More the late 80s. Good catch. I wasn't aware of that unit using a bulb for protection.
I'm guessing that Laurie was bowing to pressure for a more invisible protection method (smooth acting rather than off/on).
Regards,
David S.
It's nice to see one of those pinnacles of audio-electronics engineering inside 
The lightbulbs in series are a clever trick, just like everything else inside it's cheap and it works.
I don't see a point in upgrading them, since every part that's inside of these puts a serious limit on final performance.
To me they're also proof of the fact that the human ear is easily fooled, and that most people who buy audio-equipment are seriously biased by marketing and WAF.
regards,
Klaas
The lightbulbs in series are a clever trick, just like everything else inside it's cheap and it works.
I don't see a point in upgrading them, since every part that's inside of these puts a serious limit on final performance.
To me they're also proof of the fact that the human ear is easily fooled, and that most people who buy audio-equipment are seriously biased by marketing and WAF.
regards,
Klaas
I agree.It's nice to see one of those pinnacles of audio-electronics engineering inside
The lightbulbs in series are a clever trick, just like everything else inside it's cheap and it works.
I don't see a point in upgrading them, since every part that's inside of these puts a serious limit on final performance.
To me they're also proof of the fact that the human ear is easily fooled, and that most people who buy audio-equipment are seriously biased by marketing and WAF. regards, Klaas
From a specialized trade sellers I have heard, that the full-range satellite speakers from the currently acoustimass speaker series about
Stereo Speakers | Bose
uses speakers from the Japanese brand Fostex (perhaps he mean Foster) like this one:
http://www.fostexinternational.com/docs/speaker_components/pdf/FE83En.pdf
but in a costom made version.
Actually hard to believe for me - it looks more like a FRS-8 from Visaton.
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I think dave's covered the details of it well enough, I'd just like to say:
Whoah!
Surprising you haven't seen this, it's common, especially with cheap cap on tweeter crossovers. Funny how life is sometimes- like a Nascar driver who hasn't ever had a flat tire.
I think, it is interesting to find competitive loudspeaker devices equipped with Fostex full range drivers FE83E or FE87E.
Perhaps one of the members here know any few brands, where this drivers are inside - I have start therefore this thread:
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/full...ex-fe-series-overview-wanted.html#post2784579
Perhaps one of the members here know any few brands, where this drivers are inside - I have start therefore this thread:
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/full...ex-fe-series-overview-wanted.html#post2784579
Wow, thanks for the pix! Brings back memories of the first job I had - working for less than minimum wage at Pacific Stereo in California. These are built just like the "Spectrosonic" house-brand speakers we sold. The listed sales price was $159/pair, our supposed "cost" was $19, and the salesmen all knew the real cost was somewhere around $9 or less. The cabinet material was only one step away from pressed cardboard, and I've seen bigger magnets on slot-car racers. The "crossover" was whatever surplus no-name electrolytic was cheapest that month.
The "Spectrosonic" speakers let the store make the steep discounts many customers demanded - since all they cared about was the discount, not the sound, PS would simply sell them the house-brand system. They went away happy, and the store manager got a nice vacation.
B*** was smarter than that. Take away the discount, replace it with tens of millions of dollars of wall-to-wall marketing, triple the price again, and you have a very successful business model. Unlike the discount buyers, B*** customers come back and ask for more.
The "Spectrosonic" speakers let the store make the steep discounts many customers demanded - since all they cared about was the discount, not the sound, PS would simply sell them the house-brand system. They went away happy, and the store manager got a nice vacation.
B*** was smarter than that. Take away the discount, replace it with tens of millions of dollars of wall-to-wall marketing, triple the price again, and you have a very successful business model. Unlike the discount buyers, B*** customers come back and ask for more.
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I would think Bose has been around long enough and especially, is large enough to build their own drivers?
The only thing positive I'll say about Bose speakers is that while I don't think they are anything close to hi-end, at least the sound they produce isn't irritating like so many other brands that use cheap components. I would have to describe their sound as....pleasant, sort of the (budget) vanilla ice cream of the speaker world.
The only Bose speakers I recommend to others if they ask is their 201 and 301 conventional bookshelf models, though I think the present 301 sounds rather boomy sometimes, I think possibly because its 8" woofer has been stuffed into a too-small enclosure.
