Wel... erm... they're small

About everything else

Well, I'm always astounded how many people can be conned into buying this acoustinass cr@p. The satellites cut off somewhere at 16-16 kHz (are those Bose likers already half-deaf due to listening to their boom-car equipment a bit too often?), and what people call "a solid bass" is nothing more than an overblown peak somewhere around 80-120 Hz. The precision of this so-called "bass" also leaves quite a bit to be desired, personally I have encountered drier, and harder, chocolate puddings.

Is all you want is home-theater entertainment, go ahead and buy some.
However, if you intend to use your equipment for listening to music, quickly forget about Bose altogether. Most music I heard over these, especially classic pieces, becomes somewhere between irritating and headache-causing.

(is it possible to rate anything at zero stars?)

Pre-packaged. Easy to set-up.

A lot

Please spend the extra time and go to a real store and listen to a similar priced product. The definitive technology Pro Cinmea 100 package provides a much better product for a mere 100 dollars more.

Similar Products Used:

Paradigm, Definitive Technology

Whole system fits neatly into a GE trash compactor. Plastic can be recycled. Paper drivers make good recycled "post it notes."

Not strong enough to hold up my car when I need stands

Did you ever notice the 5 star raters always put "Well, even though I own [insert expensive high end speaker here] The Bose are so much better." That's like saying "Even though I own a mansion with servents, I prefer my room at the Y".
I can set these up any way you want. they still sound like trash. The are not high end, they are the lowest of low end. They are easily in the bottom 5 worst sounding products. 1 star

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n/a

Size

Sound quality. To expensive.

At first these speakers might sound good because of the over emphatized highs and lows, however after a short period of listening time I noticed how fatighing the sound gets because of squilly highs and muddy boomy bass. The cubes don't quite reach cristal clear trebles and they don't have any upper mids. The crossover on the sub is set way too high, giving out constant sound to make up for the thinnines of the cubes and don't go very low either, maybe around 40-50hz at best, also I think that there is a hole in frequency spectrum where the cubes and the sub meet. These speaker might be ok with movies, but not with sound. For the money this speaker system cost you can definitely get better gear. Sorry, I am not a Bose basher, I just think that these speakers are not that good overall unless size is a concern for you.

Size

Sound quality. To expensive.

At first these speakers might sound good because of the over emphatized highs and lows, however after a short period of listening time I noticed how fatighing the sound gets because of squilly highs and muddy boomy bass. The cubes don't quite reach cristal clear trebles and they don't have any upper mids. The crossover on the sub is set way too high, giving out constant sound to make up for the thinnines of the cubes and don't go very low either, maybe around 40-50hz at best, also I think that there is a hole in frequency spectrum where the cubes and the sub meet. These speaker might be ok with movies, but not with sound. For the money this speaker system cost you can definitely get better gear. Sorry, I am not a Bose basher, I just think that these speakers are not that good overall unless size is a concern for you.

None

Can't be recycled

A well-meaning friend gave these speakers to my father in law as a present. My father-in-law is a retired symphony orchestra conductor. I had previously set him up with a pair of Lynn Tukan speakers, which are also very small and cost much less than the Bose. His friend removed the Lynn's and set up the Bose.

My father-in-law tried them for a while, but could not stand them. To his well-trained ear, they sounded so unnatural as to be unlistenable. Strained highs, no midrange presence, and no discrimination in the lower register whatsoever. At just ten inches tall, the Lynn's kicked the Bose butt at all ends of the spectrum, sounded infinitely more musical, and had richer bass!

My father-in-law did not want to insult his friend, but by the time I next came to visit, he has asked a neighbor to move the Bose to his bedroom and hook up the Lynns. I am sorry to say that the Bose have been gathering dust ever since. (I did listen a few times, and my jaw dropped at just how bad they sounded. They really do sound like transistor radio speakers.) My father-in-law has finally accused his well-meaning friend of having wax paper for ear drums. After that, the friend got rid of his Bose too!

