30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
In my opinion..., December 30, 2010
This review is from: Bose Acoustimass 6 Home Entertainment Speaker System - Black (Electronics)
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!
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50 of 62 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent value and quality, January 14, 2005
This review is from: Bose Acoustimass 6 Home Entertainment Speaker System - Black (Electronics)
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!
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bose AM6 -- most pleasiing sound, December 22, 2010
This review is from: Bose Acoustimass 6 Home Entertainment Speaker System - Black (Electronics)
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.
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