I dint hate on Bise because of the sound quality, I take issue with the lack of functionality/constant malfunctioning. I own 4 Bose Bluetooth speakers of various models and experience at least one malfunction every day. It often takes 7-8 attempts to get Party mode to function correctly, following Bose's instructions to the letter and keeping products updated. They are just garbage as far as functionality. SMH.

I bought bose stop reading CD's thats when the fun started. sent the system in but the person helping me did not mention to only send the stereo and not the power cords and remote so the only thing I got back was the main unit all else never came. Sounds like a great reason to hate bose. Then they sent me someone elses wave IV and not mine. Should I start liking bose because this sounds like great reasons to buy LMAO

Fuck Bose… they are the biggest pain in the ass to connect wirelessly…it’s not worth the hassle. There will be some point, I won’t be able to connect my $400 Bose to any electronic device. What’s the sense of great sound if you can’t connect?

Unfortunately, I cannot speak to any other brand. I have had my lifestyles 5.1 since 1998 and it is just great as it was when I purchased the system. I have friends that have bought several systems over the years replacing their non Bose purchases. Are they expensive, yes but at this point having a system for 22 years and it still sounds great is well worth the extra dollers.

I love BOSE....Better than chinese products

I have Bose. Bose 901s series 6. Four of them hooked up run threw a Marantz 2395 receiver. They sound great to me. The article was point on.

You don't have to be Liquid to buy better speakers for less.

I don't bash Bose owners, I just weep for what they could have bought for Less. You mentioned PSB, anything they make at ay price point sounds beter than any product Bose has ever made.

That is the worst article I have read this year, so far.

They have them in Best Buy 5 feet away from the other systems. Oh the horror.

Amar Bose RIP was a brilliant marketer. In every era he had a hot product, 901's, Wave radios, Satellite speaker systems, All in ones and now Headphones. Its very sad about the stores closing, a lot of people will be negatively impacted. As an audio enthusiast for over 50 years I have always sought out state of the art audio on a budget. There was always better more lifelike audio components available in every category for a lot less money than Bose, but it required a bit of research and knowledge to assemble a system. Even today Sony headphones are better than the Bose, Apple and Beats for less money. But many people don't do any research and buy Bose or worse Beats. The haters issue comes up when Bose customers support the Bose marketing rhetoric without any real knowledge about what great audio sounds like or the better values offered by dedicated audio manufactures.

lol! 🤣

I hear you sold the business. What are you going to do with all that money.....buy a Bose system?

Wait, Bose has brick and mortar stores? This article made me go to the Bose web site to check. The two nearest stores to Cincinnati are Louisville (100 miles) and Detroit (240 miles), so Bose is probably doing a wise thing in closing them if that coverage is typical. I'm sure they will survive with on-line marketing. To me, Bose exploits the general public's wish for a simple one-box audio solution. My sister lives in a typical small UK house and her Bose Wave radio/CD player adequately fills the living room with sound, although to me it's all midrange and very little else. Of course I did not tell her that.

Can confirm. My first plans for the C7 my dad and I bought a few years back was to install a good audio system in it. Spent the 2.5-hour drive home rocking out to the Bose system, and I decided to keep it. It absolutely rocks, especially with the top down.

Wow. 103 comments. I guess most audiophiles aren't ready to give Bose even a little respect. I think many are just miffed because they think the clearly superior brand they own should be recognized and not Bose. It's just not fair.

In terms of absolute accuracy, Bose blows. That said, Bose's trademark "sound" which is more reminiscent of Yamaha's variable loudness control, circa 1980, has its value in practical applications. Bose's overall tonal balance makes listening to human voice and music at lower volumes far more pleasing to listen to than many "audiophile" products requiring increased volume in order to sound their best. I have enjoyed the use of two pairs of Bose earbuds that I have used extensively for audiobooks and non-critical listening over most of the last two decades. At least for me, the Bose "loudness effect" has proved useful to spare my hearing. For critical listening, it's either my Grados or my Elac towers which sound their best at volumes near reference levels. For everything else, the Bose earbuds do an exemplary job for all-round listening without blasting my eardrums.

