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Speakers or surround sound system reqs

Reli said:
Bose's claim to fame was always sound processing, sound reflection, and other gimmicks like Wave ducts. Back in the day, they used to give you an "active equalizer" when you bought their speakers. Otherwise they'd sound only so-so. The speaker drivers themselves were nothing special. In fact they were famous for shoving the same drivers into multiple models, to save money.



I never thought their OEM automotive systems were all that great either. Harman Kardon, Mark Levinson, Naim, and even B&O did a better job in that space, imho.
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Actually the Bose system in the wife's 2019 CX5 Turbo is quite good.

I had 901s and 301s back in the day and liked them.

They don't make anything that interests me at all though.
 
My first speakers were Bose 501’s. I replaced them with JBL, L100 Centuries which are vastly superior. I bought the JBL’s almost 53 years ago. Except for the grills, they look and sound like new. And if I were to sell them on eBay, they’d sell almost instantly for 3000 to 4500 dollars.

The 501’s would probably not sell at all, even if they were only 50 dollars and in perfect condition. Which they wouldn’t be.
 
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Bose is for those that have a big budget and know nothing about speakers.
 
GAJ said:
Actually the Bose system in the wife's 2019 CX5 Turbo is quite good.

I had 901s and 301s back in the day and liked them.

They don't make anything that interests me at all though.
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My girlfriend has a 2018 Mazda 3 with the Bose system, and the front door speakers (which in most cars are full-range speakers) are actually only bass drivers. They seem to be tuned for 70-90 Hz. They cause the door panels to vibrate due to poor damping. I don't know what they were thinking. Especially in an economy car like that with lots of road noise. You need mids & treble to overcome road noise, not bass. I have to crank the bass down to minus 8, and increase the treble to plus 7 or 8. No mids or EQ adjustments unfortunately.
 
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Reli said:
My girlfriend has a 2018 Mazda 3 with the Bose system, and the front door speakers are actually only bass drivers that deliver a wallop at about 70-90 Hz. Bass lower than that is lacking, and those speakers cause the door panels to vibrate as well. I don't know what they were thinking. Especially in an economy car like that with lots of road noise. You need mids & treble to overcome road noise, not bass. I have to crank the bass down to minus 8, and increase the treble to plus 7 or 8. No mids or EQ adjustments unfortunately.
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The CX5 system has a center speaker (sounds bad without it) and a subwoofer and sounds surprising good.
 
I have a Bose system that came with my Murano. It sounds decent. But a car stereo is a terrible environment to evaluate speakers. With a properly set up system in your home, Bose loses big time.
 
And I should be clear about Sonos. Their speakers are only just OK. Anyone who goes with Sonos should only buy their amplifiers and get their own speakers.
 
^ ^ ^ This ^ ^ ^

The thing with music is the speakers are the last things to handle the signal before your ears transcribe it. Good quality speakers make all the difference in the world.

Even junk motorcycles ride better with quality tires mounted.
 
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