[George Prentice]

Originally Posted by Toccata

For ages I was a member of the anti-Bose league without ever hearing any of their gear! Then, a few years ago, I happened into a Bose store in a mall and "for laughs" tried their AE-1 headphones...much to my surprise they sounded great and offered excellent isolation, and I bought them for my iPod. Later that year, my wife bought me a Bose Wave radio/CD player, which offers quite decent sound--perfect for the office or bedroom. Just this year she got me some Bose Companion 20 computer speakers, which also sound quite good. Is Bose gear truly hi-end? Of course not, but it does offer inherently "musical" sound for a decent price. RIP, Mr. Bose.

The Bose legacy for terrible sound goes back decades. And for the better part of that time it has been true. I have heard lots of 901's and have their owner parrot back the marketing hype word for word. In the last few years they have released a few products that sound pretty good. I think their noise canceling headphones were pretty well received. While the Wave sounds pretty good, the reviews I have read say it is significantly bested by other units. I have been into high end audio for forty years, and I can't tell you the number of times I reluctantly revealed that I was into high-end audio to hear the reply, " so am I, I have Bose". It is really difficult to gently try and tactfully suggest that maybe their system is't really in that category. Personally, I feel Bose has done high-end audio a tremendous disservice. I categorize the company along with snake oil companies. I guess you are taught as a child you should not believe advertising, or at least believe and verify. But to me Bose was the epitome of false advertising and did irreparable damage to legitimate companies trying to produce true high end products.