Jaw dropping?

I remember it well, it was the late 80's, I was 19 years old, I had a good job and I wanted to spend my hard earned cash on a decent set of speakers. I had recently bought a top of the range Pioneer stacking system which I loved, but hated the massive lumps of laminated chipboard which Pioneer regarded as speakers. I had a small bedroom at the time and wanted some speakers that wouldn't take up as much valuable "real estate". I rushed down to my local hi-fi shop with a smile on my face and a wallet stuffed with crisp £10.00 notes. "Can I help you sir?", the usual greeting as soon as I placed one foot in the store. (Have you ever noticed that when you actually want assistance in these shops the staff are always busy with someone else, but go in with a view to browsing and you can't get them off your back?!). Anyway, after my usual "No thanks, just looking" response I headed over to the speaker section. To my delight, when I got there I notice something new taking pride of place - two tiny double cube speakers adorning the Bose Logo. I scuttled over to the demo amplifier, selected the Bose speakers using button 1 on the speaker selector box and cranked up the volume (one sure fire way of grabbing the attention of the "can I help you" brigade). The CD was queen's Greatest Hits (I think), the song Bohemian Rhapsody. The experience will live with me forever. I stood there for 5 minutes in complete awe. How could all this magnificent sound come from these tiny speakers. I later found to my (slight) disappointment that it didn't and that there was a much larger subwoofer doing all the hard work at the lower end, but still, that didn't really matter that much. Unfortunately, at that time, the price tag took me nearly as much by surprise as the speakers themselves and I had to go home with my tail between my legs.

It is now 14 years down the line and I have just bought a new Bose Acoustimass system. The first song I listened to? Bohemian Rhapsody of course. All the above memories came flooding back.

Now to the crunch. IS IT ANY GOOD?

Well, YES has to be my answer. Reminiscing aside, these speakers produce a very pleasing, room filling sound which is both crisp and rich.

If you have been reading a lot of Bose reviews you will, no doubt, have come across more than the occasional "Bose Basher". They will regale you with stories of how they have compared them to their granny's £150 Aiwa system, which sounds 10 times better - complete rot! You will read, over and again, how the Bose Acoustimass systems have very little bass. If these people genuinely can't get decent bass out of the Acoustimass then either their amp is woefully inadequate, they haven't placed the sub-woofer in an appropriate place (and I don't mean where the sun doesn't shine!), or their pet pooch has sat on the remote and turned the bass right down! The truth is that the positioning of the subwoofer can make all the difference and, once you have got it spot on, the bass is rich and thumping with very little "boom" effect.

In summary, the Bose Acoustimass is a decent performer for it's size. Sure, you can get better, but only if sound quality is the ONLY consideration you are making - but then you will have a room full of space hogging boxes.

The only down-side now, as it was 14 years ago, is the price. They are expensive but, in my opinion, worth it!