s, and they are terrific, superb output, comfortable and excellent sound isolation, but definitely not in the same VFM bracket (!!).

I like them a lot. As you can see from the pics above I have a thing for headphones, but I've been gradually moving them all onto new homes. I'm now left with my Sennheiser HD 650 & my Sennheiser PX 100II. Excellent complementary headphones. The PX's can't resolve to the degree of the bigger cans but the sound signature itself is similar enough to make them my go-to portable headphones.

Geek Warning! Have you heard the PX 100II with the yellow HD 414 pads? Fixes that slight bloom in the mid-range and opens up the bass. I think they cost a tenner on eBay & they fit right on with no other mods. Highly recommended.

 

[srw]

Surely the key point is your opener...the impression I've always got is that their stuff is good, but you can get just as good for a lot less. When I wanted tiny speakers for our new kitchen, I took note of stuff like:

If you're in any doubt about the quality of this system then take a look at what the reviewers have been saying. "Well, Bose® is about to get a sound thrashing from the British boys at Cambridge Audio, whose brand-new Minx is even smaller than Acoustimass - especially the subwoofer - and simply better. Much, much better." Jonathan Margolis, Financial Times.

I got four of their Minx 10 speakers. I haven't been disappointed, to say the least.

That's interesting. As it happens we're about to go into Richer Sounds to buy a Cambridge Audio ONE mini unit (don't sneer, anyone - it's for a particular space-limited location, and as someone who puts music before sound I've always find mini units perfectly adequate for the price), and they've got some sort of bundle deal including Minx speakers. Completely separately the flat-panel speakers in the bedroom (it's a fancy radio alarm clock, basically, and another space-limited location) appear to be beginning to give out, so it sounds as if it might be worth getting that bundle deal.

Frustratingly the Richer Sounds website is completely unavailable at the moment.