Sounds good if most or all surfaces and objects in listening room are "hard"

May sound muffled in a typical living room

I admit I don’t own the Acoustimass 15, but I’m speaking for the entire Acoustimass line. The saying "NO HIGHS, NO LOWS--MUST BE BOSE" certainly applies when these (or most other Bose speakers) are used in a typical living room (with plenty of carpeting and plush furniture). But if those people who don’t have that many such "acoustics absorbers", then they deliver decent sound quality. (I still think they lack detail in the highs, because the high frequency drivers in most Bose products are relatively large paper cones that are physically too bulky to reproduce accurate highs.) And speaker placement and positioning are both CRITICAL--especially if improperly done, THEY SOUND LIKE CRAP! I agree with the Bose-haters that they are severely overpriced, but I don’t think they are that bad (but they aren’t very good, either).
My rating for the Bose Acoustimass line is:
Value=1; Performance=3.

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Lots

Size, Appearance

Deep Bass Bottoms out at Mid-Volumes.

Despite what the Bose hater bandwagon wants you to believe, these are actually really good speakers. It does, however, not have a true subwoofer. When subsidized with a power amplifier to the bass channel, it does a good job reproducing the lows up to mid volumes. Anymore volume than that, and it will bottom out.
When compared to most speakers without a subwoofer, Bose will usually come out on top. And like all speakers, you can always add a subwoofer to cover the deep bass at higher volumes.

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Klipsch KSW-12

You got to be kidding right??? Amar Bose is a genius!! How does he do that???

You name it, and it has it

How does Amar Bose get away with this junk anyway. If equalization,baffles in front of drivers and making midranges do the work of woofers were against the law; Bose would get life with no parole. He actually has stores now that sell his wares. Yikes! I liked the Radio alittle,but this acousta--what-cha-ma-callit is not worth running test tones let alone anything resembling music. Aweful across the board. Save your money and get a real system. A successful marketing and real estate guru he is, but he is the Frankenstein of speakers. And we all know what happened to Frankenstein's monster eh???

"No highs,no lows,....must be Bose". Too bad zeros are not included in the rating table,because these things are a waste of resources human or otherwise. V.C.

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Thank god none

"Better sound through research", of course. Give me a break.

Everything

It is so entertaining to read the reviews on Bose equipment. Bose is the tobacco industry of the audio world- filled with deception, mass marketing, and propaganda to lure in the poor sucker to start their BAD HABIT. With Bose, you either love them or hate them with little in between. See, this is not at all unlike that other bad habit- smoking.

My friend bought this system in 1998 even after my weak long "friends don't let friends buy Bose" speach. Needless to say, he sold it in two months and bought a nice Infinity setup for about the same price and 100 times the sound and build quality. He got a REAL subwoofer to boot. Imagine that! Ever notice that a Bose rep never wants to demo their systems with music...instead they go for goofy sound effects and movie clips that make it harder to detect problems in the sound. And boy, ARE their problems.

Those two months gave me an opportunity to really study a Bose system and let me tell you, it is scary. The drivers are made from the cheapest stock I've ever seen. I truly believe they are the rejects that won't be put in other manufacturers' products. The drivers practically deteriorate in your fingers. There is so much resonance from the "bass" cube that it sounds like an orchestra of geese. My 16 month-old could build a better bass box. Unfortunately, those wrapped up in the Bose deception believe this is the sound of low bass. Whatever makes them happy, I guess.

As for the performance...what kind of company (other than one that is obviously deceptive and hinding something) never publishes any type of performance figures? What a disgrace. My Stereophile test CD revealed these paperweights are capable of nothing above about 10kHz or below about 60Hz. Not bad for a paperweight, but terrible for a speaker system. When is the last time you saw a company advertise a "subwoofer" that can be shamed by a tiny mini-monitor for bass extension? The midrange was so think that I couldn't cut through with my powersaw.

If you are happy with Bose, then my heart goes out to you because you obviously don't know what you are missing. Thank you Paul Harvey. Do yourself a HUUUUUUUUUGE favor and go a local dealer of quality gear and listen to speakers like Magnepan, Def Tech, Infinity, Polk, Boston Acoustic, Klipsch and any of numerous others out there. Spend a half hour listening to music on any of these and you'll want to go home and dice your Bose system into little bits.

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Believe me, NOTHING is similar to a Bose product

They're easier to throw around than most speakers (due to crappy build quality)

Where would I be today without my Sweet-Crap AM series
I prefer to spend thousands of dollars on baseballs....

