why Bose -- Interesting Article

First I am not Bose Freak, but I do have old Bose 401 since years..

While reading some reviews on AudioReview.com I came across this interesting review.

Reviewed by: Jon, Audiophile, from Indianapolis, IN USA
Product Model Year:
1995
Summary:
Before reviewing the Bose 401 speaker, I thought I would say a few words about Bose and the Bose Bashing I see going on everywhere.
If you aren't interested in my opinion on this particular topic and just want to read my review of the Bose 401, skip down to the last couple of paragraphs of this review.
Now, for those of you who are still with me, here is my take on the Bose issue. I guess I should give a quick rundown of what makes Bose Speakers such a Polarizing issue in hi-fi circles. Amar Bose founded his company based on two theories about sound, both of which are, in my opinion, valid, at least on face value. The theories his speakers are based on are the following:

Direct / Reflected sound:
Dr. Bose' research indicated that when listening to a live performance of music, 80-90% of the sound reaching the listener is not direct from the instruments, it has bounced off of something first. Therefore, he reasoned, speakers, as sound sources shouldn't send all of their sound directly at the listener. A good portion of the sound should be bounced off of surfaces in the listening environment before reaching them. From this basic theory, he designed and built a famous speaker called the Bose Model 901 that uses 9 drivers, 8 of which are facing away from the listener. Like I said earlier, all of this research is fine when taken at face value. The sound of a live performance does indeed bounce around before coming to the listener. The only problem with this information as it is applied to speaker design is the following: The theory assumes that the speaker is acting as a direct analog to the instrument in question. As if the sound of the instrument was picked up exclusively by a microphone placed right on the instrument. If this were the case, then Dr. Bose would be absolutely correct, the speaker should send 80% to 90% of its output toward the walls of the listening room. Unfortunately, that is not how most recordings are made, and those that are made that way include an "ambiance track" that picks up the reflected sounds in the studio. Therefore, since the reflected sound is already on the recording, if you have a speaker that directs 80% of its output at the walls, what you are really hearing is reflections of reflections. That can't be the absolutely most accurate way to reproduce sound. Having made the preceding criticism, I still prefer the sound of Bi-polar and Di-polar speakers because it helps get rid of the "Boxiness" common in speakers that radiate only to the front. They do tend to have a more open, spacious sound. Only VERY accurate forward firing speakers can really do justice to the nuances of reflected sound on the source material. In the end, though his theory may have a couple of logical flaws, Dr. Bose' idea works pretty well in the real world.

Psychoacoustics:

