[iRaMarine]

A coworker is offering his Bose Acoustimass 15 speaker system with stands and wall mounts for $500. Retail is $1300. Since a search on Acoustimass here turned up negative, does anyone have an opinion of this before I pull the trigger? AKA is this overkill?

It will go into a living room roughly 9'x11' to be used on a 32" sharp lcd, viewed at about 5-6' on average.

TIA


iRaMarine

 

[Nesto]

i honestly wouldn't waste my money on anything Bose.


but its your money and your ears. Check it out and see what you think. but you also might want to audition products in a similar price as well. to me $500 is a lot.

 

[dabish]

Quote:

Originally posted by Nesto i honestly wouldn't waste my money on anything Bose. but its your money and your ears. Check it out and see what you think. but you also might want to audition products in a similar price as well. to me $500 is a lot.

Agreed, the Acoustimas system basically blows IMO. When I bought my first HT speakers (6+ years ago), I compared the Bose to a few others in the same basic price range. If you can get them in the same room to compare, the choice will be obvious and I don't think it will be Bose. The bose have no midrange and dialog is mostly midrange. They sounded even worse with music.


When all was said and done, I bought Energy Take 5's with the 10" sub and they were SIGNIFICANTLY better sounding than the bose and cheaper. I have since replaced them with B&W's due to moving to a room twice as large. I still have the Take 5's in a box waiting for a purpose.


Good luck whatever you choose but defintely try to audition anything you are going to buy.

 

[iRaMarine]

Wow. Thanks for the advice. I know I should have researched some more first, but I was looking for a quick answer since my coworker was expecting a quick answer from me.

I was really humbled from reading a few threads after submitting my question. I had no idea about the scope of speaker choices. I now know that I am in quite over my head. And after seeing the prices some posters have paid for their systems, I have think that my budget probably wont allow me to hear the difference in the speakers I can afford!

There has been several posts by one forum member recommending building slowly, starting with the fronts. Any suggestions for my situation described in the original post, in the sub $500 range?


Thanks again.

iRaMarine

 

[psblake]

is a good brand good sound and probably get a nice package for 500 at best buy. Chesk open box and closeouts

 

[DMF]

You might be able to get more than $500 for it on eBay, and thus turn a profit. Look at the eBay completed sales of the AM 15.


The product may suck, but there's a lot of people out there that think Bose hung the moon.

 

[drunkonjack]

I would pass on the bose also . You may want to check the ELT speakers from ********** 5.1 plus a powered sub for under $1000. I have heard these and heard great things about them. Shop around though there are so many speaker available that do better than bose .

 

[sethwas]

I'd take it and turn around and sell it for more on ebay. But he can do that.


Seth

 

[Nesto]

jack has a good idea, you could also go with Tykes from **********, they also come with a Kenwood digital amp or without depending if you already have a receiver or not. your room isn't that large so you don't need large speakers, especially if you're sitting 5-6' from them. You dont' have to spend crazy amounts !! But I am one who is slowly building as well, I have 2 fronts and no sub =( but sub is on its way, every month just buy myself a new present hehe


again your room is small and if your budget is as well, nothing wrong with starting off small and seeing how you like it. but generally Bose is strongly disliked by the audiophile community for simply being overhyped/expensive/not all that great. just FYI.


its your ears and money, get what sounds best to you and within your budget, good luck my friend !!

 

[Mort]

Be interesting to ask why your friend is partin with his Bose system.....maybe he's found something better in the $500 range


Mort