I had a friend purchase these little things. Here's what I can tell you.....

These little cubes.................. SUCK so much. I regret ever even listening to these worthless pieces of crap. There is absolutely no clarity in highs or midrange. Bose should lighten up they're act because they haven't been putting out any good products lately. If bose didn't spend so much money on advertising they might be able to make one upgrade on they're sucking speakers. I've tried many speakers and have tested all types of speakers (including bose) intensely with many different medias of sound (movies) and every category of music. You can spend nearly 1/4 the price on basically any other speaker and get much better quality.

Basically when I first tested these speakers I popped in some classical music. Right away not all of the instruments weren't coming out clearly. When I played some rock and/or pop I was noticing that the speaker was producing a very metallic sound that became annoying to my ears. Even as a casual listener I still care about quality.
So I figured I would move on the the most used format in my house, Movies. Right away I was noticing that these speakers were lacking all of the detail with the highs that you hear in explosions and such. The AM15 did have more base than the other crappy passive bass moduals but that wasn't enough to get my mind set on these.

If your looking into buying bose speakers read some professional reviews. Also try looking at some professional audio stores (not bestbuy) and test they're speakers. If your going to review these speakers write down the speakers you tested them against and put your reasons why.

It's understandable that everyone has differnet ears and the people that buy bose are stupid.

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Martin Logan, Definitive Technology, Polk Audio, Boston Acoustics, Phase Technology, Basically most brands of GOOD speakers.

Size, Form Factor, Fits in well in small room area

Having to now tell girlfriend that since they sound bad I am going back to "big" speakers

Well.............. I tried. I gave them a good workout since my last review. Still love the Sony Receiver, but the speakers are disappointing. Movies sound good, although I cant tell if this is the speakers or just moving from pro-logic to dolby digital.

The real disappointment comes in the muddy sound of music. I am not an audiophile (not enough time or money at my disposal for the hobby) But I expect to hear clear highs and tight bass. No matter how much I play with eq in the receiver, I cant get there. I have tried different placements and that hasn't worked either. Since I am moving into a house, the movies will probably suffer as well. Now the question....? WHat to replace them with for the same budget?? Any thoughts?

Size and amount of sound for the Size. Looks Good

Lack of Punch. Produced a sound that made you tired of listening.

I heard these in the Bose Store about a year before I bought my house. And I told my wife one of the first things I was going to buy when we moved in was a Home Theater Set-up. In the store we were impressed with the amount of sound for such little speakers and this was going to be the first thing I bought. Well I waited almost two years and I finally got them home. The first movie we saw was Armageddon and boy it was great to watch movies at home this way. I was so happy.
Then I started to listen to some of my old CD's and my Dream turned to the dark side. I went to college for music so I've spent alot of time listening to music. I'm not going to get into a Freq. debate or anything like that other then to say I know what I like and I know what I used to be able to hear. And for lack of a better way of putting it. There were parts that were no longer audible. They just weren't anywhere to be heard. I was so disappointed a two year dream bubble busted. I was really depressed, I did know I wouldn't have to keep them because of the return policy. But what was I going to replace them with?
I was new to this and prices for what was considered good were beyond my range. Until someone recommended the Atlantic Technologies System 4.5 at about the same price. Man it was night and day. Now not only did I hear the missing parts but I was also hearing things I never heard before. Even my wife and best friend (who is deaf in one ear)couldn't believe the difference when I took the CD to the store. So to answer the question of what to recommend for the same price point look at these. They are outstanding. The Klipsch I installed for someone and for the price they were a good option.
I'm not going to say Bose S**ks they are OK. But for the price and the name I expected more and that's what let me down.

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Atlantic Technologies System 4.5. Klipsch Quintet

cubed-design makes for easy and non-space-consuming disposal in your garbage, subwoofer acts as boat anchor for small fishing canoes. bose vendors can be found in all acclaimed "high-end audio" stores including target, walmart, sears, best buy, fry's, and circuit city-- hah!

hmmm, how about the bio-gradeable paper-cone subwoofer with matching paper-cone tweeter/midrange-in-one satellites, the lack of bass extention in the woofer (roll-off at 50Hz), clock radio quality sound, inflated price tag, high frequency roll off at 12Hz (-3db) with strong emphasis on 7Hz to give the illusion of full range sound. boomy, sloppy bass response of 50Hz-250Hz from the cheap sub housed in low-grade particle board with no internal woofer bracing, frequncy gap of about 200Hz between satellites and the so-called subwoofer, fixed-pricing, though every higher bose series costs hundreds more, you will find they are ALL built with the same components and materials.

