Bose home cinema - best price?
Discussion
If you're anywhere near a Bose Factory Outlet, I'd see what they've got in - Bose have always shipped stuff to punters on a try-and-return basis and what comes back gets sold as "factory renewed" at factory outlets. I've had some stuff with a decent discount off new.
https://www.bose.co.uk/GB/en/about-bose/bose-store...
https://www.bose.co.uk/GB/en/about-bose/bose-store...
soi6 said:
If you are happy with the sound quality, then they will be fine. But Bose is not exactly quality . You can do a lot better for the money
I did installs for 2 business partners. One had Bose and the other had Bang and Olufsen. The B&O guy said the Bose sounded better. So, conclusive proof that Bose is gives better sound quality and offers excellent value for money when compared to the competitors. Seriously though, sound is a personal thing and can also be a compromise of space. When watching films Bose do a good job of delivering reasonable sound. Having said that, I don't have Bose in my house and the only B&O is a phone that doesn't get used. I'm lucky that I have a decent basement for films that can accommodate a 12" sub and no one notices it until I turn it on.
Yes, as mentioned in other threads, I'm in Milford MA, and drunk. It's also down the road from Bose head quarters so felt compelled to comment. Bose are not the best answer to the home HiFi/cinema question. But, they are one. I grew up with Technics separates that were used for music only. We then went from the 3 huge black boxes (HiFi and 2 speakers) to Bose. I must say, that because we were now using the Bose for movies as well as music I was impressed. We ended up using it for 99% movies in the end. We then took delivery of a complete B&O system which covered the whole house. I loved this for its integration.
I will admit that the above has probably enraged every serious audiophile because the Technics probably had the best sound quality! And, there are better integration solutions that's B&O even ignoring the cost. But, it was a nice system.
Today, I have a Panasonic 58" plasma with an old Kenwood av amp. Downstairs I have an LG 48" LCD which was bought dirt cheap and will be replace. The JBL speakers are driven by a pioneer Elite amp.
I'm not a HiFi snob and I don't pretend to be. I've installed all sorts and the most important factor is environment. You can spend what ever you want but it will sound crap in an echo chamber with tile floors and no curtains
I will admit that the above has probably enraged every serious audiophile because the Technics probably had the best sound quality! And, there are better integration solutions that's B&O even ignoring the cost. But, it was a nice system.
Today, I have a Panasonic 58" plasma with an old Kenwood av amp. Downstairs I have an LG 48" LCD which was bought dirt cheap and will be replace. The JBL speakers are driven by a pioneer Elite amp.
I'm not a HiFi snob and I don't pretend to be. I've installed all sorts and the most important factor is environment. You can spend what ever you want but it will sound crap in an echo chamber with tile floors and no curtains
h0b0 said:
I did installs for 2 business partners. One had Bose and the other had Bang and Olufsen. The B&O guy said the Bose sounded better. So, conclusive proof that Bose is gives better sound quality and offers excellent value for money when compared to the competitors.
Brilliant...Rendered speechless. AV integrators the world over are withering in their sleep and will wake feeling confused and out of sorts without knowing why...

Agree with what the others here are saying, Bose are overrated. I'm listening to a pair of Bose 101's as I type. They sound ok, stereo imaging is pretty good but they're nothing to write home about so I use them at work.
At home I have some pretty exotic speakers and amps that can all be had for reasonable money second hand that wipe the floor with anything Bose can offer. But for the sake of this thread I'll compare my cheapo 5.1 system which comprises of a Denon 5.1 receiver and speakers from the kind of entry level Mission M3 range. All in all the system is worth £250 tops second hand and in terms of build quality and sound it's fantastic for that kind of money. It kicks sand into the face of my friends much more expensive Bose 5.1 system which annoys him immensely.
At the end of the day Bose are all mouth and no trousers, there's far better equiptment out there.
At home I have some pretty exotic speakers and amps that can all be had for reasonable money second hand that wipe the floor with anything Bose can offer. But for the sake of this thread I'll compare my cheapo 5.1 system which comprises of a Denon 5.1 receiver and speakers from the kind of entry level Mission M3 range. All in all the system is worth £250 tops second hand and in terms of build quality and sound it's fantastic for that kind of money. It kicks sand into the face of my friends much more expensive Bose 5.1 system which annoys him immensely.
At the end of the day Bose are all mouth and no trousers, there's far better equiptment out there.
Frybywire said:
Much better sounding kit out there for half the money.
It's expensive, but it does sound good, not stunning and obviously not high-end and there are much better sounding systems (with the exception of some of their products - I've yet to see a better portable bluetooth speaker than their Soundlink ones)But, the biggest thing is the simplicity and form factor. Some of us love to go minimalist in our homes, I'me over have piles of s
t around the house.I have installed both B&O and Bose into many professional musicians houses. One customer spent over 100k pounds on a mix of both. He is an Oscar winning composer and multi platinum singer. He also had a recording studio attached to his house where many top 20 songs were recorded from other artists. He lives music and yet he has a B&O TV in the kitchen and Bose in the bedroom. (well had until he sold the house.) Just because it is not the best doesn't mean it isn't appropriate. In his case he had an old manor house that we incorporated technology into discretely.
h0b0 said:
I have installed both B&O and Bose into many professional musicians houses. One customer spent over 100k pounds on a mix of both. He is an Oscar winning composer and multi platinum singer. He also had a recording studio attached to his house where many top 20 songs were recorded from other artists. He lives music and yet he has a B&O TV in the kitchen and Bose in the bedroom. (well had until he sold the house.) Just because it is not the best doesn't mean it isn't appropriate. In his case he had an old manor house that we incorporated technology into discretely.
£100k on home hifi = Money to burnWas there a lot of Bose kit in his studio?
We used to quote cables in Km not meters. In the example I gave earlier, we used Bose only for speakers. The amps for the none powered stuff was a bank of Marantz. The control was through a custom system with key pads and sensors in 32 separate zones. He could watch VHS, DVD or sky in every zone. I know his interior designer got paid over 100k on the house refurbishment. At least we delivered something. The guy was a genuinely nice person who had experienced being one of the most famous people of our time. He would always go out of his way to accommodate us. Very different to expectations.
At other installs we dug 100m trenches to tennis courts and mounted big screen TVs in swimming pool areas. Most of my experience was pre flat screen hence the out of date technology references. The group of people who were universally nice people? Football players. I worked with mostly foreign players but they all had a level of naivety and innocence. The only exception was David O'Leary who crapped himself when he found me in his kitchen but that was at a time when he was experiencing death threats. His neighborhood was funny because it was all McMansions and almost all of them were owned by players on his team.
Anyway, back on topic, best price for Bose would be in the US outlet
At other installs we dug 100m trenches to tennis courts and mounted big screen TVs in swimming pool areas. Most of my experience was pre flat screen hence the out of date technology references. The group of people who were universally nice people? Football players. I worked with mostly foreign players but they all had a level of naivety and innocence. The only exception was David O'Leary who crapped himself when he found me in his kitchen but that was at a time when he was experiencing death threats. His neighborhood was funny because it was all McMansions and almost all of them were owned by players on his team.
Anyway, back on topic, best price for Bose would be in the US outlet
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