What We Fight Against

[Steve Eddy]

In the UK, the "Wave" series of products sell direct to the consumer and never via a Bose dealer..

The little Denon DM3/30 series costs around the same, the main unit is superb with preamp outputs too and the little Mission sourced (originaly) speakers were fine. had the things been presented more simply in a single stylish box (with extra long ports and subtle eq to aid bass), I'm sure it would have been cheaper. I mean, if you buy big quantities, I've seen Chinese made active speakers that look very similar to commercially available £400 ones for £60pr tops ex factory. I suspect the Wave is made by the tens of thousands at a time (?) so wouldn't cost a huge amount to put together. The mouldings would be cheap in that quantity, the drive units are a very few quid each, the credit card remote is the cheapest type they can use imo and the CD drive and electronics can't be more than a few dollars each either.

Just my thoughts as a (now) outsider. There's making a living and there's making a killing in my view.

But you're just looking at the surface and only considering the basic cost to manufacture versus the selling price. That doesn't tell you what the company's profit is.

As I said previously, Bose spends a ton of money on advertising. They advertise in a wide variety of major print publications as well as on radio and television. Their advertising budget is probably larger than the next ten audio manufacturers combined.

So just because they're selling a cheap plastic box for $500 doesn't mean they're making hundreds of dollars of profit on each sale. Much if not most of that $500 is probably going into their advertising budget. And then you've got overhead, product support, etc. before you can even start talking about profit.

Bose isn't the large corporation that it is because it's making obscene profits on the products it sells. They're the large corporation that they are because of the volume of their sales. And that's a result of advertising.

Sure, the shelves at Wal-Mart are littered with various audio electronics that don't cost any more to make than a Bose Wave Radio and sell for a fraction of what a Wave Radio sells for. But the companies that make them don't spend any money to speak of advertising those products. They get their sales volumes from being cheap and riding on Wal-Mart's coattails.

se

[MartinT]

Nevertheless, Bose use cheap materials and manufacturing to create a poorly performing product and then use heavy advertising to make the sale to a target audience who don't know any better.

Their marketing budget is undoubtedly huge what with advertising, shops and all the training/brainwashing required. However, their unit cost at such volumes is very low so they are still raking it in in terms of profit margin £ if not %.

[Steve Eddy]

Nevertheless, Bose use cheap materials and manufacturing to create a poorly performing product and then use heavy advertising to make the sale to a target audience who don't know any better.

True enough.

But then, look at some of the cable manufacturers out there.

Their marketing budget is undoubtedly huge what with advertising, shops and all the training/brainwashing required. However, their unit cost at such volumes is very low so they are still raking it in in terms of profit margin £ if not %.

I don't know that their profit margin's any higher than most.

se

[synsei]

Regardless of which side of the fence you find yourself on in this debate, it isn't going to make the product any better. It's dire, as is demonstrated by the amount of Bose WaveRadio's going cheap in the classifieds...

Sorry guys, but Bose annoy me. They have the expertise and clout to produce world class products, yet they sell Tat, at audiophile prices I might add!!! Go figure...


Disclaimer: This is my personal opinion of course, others are welcome to disagree...

[Jac Hawk]

Regardless of which side of the fence you find yourself on in this debate, it isn't going to make the product any better. It's dire, as is demonstrated by the amount of Bose WaveRadio's going cheap in the classifieds...

Sorry guys, but Bose annoy me. They have the expertise and clout to produce world class products, yet they sell Tat, at audiophile prices I might add!!! Go figure...


Disclaimer: This is my personal opinion of course, others are welcome to disagree...

Don't think you'll find many folks arguing with you here.
People who buy Bose, buy the badge not the quality of the sound there products produce, they are told by the media that Bose is great, plus almost everyone has heard of them so it's easy to impress you're mates at how great your not so great stereo is cos they've heard of them and know the prices bose charge. At the end of the day people who care about the music avoid bose.

[Ali Tait]

A friend has one. I think it sounds pretty good for what it is.

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Roberts sound 53 is a cd player dab/fm radio iPod dock and sounds basically pretty decent for £279.99 ... Give me a good reason to buy a Bose over that... Bose clever marketing doesn't count as an answer ...
You know, this chap moris who used to work for audio t round the corner from me got so fed up with people coming in asking for Bose they started stocking it ... The irony ... They coulndt get the stuff that people wanted because it wasn't available to them as a shop ... The stuff that Bose Market the most is the stuff you can only buy direct from them ... ... . ... ... You can't compare this stuff in a shop (as far as I know) with anything else ... ... ...

[Hypnotoad]

If you go to places like Fry's Electronics here in Houston they have a "Bose Theater" which is basically a room with a Bose Lifestyle System in it. They pretty much lock you all in and go through a set routine with special tracks to highlight how "good" the system sounds. And tell you why other systems are not as good as Bose.

I am told they have special control amps hidden in back to make it sound better and the speakers are not the ones that actually come with the unit.

This might be hearsay but they seduce people into buying there products with this type of smoke and mirrors type show.

[hifi_dave]

Many, many years ago, I went to a Hi-Fi exhibition and was enticed into the Bose room by the huge volume and bass kick even from outside the room.

When I got through the throng and into the room I encountered their new (at the time) 901 speakers on stands and an incredible, lifelike wall of sound. The music was new to me and I asked about the record and was told that it was an 'ordinary' record and assured that the equipment playing was 'normal domestic', just the amp on show and the speakers.

On closer inspection (when the rep's back was turned) the LP was the very first Sheffield Lab direct cut of Lincoln Mayorga. Before this time, these records were unknown and not available in GB.

I then took a quick peep under the large tabelecloth to see a rack of Pro power amps and a couple of large bass bins. So much for a 'domestic' system.

This was probably 35 years ago and Bose were devious even then...

[ursus262]

But then, look at some of the cable manufacturers out there.

Quite!