Btw my favorite Bose is their (long) out of production 601, the one with the dual 8" woofers (one pointed upwards at an angle) and the quadruple set of tweeters on top. No real imaging to speak of but bass is punchy/clean, highs are relatively smooth and literally airy - good for pop and rock music IMO.
The only thing positive I'll say about Bose speakers is that while I don't think they are anything close to hi-end, at least the sound they produce isn't irritating like so many other brands that use cheap components. I would have to describe their sound as....pleasant, sort of the (budget) vanilla ice cream of the speaker world.
The only Bose speakers I recommend to others if they ask is their 201 and 301 conventional bookshelf models, though I think the present 301 sounds rather boomy sometimes, I think possibly because its 8" woofer has been stuffed into a too-small enclosure.
Btw my favorite Bose is their (long) out of production 601, the one with the dual 8" woofers (one pointed upwards at an angle) and the quadruple set of tweeters on top. No real imaging to speak of but bass is punchy/clean, highs are relatively smooth and literally airy - good for pop and rock music IMO.
Hi,
In the trade the name you mention is normally considered a reverse acronym for Bring/Buy Other Sound Equipment.
The quality of any of the components in their equipment as well as the general design and manufacturing is very poor, as evidenced by your pictures.
Ciao T
In the trade the name you mention is normally considered a reverse acronym for Bring/Buy Other Sound Equipment.
The quality of any of the components in their equipment as well as the general design and manufacturing is very poor, as evidenced by your pictures.
Ciao T
No highs, no lows, must be Bose.
Friend of mine had a 2' x 2' sign that said that hanging in the front of his stereo shop and I remember he had a few Bose speakers hanging around in the store just in case anyone questioned him. The few times I was present for the comparison it was quite amusing.
Of course, this is the same guy that loved it when random customers would come in and say "hey how loud will these go?" and he would run them out of the store with a few watts of white noise.
With only a 4 inch paper cone driver, what would you expect?
Regarding the cheap xover parts, they were standard fare in vintage speakers now revered by many collectors such as AR, Advent, etc... Except they had real woofers and tweeters that could produce those highs and lows.
It's not so much the xover components, but the drivers Bose chose to use as their primary transducer. Their 'high-end' 901 was fitted with an electronic EQ do help boost those highs and lows to satisfy their more discriminating buyers.
Well, there was a whole range of Bose speakers in the shop that he used to compare with various other speakers when customers wanted to hear them, I think he had a pair of 901's as well.
The following statement is from intellexual net · m k i v
"For you current Bose owners, try unplugging all your cubed satellite speakers and play a DVD on your Acoustimass system. I used the DVD 'X-Men' for my review. You will be able to follow the entire movie off of dialogue picked up by your Bose Bass Module alone. This is known as extremely poor 'sound imaging'"
What a coincidence. Just yesterday I was helping a friend to setup his 5-years old Bose Acoustimass HT system. He had moved in to his new apartment recently and the system was packed up for the move. When we unpacked we could find only two speaker cables. While he was searching for the rest I hooked up just the center speaker (in addition to the bass module) and ran a DVD. We could enjoy the movie pretty well with vocals and sound effects: it appeared as if adding the other four other satellite speakers is not going to contribute much more than what we already heard. The cables couldn't be found, so the system will be running like this until he buys them from Bose.
Notwithstanding the imaging issue, I didn't dislike the sound, by the way. Bass appeared to be well controlled with the right damping. I had a feeling that most of it was coming from the center speaker.
cheers,
Reji
"For you current Bose owners, try unplugging all your cubed satellite speakers and play a DVD on your Acoustimass system. I used the DVD 'X-Men' for my review. You will be able to follow the entire movie off of dialogue picked up by your Bose Bass Module alone. This is known as extremely poor 'sound imaging'"
What a coincidence. Just yesterday I was helping a friend to setup his 5-years old Bose Acoustimass HT system. He had moved in to his new apartment recently and the system was packed up for the move. When we unpacked we could find only two speaker cables. While he was searching for the rest I hooked up just the center speaker (in addition to the bass module) and ran a DVD. We could enjoy the movie pretty well with vocals and sound effects: it appeared as if adding the other four other satellite speakers is not going to contribute much more than what we already heard. The cables couldn't be found, so the system will be running like this until he buys them from Bose.
