Small size, great sound using DVD's, Ease of setup,

Sound is directly to listening area, midrange is too laid back

First, the review, then, some gripes I have to some of you.

First things first - I am neither a BOSE Basher nor BOSE fanatic. I have too many other things in my daily life to be concerned with.

At first, I wasn't happy with the BOSE system for a number of reasons. I want to further say that I am extremely dissapointed that the speaker drivers are made of paper. I thought BOSE would use a more exotic material. The first reason is that it does not sound great out of the box. The subwoofer placement is critical. For optimum sound, it must be placed in the corner of a room, about 3 feet away. If it is placed anywhere else, the sound is dissapointing. The most dissapointing sound is if it's placed in a room next to no walls. Also, the pre amp/receiver settings greatly depend on the listening experience, also. For example, CD's typically sound good if they are listned through 2 channel stereo, rather than soundfield settings. e.g. Live, Hall. Also, good or poor performance is directly affected by the accostics of the listening area. In my listening enviorment, DVD sound is incredible. I was recently watching Mission Impossible 2. The opening scene with the jet plane was so real, it sounded like a plane was flying over my head. Other sound affects were also uncanninly real. I almost felt I was part of the movie. For the dissapointed people listening to plain music, I truly believe that this system is more scewed torward home theatre than plain music. If you want to experience superb 2 channel stereo, then get a speaker system by Infinity, JBL, Martin Logan, or any other speaker systems that are targeted at music reproduction. Overall, I find that the AM-15 is a great package.

Now, here are my gripes to some of you.

Rich, we appreciate the "information" on Rich's web site. Unfortunately, no matter how you look at it, Rich is biased against BOSE. So, no mater what "information" is being provided, it's going to be slanted to Rich's thinking. By the way, Rich, your mentality on this web site is intollerable. Get a life! Don't you know how to respond to critacism without using such words as dimwit, etc. How old are you? 12? By the way Rich, if you respond with another "review" the same way you did previously or via email, it will prove my point. Webmaster, we need reviews by people who are mature. I don't appreciate the way Rich addresses other people on the Internet. Please screen all his "reports".

As for you BOSE fanatics, once again, get a life! Also, when submitting a review, please don't copy and paste a previous review from Sound And Vision magazine, like some of you did. I find it much too insulting. If you don't believe me, look at the "review" that mentions about viewing the movie Twister. It was coppied directly from the magazine I mentioned previously.

To sum things up, is the BOSE AM-15 for everyone? NO!!!
Does the BOSE AM-15 sound great using 2 channel stereo? no!!!
Does the BOSE AM-15 sound great when viewing DVD movies? YES!!!

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Compaired the sound to Polk and JBL home theatre systems

None.

No treble at all, no low bass at all, Priced so high it's science fiction.

I attended the bose demo at a Bose store in the Ontario Mills mall. I could easily hear there was no treble to speak of, and the bass was only midbass [60-80hz] with output so weak that any 10" powered sub will totally blow it away. As far as clear highs, how can you hear what is NOT there? these die at 16.5 khz, there are no highs and no way to produce them. I winced in pain at the overequalized upper midrange in the demo. It was harsh enough to drill my ears out. I choked on my lunch when they told me how much these baby-block paper driver cubes cost. I was shocked that something this horrible would fetch such a price. ONE big fat star.

Similar Products Used:

none---Bose is by itself in crapdom

Resale to those who don't know any better, marketing, and mis-information among the uneducated in audio gear. Bio-degradeable (paper drivers will deteriate and disappear in ten years approximate, but your children and descendants won't have to worry about it).

Size since now there are many in this category, two identical drivers (doppler effects, combing, and lobing effects), failure to separate frequencies by specialized drivers, bandpass subwoofer (if you can call it that), price-for-performance (can only beat out the AM-6 and AM-10 marginally), not a complete system since you still need to add a sub for LFE, and lack of informational stats (efficiency to match with THX AVRs, frequency to match up with another sub, and lack of telling people that reflective sounds are good for rears but not for front).