His second theory is the one that has really caused the firestorm of ant-Bose sentiment; not all of it unjustified. That theory is Psychoacoustics.
As its name implies, Psychoacoustics is the study of the human PERCEPTION of sound, not sound itself. Dr. Bose decided that he would make speakers that gave people what they WANTED to hear, which is not necessarily exactly what was on the source material. This method of designing speakers has obviously been enormously successful from a business/marketing standpoint. Ask the average American (or Japanese for that matter) to name a Hi Fi speaker brand and I would wager that 8 out of 10 would immediately say "Bose". Bose currently owns a stunning 22% of the world speaker market! If I were to buy stock in Audio companies, that is the stock I would probably recommend for the next while at least. Does this mean that you should immediately go out and buy Bose speakers without even auditioning other brands? Can millions of consumers be wrong? Well, yes and no. As far as the accuracy of their speakers goes, even Bose states explicitly that their speakers are tuned for what people prefer to hear. That statement implies that what people prefer can be but isn't necessarily accurate to what is on the source material, otherwise, why make the statement at all? So saying that Bose is making bad speakers is not necessarily true. Telling Bose their speakers are inaccurate is not telling them anything they don't already know, they are objectively inaccurate, but Bose admits that. Subjectively they are good speakers, because they produce sound that people like! The problem comes when you ask the question; "Which people?" In dealing with Psychoacoustics one must realize from the start that it will inevitably lead to speakers that the AVERAGE person likes. This means that the speakers will be tuned to what the VAST MAJORITY of the population who are casual listeners, not audiophiles, like to hear when listening to speakers. So what is the difference between a casual listener and an audiophile? Some would say snobbiness, mostly. But I don't see it that way… well, ok, sometimes I do. No, seriously, becoming an "audiophile" is analogous to learning a foreign language. When you begin learning a foreign language, hearing that language spoken, all you hear are sounds but you can't apply any meaning to them. You will obviously be listening for sounds that are used in your native tongue and ignore the rest. The problem is that the meaning may in fact be in the sounds you ignored. Over time, with more exposure to the language, you will develop an "ear" for the language, this means that you will learn which sounds convey the most meaning and you will be able pick them out from the rest of the sounds being uttered. This means that you are able to gain more information from the sounds you hear. The important point here is that you will be listening for completely different things than a student just beginning the process of learning the language. Going back to speakers, over time, if a person begins getting really involved in High-End audio, they will begin to take on a different mindset than the casual listener. To the casual listener, the whole point is to enjoy the music and not analyze it. But to the audiophile, the holy grail becomes accuracy; reproducing as faithfully as possible the performance as it was recorded (that is why audiophiles can sometimes sound like religious fanatics when talking about the sound stereos should produce). The casual listeners and the dedicated audiophiles are in fact listening for and seeking completely different objectives. Once this point is understood, then the success of Bose speakers in the marketplace and the outrage this causes audiophiles is more understandable. Next, a word to those audiophiles who continually bash Bose speakers and write scathing reviews of them. In a way, you are slitting your own throats, your continual slamming of Bose doesn't really help, because people will buy what they like (what sounds good to them) regardless of what you have to say about it. Your ranting and raving only makes it sound like audiophiles are a bunch of stuck-up snobs who have nothing better to do with their lives than call everyone else idiots. That type of perception slits your own throats because it marginalizes you as a fanatic and keeps people who might otherwise join your ranks from becoming interested in the first place. And the more audiophiles there are out there the more likely there is to be advancement in equipment design (bigger market, more research= bigger returns). This has generally meant in the past that equipment that has been unaffordable in the past can become affordable in the future.
Just a word in defense of Bose. Perhaps audiophiles should give Bose a little more slack because of the fact that they are responsible for bringing people who otherwise wouldn't be interested into the market. Most Bose buyers will continue to be "casual listeners" and continue to buy bigger and more expensive Bose Equipment. Who cares? So Bose makes a lot of money, big deal! Those buyers aren't going to look anywhere else anyway. Those aren't the people audiophiles should be concerned with. But there is a minority of Bose buyers who will take an avid interest in High-End audio. Don't worry, they'll eventually begin looking for more accurate speakers and will shop elsewhere. But it is important to recognize that they probably wouldn't be in this hobby at all if it weren't for a speaker that grabbed their attention at a time when they really didn't give a damn about detail, frequency response, accuracy, etc., they just wanted a speaker they liked to listen to. For that, audiophiles everywhere owe Dr. Bose some thanks.

BOSE Model 401 Review:

I owned a pair of Bose 401 speakers from 1993 to 1995, and to be honest, I loved them. They were my introduction to real Hi-Fi, and honestly they were the best sounding speaker for the money that I listened to at the time. I was also looking at speakers from Infinity, Klipsch, Polk Audio, Sony, Yamaha, etc. The problems with those speakers ranged from overly bright tweeters (Infinity and Klipsh) to bass that didn't go low enough. The 401s sounded best in the show room.
Most reviews of this speaker mention a lack of high frequency extension and boomy, bloated bass response. I suspect that most of those reviewers were standing or sitting in a moderately tall chair when listening to them. My 401s exibited exactly those characteristics if you listened to them even a little bit off-axis vertically. I actually listened to mine sitting on the floor or a beanbag chair. I had no problem getting reasonable top-end extension. Another factor that helped my 401s was the fact that I had them in a carpeted room with painted cinderblock walls. This room would be far too "bright" for any speaker with even moderately bright tweeters but it helped my 401s a lot. As for the boomy, bloated bass, there are things that can be done to help that problem. First, this speaker needs to be treated like a Di-Pole radiator. It needs to be kept AT LEAST two feet from the back walls and 3 feet from the side walls. If they are too close to the walls, you will hear nothing but boomy bass and muddy midrange. So, first get them away from the walls! Many have described this and other Bose speakers as having no real low frequency extension, but rather an exaggerated mid-bass. I have always found that observation to be confusing and probably just a slam, a lot like name calling. My 401s had plenty of low frequency extension and a distinct LACK of mid-bass. For example, on the "Last of the Mohicans" soundtrack, there is a very low melody that plays through basically the whole CD. I know it is there because I've heard this CD on many systems, some with subwoofers. My 401s played this undertone very strongly, not really accurately, buy strongly. The 401 has two 6.5in. Woofers, not what you would expect to be able to produce strong output below 40-50Hz. In fact, the drivers don't. The cabinet on the 401 is designed to resonate and boost very low frequencies. While this design helps low frequency extension, it costs the speaker in other areas. The costs are: low frequency control, definition, (due to the fact that you are hearing resonances, not strongly produced notes) and a strong dip in the midbass. Though you knew there was a lot of bass in the music, you couldn't hear individual notes well and it was loose, bloated and boomy. What was also missing was the corresponding mid-bass that gave the lower frequencies their definition. I noticed this especially after listening to the same music on my friend's Polk Audio LS-50s. Although my 401s went lower, his speakers were much better at defining that bass, and producing the corresponding mid bass harmonics that really tell you what instrument is making that sound. His Polks sounded much more alive and hard hitting on Rock and Roll because of the mid-bass punch they could produce. The other problem my 401s ran into was that passages full of transients and multiple rapid rhythms tended to overwhelm the 401s, try Aerosmith for example. This happened more commonly at high volumes, so this might be partially a result of the bright room I had them in. What the Bose 401s did right was present a large, airy soundstage with reasonably accurate soundstaging. While the dynamics and lack of mid-bass hurt them for Hard Rock, they were very good with classical music due to the fact that they presented such an expansive soundstage. The low frequency extension helped here too, classical music generally doesn't carry a lot of very low frequency notes, and what there are usually aren't transient in nature. Therefore, a lack of low frequency definition didn't hurt the 401s all that much. But the bass extension did help to give weight and depth to the soundstage. So it really all comes down to what kind of music you intend to listen to. Rock and Roll? Shop elsewhere. Classical? The 401s do a pretty impressive job of throwing a lifelike soundstage for the money.
One final word (FINALLY!) about build quality: Bose got its early reputation for producing high quality, unique speakers that were actually good values for the money. I'm sure Dr. Bose still owns the company, but from the latest products I would say that the bean counters are actually running things. In 1995 I sold my system because I was headed to Japan for a couple of years. When I got back in 1998 and started looking at speakers again, I was shocked at the reduction in material and build quality I saw in Bose speakers. Of course I also noted a corresponding reduction in sound quality. In fact, if you compare current Bose speakers from those made ten or more years ago, you can immediately see that things have gone downhill fast as far as what they use to make the speakers. For example, the 301s have gone from two tweeters in a direct/reflecting array to just one pointing into the center of the room, FOR THE SAME MONEY! Would I buy a set of Bose speakers now? No, both because of the build quality issue and mostly because my tastes have changed (see explanation of becoming an audiophile above). But I do still feel that Bose 401s are not a bad way to get started in this hobby. You can also get them for dirt cheap if you look around some, I saw them in for $350 or so at SAM'S CLUB lately.

Abhi, it also means that as a Group we have learnt so much in the last 3 years in our understanding of various factors that go into this hobby.

and its all thanks to this Community

we have lost a few good ones along the way and gained some too