Bose car sound systems are decent!

I have Magnepan MG12s <b>and</b> Bose 901s, and I love them both equally.

That Bose excels at multi-channel marketing is utterly contradicted by their massive store closures. Huh?

Bose is interesting. As an audiophile, they're crap, but the masses enjoy them because they scratch an itch easier than anyone, maybe everyone combined. I do in fact have some bose gear, mostly to study and even upgrade as a diy intrest. If Bose made medicine, they'd be the fastest acting relief medicine ever.

Interesting, one reader felt some of us highjacked the article. Here's the dity from my perspective as a highend audio enthusiast and former Bose owner. 1. Bose makes ownership simple, call it plugnplay. Kind of hard to muff it up and if you do there's always YouTube. 2. I have a few friends who own brick and mortor stores, this IS NOT plugnplay, it requires effort, sadly unless you spend lots of thousands your pretty much on your own. Sure you can call, but truthfully the help is minimal at best. 3. For the plugnplay generation Bose fills the bill, hop online Amazon, Bose order your mediocre stuff and away you go, no hassle driving, just watch for UPS. 4. For the 💰, most of the audio stores, are helpless and hapless, they sell stuff some of them don't even understand or even know how to setup, I know been there. These folks still cater to the mentality they are all knowing and actually can be rather put offish and arrogant, let me be clear not all but many. The new gen doesn't have the time or interest to invest in hassle, the old school of audio hasn't changed with the times, perhaps the hand writing is on the wall. You can find high end audio on Amazon, eBay and assorted other retailers catering to online shoppers, returns arw easy in most cases and support isn't any better or worse than buying at the local shop. Otherwise, Bose stuff isn't high end and I really don't think it's marketed that way anyway, that and their stores sucked.

Summed up in the first few words. They had good salesman that can con any halfwit.

I hate how brick & mortar stores are closing on such a rapid pace. Buying online doesn't allow to listen first, ask questions etc. I've always liked Bose and have it installed in my 2019 Colorado. Great audio sound.

You missed the point, which is that Bose closing their stores is not a good sign for anyone.

Not at all, the Console/PC debate is about what's better Performance or ease of use. It's generally a dumb argument in that regard as they both have benefits over the other. If game consoles were sold by one company and sold for $1200 to $1500 but still gave you the same limited performance/eye candy when compared to a PC of the same price then yes it would be the same but thankfully that's not the case. With PCs you sacrifice money and time for top of the line performance/visuals. With consoles you sacrifice top of the line performance and visuals for money/ease of use. They both have their place and they both move the industry, as a whole, forward in a positive way. Bose is selling people, comparatively speaking, outdated consoles at new computer prices and does nothing positive for the industry (outside of marketing tactics) as they require people to stay ignorant about the subject matter in order achieve their sales.

Great write up.

This is the same debate PC and console gamers have all the time. Let's debate Rabbits vs Apple trees

You are a genius! Your literary technique is unmatched. Jerry Del Colliano you should be writing for the New York Times. In you’re own words “This is some serious shit to consider.“ Here’s some constructive criticism: to be honest I don’t think that there are many “haters” from back in 1984.

A prime example of one man's meat is another man's poison

No, it is not you Brad. This thread has been afflicted with "mission creep" as they say in military politics. The article is about marketing as it is written....well written and concise. Bose is the "new" high end audio in the perspective of many people, wealthy or poor. One of the Ferrari owning industrial wholesalers I used to deal with, told me his Bose Wave speakers would 'blow away' my floor standers any day. They won't, but he had his mind already made up. As for his Ferrari.....after an expensive oil change and tune up, he sold it mere months after buying it. To most people, an audio-file is something one uses to round the corners of sharp metal objects.

I purchased an Acoustimass 10 system in the mid-90s & they have traveled with me halfway around the world, and although they are 25 years old, they sound as good today as they did when they were new. I also had a Mazda RX8 back in the day with a Bose sound system and it was kicka$$... I love the Bose sound.