First of all this won't last a lifetime, especially with paper drivers. Since I assume most people who buys this will match it to the top AVR from Circuit City, Best Buy, or any other mass market store you would be better off buying some of the other similar small sub/sat (size and some price but all exceed in performance) setups from Atlantic Technology, Boston Accoustics, Energy, Nht, Mirage, Optimus, Def Tech, and etc which are similar in price, similar in size, and greater in perfomance. The people who are impressed with this have not heard a properly setup system of other competing models. Bose is smart in that that not only isolate their speakers from other brands to keep comparisons to a minimum, they also supply the test discs to stores for all speakers to play the same "frequency limited sources", and are setup for a standing demo (notice that these are on the walls at ear height of test buying listening public). My advice bring your "ALL MIGHTY" Bose AM-15 to another good hifi store and put it up against their cheaper entry level systems and prepare to return the Bose. I have heard many speakers that are cheaper and are usually noticibly better. Buy these other systems (usually less than a $1000) and then you can actually buy a true THX ULTRA AVR like the Pioneer ELITE 26 and have a much better setup for a lesser price. Now this will truly impress your friends and most of all it will impress you.

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Radio Shack XTS-10/20, Bose AM-10/6, and Cambridge Soundworks (the entry budget one). All of which is not that good.

Perfect toys for keeping bored kids occupied, swirling the speakers back and forth. Satellites also a great alternative for a football.

It has the name BOSE on it. BOSE SUCKS!!! I think these were $1100.00. No one should even pay $11. They have the worst sound ever. Cheap radio shack speakers sound much better than this. First of all, the mids coming from the small muddy sounding sub, which sounds terrible. The highs are over-emphasized. Bandpass sub. The sub doesn't go deep(3 5.25" drivers) and doesn't shake you.

If you absolutely don't care about sound quality and are looking for small speakers, i think you should overlook these and go radio shack and spend around 200 bucks. It will sound better. If you love mid-high end audio, look at mirage, acoustic research, paradigm, NHT, B&W, Polk Audio, Energy, Klipsch, cerwin vega, Kef, Boston Acoustics, Carver, Infinity, wharfedale etc. but NEVER bose. I would give it a negative rating, but it won't allow it.

Similar Products Used:

Klipsch Pro-media v.2 400 which blow this crap away in all areas.

Small, Very good highs

No mids, cheap materials

I am writting this review to tell of my experience and share with those who might care what I've learned. I am sure there are others in the same boat as I when comming to finding the right speakers. I've heard a great deal of positive things concerning Bose through the media and the like. I went to Best Buy and was blown away by the power and precieved clarity. I came home and decided to look up more details about why it was so good on the net. Much to my shock many places I went, outside The Bose website and others that were selling it, the overall opinion of Bose was less then glowing. This review sight reflects this fact rather well.

At first I dismissed much of the negitivity do to the fact people tend to be rather strange at times and no one can like everything. Again this review sight showed me many that seemed a bit unstable...if you read them you'll know what I'm talking about. The thing that bothered me was that no one really did a good job of explaining to me WHY they are of lesser quality then they say. I finally found a sight that helped me understand a bit more.( http://www.geocities.com/m_churches/speaker.htm )

I decided that I needed to do a side by side test for myself to really see if there is a difference. I did note that I've never seen a side by side demo in Best Buy. So I went to a local audio/visual dealer that specializes in such. They have rooms full of different speakers and the like to demo them in a living room like setting. Short of buying them this seemed to be a fair way to compare. In many ways it was superior to taking it home because I could see myself. First the sales guy had my wife and I listen to a song on Bose using the two main speakers and the powered subwoofer. I sounded good but I did notice a hollow feeling I had not noticed before. I did keep in mind that this could be a psyhcosymatic response to a previous expectation. Then the same song was played on the small pedistal speakers of Definitive Speakers and powered subwoofer. THe sound JUMPED at me at was at the same volume. It really seemed 3 dimentinal.

