How do you guys go about expalining to friends and neighbors, that some speaker systems, like BOSE, are no good? I'm sure many of us have been in the situation where someone thinks that they have a real home theater, then they ask you what you think. My neighbor did this to me the other day. He has a BOSE system, he knows I'm into home theater. "Hey come and have a listen to my system, what do you think?" I hate this question.
It's very difficult to say you don't like BOSE or whatever HTIB they might have, without coming off as a snob. So when my neighbor asked my opinion, I hesitated A LOT, because I didn't want to sound like a jerk. I ended up telling him something to the effect that most knowledgeable audiophiles don't have much regard for BOSE. I went on to explain that you can get a lot more performance for your money from other companies. He didn't like this answer, And I don't think he really believed me. IT's hard for one person to overcome all the brainwashing of Bose's advertising budget.
This guy is a big wine conessiuer (sp?)so I tried to use a wine alalogy on him. Bose speakers, are like the wine you buy in a box. Sure it meets all the same criteria as other wine, close to the same color, it has alcohol in it, made from grapes, etc. But it's not good quality. It's hard to explain if you are not a wine expert why it's not as good, you just know it isn't. The same with Bose, I can explain in audiphile jargon why Axiom's are much better, but if you're not an audiophile, and you don't really understand the terminology it just sounds like a bunch of mumbo jumbo. So I think my neighbor thinks I'm an audio snob, and he thinks Bose is worth the money.
How do you guys approach the subject, or do you just avoid it entirely, and leave them blissfully ignorant?
