size/hideability

NO HIGHS, NO LOWS, IT MUST BE BOSE!!

Just thought I had to add my two cents on the whole Bose deal. I used to work at an audio/video store that sold this brand. Bose is not much more than a group of people who are very good at marketing. Their product is severely over-rated by magazines and reviewers who in turn are paid by Bose by means of advertising or other ways. This product is no more technically advanced as your basic "bargain bin" product. And on top of that, their prices are fixed!! Yes I mean fixed! Bose actually hires people that will go from store to store and see what price the salespeople will sell them for! If that store is selling their product below "fixed price points", Bose will simply not be sold at that store any more! Marketing GENIUS!!

Also there is a reason that it is impossible to see the woofers in the bass cabinet. Inside the unit is the wiring that separates the high and low frequencies and sends them to the right speakers. This device is called a crossover. Mounted and soldered directly to the crossover board are 4, 12 volt, LIGHT BULBS!! No different than the ones you would replace in the dome light in a '82 Ford Escort!! These light bulbs would simply absorb distorted and overdriven amplifier signals when uneducated consumers turned their volume knobs to oblivion. The Bose "engineers" simply didnt want you to see the light show. They didnt remove the distortion, they masked it. An analogy would be turning up a car stereo to drown out the loud exhaust!!

At the store we had a store demo of the bass unit made of plexiglass. During slow times there the other salesmen and I would hook these speakers up to the biggest amp we had and enjoy the light show!! Other times we would wire up a pair of top-of-the line 901's to a wall outlet! Thats 1800 watts at 60hz!! and suprisingly they handled it!! That is how Bose made their name. They were indestructable. Bose was and is the brand that gets sold to the IDIOT that cannot tell the difference between distortion and music. Those are the reasons we had this saying:
NO HIGHS, NO LOWS, IT MUST BE BOSE!!

compact and powerfull,
Unbeatable for the price

not good for heavy metal and I dont care!

First of all if you have never liked Bose you will never like them.It's seems more like a anti-Bose war for the name then for the sound. If you never experienced Bose in your leaving room (not in a Toy-R-Us store like our last poster)you will never know how good they sound. I have a room of 13' x 30' hook up to a Denon PMA 2000. I found that they sound ordinary with heavy rock or heavy metal but I dont listen to that style anyway. However if you are concern about the subwoofer perfomance listen to Bjork, Debut album with "Come to me". I listen to Patrick O'hearn,Tom Waits and Sneaker Pimp among others and its clean, fluid and convicing. If I want to pay more I'm sure there will always be something better, but do I want to pay more!

They sound ok with home theater, but not stereo music. They last a very long time, but any good stereo product should.

lack of bass and treble

I do not actually own these speakers, but hear me out. I spend enough time at a friends house who owns them to contribute a good review. I also work at a Best Buy and get to hear these overpriced speakers on a regular basis, as they are played all day in the CD section of the store, which is where I primarily work.

This is my plea to all those who consider buying these: spend your $800 on some audiophile speakers! To the average listener, these speakers do not sound bad, and I would recommend them if they were about $500 cheaper. But they're not, and I cringe every time I see people walking out of the store with these things.

First of all, the "bass module" is not a subwoofer, and it is slow and boomy--the bass is not tight at all, as it should be. Their "subwoofer" is two 5 and 1/4" woofers in a box, this is not a subwoofer. Just turn down the little cubes and listen to the bass module for awhile, then compare it to a real subwoofer. Just try it when you're listening in any store's speaker room. It sounds like mush. Secondly, the cubes generate a lot of highs which people mistake for clarity. When I hear classical music, I can't pick out individual instruments that well, those little cubes muddle up all the higher pitched instruments. This results in a very "airy" sound which I do not like. And lastly, this system made it's debut in the mid to late 80's, and Bose hasn't changed their product at all. They just put a new number on it and make it more expensive. I don't understand... Bose has such a great advertising campaign that they've made zombies out of every average audio listener. People I talk to are so loyal to Bose it's sickening. I would buy Bose too if they made a decent sounding speaker (besides the waveradio, that's good), but they don't.

The bottom line here is this: If you have $1000 to spend on speakers, DO NOT buy Bose. Just leave Best Buy, Circuit City, or the other mass-market store you're shopping at and do yourself a favor! Buy something from an audio-only store where you can talk to a knowlegeable salesman and make a decision based on personal listening preference and not on brand. You'll be glad you did.