I do understand why many of you will say that to do a fair review you must own them. Perhaps so but after hearing this I simply and instantly know that I cannot ever buy these speakers. The salesman explained that the little cubes were just tweeters and that is why they are so small and do highs so well. The mids are covered by the subwoofer and what is there tends to get washed out. For the money they really are not worth it.

The other problem that I had though is what do I buy then. The comparison was compelling and he said that the surrond system I liked was $1350 dollars. Since it is comparable in price I suggest to at least try and check them out.

I asked for the next step up and again he wanted to show me definitive speakers. These where about 3 ft tall. They were just totally amazing. Each speaker is $600. dollars. But I'll just do it in peices.

I asked to hear the best they had. They had, again the best was definitive, the top of the line. These things looked 7ft tall and 2200 dollars each. They sounded great but the difference between them and the 3ft ones were very nominal. Piss on 2000+ speakers I'll just turn the smaller ones up.

I don't know if others are equal or better if you are looking for a direction like I was check it out.

Bose I do believe is mainly commercial. When I have the money I will most likely be getting the definitive ones but simply cannot justify spending any money on Bose. Just a few days ago I never thought that I would say that.

I hope this helps someone.

Small, Very good highs

No mids, cheap materials

I am writting this review to tell of my experience and share with those who might care what I've learned. I am sure there are others in the same boat as I when comming to finding the right speakers. I've heard a great deal of positive things concerning Bose through the media and the like. I went to Best Buy and was blown away by the power and precieved clarity. I came home and decided to look up more details about why it was so good on the net. Much to my shock many places I went, outside The Bose website and others that were selling it, the overall opinion of Bose was less then glowing. This review sight reflects this fact rather well.

At first I dismissed much of the negitivity do to the fact people tend to be rather strange at times and no one can like everything. Again this review sight showed me many that seemed a bit unstable...if you read them you'll know what I'm talking about. The thing that bothered me was that no one really did a good job of explaining to me WHY they are of lesser quality then they say. I finally found a sight that helped me understand a bit more.( http://www.geocities.com/m_churches/speaker.htm )

I decided that I needed to do a side by side test for myself to really see if there is a difference. I did note that I've never seen a side by side demo in Best Buy. So I went to a local audio/visual dealer that specializes in such. They have rooms full of different speakers and the like to demo them in a living room like setting. Short of buying them this seemed to be a fair way to compare. In many ways it was superior to taking it home because I could see myself. First the sales guy had my wife and I listen to a song on Bose using the two main speakers and the powered subwoofer. I sounded good but I did notice a hollow feeling I had not noticed before. I did keep in mind that this could be a psyhcosymatic response to a previous expectation. Then the same song was played on the small pedistal speakers of Definitive Speakers and powered subwoofer. THe sound JUMPED at me at was at the same volume. It really seemed 3 dimentinal.

I do understand why many of you will say that to do a fair review you must own them. Perhaps so but after hearing this I simply and instantly know that I cannot ever buy these speakers. The salesman explained that the little cubes were just tweeters and that is why they are so small and do highs so well. The mids are covered by the subwoofer and what is there tends to get washed out. For the money they really are not worth it.

The other problem that I had though is what do I buy then. The comparison was compelling and he said that the surrond system I liked was $1350 dollars. Since it is comparable in price I suggest to at least try and check them out.

I asked for the next step up and again he wanted to show me definitive speakers. These where about 3 ft tall. They were just totally amazing. Each speaker is $600. dollars. But I'll just do it in peices.

I asked to hear the best they had. They had, again the best was definitive, the top of the line. These things looked 7ft tall and 2200 dollars each. They sounded great but the difference between them and the 3ft ones were very nominal. Piss on 2000+ speakers I'll just turn the smaller ones up.

I don't know if others are equal or better if you are looking for a direction like I was check it out.

Bose I do believe is mainly commercial. When I have the money I will most likely be getting the definitive ones but simply cannot justify spending any money on Bose. Just a few days ago I never thought that I would say that.

I hope this helps someone.

Space, bass, easy to install

mid-bass

Great Speakers, find it out !
To all reviewers that never bought these speakers: do not write about something, that you don't owe.

none really. perhaps the size of them.