any bose proponents feel very free to defend these or ANY bose speakers or system. these things are pure un-adulterated horse terds. i can build a complete system that will outperform the am15 at 1/4 the cost. the 2 inch paper cone satellites are too big to faithfully reproduce highs, and too small to reproduce mids, the paper cone sub is garbage that only reproduces 50-250Hz in a sloppy, noisy way as it is housed in perhaps the most cheap enclosure imagineable with no bracing of the woofer. all of bose's alleged prestige comes from its monster of a marketing machine who spend countless millions on advertisements and promotion rather than r&d and materials. this unit doesn't even deserve the ONE STAR that im giving it. my parting advise to anyone seriously considering buying this unit is: DO NOT BUY BOSE!

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similar? my 8 year old general electric alarm clock.

cubed-design makes for easy and non-space-consuming disposal in your garbage, subwoofer acts as boat anchor for small fishing canoes. bose vendors can be found in all acclaimed "high-end audio" stores including target, walmart, sears, best buy, fry's, and circuit city-- hah!

hmmm, how about the bio-gradeable paper-cone subwoofer with matching paper-cone tweeter/midrange-in-one satellites, the lack of bass extention in the woofer (roll-off at 50Hz), clock radio quality sound, inflated price tag, high frequency roll off at 12Hz (-3db) with strong emphasis on 7Hz to give the illusion of full range sound. boomy, sloppy bass response of 50Hz-250Hz from the cheap sub housed in low-grade particle board with no internal woofer bracing, frequncy gap of about 200Hz between satellites and the so-called subwoofer, fixed-pricing, though every higher bose series costs hundreds more, you will find they are ALL built with the same components and materials.

any bose proponents feel very free to defend these or ANY bose speakers or system. these things are pure un-adulterated horse terds. i can build a complete system that will outperform the am15 at 1/4 the cost. the 2 inch paper cone satellites are too big to faithfully reproduce highs, and too small to reproduce mids, the paper cone sub is garbage that only reproduces 50-250Hz in a sloppy, noisy way as it is housed in perhaps the most cheap enclosure imagineable with no bracing of the woofer. all of bose's alleged prestige comes from its monster of a marketing machine who spend countless millions on advertisements and promotion rather than r&d and materials. this unit doesn't even deserve the ONE STAR that im giving it. my parting advise to anyone seriously considering buying this unit is: DO NOT BUY BOSE!

Similar Products Used:

similar? my 8 year old general electric alarm clock.

cubed-design makes for easy and non-space-consuming disposal in your garbage, subwoofer acts as boat anchor for small fishing canoes. bose vendors can be found in all acclaimed "high-end audio" stores including target, walmart, sears, best buy, fry's, and circuit city-- hah!

hmmm, how about the bio-gradeable paper-cone subwoofer with matching paper-cone tweeter/midrange-in-one satellites, the lack of bass extention in the woofer (roll-off at 50Hz), clock radio quality sound, inflated price tag, high frequency roll off at 12Hz (-3db) with strong emphasis on 7Hz to give the illusion of full range sound. boomy, sloppy bass response of 50Hz-250Hz from the cheap sub housed in low-grade particle board with no internal woofer bracing, frequncy gap of about 200Hz between satellites and the so-called subwoofer, fixed-pricing, though every higher bose series costs hundreds more, you will find they are ALL built with the same components and materials.

any bose proponents feel very free to defend these or ANY bose speakers or system. these things are pure un-adulterated horse terds. i can build a complete system that will outperform the am15 at 1/4 the cost. the 2 inch paper cone satellites are too big to faithfully reproduce highs, and too small to reproduce mids, the paper cone sub is garbage that only reproduces 50-250Hz in a sloppy, noisy way as it is housed in perhaps the most cheap enclosure imagineable with no bracing of the woofer. all of bose's alleged prestige comes from its monster of a marketing machine who spend countless millions on advertisements and promotion rather than r&d and materials. this unit doesn't even deserve the ONE STAR that im giving it. my parting advise to anyone seriously considering buying this unit is: DO NOT BUY BOSE!

Similar Products Used:

similar? my 8 year old general electric alarm clock.