I paid my way through college working at Circuit City. Every Christmas, Bose did a “Points for product” promo, where every set of AM-5’s and AM-7’s would earn us about 20% of the way towards getting us a set for ourselves. For 3 years, I survived the lean months of Feb-Apr by placing ads in the paper and selling off the 10-12 sets of Bose sub/sats I had won at Christmas time. Don’t know how true this is, but at one point, our Bose rep told me a set of AM-5’s, which sold for $799, cost them $57 to manufacture, and $22 of that was the packaging. Btw, you can bad mouth these, but the alternative we sold was the JBL Music1/Movies1 system, which sounded a little better, and were a clever design but Hartman cheapen out so badly on components that they rarely made it 18mos without breaking. Badmouth Bose all you want, but until the paper cones warp or rot, they usually last. The only way we ever sold 901’s was when the Bose demo truck was in town, and people could listen to them in an optimized room for them - they sounded terrible in all the Demo rooms we had. I still have a power amp I bought off Bose when they refurbed one of their trucks - a DBX BX3mkii that is still rocking. That, and a pair of Harman Kardon Thirty speakers (Which were actually rebranded PSB’s) are the only things I still have from those years at CC, and I’m still enjoying them both:) After I left CC and went to a higher end, local home theater shop, I brought a pair of my won Bose AM-5’s and we hooked them up to a set of B&K separates in a really good sounding room and... they sounded pretty damn good. As good as the same priced speakers from NHT, which was our value brand, no, but listenable. Factory car audio systems are a marketing scam, and a cash cow for the brands - mostly Bose and Harman. They all use cheap drivers, but use active EQ to tweak the sound to the car better than an aftermarket system without EQ can, even using much better components. You pay $1,300 extra for “Premium” sound, which cost Bose or Harman Maybe 1/10 fo that to develop, plus whatever marginal extra it costs the 3rd party manufacturer to make the headunit with the EQ card. For this reason, the lion’s share of JBL’s profits, for years, has been the OEM car audio. I think they keep making home speakers just to keep their name in people’s minds. Bose could be plenty profitable just doing this and selling noise canceling headphones on Amazon - these two things are probably 85% of their profit anyway. The rest is just marketing name recognition. My takeaway from the current retail apocalypse is this - if you don’t do something that you love, and that you can get other people excited about, you’re going to lose your business to a website that can sell it cheaper. I am retired, but if I could open a combination record store, boutique high end audio store, coffee shop during the day, and Japanese listening bar style room at night, I think I’d be in heaven. My wife would never see me, but then maybe she would be happy, too:)

I don't think anyone should be giving credit to the company that effectively tricks people with marketing. I wouldn't give pickpockets a standing ovation for being great at stealing from me. The car systems are a nightmare if a speaker blows, which happens a lot with Bose. I have a car outside right now with this problem. I am less likely to buy a car with a Bose system. I'm never getting over it. The letters should stand for Better Off Somewhere Else! All highs and lows, missing the middle, must be BOSE. If you love them, they have effectively tricked you. Congrats.

I don't own or intend to own Bose as I feel when I demo I get better value in other brands. However I have no issue with the brand or people that buy them it's a choice. I do think they made the sub/sat setups appealable which led to other brands entering the market. Why get angry over someone's choices?

No, you did not. If you knew anything about audio and actually had experience with multiple headphone manufacturers you'd know, and as painful as it is, would accept the fact that in the Bluetooth and noise cancelling headphone space Bose does a great job. It's everywhere else that they suck for their price point. I own a pair of B&W PX noise cancelling Bluetooth headphones, they are great, I love them but they don't hold a candle to the Bose (or Sony) headphones in the noise cancelling department and the audio quality between the 3 comes down to personal preference over pure quality. They all sound great... for wireless headphones.

Try any other speaker that isn't a "speaker-in-a-box".

So which speakers compare to Bose and are cheaper. You must have examples to show us where you get your facts.

Bose are great and so are other systems. That’s all

Bose isn't good by any stretch of the imagination outside of their headphones. Sony is a bit better but not much. I do hate Sony receivers. You couldn't pay me to own another one.