My old Aiwa shelf system sounds 10X better

Ok, these are not my speakers. My parents got suckered into buying a pair. Well, they kept complaining that the system sounded like absolute crap. So I went over and did some tweaking. I loaned them my Dynaudio Contour 1.3's and took their acoustimass system for myself to see if anything could be done. After trying various wiring, pre-amplification, and amplification switches, I just gave up. Needless to say, the parents bought me a new pair of Dynaudio contours because they didn't want to give my set back to me. :) They said that the set of Contours sounded so much better. They are using older Onkyo equipment (1993?).

Equipment used:
Electrocompaniet EC 4.7 pre
Bryston 4B-ST
Myryad tuner (yeah, I know).
Tara labs Air cables (speaker and interconnect).
Theta Miles CD player

I'll echo the advice given to me. If you have a speaker in mind, don't be persuaded by either side. Listen to them. Take a weekend and hit a few high end audio stores, bring your CD's, and just listen. If you still like the bose system, try and get a home audition. Honestly, if you like them in the store and like them at home, buy them.

I do, however, recommend listening to a pair of Dynaudio speakers. Perhaps not as appealing as the Bose setup to the home theatre crowd, but still a very good set of speakers. Note: If you are looking at dynaudio, I would use a Bryston amp to drive them.

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Dynaudio, B&W, Dunlavy.

Easy to install.
Very good to excellent imaging, ambience, and timbre.
Visually attractive and unobtrusive.

Easy to install.
Very good to excellent imaging, ambience, and timbre.
Visually attractive and unobtrusive.

Easy to install.
Very good to excellent imaging, ambience, and timbre.
Visually attractive and unobtrusive.

Easy to install.
Very good to excellent imaging, ambience, and timbre.
Visually attractive and unobtrusive.

Easy to install. Very good to excellent imaging, ambience, and timbre.

Can be slightly heavy in the midbass.
Lacks richness in the baritone vocal range.

Can be slightly heavy in the midbass.
Lacks richness in the baritone vocal range.

Can be slightly heavy in the midbass.
Lacks richness in the baritone vocal range.

Can be slightly heavy in the midbass.
Lacks richness in the baritone vocal range.

Can be slightly heavy in the midbass.
Lacks richness in the baritone vocal range.

Frequency-response measurements of the Bose AM-15 were averaged to reflect normal listening conditions and to condense information into a single graph. The front left/right speakers' response was averaged from 0 to 30 degrees off-axis, the center speaker from 0 to 45 degrees, and the surrounds over a 120-degree window. In each case, the response was weighted to reflect typical listening positions.

Although identical satellites are used for all the main channels, their measured response differed because of the weighting. Their response fell off rapidly below 300 Hz, and a 3-dB peak appeared between 2 and 4 kHz, plus a 13-kHz treble peak and a related notch. But if you ignore the deep notch just before the treble peak, the response would fit inside a ±4.7-dB window.

The best response for all the satellites was obtained when the dual cubes were rotated about 15 degrees apart, and the same positioning was used for the sensitivity measurements given above. When the top and bottom cubes were aligned, sensitivity rose 3 dB. Impedance was exceptionally flat, never dipping below 5 ohms at any frequency.

The bass module delivered an impressive 97-dB SPL with less than 10 percent distortion at 32 Hz. When it was placed in a corner, it averaged 100 dB SPL over its primary bandwidth of 32 to 80 Hz. Its bass control increased output below 150 Hz by 3.4 dB at the maximum position and cut it by 3 dB at the minimum. The module's 200-Hz bandwidth makes it a good match for the satellites.

In other words these are exceptionally well designed speakers, even for the price. Nothing is perfect and the consumer must weight out the Pros vs. the Cons. Any home theater equipment will sound badly if the room and speaker setup is not carefully considered. Good luck.

Click here

Click here

I have compiled a definitive review of the Bose AcoustiMass-15 system on my site. Sorry for re-posting this, but the other link I had provide had exceeded its bandwidth. Click here to read it and end all this senseless bickering. Internet Explorer only please.

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