Bose

Bose is one of the most controversial brand names in audio. To some, Bose is a trusted name in hi-fidelity speakers that have been around since 1964. To others, Bose speakers are acoustic snake oil whose brand recognition is driven by a colossal marketing machine.

The home theater offerings from Bose are the Acoustimass series of micro satellite speaker systems that range in price from their flagship $1,498 system to the lowest end at $699.

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Examination of the Bose website for information about their speaker systems should raise a few red flags. A striking absence of technical specifications seems to be replaced by names of mysterious proprietary processes. Names like "Direct/Reflecting cube speaker array" and "Acoustimass low frequency module," which Bose calls their breakthrough technologies. Renaming the basic home theater speaker system seems like a tactic to avoid competition and leverage themselves out of that market.

After brief investigation online, replacement speakers for the direct/reflecting cube speaker arrays are available for $35 and turn out to be 2.5" paper cones. Bose's description for their tiny paper cones is as follows:

"Proprietary Bose technology that blends reflected and direct sound to recreate much of a live concert's natural spaciousness."

For all their alleged technological breakthroughs, there is no groundswell in the acoustic engineering industry, no efforts by industry leaders to imitate Bose research.

Ultimately, your ears decide what speakers sound good to you. If you're shopping for Bose home theater satellite speaker systems, be sure to audition carefully with a variety of your own material and compare other speaker systems in their price range.