Bose Widescreen

[32Hollywood16]

Has anyone purchased or know anyone who has purchased the Bose Widescreen Speakers? (Its the two front speakers and subwoofer that run off your tv's output so no stereo needed) its only 499$ and sounds really good with the demo disk in but when I asked if I could hear it with a dvd in they said no Bose wouldn't allow anything other than the demo disk to play. Anyhow I liked how it sounded the price wasn't bad and didn't take up much room but was curious if anyone has had a chance to hear it at home, if its as good or if I'd just be wasting my money.

[BStecke]

Waste of money, as are most Bose products. Why do you think their demos are always set up the same at every single store, and using the same demo material that you can't change?

No matter how good they are with Digital Signal Processing, nothing is going to replace a true 5.1/7.1 system. Plus, when you get those little speakers into any normal sized room and start to crank them, you'll probably be wishing you spent your money elsewhere.

[DC_Street]

Originally Posted by 32Hollywood16

Has anyone purchased or know anyone who has purchased the Bose Widescreen Speakers? (Its the two front speakers and subwoofer that run off your tv's output so no stereo needed) its only 499$ and sounds really good with the demo disk in but when I asked if I could hear it with a dvd in they said no Bose wouldn't allow anything other than the demo disk to play. Anyhow I liked how it sounded the price wasn't bad and didn't take up much room but was curious if anyone has had a chance to hear it at home, if its as good or if I'd just be wasting my money.

my brother has them and they do not run off the tv, you might be able to do rca from your tv or w/e but my brother hooks his directly up to his xbox 360 using fiber optics and then he has it hooked up to his pc, well every now and then. They sound good, are they worth $500? No. I paid less than that for my surround sound refurbished and it has 6 speakers with a much larger sub and sounds more accurate and natural vs BOSE my brother keeps bragging it sounds clearer...but I don't hear it.

[32Hollywood16]

good to know and sort of what i figured, the demo sounded nice but figured it wouldn't sound as good at home and with them not letting me hear something else in it, no way was i going to spend 500 bucks, guess i'll have to wait until I can afford the Klipsh's I want

[turboedguy]

Originally Posted by 32Hollywood16

good to know and sort of what i figured, the demo sounded nice but figured it wouldn't sound as good at home and with them not letting me hear something else in it, no way was i going to spend 500 bucks, guess i'll have to wait until I can afford the Klipsh's I want

there you go.

[BStecke]

I just got my Klipsch Reference series speakers yesterday. I'm enjoying them quite a bit

[32Hollywood16]

I love the Klipsh's I got for my computer.. Also looking into RBH's which have been winning awards and sound pretty comparable to Klipsh. wouldn't mind having these one's

http://www.rbhsound.com/t3.shtml

[Ben]

BOSE = Buy Other Stereo Equipment

When you buy BOSE, you are buying into a marketing scheme. There is nothing about their equipment that would justify the price. For the same price, there are hundreds of alternatives that sound better and are actually worth the money.

[blindcat87]

The fact that they won't let you use your own demo material should tell you all you need to know.

"Our product is amazing, but you can only check it out with material we have specifically set up and optimized to make it sound good." is basically what they are saying. Kind of like telling you you can only check out the house you are thinking of buying with the pictures they have taken and Photoshopped to show you. This a sign to run, not walk away and should say something to you about a company that has to set things up that way in order to sell their products. Demoing with ones personal material that one is most familiar with and comparing, most particularly with speakers, different models and brands head to head in the same room and on the same equipment is a staple of finding out what is and is not for you. Any brand that will not let you demo their product head to head with another brand should be avoided at all costs.

There is no way for a system without 5 or 7 real speakers and a real subwoofer to match the real thing. Movie soundtracks are mastered for surround systems and gadgety gizmos like that do not even give you the audio information from the surround tracks. All they do is take stereo information and futz with it to trick your ears into thinking that there is sound coming from all directions. You don't get discrete effects. If you are supposed to be hearing someone walking up a gravel driveway from behind you the surround track will have the majority of those sounds coming out of the surround speakers with appropriate echoes and such coming from the fronts to create a realistic experience. With a simulated surround, you would either get only the sound meant for the front speakers if using a surround track, or if using a stereo downmix of the track, you would get all of the sound coming with the front with some echo and other modulation added to make it seem to your ears as if the sound is coming from all around you. It can create some pretty neat effects and sometimes even create a convincing surround type effect, but it is not in any way accurate to an actual surround system. There is no real way for the thing to tell which information is supposed to come from each direction, so it tries to instead create a sort of generic feel of depth.

For anywhere from slightly less to a bit more, you can get a real entry level surround setup and get a much better experience.

I don't want to get into a discussion on the brand itself, but would recommend going to www.avsforum.com , www.audioholics.com , www.audiocircle.com , and about any other audio/home theater forum and search "Bose" in the speaker discussion forums. It can be a real eye opener.

Chris

Originally Posted by 32Hollywood16

Has anyone purchased or know anyone who has purchased the Bose Widescreen Speakers? (Its the two front speakers and subwoofer that run off your tv's output so no stereo needed) its only 499$ and sounds really good with the demo disk in but when I asked if I could hear it with a dvd in they said no Bose wouldn't allow anything other than the demo disk to play. Anyhow I liked how it sounded the price wasn't bad and didn't take up much room but was curious if anyone has had a chance to hear it at home, if its as good or if I'd just be wasting my money.

[blindcat87]

Check out:

www.ascendacoustics.com my personal favorite speakers.

www.av123.com another great company. I wish I had space and money to build a surround setup with their new line source speaker line.

www.hsuresearch.com my fave for subwoofers.

www.svsound.com another one of the top ID sub companies. They have also recently begun expanding into speakers other than subs as well.

also check out:

www.outlawaudio.com and www.emotiva.com for electronics.

I like internet direct. Most of the good ID companies have 30 or more day home trial periods and you can actually talk directly with the owners of the company. The owners of Ascend and AV123 have long histories working with some of the top speaker companies and started their companies to develop products following their own personal philosophies of audio. Most of these companies have their own forums where you can ask questions and talk with the company owners and with owners of the products. Since going this direction, I have really become a true enthusiast for this way of making the most of your audio budget. Check them out and see if any of them sound like they are what you are looking for. Even if you don't end up buying from them, I highly recommend the Ascend, AV123 and Hsu Research forums. I own products from the first and last and have gotten a lot from their forums. I only own the subwoofer test CD from AV123, but have found their forum to be another great place for A/V discussion.

Chris

Originally Posted by 32Hollywood16

I love the Klipsh's I got for my computer.. Also looking into RBH's which have been winning awards and sound pretty comparable to Klipsh. wouldn't mind having these one's

http://www.rbhsound.com/t3.shtml