to try and settle the "Bose Question"

Nay.

For someone strictly interested in surround sound for Movies, maybe.

But this is a forum for Hi Fi heads...and Bose doesn't fit in, in my opinion. 

the horse is very high and im sitting on it also. bose is'ok' but is it purist audio??? on pluto maybe. and you know we cant trust plutonians.

(oh dear i think its late im off).

 Bose do make a nice sounding clock radio. For £100 it's a bargain.

It has it's place. I used one as an alarm clock and the soft, warm and mushy sound worked really well to coerce me out of sleep

They have their place. One of it is in my gym and it sounds great. Very un-hifi, non-audiophile but fun. Do you all remember that?

Bose = clear sound with nice bass with very little in between, for the price you can buy so much better HiFi.

However I heard the AV system at the show and thought they were awesome.

Yay with a capital Y! I went to audition some of their kit when I was checking stuff out for my aunt and was given the full surround demo and it was awful!! It was about £5k wirth of kit, there was no intergration between bass and treble due to a lack of midrange, the bass was loose and flabby.....euugh....didnt like it at all........so for me.....it's a Yaaay to Bose being a big bag 'o' *****. (p.s. what is the deal with swearing on this here forum?? We allowed?)

bose is very good, they produce good speakers and systems.

bose is very good,better than some manufactures in hifi!!!

why some people said: bose is **** or bose is all about marketing???

bose have hight quality systems, yes their price is hight but,bose systems have an amplifier 2 or 5 speakers and a cd player.

to the peole who think bose is overpriced, try to do this: look the price of the speakers, the amplifier and the cd player,and of course the research have a price!!!!

Well, if you're intent on slagging of manufacturers wholesale so to speak you can add a few manufacturers of 'audiophile' equipment to your list Blainetoner.

Fact is, you probably have'nt heard all of Bose's stuff and whilst I agree that you can do better for the money some of their products do sound good. The same goes for Audiolab, Arcam, Monitor Audio etc. Products of which I generally dont rate highly but even there are exceptions which I think represent good examples of what can be done.

What a pointless thread!

No. 

NO. Like many other items they have their place. The products provide a decent quality option to suit some peoples circumstances, although I agree that they are expensive for what you get. I have the Amass 5 speakers at the moment due to young children and decoration preferrence of my good lady. I must say that I have been fairly impressed with them in situ (it pays to spend some time to position the sub correctly).

I find it incredible that there are so many people quickly jumping on the Bose bashing bandwagon. No one is forced to purchase their products and those that choose to are obviously happy to do so. The most important point for me is that I am still able to enjoy my music, lets not lose sight of that.

Well I think the nays have it. I've got to admit I think their low end stuff is pretty good for the money. Especially their speaker packages that come sans silly bose amplifier. For surround I'd give them a shot.

Problem is that Bose has itself a neat little cult. In my sales days customers would refer to bose like some kind of Ferrari-powered spaceshuttle or something. I think that's why it's easy to get hostile, we've all met someone who shuffled into a HiFi shop and declared Bose to be superior.

I admit to being a little caught up in the torch-carrying anti bose mob myself...

i remember bose in the seventies, they were everywhere, pubs, clubs, and on the end of hi-fi's i liked them.

Ay, some people coming into the store I work only want to listen to the Bose stuff. I'm not saying it's bad perse, but the 201's and 301's that we sell quite a lot are a murky, dull, brownish sounding and some people don't even want to listen to other speakers, just because 'it's not bose' . The Acoustimass speakers are like someone else said kute like kittens and very wife friendly, but the price-performance ratio is terrible. If you disconnect the speakers, you can hear half of the voices coming from the subwoofer. I'm not a fan but a lot of people seem to like it, cheers to them.

Regardless if you think Bose is fantastic or terrible, you have to admire their marketing and brand loyalty. How many HiFi brands have the same following and loyalty that Bose lovers do? Perhaps Denon, or Naim and two that might be close. They have turned a "average sounding" product into one many beleive is great and better then anything else.

PS: I wouldn't touch the stuff...