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is it possible that Bose simply understand psychoacoustics and we don't?

24.186.74.4

Posted by caa on May 25, 2003 at 21:59:19

In Reply to: Are Bose speakers as excellent as the majority posted by Baker Value on May 25, 2003 at 09:50:25:

The success of Bose over such a long time perhaps may not simply a result of false advertisement. Is it possible that Bose understand how to connect the music lovers to their music?

How can the miniscule Bose system be more transparent or accurate than an audiophile approved system?

I think it's worth to talk first about what it means for a system to be accurate or musical. Most enlightened audiophiles understand that technical measurements don't tell the whole story. Distortions that are not detected by human beings don't mean anything if they show up in numbers. This fact is not a genetic but an environmental phenomenon; there are people who are totally oblivious to the shortcomings of vinyls, tube amps, horns and consequently their virtues overwhelms those of other alternatives; there are people who are too sensitive to such thing as digital artifacts, box colorations, that such implementations no matter how good are simply unbearable. The fact that only certain distortions play an important factor occurs not only in audio but also in other things such as video as well.

That said, if the ultimate reason of a home music system is to reproduce the musical content as is -- in other words, the hardware should be as transparent as possible, then the Bose critiques face a very serious dilema. The more you care about your sytem and the more you want to be make it transparent, the more it stands in your way between you and your music. How could you forget about your system when you constantly or regularly determine whether or not it is in the way?
Imagine your uninformed audiophile who's reading a book while listening to his music playing through his Bose system, which blends beautifully with the rest of his funiture. Contrast this picture to you who are intensely listening to music while sitting in the center of your sweet spot, with your 200lbs speakers 5 feet off the front wall and 3 feet of the side walls; not to mention your huge monoblocks and the rest of your others equipments lying everywhere; cables lifted. Now ask yourself the question: whose hardwares are between their owners and the music? There's no question that _technically_, your system is much more "accurate". But what's accuracy? Well, we have discussed accuracy. Sure, the Bose sysem's frequency response is not as "flat" as yours. But what is flat? The well-seasoned audiophiles will tell you that the very best systems aren't very "flat". You see distortion is a tricky thing to measure. If getting connected directly to your music is the ultimate goal, you -- the audiophile -- very likely planted the very seeds of your own demise when you became an audiophile. Have your started trying to get a better musical experience, and end up simply _trying_ to listen music, instead of simply listening to music as is your Bose-loving friend?

There's nothing wrong with loving and building the hardwares. Leicas are beautiful; but there are leica owners' with only a handful of uninteresting photographs. When you start by trying to relive the experience of having Billy Holiday, and end up knowing much more about horns, tubes, mangeplanars than your Bose loving friend who joyfully listens to an opera and looks puzzled after hearing something like "single ended triode", then you will have to ask yourself what your ultimate and/or original goals are.

I often heard, "no highs, no lows, must be Bose". I've enjoyed tremendously -- as many have -- a system with a single driver and 2A3 amp, which when compared to a two or way speakers with solid state amp are a bit shy of highs and lows. Of course, Bose isn't comparable to that; but the question is: is the eveness of flat response (or some other technical thing) that much a critical thing? Technologies are getting better and Bose are getting better doing their stuffs. To me, the audiophiles face their own evil that remains inherently unchanged in time: having to make disappear what is right there in front of their eyes. Even worse, they constantly think about it; impersonalize it (examples are: "this speaker has no right to sound this good" [well, speakers are inanimate, they are no rights at all] or "this speaker sounds romantic, detailed but not analyzing" [well, speakers simply sounds as they are designed, they don't romance or analyze; it is YOU who are analyzing their sounds]).

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