The Secret Behind Bose Sound Revealed!

▶Dr. Amar Bose was a professor at MIT. From what I've seen from some of his lectures and interviews with him, he seemed like an amazing human being. When he died, he donated the majority of Bose's shares to MIT!

After watching this video and seeing the frequency response graphs, hopefully you gain more insight as to how and why non-audiophiles like Bose products and why audio enthusiasts typically don't like Bose.

Follow me on:

Music:
Track: Floatinurboat - Limbo (feat. ELIØTT) [NCS Release]
Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds.

The Sound Demo Tracks are here:

#bose #secrets #revealed #audiophile #speakers
Intro song: Friday
Music By The Passion HiFi

Disclaimer: The Affiliate links above earn me a commission if you purchase using those links. This is at no additional cost to you. AFFILIATE LINKS:

Disclosure: The Affiliate links above earn me a commission if you purchase using those links. This is at no additional cost to you. This product was sent free for the purpose of this review.

[ZOOTSUITBEATNICK]

I spent 10 years as a music producer...lots of hours in studios.
I learned to ignore brand names and tech stats and go with what sounded best to me.
Still do that.

[CannyNomad]

What Amar Bose did was master the Waveguide. This allowed him to use cheap/small Drivers with cheap Cabinet materials to create a better than average sound in a very small package. They were never marketed as "the best" or "Audiophile Speakers". It was essentially "Speakers for Dummies" after the Audiophile craze fell out of favor around the late 80's/early 90's.

[strangescribe]

Whatever you buy - if it sounds good to you - it's good.

[arguz]

I am not an audio technician, just a regular guy who likes the music so much, Bose maybe doesn’t have a lot of highs or lows, however the “clarity” and the “separation” of musical instruments are IMPRESSIVE !!

[tlemburg]

I was an audio salesman many years ago. Plenty of customers would come in, asking about the ratings and performance 'numbers' of various speakers. In my mind, numbers don't mean much. My question to the customers would always be, "How do they sound to you?" As a customer, I buy speakers to listen to, not for the literature with specifications. If the Bose sound better to you, buy 'em! If the the Infinity sound better, buy them! Don't rely on printed information to tell you what sounds good.

[ersklordy]

I have two paper cups with string between from when I was a kid still sound great need 3 more cups and a dustbin to upgrade to 5.1

[SirBoden]

If you want to understand Bose, all you need to understand is that at the top of their design guidelines is WAF. Everything else is secondary. (Wife Acceptance Factor)

[QKGLH]

Those 201's were my first ever speakers. I loved them. Then I found other brands and have continued to grow. I don't knock others for liking Bose. Just enjoy what you enjoy.

[rlccar]

Bose 201s!!! I had those in high school and college. I gave them to my dad over 20 years ago and he still uses them alongside a pair of Sansui SP-LE8Ts that he picked up in Japan while on R&R in Vietnam. The combined sound is very good, and all the frequencies seem filled out.

[Langeloudspeakers]

I am involved in loudspeaker design and manufacturing since long time and I agree with bass boost as well as nonlinear frequency response being a more pleasant result. On my humble opinion flat frequency response is technically correct if the recorded source has been "tailored" according to what random listeners really like (some bass boost, less 3 kHz energy, some extra 16 kHz etc.). A perfectly flat frequency response involves a faithful reproduction of the signal, a pleasant signal has a frequency response that matches the frequency response of our ears; and in fact our ears have a peak sensitivity at 3 kHz, low frequency roll off below 200 Hz and high frequency roll off above let's say 5 kHz. Back to Bose and to other speakers that may have an uneven frequency response (matching somehow our hearing system behavior) ... random listeners according to my experience really like them more and thus buy them.

[RCallahan]

Something that's rarely explored in audiophile conversations is what you might call "coffeeshopability." How well do speakers play when they're not in a typical stereo setup.

When reviewing speakers, we always talk about sound stage and imaging. That only happens when you're sitting in a sweet spot that is likely relatively small. In the real world, how often are speakers actually used like this? If you're in a coffee shop listening to music, you're never going to benefit from stereo imaging. You will still notice things like clarity, tight bass response, and crisp highs.