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speakers that sound better

small size, great sound

none

I just bought these speakers less than 1 month ago. I set them up, using a powerful sony receiver. I listened to rock music, a surround sound movie, and a live tv concert. If you have the right equipment, these speakers are wonderful. I use a separate eq, and a nice receiver. I don't understand all of the negative reviews here. I was worried after my purchase when reading about how awful they sound. I have used Bose 401s for 10 years and this system has truly upgraded my system!!

Size, Sound

Price

First, let me say that some of you folks writing the pervious reviews must either be making your living in the audio industry and have demanding professional requirements, or you need to lighten up. Seriously. NOTHING SOUNDS THAT BAD AS STATED IN SEVERAL OF THE REVIEWS, NOT EVEN AN AM RADIO...In fact, I tend to questions a few of the reviewers motives???

I bought these speakers for my home PC. And WOW!!! They sound great. Very nice highs and lows. Have no idea whether the Bose AM5 would fill a large room, make good home theater speakers, or suit a recording studio. Don't care. If you are looking for computer speakers, these are it.

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Other Computer Speakers

Typical Bose sound

Typical Bose sound

Bose speakers have to be understood. A lot of people don't get it. I suspect these people prefer an "in yer face" type of projection that Bose's are specifically built to avoid. They are built around the idea of DIFFUSION. If to you that means unfocused, look elsewhere. You dont buy this system looking to blow the roof off, but they will provide ample, shimmering, room-filling sound, of surprising clarity and smoothness. The bass will not overpower, but the frequency content is there, with no annoying woof, howl, or boominess. SMOOTH, I tell you, and FLAT. Bose should be commended for most everything it makes. The only complaint I could make about any Bose product is the prices are out of line. It's only the price tags that are offensive. Some may prefer a pinpoint soundfield. I say that's what headphones are for, and recording studio monitors. Best sound I ever heard was from some very expensive 5-ft tall electrostatic panels. Everything was coming from everywhere. That's ear candy.

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Bose 100

Big sound on a small shelf

Critical bass module placement

I wanted an extra set of speakers for the bookshelfs that fill one wall of a kitchen/den for an upcoming diner party, not having given myself time to make a smart purchase I bought the Radio Shack speakers on sale for a hundred bucks.
Playing Stevie Ray through these die-cast malasian mini's was a sacrilege to this late great artist.
What I needed was BASS! I bought the Bose three piece set because NOTHING else would fit. The NHT "SuperZero" would have fit but, a review says "Not just limited bass, but NO low frequencies at all". I placed the bass module where I thought it looked right, and was promptly rewarded with NO bass. Only after moving it around as per the supplied Bose diagram was rich, room filling bass realized, no chuffing, no distortion that I can detect.
I gave these five stars because they do exactly what I bought them for and recommend them to anyone that wants reasonably full range sound with minimum bulk.

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Optimus "Pro-x55av"

Flexibility, dynamic sound

Use with other speakers

After reading all the reviews listed here for the AM5, I felt I had to provide my opinion as well. It is amazing to me how kids who sell stereo equipment for more than a month believe they possess the equivilent of a graduate degree in audio systems. Anyway, I purchased my Acoustimass 5 Series III recently after much research and more importantly, much listening. After a short set-up period I was not prepared for how well the system sounded in my home. These little guys (and passive sub) pack a lot of punch. Pure levels of sound in everything from Mozart to Led Zep. I will share with you my problem I discovered after I tried to integrate additional speakers through the same receiver. I notice a degraded sound quality after hooking up my JBLs. I could not figure out why the quality actually went down after adding the JBLs. Maybe not enought power. Irregardless, after eliminating the add-on speakers, the BOSE AM5's stood out again as more vibrant and pure sound than I have experienced in my many years of listening to music. BOSE buyers beware of alot of the reviews you read here. Listen and compare... I don't believe you can beat the BOSE systems for multipurpose usage -- home theater and listening to pure, uncluttered sound. I am happy with my purchase and will be enjoying a lot of DVDs this long Thanksgiving weekend. Thank you BOSE.

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JBL, Bose 301

Full, spacious sound and deep Bass. Performance you should only expect from bigger speakers

price

I can't understand why there are negative reviews about this
system. I have had nothing but positive experiences with it, and the $450 Sony 240W amplifier makes these speakers sound truly great. Full and rich sound and deep bass you should only expect from bigger speakers.
Due to their small size I can place them almost anywhere in the room and they produce a noise which make my furniture shake.
Okay they are not cheap but they are well worth the money. I have chosen for this system because I don't like big speakers dominating my entire room and eating 534% of my living area.

The only thing you should keep in mind is that you should use a high power amplifier, then you'll get the best out of this system. Low power and low quality amplifiers just makes this system sound terrible.

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none - this is my first system