ptooey wrote: 
Well you didn't pay too much!  Also got the decent cone material.

 DaveInVA wrote: 

 Proclivities wrote:
 
Some years ago I came into possession of a pair of 901s, the flagship of the line at one time. With the included 'active filter' unit. Without the 'filter' the speakers sounded terrible. I mean, 'three-transistor radio' bad. The filter cleaned up all the junk in the drivers' frequency response, and added a small amount of gain. It was about $5 worth of circuitry (Dave, feel free to correct me anytime).

Eventually I got around to dismantling the speakers. They used NINE identical drivers, every one a cheap, stamped steel, foam surround, 4" or so speaker. Comparable to a low-end car audio speaker.

The whole trick with BOSE was (is) to use the cheapest possible components to make the best possible sound. Barring the whole 'direct/reflective' hoo-haw, that's the basic idea. Not the kind of products I want to buy, over-the-top marketing aside.

 Proclivities wrote: 
A friend of mine runs a warranty repair place for Bose and he has some great stories about the "quality" of the current Bose stuff

 islander wrote: 
Don't get me started on Monster cables either.

 DaveInVA wrote: 
To say nothing of the obscenely high costs of Bose products.  The mobile speakers they sell for mp3 players start at $300.00, and there's always the $350.00 clock radio.

 cc_rider wrote: 
I'm saving the Monster cable questions for distraction later in the political season. Gold connectors on digital cables will follow.

 islander wrote: 
mp3s don't sound so great on my Bose setup -

 islander wrote: 
Or as we used to say at Musicraft - No highs no lows must be Bose

I am glad I apparently have quality deaf ears, makes listening to music much easier and less expensive!

 islander wrote: 
Oh, now you've done it. The conflict in the Middle East looks like a schoolyard scuffle compared to the wars fought about Bose.

 fuzzy wrote: 
Hey it's about time we had an argument on the merits of "the bose sound" around here.  And this is almost an appropriate thread to do it in.

Can the magic of Bose marketing fix the inherent flaws of the mp3 format (guess you can figure out which side I'm on)? 

 Manbird wrote: 
pickled? or desensitized? which?

 oldviolin wrote: 
sooooooooooo cute

 DaveInVA wrote: 
Plus you have an affinity for old English cars, so you can't be all bad.  The person here  who called your collections "crap" has no earthly idea what they're talking about, so I wouldn't worry about that too much.

 mzpro5 wrote: 


My daughter is perfectly content to listen to her ever-expanding MP3 collection on the crappy little speakers built into her Macbook. This drives me nuts when she comes home for the holidays and wants to listen to her collection on that thing. I'm 100% OK with her music (we share a diverse taste), but insist she jack into my home rig so we can at least get the benefit of some dynamic range.

Meanwhile she has no stereo rig at home. She did just inherit grandma's Bose clock radio as of last week, however, so maybe she'll quickly learn how much better her collection sounds when pumped through it. 

 kurtster wrote:I saw one of those at a Mopar car show a couple of years back.
I talked to the owner and he told me the arm had to have so much pressure on it that it would destroy the vinyl in a few plays.
Still better than an 8 track though.

Edit... What Dave said

An Audiophools perspective (mine):

I guess I am not like most people as I dont own an MP3 player or any portable digital audio device. I dont even own a cell phone or a car stereo. Because I am on disability and pretty much a homebody instead of spending most my time watching TV I spend it listening to music. I've always been into music and had a decent HiFi system as a kid that was mono and quickly got into stereo as I could afford more equipment. So my main hobby has always been hi end audio. I had also gotten into classic cars but now I am to broke to even do anything entry level with that so my only really active hobby now is audio. When I was working 50-60 hours a week it was the stereo that would be my stress buster as I could let myself get totally immersed in the music and let it melt the stress away. Now I need that even more so. And sure many people think I'm weird for being so much into this stuff including restoring old equipment but I might have gotten into drugs or other bad things if being an audiophool hadn't of become my addiction instead.
But to be clear first and formost I like the music itself the best as it can take me places emotionally even more so than a movie or a book. But a side effect of that for me is that I like to try and squeeze the best sound quality out of a recording as reasonably possible. Listening to a well recorded song with great dynamics and the great talents of the musicians coming through can be the equivalent to being on a great roller coaster ride. Its also the thrill of trying out some new piece of equipment and hearing something you didn't notice in a song you've heard many times before. Its also a double edged sword as it is physically impossible to reproduce the exact sound of an actual performance because of all the variables involved. There is also the audiophile rule that after a certain point each new 1% of improvement is exponentially more expensive to achieve than the last one. Fortunately I am a good DIY'er with this stuff so I got a lot farther than I could have if I had to buy all commercially built stuff.

 DaveInVA wrote: 

Sounds like a potato peeler.  

What a great idea, hmmm.  A mobile food processor so you can prepare meals during your commute home.  Think of how much you can accomplish in a 30 minute gridlock.  And if you didn't have enough eggs or something you could honk and try to bum one from a fellow commuter ...

All that while listening to all those cooking mp3's you have just for  that occasion.  Imagine slicing tomaotoes in your car listening to the chorus of Figero from the Barber, or slicing onions to the Valkerie from Wagner  !!  Add a little sherry because of Julia, and voila' what a happy and productive ride home.

Imagine the video for the 'mercial ... 

 kurtster wrote: 
My 1955 Olds Holiday had one of those dealer installed only it was a Delco 45 rom model that played regular 45's instead of the Chrysler one that too special records. I think it tracked so heavy to keep from skipping the the record came out as a spiral of vinyl after playing it.