Wow Jerry, is it just me or is this article about the lack of buzz in the market around audio and that the failure of the Bose retail channel is predicting the same for the audio brick and mortar channel? Perhaps I missed it, because there seems to be a lot of discussion about the sound of Bose here. For Bose lovers buy Bose online, for Bose haters, go immediately to a brick and mortar audio store and buy something...even better bring a friend who might like what is there. Invest in the service they provide and don't hesitate if you like what you hear, buy it. Our specialty audio dealers need it.

Several years ago I read the following regarding 2 channel audio: For $100 you can hear the beat. For $1,000 you can clearly hear the drums. For $10,000 you can hear the drummer fart. For $100,000 you can tell what he ate to cause the fart. Bose simply sells $100 speakers... albeit for closer to $1,000.

When I worked selling high end audio we called them "Blows 901"s". Childish but sadly true.

this is old news - not about bose, but about audio shops in general. maybe there's one store now, for twenty stores twenty years ago? maybe? doug s.

I just hate thier designs, they are so ugly

I never really understood the snobby approach that "audiophiles" take to good mainstream brands. Bose is good. Sony is good. Anything that fits within a person's budget that pleases the ear is good. Yes, there are objectively bad stuff out there, but no "audiophile" can objectively argue that a Bose headphone sounds bad. Nonsense if they do and I guarantee it that a blind-test would debunk their pretentious opinions.

People , with a lot of respect to all the ears and eyes here😊 salute. The article is very well written , no doubts about that. The product in question is from Bose, yes somewhat Apple like same crap different package more of advertising than material. But you have to hand it to them, they're a company that manufactures stuff that appeals to the masses though pricey. And they make music pleasurable to those ears that need it the most. So that counts. As far as an assorted system is concerned , yup , music is like love , very very prescious and personal, each one has his /her own tastes and that's catered to by the assortment we have. I could never imagine Bose replicating sound from the monoliths no way, but I'd also not imagine an acoustimass user having enough place to place the monoliths either . So it's like who prefers what, some like it burnt and some like it medium rare and then there are some who like to cook their own steak..... So finally in today's time it's a smart move to cut the physical chain of sellers and get everything online. Massive cost cutting and that means more profit, isn't that, what capitalism is all about.

Harbingers of doom, don't kid yourself about Bose. They will be OK not to have 119 stores (not so many, really) beside Corning and Lucky Jeans Outlets or Papyrus and Sleep Number stores in some mall locations. As you so well pointed out in your description of their market reach, they have plenty of other options with room to grow. Their noise cancelling headphones are the best. I also love their clock radio. Closing 119 stores is probably a smart business decision for them. It will be interesting to see what's next.

I own a pair of QC20 noise cancelling headphones. I have had them for 3 plus years. I love them pretty much. Depending on what music you prefer- I listen to jazz chris botti, rick braun type music. Fully immersive sound. Are they the top of the line? No. They are a little on the pricey side. It's like Anything else in life there is going to bed in every product. I think the Bowers and welcomes P4 are great wireless headphones speakers. But I also think definitive technology home theater speakers are better than most out there too. However that's just my opinion but I think the the Bose QC20 noise canceling headphones are pretty good money for the product.

<b>I guess no one has heard that they are closing all their direct stores all over the nation.....too many sales I guess...they just did not know what to do with all that money.....like Sears.</b>

the irony for me, especially knowing the feelings of the author of this article on the subject, is, switch "bose" with "donald trump" and the arguments are pretty parallel... "you may not like them/him because it's/he's crap, but man, can they/he sure market the stuff!" 😜 doug s.

Thanks for putting a smile on an old audiophile face.

<b>In order to show and sell Bose, Best Buy et al had to promise in writing that there could never be an A-B comparison and that Bose could never be next to another system....that says it all.</b>

Well said. I've got a fair bit of Bose kit from old monitors and computer speakers to new noise cancelling headphones. My Bowers and Wilkins speakers are better of course but Bose do really useful stuff. Even the shagged system in my Mazda convertible is a smart design. So much so that I'm simply replacing some speakers and keeping the overall setup. Logitech do surprisingly competent stuff in the next bracket down too. I tell people to buy second hand HiFi gear where possible but Bose is a solid choice that will put a smile on many faces.

