Bose Acoustimass 7 Floorstanding Speakers

Bose Acoustimass 7 Floorstanding Speakers 

DESCRIPTION

3 Dual Cube Array Speakers with single passive 'Sub'

USER REVIEWS

Showing 11-20 of 54  
[Dec 25, 2000]
Rit Patel
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Durability, excellent highs, sound crisp and clear at all volumes.

Weakness:

Bass lags depening on the type of music you listen to. I had to get a Mission Sub to compensate for the lack of bass, but that's it.

Solid speakers, reliable, compact size with BIG SOUND. I've had these speakers for roughly 5 years. They kick butt. I have them hooked up with a Harman/Kardon Avr 35. I've pounded the crap out of these things and they still sound perfect. They even got wet near a window once and they still sound perfect! A good buy!

Similar Products Used:

????

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
3
[Aug 10, 2000]
Mark Meyers
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

size, treble

Weakness:

bass

I've had these for four years, and have been fairly happy with them. I like the sound, somewhat weak on bass, but not bad. I recently upgraded my amp to dolby digital & DVD, and was quite shocked at the difference! The center channel was terrible, and no Low Frquency Effects at all. I tried the Bose center channel speaker, (VCS-10) and was not happy at all with it. I ended up using a Klipsch SC-1 center, and added a Powered subwoofer. Really good on DVD movies, and I'm still happy with music. Just using these alone for Videos will be quite dissapointing though.

Similar Products Used:

Klipsch, bose

OVERALL
RATING
3
VALUE
RATING
2
[May 03, 1999]
Kim Tran
an Audio Enthusiast

The sad part about the AM-7's aside from thier performance and price:I am meeting more and more people that own them that really can't tell what quality is.
If you press them, then they are under the illusion that Bose really does have 20hz-20khz response. They don't and cannot. Simple no-brainer physics tells you that two tiny little woofers cannot have the displacement for deep bass. 4 paper whizzer cones cannot coherently track frequencies above 16.5 khz [radio] or below for that matter.
In one sad case, I met a guy who did sound and cd mixing for a band. I said- at the very least, can't you tell the difference between the powerful high reproduction of your guitar stacks and a jewel cube? What about the bass output of a 12" monitor compared to Bose?
This guy even listened to a friend's KEF system, that just flapped your pants legs with low bass, and sang with authority and clarity to the highest note. Appearently, he couldn't tell the difference. If Bose "Rocks" why can't it do these things? If Bose is so great why do highs sound so bad compared to almost anything?
If you can't hear the difference you deserve Bose. If you can tell the difference, Bose would not be a purchase consideration.

OVERALL
RATING
1
VALUE
RATING
[Feb 02, 2001]
James
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Good sound seperation, small size, great looks, hey, there Bose

Weakness:

weak LFE

Been looking at the reviews, and can only say that setup is a priority. I have AM 7 in the front, and AM 5 at the surround field and was only mildly impressed. When I heard them at my Bud's place, they sounded fantastic, but they were only OK in mine, (we live in the same apt complex, so room dimensions were the same). The biggest disappointment was the LFE. But then I decided to buy the VCS 10 center speaker and "retired" one of my double cubes. I popped in Gladiator, then started to make dinner. Let me tell you, after walking back and forth into the living room from the kitchen several times, I stopped dinner and allowed myself to be immersed into the Bose sound. Yes, the existing passive subwoofer for the AM 10 IS weak, even when turned to the wall, but my VCS 10 brought it back to life. The original presets for my Sony 965 had to be adjusted lower, a pleasent surprise. The "punch" the VCS 10 gave my subwoofer was amazing. Next is a Bose powered sub with a pair of doubles to replace the singles at rear surround. Then BA surrounds can join their mates in the bedroom, ( my other surround system), and I can move the single cubes to the surround effect lft and right...now to get the new Denon AVR 5700...Oh Yeah....7.1 surround

Similar Products Used:

Boston Acoustics surround sat 6

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
4
[Aug 19, 2000]
jeff grigsby
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Got em cheap

Weakness:

My hands would get tired explaining this to you

I got the AM7 from a friend of a friend that had them for about a year. He tried to sell them to me for 800$, but I talked him down to $200 after letting him listen to my Paradigm Titans(explaining that money does not eqaul good sound quality). He was very appreciative of my showing him these speakers and I told him where he could take his $200 dollars and get a pair. Anyway, I use these things to scare my nephew by hiding them in his room and recording scary monster noises to frighten him. My cat loves to bat at the cables and sleeps on top of the sub sometimes ;) I was thinking of hiding them in the wall cavity and using them amuse gusest with the "ghosts" that frequent our house. These things are so small and actually sound better through the wall. I spray painted the sub module red so that it becomes even more appearant when you play music through it. I also used one of the sats to pry a nail out of out garage door. All in all I think I got my 200$ worth. I am going to sell them in the paper for 800$ because people will buy them for more. Bose are a great investment if you can fool people into buying them for more than they are worth. Heck, Bose does it every day! (my value rating is based on what I payed for them, I gave them an extra overall point for helping with the nail)

Similar Products Used:

Paradigm Boston Acoustics

OVERALL
RATING
1
VALUE
RATING
3
[Jan 14, 2001]
Daniel_H
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Crisp and clear sound from satellites.

Weakness:

Weak bass.

My friend invited me over so that I could "experience" his new Bose speakers. I was pretty impressed with the clarity of sound from the tiny satellites, but no better than any other brand name speaker(excluding KLH) costing a few hundred less. Also, the bass was weak to non-existent. You can probably get a lot better for the money. If these were priced cheaper, I might recommend ... otherwise, avoid these.

Similar Products Used:

Klipsch, Energy

OVERALL
RATING
3
VALUE
RATING
1
[Dec 17, 2000]
Joel
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

space saver,sound quality from cubes and sattelites can be aimed or focus.

Weakness:

!!!PRICE!!!,bass is weak when watching non-action movies, dull sound when listening to CD,FM or TAPE in stereo mode (tower speakers recomended)and black wires that came with did not go with the white walls......did I say the PRICE.

TO SUM IT UP THIS AM7 IS GOOD HOME THEATER SPEAKERS AND NOT BEST FOR 2CH LISTENING BECAUSE OF THE MISSING LOWER MIDS FREQUENCY RESPONCE.I HAD THESE SPEAKERS FOR 4YRS NOW AND NOT PLAN OF REPLACING IT.MATED TO MY 7 YEAR OLD SONY STR-D1011S RECEIVER (PRO-LOGIC ONLY)AND KLH 4" 3WAY BOOKSHELF FOR THE SURROUND,BOSE 101 FOR THE REAR MAY BE SOON.OR BOSE AM10 W/ SONY DOLBY DIGITAL TO FINISH OFF THE SYSTEM.I TRULY RECOMMEND THESE AM SERIES (BLACK FINISH)FOR HOME THEATER.

P.S. THE FEQUENCY RESPONCE OF AM5 AND AM7 IS 40HZ-20KHZ WITH 90 DECIBEL AT 1 METER, ACCORDING TO BOSE.

Similar Products Used:

NONE

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
4
[Jul 23, 2001]
Alan
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Volume off.

Weakness:

Volume on.

I originally posted this to the Acoustiturd 5 board,
but these Acoustiturds are all the same:

Where to begin?

First of all, I want everyone to know this URL
http://www.geocities.com/trustnoho/boseframes.html
which has some interesting info on these speaker's
freq. response that Bose won't publish.

I've had a lot of exposure to these but have never written
a review. Howerver, I have warned many people to stay
away from Bose and to *listen* to *any* other speaker in
the store before buying. Had one guy (who also owns a pair
of Bose 901s, BTW) go to an AV store to buy these for a
home theater setup because "Bose is the finest speaker in
the world", but after taking my advice he bought a pair of
Boston Acoustic speakers at a fraction of the cost instead
("They sounded much better, no comparison.") The salesman
told him that he would make more money by selling the Bose,
but encouraged him to listen to other speakers and make up
his own mind-- and he did...this was NOW Audio/Video, BTW.
I guess the Bose marketing gestapo's will now decend on
NOW, but that's OK, they should NOT be selling Bose in a
Hi-Fi shop anyway (they are the local Martin Logan dealers
for heaven's sake!)

