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General speaker questions for audio and home theater.

RE: Best Loudspeaker Ever Made - Bose 401

I just posted this elsewhere and found this thread so will throw my hat in the ring:
Just listening to some music through my 25 year old Bose 401's. I've owned them this whole time, they have been dragged around the country, worked hard, stored at times in likely substandard conditions. They have some chips, the Veneer is lifting in some places and there's some swelling of the particle board. I inherited some even older (likely 35+ years) 501's which took their place for a few years but an back to my old 401's. I originally ran them through a Luxman amp and now have the Yamaha RX-A2000. This amp continues to impress after 5 years especially since I've remembered the Direct Pure function which cleans up the sound so much.
Recently I was listening to a friend's $15000 Focal Utopia's and coming back to the Bose left me wanting, so I found myself in an audio shop listening to Focals in the 2-5k range plus some other offerings. I liked what I heard but coming home and listening to the old faithful and sure I can notice some lacking in the finesse of mid and high range but overall I'm still not happy to fork out $5k to replace them, I'd likely get away with $3k with a subwoofer.
So we all hear the "Bose is crap" line repeated over the decades, I'm not sure if current Bose floorstanders but know I never liked the older acoustimass type but these old crappy 401's have put a smile on my face for a quarter of a century.
So I guess I'm no where near an audiophile, I'd maybe argue I am as close as you can get but even though I'd love to listen to perfect sound I just can't see my way clear of spoiling my ears to the tune of $20000+ for a setup I might not be able to pick fault with.


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  • RE: Best Loudspeaker Ever Made - Bose 401 - Bartz 18:14:56 06/15/17 (0)

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