Size

Overhyped,overpriced and marketed to death.

Simply put...go out and buy Paradigm's Cinema HT speaker package. It's drastically cheaper($716 retail),small(almost as small as the Bose AM systems), and (most importantly) it sounds great. There's no hole between the sub and satellites so you receive the sound the way it was intended. Invest your $500 savings into something else....how about a new DVD-Audio player when the prices start to drop in about six months.

Enjoy!

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Aura LSW-828M's(mains),Aura LSC-537M Center Channel,dbx Soundfield 3x2 sub/sat system(surrounds) and BIC DV1210 Powered Sub.

Size

Price, performance, high cost, low value

Some people are just like sheep.

They hear a review or ad, beleive it blindly, and follow the next sheep off the cliff. How else can you explain why people keep buying this stuff?

Now keep in mind that some people's ears are different. But the quality of the sound found in ANY AM series is terrible when compared to other brands.

Some would argue with me, but let's state the fact.

On a typical Home Theater movie, you'll have bass sounds around 20hz, and high sounds around 20khz. With any Bose AM system, you're missing some of the sound.

FACT: The AM series does not have tweeters. They have midrange drivers in the bass cubes that produce highs to about 14khz.

FACT: The AM series does not have a true subwoofer. Even placing the bass modual in the corner of the room will not yeild satisfying output below 50hz. All low bass information is below 50hz.

FACT: Bose spends a TON of $$$ on marketing campaings, where others do not. And nowhere do they claim to reproduce sound accurately (for fear of a lawsuit?).

So why would anybody buy a product for the purpose of Home Theater that will, by DESIGN, not produce the full spectrum of sound? Because there's a sucker born every minute.

If you're in the market for any Home Theater speaker system, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE concider something other than Bose. They do NOT have a 'good name', they do NOT build a 'quality product', and they do not reproduce 'quality sound'.

Well respected companies like Mirage, Engergy, B&W, Definative Technologies, Boston Acoustics and more make wonderful under $1000 home theater systems. All these systems will be able to reproduce the entire audio spectrum, and most will include a powered subwoofer.

Now if audio quality and price aren't important to you, but 'lifestyle' is, buy away. I honestly don't know of a 'cuter' speaker package.

Maybe if Bose is such a great company, they will hear our cries for a better product and actually produce something worthy of our hard earned $$$ and time. Until then, DON'T believe the hype.

Similar Products Used:

Advent, Radio Shack/Optimus, Bose 301's, Infinity

Small, equal speakers on all sides, great for movies

bad for music

I watched action scenes from Lost in Space and the speakers worked well. I got very dissappointed when I listened to the music. I listened carefully from each speaker and the fact that only the sub handles the bass leaves something missing between the low frequency's and high ones.

Bottom line, these are great for home theatre, crappy for music. A system should have good for both. Buy conventionnal speakers.

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none yet

Size, clarity, undistorted bass

price, somewhat missing frequencies

How can they achieve such sound from these speakers. Don't get me wrong these are nice speakers if you wish to use them for home cinema, but not for hifi, music etc. they can sound thin, and the mid range can be somewhat non existant on some tracks. If quality is waht you want you may re consider your choice of speakers. They are not as bad as what some people on this site have reviewed it as. for the size they are unrivalled. there clarity is unrivalled, the bass is complementing,and generally would suit classical music more than fast moving dance.

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Tannoy R3, Spendor, Rogers Ls55, tangent Monitor 9

Size

Sound and value

Steve,

Concerning your last paragraph...right back at ya!

Why settle for Bose when you can do SO much better..for less money.Why people continue to back this brand is beyond me. You JUST can't help some people...geeesh.

All it takes is a little education and some AB comparisons to clarify what we've been saying all along..."Bose gives you inferior sound for maximum bucks".

Don't be duped!

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Aura LSW-828M's,Aura LSC-537M,dbx Soundfield 3x2 sub/sat system,BIC DV1210

Volume off.

Volume on.

I originally posted this to the Acoustiturd 5 board,
but these Acoustiturds are all the same:

Where to begin?

First of all, I want everyone to know this URL
http://www.geocities.com/trustnoho/boseframes.html
which has some interesting info on these speaker's
freq. response that Bose won't publish.

I've had a lot of exposure to these but have never written
a review. Howerver, I have warned many people to stay
away from Bose and to *listen* to *any* other speaker in
the store before buying. Had one guy (who also owns a pair
of Bose 901s, BTW) go to an AV store to buy these for a
home theater setup because "Bose is the finest speaker in
the world", but after taking my advice he bought a pair of
Boston Acoustic speakers at a fraction of the cost instead
("They sounded much better, no comparison.") The salesman
told him that he would make more money by selling the Bose,
but encouraged him to listen to other speakers and make up
his own mind-- and he did...this was NOW Audio/Video, BTW.
I guess the Bose marketing gestapo's will now decend on
NOW, but that's OK, they should NOT be selling Bose in a
Hi-Fi shop anyway (they are the local Martin Logan dealers
for heaven's sake!)