As for my own experiences, these speakers truly sould like
clock radio speakers when compared to any other speaker.
Back when Best Buy had a speaker room with a console set up
in the middle that allowed you to select different speakers
by *number* I was switching through each of the 20 or so
speakers one by one-- I had NO idea which speaker I was
listening to. When I was done, I hunted down which ones
sounded "best" and "worst". The "best" turned out to be
a KLH $30/pair, the worst? You guessed it, a Bose AM5 at
$899/pair! No lie. At the time I hadn't been exposed to
the Bose's marketing propaganda machine so I had no
preconceived ideas about Bose either good nor bad. I just
figured anyone could tell they sucked (no other word for
it).

I learned about Bose's marketing machine by listening to
the infected people (like the guy above who owned the 901's
and was going to buy these audio turds solely because of
Bose's reputation). I know another guy who bought these
triumphs in audio research technology at Sam's Club. He
too was buying based on "reputation". After he got them
all set up, I had the misfortune to hear Jurassic Park on
them. It sounded like you'd expect-- shrill little clock
radio speakers hanging on the wall with a warm, muddy,
"room filling" bass that was clearly coming from the
"bass module". He didn't understand why this Bose miracle
wasn't producing the lows that he'd heard on the Kenwood
SW300 powered sub I've got in my setup. The reason is
because this bass module doesn't play any bass-- it only
goes down to 40Hz (see the URL above for actual frequency
response curves which Bose won't even publish). The bass
module is too busy filling in the mid range that the
cubes can't produce to be worried about bass.

Recently I was at Sam's Club and the had the Bose display
setup with the AM5 and the little silver lifestyle thing
setup with it. You know, the one with the "arms" going
behind you with the surround speakers on them. There was a
TV built into the display and you could push buttons to
hear a Bose marketing geek indoctrinate you right there on
the spot. What I found strange was when I pushed the
button to play "music", it actually sounded pretty good.
Nothing like I've heard from the setups I've seen at Best
Buy or at NOW Audio/Video or at Circuit City or at
people's home who own these. I tried to follow the signal
to see what was driving these speakers, but the case was
locked! There was no way to see what was actually driving
these speakers or if the signal was being EQed in some way
to make these sound passable. I've read of similar
experiences on this site stating that someone went to a
Bose outlet and heard a home theater setup that actually
sounded decent but when he asked the guy behind the
counter, he was told that the system was "tweaked" beyond
any semblance of what you as a consumer would receive if
you bought Bose speakers/system for yourself. There is
definitely something funny going on. BEWARE OF CANNED
BOSE DEMOS.

Similar Products Used:

One of those Mattel "see and say" toys where your kid pulls the handle and it plays animal sounds...

OVERALL
RATING
1
VALUE
RATING
1
[Dec 01, 2001]
Tom Driscol
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

light weight, easy to move and place

Weakness:

do like listening to a pocket AM radio,

I bought these at an estate sale for a cheap price, I figured good price why not. I didn't get to listen first so I didn't know at the time how terrible they really were.
No sound stage when playing music, movie sound tracks are even worse. I'm not going on any farther, I'm just so pissed off listen to them for yourself AT YOUR HOME !!!
I sold them ($250) 2 weeks later to my brother in-law. He says I'm over reacting and there not that bad. I gave him a box of Q tips with the speakers.

Similar Products Used:

3 pairs of Mission (I'll never part with the 731's)

OVERALL
RATING
1
VALUE
RATING
1
[Jan 22, 2002]
ted
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

size and durability

Weakness:

power hungry

just wanted to add some validity to some of the stories about the bose displays i have seen the displays dismanteled and there are amps and computers that help with the system amplification. the system will sound very good but you hve to have a good reciever and a powerful amp to drive this passive system. if this is done then the system will sound as good as it does on display.

Similar Products Used:

jbl klh infinity

OVERALL
RATING
3
VALUE
RATING
2
Showing 11-20 of 54  

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