bose stereo

[punjab]

i was thinking of getting a bose stereo for my gameroom.
anyone have one of these?
are they worth the money?
if not, what is better?

i don't know shit about stereos, so explain it to me like a tard.

[SirLongFoot]

Bose is kick ass, but over priced IMO.

[gimmebeer]

Content, Pictures  and Download links visible to registered users only. 

REGISTER NOW to access all areas that are invisible to non-members.

+1

but if you have the $ and the will, these are also very good
http://www.bang-olufsen.com/beolab5

I would wait to hear from The Godfather on this one

IMO, I think it depends on a lot of things:

• how big your game room is
• how loud you are actually able/want to play your system
• do you want the convenience of a packaged system
• do you want the flexibility of designing your own system
• how you like your music to sound I.E. bass heavy for pop and rap music? Flat for classical music? etc.
• One important one i should add - Do you consider yourself an audiophile?

I would agree that Bose is overpriced but it might save you a lot of time if you just buy a packaged system and that might be worth the extra money spent.

I have all Miller & Kreisel speakers, including an M&K powered sub. I think they are the best sounding for the price point but they need a lot of power, in which case you need a serious amp(s). Better components means you need better pieces all the way down the chain... and it means spending more money.

EDIT - always beware of a system that you hear in a room designed specifically to showcase that brand/system... it will fool you. The system will never sound that good or the same in your specific application.

Am i jumping the gun here?

when you say "game room" i thought you meant a room for gaming and watching movies/playing music. Is it strictly for playing games?

[carajas]

I think this thread is going to be VERY helpful.. I'm also interested in buying a home system in the near future.
I can't wait to hear everyone's opinions and recomendations...

[punjab]

Content, Pictures  and Download links visible to registered users only. 

REGISTER NOW to access all areas that are invisible to non-members.

i am NOT an audiophile. she was at least 18.

the gameroom is over the (two car) garage and is the same size as the garage. it has a pool table, couch, tv, & recliner. right now it also has kid toys in it, but we take all that shit out when we host a party.

[Fever]

Content, Pictures  and Download links visible to registered users only. 

REGISTER NOW to access all areas that are invisible to non-members.

Is it a full stereo you are after, or just speakers or one of those Wave Radios? Surround sound wanted?
I'm not an audiophile, but like good sound and went through this last year and ended up with a Yamaha box system similar to this:

Content, Pictures  and Download links visible to registered users only. 

REGISTER NOW to access all areas that are invisible to non-members.

instead of the Bose because of all the goodies and price (mutiple HDMI, bluetooth, pod dock, etc.)
I love it, but again, am not really that sophisticated about this shit, just want it to work.

[strommsarnac]

IMHO, Bose are overpriced and not much better than what most people consider mid-range. I say this from personal experience and seeing tests done by local Audiophile groups.

Back in the 90's I worked for Borden. Borden Chemical made the enclosures for Bose. Our employee store had a deal for the Acoustimass 5 ($125), and we were told the items were "scratch and dent from the factory". I bought 6 and gave 5 away as Christmas gifts. I'm the only one who still has mine and I only use the speakers, not the "sub" module. When I went surround, I looked at buying more Bose dual-cubes and compared them with other speakers. Other than the extreme price, one thing convinced me to not buy Bose ever again.

Bose will not release their specifications. In other words, they won't tell you rated watts, frequency, etc. If you notice, Bose also doesn't say their modules are subs. That means they aren't willing to be liable when someone figures out that they don't go down into the sub-audial range (below 20hz).

So, I took my speakers to many places and did a comparison. I know I have really sensitive hearing as proven by multiple doctor tests (those machines where you listen for sounds and such). Honestly, I couldn't tell the difference between the Bose dual-cubes and RCA $95/pair speakers sold at Radio Shack. I'd have to spend more than $300/speaker for me to notice a difference and I care nothing for telling people how much something I bought costs, so I went with the inexpensive RCA speakers.

One thing I am pretty sure that Bose will excel at is longevity. I have heard that you can through a lot of power into their speakers, get them just this side of distortion and they will put up with it almost forever. Other speakers will crap out after not even a hundred hours of that.

I've had my RCA's for 8 years now and they sounds just as good as when I bought them. So much so I bought a powered 100 watt sub from RCA for $150. Did the same for the Center speaker.

So, my suggestions is figure out how much you are willing to spend. Than, go look listen to what's in the %50-%100 range of your budget. Maybe join AVSFORUM, look at their speaker forum and see what's suggested nowadays.

If you want to be picky, take a CD/Ipod with you and have the sales rep connect the speakers you're looking at to the same system as the other speakers you're looking at and play something off your own media. Not all receivers, amps, decks, sources, wires are the same.

Lastly, you don't have to go overkill on watts. I run 50 watts dedicated per channel to my speakers (old Toshiba DVD/amp/receiver combo, audio by Onkyo). At max level, you can't stand in the center of the speakers for more than about ten seconds without your ears starting to ring. But it's a CLEAN 50 watts, no distortion whatever. Even at %20 power (where we listen to most movies and TV shows), you can pick up people walking, wind noise, all the subtle things a normal TV won't give you. I watch action flicks at about %40 and most games there about too. My wife'll crank the music up when she's cleaning around the house and the neighbor "on that wall" knows when she does.

Whereas my neighbor is pushing out 145 watts per channel, none-dedicated and at halfway you can pickup distortion. He had a seven speaker Bose acoustimass system he was told was good up to 150 watts. Poppycock. He ended up going with a set from JBL (cost him $1500) and even he thinks my mismash is better.

Content, Pictures  and Download links visible to registered users only. 

REGISTER NOW to access all areas that are invisible to non-members.

A couple of things about distortion that you probably already know but some other DSFers may not.

There are different types of distortion. The one that comes from underpowering your speakers is extremely dangerous. Acoustic waves are turned into electrical waves and sent through your speakers' voicecoils, which are basically big electromagnets.

The voicecoils are thin wire wound hundreds of times over. When you CLIP a sine wave because of lack of power from your amp, you send straight DC current to your speaker voicecoils which damages them very quickly.



Actually OVERPOWERING your speakers is much better for them. Even if you overpower them to "full cone excursion" (where your speaker voicecoil is actually hitting the magnet) it is still less damaging than underpowering.

Also, you have to make sure you are looking at RMS values when looking at max power handling of speakers. Manufacturers lie all the time and over inflate the numbers.

Matching up quality speakers with the proper amp will make your speakers sound better and last forever (not really forever but a long time).