I agree...you can love Bose if you want, but Bose will never be in my house as I think they are overpriced, and sound horrible. Much better sounding brands for less money are all around. Bose def knows how to market, but that doesn't mean they are a well made, good sounding product at all.

This article leads to nothing but Bose owners defending themselves for buying Bose and Bose haters bashing Bose. It will never end. I am an audio enthusiast who was owned dozens of speakers from Paradigm, PSB, Elac, KEF, Martin Logan ESL, etc. I do not bash people who own Bose. If you are happy with it, then good for you.

That's harsh. I am not a Bose fan, but you sound like a hater.

My only issue with Bose, has always been that they are grossly over-priced, for the quality of the components and speaker drivers. Bose has been living off of Brand Recognition and their own Brand Hype, for decades. Very early 80's, I bought a pair of Bose bookshelf speakers ( traditional bookshelf speaker design, not like the 301). For a fairly decent price. They sounded great. I enjoyed those speakers for many years. But 99.99% of Bose's speakers and audio systems have ALWAYS been grossly, excessively expensive; for the quality of their drivers and components. As with all companies/brands, Bose has had some good sounding speakers. And they have had a multitude of awful sounding speakers. So have all of these high end audiophile companies/brands. Some of the most horrible sounding speakers have come from many of these higher end audiophile brands. Brands that charge anywhere from $2,000.- $10,000 for a pair of speakers, and they sound absolutely brutal. Or they speakers that only sound good with only a select few of the highest of highest quality recordings. People tend to love speakers that will sound good, with any album, of any music or any artist you play through them. As for Bose and bass frequency reproduction. Most Bose speakers hump up the upper bass / lower midrange frequencies, while completely obliterating any true lower bass frequencies.Very weak and messy in the bass regions

try Bose lifestyle series 650

I don't hate the company, how it markets or operates... I have just never really bought into the way there stuff reproduces sound... It not a quality thing, it seems mostly reasonable.. I just don't like it. I don't like Sonos either. The high street will mourn their loss (for a while) then we will still buy their stuff online I suppose

Buddy had some Bose headphones, I never heard them before, my friend let me listen. Sound was garbage. I had a pair of earbuds from Dollar General that sounded so much better!

i liked bose. when i was 13, and bought my 901's, w/hard earned paper route money. 😁 years later, when i discovered real speakers, some time in college, i knew as soon as i had some disposable income, the 901's were going to be disposed of. actually, i still have them, they served as bedside end tables for many years, and now reside in storage in the basement. i don't hate bose, i just think they don't sound very good. and when someone who's obviously not into quality audio reproduction mentions how much they like bose, i just laugh and say they need to hear some <i><b>real</b></i> audio equipment... ymmv, doug s.

yeah! and *i'm* batman!!! 😁

I owned s pair of boat 601s/801s back in the day, I thought these were great speakers. That array of tweeters on top, how could they not sound amazing. At some point I was shopping a local company, I think Cookn, and after some conversation decided to compare other brands to my Bose, it was a reality check, the reality is Bose speakers sounded flat and uninspiring when compared to decent true audio speakers, the Revelation, Bose is ok just don't compare them to anything else of reasonable sound quality. I sold my Bose and never looked back, but on the other hand if the sound makes you happy, listen on.

Ive had several friends over the years buy and recommend Bose so when it came time I bought into it. NEVER AGAIN! I bought the Soundtouch system and I have never had more problems with a stereo system in my life. The bluetooth went out, then out of nowhere it wont sync with external devices after only 2 years. Bose was contacted and sent me a $5 cord to plug in my bluetooth sub and that was it. That was their solution. I cant see spending that kind of money for such crap quality and crap customer service.

