Best Place Subwoofer Home

Review by N. Husic "NasDH" : DONT POST IF YOU DID NOT BUY

Cmon people. I cant stand it when im thinking of buying a produc, then we have a bunch of people who clearly have an agenda. If you do not OWN this product do not review. I dont care if a friend of a friend owns it and you hate it. I do not believe that any Bose speaker has HORRIBLE sound. It may not live up to some peoples expectation but Bose doesnt make a bad sounding speaker.

Review by Manny : In my opinion...

I don't own one of these Bose systems, but as a sound engineer of 30 years plus, I have to defend Bose, when I see some of the terrible reviews they sometimes get. It seems that people either love 'em or hate 'em... After hearing these at a friend's house, (a guy who has good ear's, and can set up a system), I was very impressed. He does "concert night" at his home, and we listen to great music video concerts, (mostly jazz rock), such as Steely Dan,Sting,Lee Ritenour, Jeff Beck,etc...These videos have great sound, and they sound wonderful on his system! They also sound wonderful on my own huge JBL system, but in some ways, I actually like his better! My system will go louder,(and we like full scale concert volume),but his is loud enough to hurt,in his moderately sized 15x15 living room, and that's with very clean, full, sound...One reviewer mentioned that his bass module produced "farting" sounds. I never heard anything like that on my friend's system, and we like concert level bass. I have to wonder what size room it would take to cause these things to sound like that, and at what volume levels. Our listening levels are well above anything you would hear at a movie theater, and louder than most rock concerts we have been to! It makes me wonder if the reviewers are setting these things up properly.One reviewer mentioned that his ears were drawn to the bass unit, due to a high crossover point. I do not hear anything like that at my friend's house, nor did I hear that at any of the demos that you can see at BJ's and other places. In fact, I marveled at the stereo sound field, and how articulate and spacious these things sounded.(I might suggest that keeping the bass mod near the center of the stereo field, with the satellites slightly out in front should cure this problem)..Nor were any of these systems lacking in voice articulation, if anything, just the opposite. One thing that is great about these sytems is their size, (or lack of it), which enables many men to have a good, loud system without being served divorce papers. Also, I do not hear a lack of mids, as some reviewers have stated. If anything, to my ears, the upper mids, say 2 to 7khz, are forcefully but pleasantly stated, while the lower mids are just a bit understated (250 to 500 hz).This type of sound does give a very clean, crisp, clear perception, though. To my ears, Bose gets away with small bass drivers by emphasising 50 to 90 hz in its bass mods, with increasingly less sound at the lower freqs.(I think they also use processing that synthesizes low freq information by turning very low freqs into a combination of two or more higher freqs, which the human ear combines, and perceives to be the original lower freq, but don't quote me on that one.)However, there isn't that much musical information down lower than 40hz anyway, (contrary to popular opinion), and I can still feel the kick drum punching me pleasantly in the chest, and hear very well defined bass guitar notes. On my friends system, I love the way the kick and bass combine smoothly, and yet you can hear each instrument clearly in it's own space... Now, I'm not going to tell you that these are the absolute ultimate sound, (in fact, I don't care at all for the Bose wave radios, for the price),but I will say, that, especially for their size, many of these Bose systems are really nice. If they were sold at a lower price point, I think almost everyone would have them, at least in one room of their home. Like most people, I feel that price is their biggest downfall. But I don't hear BIG sound coming from anyone else's tiny speakers, so they kind of have the market cornered,if you need loud,full,and clean without taking up hardly any space. If these things are set up properly in a moderately sized, (say a maximum 15x20 foot room), and they don't sound good, then probably nothing else will either, and the next step would be to acoustically treat the room, by deadening hard surfaces with rugs, furniture, curtains, etc, or installing bass traps, (which actually increase bass, by not allowing low freqs to bounce around the room),causing room modes (dead and hot spots.)If you have the money but not the space, these will make you happy. If they don't, get some help setting them up before you send them back. I like 'em!

Review by Choppy : It does sounds good for its price.