Easy for first-time Home Theater DIY

no mid range definition

I RECANT!! (see previous). After the novelty of DVD's wore off, I went back to listening to my CD's and found the Bose AM-15 to be lacking. I actually preferred my old Advents which had been relegated to the living room.
Fortunately, was within CircuitCity 30 day return period (God bless them). Returned AM-15 fully expecting to upgrade to Polk 7500 based on user reviews. Admittedly, they sounded better for mid-range detail but their size would not meet wife's criteria and even I couldn't stomach the new glossy black! CC has closeout deal on the Polk 7300 but their sound was only minimally better than AM-15. What to do? Waited until wife gone all day but that's another story (see Infinity list). I still think the Bose were easy to set up, did the home theater thing well for a novice DIY but at what a price.

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As before.

Take up almost no room, sound great.

None

I decided to get me the AM-15's and a Sony STR-DE935 for my birthday. I am glad I did too. DVD's never sounded anywhere near as good on my Pioneer, or even my friends Toshiba system.

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Pioneer HTP-100 ... 4 year-old Pro-Logic receiver

Excellent sound when listening to both music and movies. Bass front & rear produced from one module. Dont need large speakers or extra sub in rear.Easy to install, sound can be directed to cover a large area and the module can be hidden easily.

would like just a little more bass.

The AM15 has been a great addition to my HT set up. I am not about to say that it is the best thing out there as far as speaker systems go..however, I do encourage as others have to seriously go out and listen to what you are thinking of buying. Not to bash or defend here but, there is no way possible that you are going to be able to get a good read on what a speaker can do at a Best Buy or some mall demo. In addition, research a little, learn a little about the featurs and technologies. Get off the save the earth from bad audio wagon and find out why speaker companies use certain types of drivers/cones, why its called a module -vs- a sub, is the speaker rated higher for movies,music or both. I will have to say that there were four or five other systems that I listened to that I favored more over the Bose. The reason for not purchasing is because of the price range was much higher than the Bose. I just simply could not afford them. For the price range that the AM15 is in and what all it has to deliver, I rate it very well. Good luck if your out and about for speakers.

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Plenty! Many are similar and have great sound as well. However, the amount of design patents that this has and what you get over others makes a huge difference.

pleasing to the eye, very clear

Lows are not strong, freq. gap b/w sat. speakers and sub, highs not very crisp

I don't own this system but I installed it for a friend of the family who was widowed. I hooked it up to a ONKYO tx-ds777 (plenty of power). The speakers were in a perfect set up and then we watched a movie. She was so happy that she could get such great sound out of those little "cute" speakers. Her smile was from ear to ear and she turned to me and asked me what I thought and (I couldn't break her heart) "they sound great" I said. The truth was I was not real impressed, I thought bose could produce much better sound with its great name and proved quality for $1200. I'm thinking this poor woman just got ripped off paying $2200 w/o wires and this is all she got, but she was happy and thats all that matters.

For myself I was interested in buying bose up to that point but when I heard her top of the AM line system I was lost. I didn't know what to buy so I started research and a freind of mine let me hear his BIC system, I was amazed. So I decided to check out there website and find out about them. They seemed to be pretty good quality but a little over my budget until I started to shop online. I found the speaker package I wanted for $625 on theweb-shop.com (the delivery was slow) were there retail was $1318. My speakers are a little big but they have smaller packages w/ great sound. check out BIC's website it may help, this is the location of a smaller package (http://www.bicamerica.com/ADATTO%20DV52si%20config%20specs.htm) (you can copy and paste). There sound is excellent and I don't have any freq. gaps. I'm very happy and it didn't cost me an arm and a leg to buy (oh ya I got a Onkyo 777 also I love it).

The moral of my story is shop on-line (make sure it's safe) and really think if the bose name is worth the money(I don't) in my opinion there are better packages out there for 1/2 or even 1/3 of the cost. Shop around before you buy listen to top end systems and see how cheep they are on-line.

I'll give bose a 1 on value b/c $1200 alot of dough
and 3 for overall so it won't mess up the ave.

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BIC