Bose are totally over-rated, no midrange and good for people who are deaf

I have bose nosie cancelling earphone, i have replaced onec because it was under warranty, and now after again 1 yrs it started giving me same problems . From left side of earphones there is disturbing sound come . It cant get repaired. After spending almost 1100 dhiram . What is the use of buying such premium product , when it as so less life span.

my 35 headphones are great but just wish they had better codecs

As a Bose customer for over 15 years, Sony has gotten well ahead in Noise Canceling and overall quality of sound and comfort. The 700s were my last Bose purchase a step back in sound and comfort from the qc35s.

Oh, and I did audition several of the recent ( over the past 4 -5 years) Pioneer Andrew Jones bookshelf and floorstander models. And they all sound much better than anything Bose has had in decades, again, for significantly less money. That Bose brand name plate, must be made of gold, lol P.S. I'm personally not much of a fan of Polk Loudspeakers ( sans an occasional model here and there, through out the years). Often sound rough around the edges, to my ears. But I suppose that could be personal preference.

And in addition to the brands James's has provided: Over the last 35 years I have had speakers from Jamo and Wharfedale that were significantly better sounding ( through all of the frequency ranges), and utilized significantly higher quality drivers, crossovers and components; for significantly less money.

Poor argument. They are closing stores because the stores aren't needed. They didn't offer much of a unique experience that encouraged walk in traffic. Bose does good sales from other brick n mortars like Best Buy and the rest.

Aside from what James mentioned here are plenty more Aperion Audio - www.aperionaudio.com Ascend Acoustics www.ascendacoustics.com Elac - www.elac.com Emotiva - www.emotiva.com (this is the brand I replaced my original Bose with) RBH Sound - www.rbhsound.com Fluence - www.fluance.com HSU Research - www.hsuresearch.com NHT - www.nhthifi.com SVS - www.svsound.com Tekton Design - www.tektondesign.com Paradigm - www.paradigm.com (My current speakers) Just a small sampling. Multiple price-points (some cost a lot more, some cost a lot less), multiple styles, multiple designs. Every single one of these will blow a Bose system out of the water.

Klipsch, Polk Signature series, Elac, Paradigm, JBL, Definitive Technology, all of those are better, or at least as good as Bose and will cost less money, in some cases like the Polks, significantly less money. Bose makes decent speakers but they're way overpriced for the materials and quality. They have been overcharging based on their brand recognition and stellar marketing for decades.

Sweet! Me to! We should start a group or something.

You must work for Sonos. Never heard someone so upset over some speakers.

I don't give a crap about being an audiophile. The thing I despise about Bose is that their HiFis are designed to be extremely proprietary. I've dealt with several customers who will have their old Bose units go bad, and they usually have to go with another Bose system. And for whatever reason, they always seem to have 4ohm speakers hooked up with 18-20awg wire.

I have been Involved with hi-fi over 35 years. My main home system is based on valves and vinyl. I have been blessed with Golden Ears and therefore consider myself a discerning audiophile. As the true "name of the game" so to speak, is accurate reproduction of what the artist intended. I do find my Bose wave radio is more accurate than my extremely expensive hi fi.

Agree also! I have a relatively mid to high end theater room in my basement but my family room upstairs has three sets of Bose am5s, so yes three bass units, matched with a 12" Velodyne sub. One set I've had since the early 90s and is still going strong. The sound and ambience is wonderfully room filling and they can play loud and clear when needed. They also fill the room with ambience at low volume levels which is nice for daily TV watching. Bose gets bashed more than it deserves including Jerry's somewhat condescending tone ;-).

I think a lot of the fuss is just about people wanting niche products over mass produced commercial material. Much like when wine snobs fail to guess expensive bottles from cheap brands in blind taste testings, I imagine many so-called audiophiles wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a Bose system and whatever their luxury setup of choice is in a blind listening. People just want to feel like they chose something special for their magic ears.

Naw, I only know Bose from old commercials, but sadly. Earbuds from Dollar General were better. Pay barely $5 get some good sound. Maybe if bose didn't highball consumers so bad more would purchased, but run high tag cause people with "money" or "too much" think that just because it has a high price tag it's better.. funny how opposite that is a lot of times. Look at AMD and Intel AMD is good quality, and pretty cheap,... then there's Intel which pretty much doubles price for less.. Price doesn't determine quality.