Though a lot of the offerings from Bose are lacking. They do generally perform well in businesses, public places, or most other places you're listening to music. Maybe that's some of the intent behind those rear facing tweeters, to throw the sound around rather than focus it. I love my stereo setup, but most of the time I listen to music, I'm cooking dinner, entertaining company, or moving around throughout my house. I'm rarely in the tiny sweet spot between my KEFs.

[JD-zefy]

I really enjoy your videos in general. This one brought back memories because I had Bose as a professor back in the 80s. Bose was hated be audiophiles well before the Acoustimas (?) speakers. IIRC, Bose was very big on speaker placement in the room being pretty critical of wall placement and corners. Part of his philosophy on the direct/reflecting was that people, in a living situation, aren’t nailed to one sweet spot in the room. People move around so the dispersion helps create a wider listening area. I had a pair of 801s and really loved them. Back the you could easily go into a store and compare Bose to brands like KEF, JBL, Boston Acoustics, Polk. and a host of others. I liked his speakers although many had issues with the full range, multiple drivers in the 901 vs a traditional woofer/tweeter setup. BTW my 801s worked with any receiver.

I think I should also point out that Bose was a great innovator in car stereos. The one ideal thing about cars is you know exactly where people are sitting.( unlike a room). I think he worked with Cadillac to get some of the first higher quality sound systems in cars back in the 80s.

Anyway, keep up the great videos.

[VictorMawhinney]

As someone who used to be into HiFi in a BIG WAY
One day it dawned on ME, ( I’m ) sitting down and LISTENING for FAULTS .
Instead of ( LISTENING TO THE MUSIC ) so my advise, for what it’s worth
Stop driving yourself crazy looking for perfection and just enjoy the music .

[rodg]

the difference between someone who likes music and an audiophile is the music lover listens to the music and the other listens to the speaker

[michaelangelosuarez]

beauty are in the ears of the beholder...the 1st time I heard the sound of BOSE speakers, I already felt in love with it.but I don't discriminate other peoples choices in terms of sound of speakers.its your choice of liking...

[mikelaplante]

I recently finished setting up my home theater system. Onkyo, Sony and Boston Acoustics components. It sounds amazing - but it took me 2 weeks and lots of tweaking to get it right. Bose systems mostly 'black box' type, with speaker placement really the only concern. This no doubt appeals to the masses.

[JHuffPhoto]

I cannot believe you only have 13k subs. You have a very no nonsense way of discussing subjects like this. I like the way you present the facts, then your opinion based on those facts and then you present a very carefully thought out and pretty meticulously done audio demo. I am not 100% convinced on the value of the demo as there are far too many variables to draw a conclusion from only the sound demo. However the sound demos you have done on equipment that I am familiar with (such as the 301s) are pretty spot on. I have always thought that they sound okay for very casual listening at low volumes, where the bass bump actually helps, but not for higher volume critical listening. They are very non fatiguing speakers and kinda have the same sound signature that you may experience from a band in a bar or small club. You are exactly right about the convenience factor (also known as WAF) in many of their products. I know that about 10 years ago I bought a Bose Cinemate 3 piece system for my television in my living room. At the time there was no soundbar setup in the same price range that even came close. I know that now there are other options but for casual TV and non home theater movie watching it is still working just fine. It has a very high WAF (wife acceptance factor). I really enjoy your videos so keep up the good work.

[TackleAdvisors]

As a bose dealer for quite a few years there is a place for it. It does exceptionally well in open floor plance with monstrously tall ceilings without wall to wall carpet. I had baffle boards setup for in home demos with a few different architectural speakers and bose cubes. And would "go the extra mile" and let home owners decide for themselves. Very interesting when you turn someone's living room into a sound room.

[TheEnderman]

I have never seen a more polarized comments section on a non political video. Wow.

[kevinpedersen]

the secret behind bose is buying a different brand, thx for coming to my TED talk.