How does Bose create small speakers which produce powerful sound?

[nsaspook]

you'll need [this amplifier] if you want to use the full potential of that PI-14...

and this car to put the amp in.

 

[unclejed613]

Is that what this guy is listening to?

that was the MAXELL cassette tape ad... i thought the Memorex "Is it live, or is it Memorex" was kind of clever, but the MAXELL ad with the listener being "blown away" was a stroke of genius. part of the problem is you're trying to advertise how great your product sounds through a crappy 4 inch TV speaker. they used to also advertise stereo speakers, etc... on AM radio.

 

[MaxHeadRoom78]

No, it's just the usual Bose bullsh*t.

Well I guess I must be a philistine, for what ever reason I love my Bose mini, I take it every where with me, I must be not alone as everyone (of all ages) comment on the results, not just my 80yr old ears..
I must have sold a few.
Art is in the eye of the beholder!
Max.

 

[unclejed613]

it is actually an effect that seems to work, and it's been improved with the use of DSP, but it is after all only an illusion. if you played it side by side with a full range system with a good subwoofer, then you would hear the difference.. if you've ever noticed, Bose systems are very rarely set up for listening tests alongside other equipment with real subwoofers. interesting also is the fact that bose repairs are all board swaps. their service manuals don't have any tests using an oscope.

 

[FreeTzin]

I am an Engineer, but a Mechanical one, so I would like to know your opinion about what I believe makes Bose speakers popular.
In a perfect world, accurate (High Fidelity) sound reproduction would mean, as you have stated, making the sound system "disappear" leaving only the illusion of a live performance with live, actual, physical instruments and performers. That concept works for acoustic instruments but the sound of electronic ones will always be colored by the electronics and speakers that make them work, so electronic instruments have no actual "real" sound, unless you consider "real" whatever signal is fed the Amplifier. So, accurate sound reproduction means accurately capturing said sound, storing it and reproducing it, usually by means of paper cones with precious little resemblance to wood resonance chambers, vibrating strings, metal tubes or discs, and flat, tense leather membranes (maybe what speakers resemble the most are drums). The issue here is that a "good" "High Fidelity" system will (at least in theory) accurately reproduce whatever it is fed, so it must be fed an extremely high-quality signal in order for it to produce high-quality sound. The worse the input signal is, the more its undesirable effects will be exacerbated by a high-quality system. As a result, a poor input signal will sound worse the better the system it is fed into is.
On the other hand, as far as I understand, what Bose does is process the input signal to get rid of any perceivable negative artifacts (by means of psychoacoustics) and "adapt" it to whatever their hardware is capable of doing best and the listener's ears and brain feel "comfortable" with. In other words, Bose will not ask of neither the input signal, nor the speaker, nor the listener, something they are not capable of doing reasonably well. That may definitely not be "High Fidelity", but the effect is that, in my experience, Bose speakers always sound just "as well" regardless of the input signal they are being fed, and they are not tiring to listen to. One can listen to them all day long using any practically any source material imaginable, and never grow tired or end up with a headache or ringing ears, something that cannot always be said of high-end equipment. Plus, they're much more practical to carry around than huge speakers with 15-inch drivers and welding-plant amplifiers. They may be inaccurate, but simply more practical in most real-world scenarios. And it's all about perception. Don't you agree?

 

[audioguru]

Little home audio systems made by Bose produce one-note-bass at about 100Hz (far from deep bass). It is the same sound as was produced by ghetto blasters and boom boxes used by the today's buyers when they were young. They are ignorant about sounds that are produced by a good sound system.

Although, recently I heard a good speaker on demo at Costco and it is made by Bose. It was a tiny little portable speaker and it sounded great! It produced good bass and was able to play loudly with no distortion. But it was very expensive. I told my son to go and hear it so he did, but he bought me a cheap Chinese copy from ebay and said it sounds the same. The copy produced no bass and no sizzling highs and was not loud enough, I gave it back to him.

Car radios? Some sound awful but others sound pretty good. Many people buy the ones that sound awful and do not know that better sounding ones are available.

 

[FreeTzin]

One more thing: Compression. A wide dynamic range usually forces you to stop everything else you are doing while sitting quiet and still to listen to music. Great for when you are doing just that, but highly impractical in most real-world scenarios, specially in a moving vehicle with a 75 dB ambient noise floor. I have a pretty decent system comprised of B&W 801s powered by a Carver M1.5t playing 15-ips 2-track reel-to-reel tapes on a restored ReVox PR99 MkII that I seldom fire up because my wife starts complaining, and the dogs start howling, so I am only able to enjoy it when I'm alone in the room and I have the opportunity to just sit and listen, which I enjoy immensely. On the other hand, for everyday listening I use Bose SoundTouch speakers streaming Deezer at a steady (compressed) sound-pressure level, a constrained, midrange-intensive frequency response, and almost-single-note "simulated" bass. But it keeps me entertained, and no one complains. I can't hear beyond 5 kHz anymore anyway, so, so be it, I guess... Plus, paying monthly rent for unlimited streaming is certainly cheaper than purchasing decent studio-quality tapes, and offers much more varied listening material.

 

[gophert]

I can't hear beyond 5 kHz anymore anyway, so, so be it,

Why don't you put some money/effort into hearing aides? audioguru can make recommendations. If you have good equipment and it gives you joy, and deafness can be corrected, why not fix it?

 

[FreeTzin]

Because it can't be fixed. I have ototoxic-antibiotic-induced tinnitus and high-frequency hearing loss from years of intravenous antibiotics as a result of a motorcycle accident with an exposed femur fracture that gave me chronic Osteomyelitis. It saved my life and my leg, though.

 

[audioguru]

Hearing aids depend a lot on the Audiologist who programs them. Some cheap ones are made pre-programed so they probably will not work properly for your amount of hearing loss. Also, cheap ones do not have features like automatic noise reduction, compression when you want and directionality.

I got my first free hearing test that showed that I had normal-for-my-age high frequency hearing loss. Demo hearing aids were programed and I went on my way. I could not stand it and took them back after 20 minutes.
I went to a different hearing aids store and got another free test and another set of demo hearing aids but the audiologist set up only a little correction and said to come back next week when more boost will be added. Then on the third appointment full boost was applied and I like it so much that I bought them with a little help from my government's grant to oldies like me.

I went for a checkup but the Audiologist moved away and the new audiologist said that there is a new feature that I would like. It takes 10kHz to 20kHz and transfers it down to 5kHz to 10kHz. I could not stand the weird sounds so it was changed back to what I liked.