It seems like the first step to be an audiophile is to criticize Bose. I got lost on that path a little bit. I spent six months going around to listen to many others speakers (included Polk and Klipsch). Of course, I heard some decent speakers that sound better than Bose, but they usually cost at least $3,000 each. But, for the similar price range Bose is hard to be beaten. I decided to buy it because it always make me smile our of my poker face at Bose showroom (not because of the funny sale guy). I decided to adopt a set of AM6. People at the store told me that I may have to wait for 45 days. I think, that's OK. But, I can't live without some nice music for 45 days. Then, I placed my order for the AM6 and also brought home a pair of an inexpensive Bose 161. The 161 alone sounds very OK for music. Anyway, my receiver is Onkyo TX-SR605S. And my audio sort is the Mac mini optically connected to the Onkyo receiver. I could make my neighbors dance with this set. However, the 161 alone is no good for movies. 45 days later, I got the AM6. So, the pair 161 are now the back surround speakers. With the AM6, I got a 7.1 system. The first Onkyo automatic setup was great for the movies the floor and the walls were shaking. for some reasons, the floor and the walls were still shaking for music too. That is a little too much for me. The bass wasn't like a strong punch. It was more like a really annoying subwoofer effect from the next room. I was a bit disappointed. However, a month later when I was playing around with the Onkyo remote control, I found that the Onkyo set volume level of subwoofer to -3. I manually changed it to +3. Now, it is a lot better for music. It does sound like what I heard in Bose showroom. The movie sound effect is still cool. I think, the reason that make Onkyo receiver set the volume level very low for Bose speakers, because Bose bass module is not exactly a subwoofer. It also produces some midrange sound, which could mess up Onkyo automatic speakers calibration. One more good thing that I like about the AM6 is, speaker cables are included. I don't have to worry about what cabel should I use or how much do I have to pay more. But please note that, the center speaker of AM6 is identical with the satellite speakers. So, it could be better of a system that has a real center speaker.

Review by R. Rand : Bose AM6 -- most pleasiing sound

I purchased the Acoustimass 6 (Amazon) in November to replace a Panasonic SC-PT960 home theater system. The Panasonic provided adequate sound but was quite strident sounding. To upgrade my system, I bought the Bose Acoustimass 6 with speaker stands, an Onkyo TX-SR508 (Amazon) receiver (Defective, replacement took 2 days, no charge) and a Samsung BD-C5500 (Amazon) blu-ray disc player which included the apps for TV@Internet (the Pandora radio and Netflix apps are great). Set-up was straight-forward and positive with the color-coded wiring. After adjusting the receiver and fine-tuning the Acoustimass module (bass setting), I was very pleased with the total sound, particularly the ability of the small speakers to create the feeling of "presence", especially individual voices and musical instruments. The musical reproduction is excellent. The surround effect with DVDs was seamless and accurate where 'point source' was intended. I would recommend this relatively inexpensive system to anyone. The sound is a vast improvement over the TV speaker sound. I have never purchased a Bose product that didn't provide total satisfaction.

Review by SMJ "SMJ" : Bose - Feel the sound

I am so excited to own the Bose Acoustimass 6 speakers. I combined it with an Onkyo 308 receiver. The sound output is excellent. I am not one of those music buffs but I can definitely say the sound quality is music to my ears. You can actually feel the sound. I had requested a demo in the Bose retail store for the AM6 and AM10. AM10 was better, but expensive that the AM6, but finally decided on the AM6. I will definitely recommend Bose AM

Review by Dr. James : Excellent value and quality

I had a passive subwoofer previously on a patched together system. I was surprised how dramatic an improvement an actively powered subwoofer (at least one this big) can make. When the Rohan horses go thundering through in Lord of the Rings, I couldn't believe the difference. The satellites provide really crisp sound and are quite unobtrusive (makes the wife happy). I think you have to be more careful about placing the speakers, though, to make a seamless sound field since they are so small. Hook up was the easiest I've ever had, with all speaker cables factory labeled. One big cord runs to the amp outputs from the bass module, and simple plugs run from the bass module to your speakers. One caution- you'll need Bose wall brackets to hang these from your walls since the back of the satellites are threaded for a screw. I used to hang my previous speakers from heavy-duty picture hangers!

Review by James N. Ard Jr. "James" : Great Speakers for what you get.

Don't let the one star people fool you. I don't know a whole lot about speakers but I know what sounds good. When it comes to speakers. I did some research and read my Bose book. If you set these up properly they will blow you away. For tiny speakers these pump out as much as the 12 inch Cerwins I have as my front channels. These should sound great on any 5.1 system. The base is plenty powerful it will shake my windows in a fairly big room. I would recommend this speaker set to anyone and my mom is looking into buying one for her house after hearing them. I listen to classic rock of all kinds 24/7. This is the best system I have heard in the price range. If you know anyone with this speaker set give it a listen. You will love it. Just for your info. I have this set up with a harman/kardon avr 1600 system. Harman/kardon makes amazing systems.

Review by Laura Catchpole : Bose stands behind their products!

I bought a similar system in 1996. After 8 years of heavy use one of the speakers was sounding a little off. I contacted Bose just to see if I could have it repaired. They sent me a brand new speaker free of charge via fed ex. If you don't believe me check the ratings/reviews on the better business bureau website. There are similar stories there. I am a loyal Bose customer for life!