Sonos is average but I refuse to believe that Bose sounds better than Sonos. Sonos are better built with quality drivers to begin with. If you are contented with Bose then good for you but don't tell me like some of people I know that you have the best sounding speakers ever because my audiophile self will put you in place

I used to have a Miata that came stock with a Bose system. I decided to give it a whirl on my first road trip, which came a few days after I bought the car. When I got home I went to my local high end car stereo retailer for a full retrofit. I got an Alpine head unit with a James Bond flip up screen, CD/DVD player (that was fun), a/d/s four channel amp, nav system, and four Focal Utopia component speaker systems. The sound was a fair bit better than that stupid Bose system the car came with. It did take a bit of time for Lott's Auto Stereo to do the install since it was pretty complex and required a fair bit of custom fabrication, but damn the end result was great.

If you don't like it don't buy it man! I like it I buy it, respect is given to me by all my friends who enjoy music every time they sit in my car and go, WOW DUDE it's so good

LMAO I will not be happy until blows is fully butties. I mean Sonos makes a better multi channel setup if you want to compare. I've gutted more Bose systems out if cars then I can count. Only thing they make that's worth any look at is headphones

The main issue when evaluating Bose products is they can't all be stacked up against one another. They do have some quality high end stuff and commercial grade products, but this is especially so in automotive speakers. Putting it plainly, you could have easily told each of those first class passengers that their Bose sound system is likely the least premium piece of equipment in their cars. I used to work in car audio retail, and we used to show customers their crappy "premium factory upgraded" speakers and their jaw always would hit the floor. If you just don't want to deal with the hassle of an aftermarket product, it still will sound better than the base factory system, but this is usually due to number of speakers and better sound separation, not the speaker quality. Look at it this way... My Mercedes came with a Burmester sound system... But if you go look at the price of a home system from them, you'll quickly come to the conclusion that they are not remotely comparable speakers. It isn't just a Bose thing, but I have to laugh whenever I hear someone conclude that they're good with their car's sound system, because they've got Bose.

In fairness, Sonos isn't close to an audiophile brand. If there is any single brand they seek to emulate, it is Bose.

I could not agree with you more!

A best buy rep suggested me to buy both the bose soundtouch 10 and sonos 1 to campare it (the sound)at home when me and my wife were undecide what to get. We compared it side by side when we got home and both of us decided to return the sonos. The bose sounds a lot better to our ears.

That's a good perspective sir. But I am going to disagree. Bose is not even close to audiophile sound and never will be. Just because they captured a market in early days does not give them the right to be snobs. And that is what they are and ever will be. Add to that the fact that they charge more money than what the products are worth and call it premium products. No. My Bose ear phone broke at the wire hinges in 7 months of moderate use. The wire replacement was as much as the price of the whole product, not justified. You have an opinion and I agree to that. Do not tell us audiophiles what we need to do, let us just stick to that and we won't tell you what you need to do. Bose earns no respect by doing what they have done with that attitude. Bad attitude never won any respect in any place in life, no matter what, and that is how it will always stay. Bose or any other brand. There is a reason why people like me don't like Bose, so don't tell people to give respect. Respect is earned, it is not given just because you think it should be given. I don't hate Bose, but I don't like it either. And I'm not here to bash Bose either. I would have just passed along had you not asked us to give respect to Bose. No sir, you don't ask such things.

Me too. Classily written! I love Bose, I like the sound being so full and bassy. I can appreciate higher end systems but can't afford them so I'll stick with Bose until I get more liquid. My factory Bose in my Acura sounds great. About to try to quiet comfort headphones I already own the soundsport Bluetooth pair. My grandmother still uses her Bose Wave radio that is 30 years old and it still fills the room with great sound. GO BOSE!

well said and right on - i especially love the last 3 lines

I don’t care about any audiophile brand all I care about is what i hear.