As for my own experiences, these speakers truly sould like
clock radio speakers when compared to any other speaker.
Back when Best Buy had a speaker room with a console set up
in the middle that allowed you to select different speakers
by *number* I was switching through each of the 20 or so
speakers one by one-- I had NO idea which speaker I was
listening to. When I was done, I hunted down which ones
sounded "best" and "worst". The "best" turned out to be
a KLH $30/pair, the worst? You guessed it, a Bose AM5 at
$899/pair! No lie. At the time I hadn't been exposed to
the Bose's marketing propaganda machine so I had no
preconceived ideas about Bose either good nor bad. I just
figured anyone could tell they sucked (no other word for
it).

I learned about Bose's marketing machine by listening to
the infected people (like the guy above who owned the 901's
and was going to buy these audio turds solely because of
Bose's reputation). I know another guy who bought these
triumphs in audio research technology at Sam's Club. He
too was buying based on "reputation". After he got them
all set up, I had the misfortune to hear Jurassic Park on
them. It sounded like you'd expect-- shrill little clock
radio speakers hanging on the wall with a warm, muddy,
"room filling" bass that was clearly coming from the
"bass module". He didn't understand why this Bose miracle
wasn't producing the lows that he'd heard on the Kenwood
SW300 powered sub I've got in my setup. The reason is
because this bass module doesn't play any bass-- it only
goes down to 40Hz (see the URL above for actual frequency
response curves which Bose won't even publish). The bass
module is too busy filling in the mid range that the
cubes can't produce to be worried about bass.

Recently I was at Sam's Club and the had the Bose display
setup with the AM5 and the little silver lifestyle thing
setup with it. You know, the one with the "arms" going
behind you with the surround speakers on them. There was a
TV built into the display and you could push buttons to
hear a Bose marketing geek indoctrinate you right there on
the spot. What I found strange was when I pushed the
button to play "music", it actually sounded pretty good.
Nothing like I've heard from the setups I've seen at Best
Buy or at NOW Audio/Video or at Circuit City or at
people's home who own these. I tried to follow the signal
to see what was driving these speakers, but the case was
locked! There was no way to see what was actually driving
these speakers or if the signal was being EQed in some way
to make these sound passable. I've read of similar
experiences on this site stating that someone went to a
Bose outlet and heard a home theater setup that actually
sounded decent but when he asked the guy behind the
counter, he was told that the system was "tweaked" beyond
any semblance of what you as a consumer would receive if
you bought Bose speakers/system for yourself. There is
definitely something funny going on. BEWARE OF CANNED
BOSE DEMOS.

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One of those Mattel "see and say" toys where your kid pulls the handle and it plays animal sounds...

Good for movies

BAD FOR MUSIC (STEREO)

At last I sold AM-15. Almost 8 months of using these speakers was a good lesson to know what does "sound detail" mean, or in this case does not ! In case of AM-15 there are almost no detail at all. Finally I decided to replace these with B&W speaker system:

- CM4 x 2 as main speakers
- CM2 x 2 as surround speakers
- CMC x 2 as front and back center channel
- ASW 2500 as sub

and after I done it, I was "blessed". Now I discover right from the start all my DVD movies collection, from first to the last. What a mass of details B&W offers, what source localization. All of AM-15 users just can't imagine how many of these are recorded even on bad quality DVD.

Other warm words comes to traditional CD Stereo reproduction. CM4 does it all. AM-15 couldn’t reproduce stereo sound properly at all.

Did I finally found a system, that is good for both: movies and sound ? I think I did and I wish to all AM-15 users to hear the “real sound”.

Regards

I have found this system to meet my needs for home theatre
and music beyond expectations. An easy hideaway powered
mudule provides excellent LFE effects for action movies and
for stereo applications. My wife and I listen to a great deal of digital music via directv and the Bose acoustimass
15 provides plenty of "Kick" for hte buck. Center channel
dialogue during DVD playback is clear and strong. LFE effects and surround 5.1 effects are impressive from such small cubes. Best system out there for folks who either are
challenged by space or looking to hide the speakers for a
"blend into the room effect.

Not being a major audiophile...I find it hard to point out
weaknesses of this system. If you need pure noise at a high
power/decibel level I am sure there are larger speakers out
there that can belt out louder lows and higher highs...but for the average household these speakers are beyond reproach.

For the entry level home theatre this sytem kicks butt!
If you are looking for a professionally designed home
theatre and plan on investing $30,000 plus on your home
theatre including A/V reciever, DVD, speakers, and TV then
by all means spend $8,000 dollars plus on large floor standing speakers that will produce the sound and fidelity
to make you the envy of all your neighbors. But...for the
average John Doe's living room the Bose acoustimass 15
is hard to beat when mated with a mid priced digital A/V
receiver and a nice rear projection tv. It will rock your
living room! Real bass for music, excellent strong LFE for
movies along with ease of setup and the ability to hideaway
the speakers so that they are almost invisible.

The system is acoustically balanced

High Pricing

The Bose Acoustimass 15 Series II is one of the fine home theater speakers available in the market. It is a no non-sense plug and play type gear.
The mid-highs are brilliant and with warmth. The bass output from its own powered module is balanced and more than enough to rattle the room. When compared side by side comparison with larger systems it will hold its own.

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Polk Audio RM-5000

Great sound for such a small speaker. Compact.

The price is high $1,299. It takes 5 speakers to equal to the quality of 2 Infinity speakers (although these costs $1200 each).

The good thing about this AM-15 is that it saves space. But it's price isn't good. A good price for this system would be around $800 (which is what I paid for). For more money, you can find better speakers such as the one from Infinity.