Notwithstanding the imaging issue, I didn't dislike the sound, by the way. Bass appeared to be well controlled with the right damping. I had a feeling that most of it was coming from the center speaker.
cheers,
Reji
My father found a pair of these at a garage sale, with original boxes, for $15. They turned into a nice present for some family friends at a wedding. Sufficient for most listeners, not for us or serious sound people. Certainly 10x better than a HTIB, AKA Acoustimass.
Thank you for your advice to this URL.
Which sub-sat project is here on diyaudio described (e. g. with FE83E/FE87E/FE103E) based on Bose's acoustimass but with better sound ??
Hi,
Thankfully almost no-one is stupid enough to base anything on any technology promoted by "Buy Other Sound Equipment".
What some call rightly acoustimess is simply a bandpass, just not with a very sensible tuning and/or flat response and with rather cheap and undersized drivers and poor crossovers.
If small size is the most overriding factor I would still feel that a decent, active sub of the same volume normal vented is preferable. For the "Cubes", there are some 2" and 3" wide band drivers that could be used, I personally would prefer something a trifle bigger.
There are quite a few very nice 4"/100mm Drivers available and small tweeters to go with them, including ones that allow the use of a 1st order series crossover. So the cubes will not be as dinky, but they alone will cover likely nearly as low as "Acoustimess", you can at least get down to 80Hz.
Using the FE103 from Fostex would give a "full range" option.
If you can stretch to a 10" Driver for the subwoofer section and a 12"/30cm cubed format you can find some stuff that can go quite low and reasonably loud.
The result would blow any "Acoustimess LifeStyle over Sound Quaity (TM), (Pat Pending) (we will sue your pants off if you even think about anything like it)" system into the weeds, if you ever got to making a direct comparison...
Ciao T
Thankfully almost no-one is stupid enough to base anything on any technology promoted by "Buy Other Sound Equipment".
What some call rightly acoustimess is simply a bandpass, just not with a very sensible tuning and/or flat response and with rather cheap and undersized drivers and poor crossovers.
If small size is the most overriding factor I would still feel that a decent, active sub of the same volume normal vented is preferable. For the "Cubes", there are some 2" and 3" wide band drivers that could be used, I personally would prefer something a trifle bigger.
There are quite a few very nice 4"/100mm Drivers available and small tweeters to go with them, including ones that allow the use of a 1st order series crossover. So the cubes will not be as dinky, but they alone will cover likely nearly as low as "Acoustimess", you can at least get down to 80Hz.
Using the FE103 from Fostex would give a "full range" option.
If you can stretch to a 10" Driver for the subwoofer section and a 12"/30cm cubed format you can find some stuff that can go quite low and reasonably loud.
The result would blow any "Acoustimess LifeStyle over Sound Quaity (TM), (Pat Pending) (we will sue your pants off if you even think about anything like it)" system into the weeds, if you ever got to making a direct comparison...
Ciao T
Bose systems are just awfull. Not even standard.
Built the cheap way with cheap components. I cant think of any brand or system that provides less value.
I heard that dealers are not allowed to install Bose in their demo rooms or compare the systems with other brands.
I dont know if its true, but considering the awfull sound it might be the smart thing to do.
280 Hz to 13.3k Hz at ±10.5 dB...... 46Hz to 202Hz at ±2.3 dB
Most of all I hate the stressfull and hollow band-pass sound from their woofers. An old Logitec Z-2300 set sounds much better, at almost 1/10 of the price. AFAIK Logitec use active line level xovers.
Sorry about the rant .. I just get pissed of when I hear of bose. I take it as a personal insult when ever I see it advertised.
Built the cheap way with cheap components. I cant think of any brand or system that provides less value.
I heard that dealers are not allowed to install Bose in their demo rooms or compare the systems with other brands.
I dont know if its true, but considering the awfull sound it might be the smart thing to do.
280 Hz to 13.3k Hz at ±10.5 dB...... 46Hz to 202Hz at ±2.3 dB
Most of all I hate the stressfull and hollow band-pass sound from their woofers. An old Logitec Z-2300 set sounds much better, at almost 1/10 of the price. AFAIK Logitec use active line level xovers.
Sorry about the rant .. I just get pissed of when I hear of bose. I take it as a personal insult when ever I see it advertised.
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