12 out of 12 people found this review helpful.
An ode to Bose
Date of Review: Dec 10, 2000
The Bottom Line: I wrote this review several yrs. ago. Speakers are STILL working in '04 after 10yrs. of use. We are planning to expand the system for our home theatre.
Let me open by saying that I am not a techno-geek. I do not write in scientific or technical terms. I write for the lay person like myself.
I bought my Bose Acoustimass 3 system in about 1994 from HH Gregg. Since I love listening to all kinds of music, a good sound was important. I also listen to lots of hip-hop, rap, R&B and other bass-laden genres of music, so good bass was a necessity.
Before I purchased this set, I shopped around and listened to LOTS of different brands. Like most, at first, I was misguided into believing that "bigger is better." So, I checked out Kenwood, JVC, JBL and Infinity brands just to name a few. When I finally got to the Bose, I was honestly amazed at how good the sound was for those little speakers. In 1994, the concept of "little speaker, big sound" was still relatively new. In any case, what finally sold me was the fact that I could get a crystal clear sound that was perfect for listening to my classical music, as well as, a bass that was powerful enough for me to "feel" (literally) my soul rhythms. That, combined with the fact that my speakers would be virtually invisible were enough to get me to shell out my hard-earned dollars.
Unlike the speakers that I owned prior to the Bose, I have YET to blow these out. I have truly tried and tested these speakers in the course of my day to day living--playing everything from Snoop Dogg and Eminem to Yanni, Enya and Bach. No, I don't deliberately crank my speakers up to their fullest volume when I play them, but there have certainly been times when my music has been louder than it needed to be. The speakers are still in perfect condition. Right now, we have the speakers (the two small cubes and the bass) hidden underneath the living room couch while our tuner, CD player, equalizer/mixer are all located in the TV room. We have a relatively small apartment (about 1100 sq. feet), and we can turn up the music loud enough to fill the entire apartment without turning the volume on full blast. In fact, the volume rarely reaches the half way point. Even when I'm being totally obnoxious and turn the volume up briefly to just "test the waters," I have been unable to get the volume up to full blast because it gets way too loud (and I like loud music).
One of the things that the Bose bass system requires is walls to reverberate off of. I'm not sure if my terminology is perfect, but basically, they recommend that you put the bass cube in a corner or somewhere near a wall to get the best bass.
The system is quite lovely. While ours is currently being hidden underneath the sofa, in the past we have displayed it openly and its contemporary sleek, black styling (they also come in white) has fit well with our modern furnishings. One of the small cubes will fit into an adult's hand easily. It stands about 5-6" tall and about 4-5" wide. The bass is about 12-15" tall and about 8" wide. Honestly, no matter how your apartment is decorated, I'm sure these would be attractive. You can buy mounting brackets for about $60 (or $30 each) to mount each cube to the wall or ceiling. We have chosen not to do that, though we have plans to do so in the near future.
I would definitely recommend that someone seriously shopping for speakers at least give these a listen. There are more updated versions now for about the same price I paid for mine (about $399). We are thinking of adding on to our system and putting cubes in other rooms of the house, so we can listen to softer music without cranking up the sound to hear in other rooms. From what I've seen of this system so far, if you take care of these speakers, they can last for years to come.
Well, I wish you the best of luck in your shopping.
UPDATE (DECEMBER 2004): I like to give people updates after I've used products for a while. We still have the Bose as our primary speakers at home. they are still working beautifully. We even use them as part of our little make-shift surround sound system for our TV. These were well worth the money. I also believe they've dropped significantly in price since I purchased my set.
