Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Bose or Axiom?

I'm fairly new to HT and would appreciate some advice on upgrading from my current set up(a $350 Sony HTIB).

I'm looking to choose between a Bose lifestyle 48 and an Axiom Epic 60-350 7.1(with a vp150). I'm getting a farely good deal on the Bose for $2500(the MSRP is $4000). If I choose to get the Axiom, I want to feel confident that I am getting a significantly better product.

My room dimensions are 7.5x18.5x20.5(HxWxL). Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Whoa, I'm almost scared to touch this one.

Drew88, without a doubt, the Axiom Epic 60 will be better than the Bose. It would be difficult believe that the Bose cubes can fill your large room adequately.

To put it bluntly, the Epic 60 will be a monumental step up from the Bose for less money.

Thank you for the reply. I forgot to mention that the Bose comes with a receiver, whereas I will would be buying the Yamaha V2600 with the Axioms. This prices the whole axiom system to over $4500. My question is: Will the Axioms perform over 2000 dollars better than the Bose system?

I really hope you're paying Canadian $, because if you're paying $2000 for that receiver, you're getting ripped off. You can get a good receiver for US$500-800, if you shop around. If you choose to go refurb, so much the better. Also, you can get the Axioms from the factory outlet and save a fair amount.

That system is so far beyond the Bose, it's not even funny. Go listen to some Paradigm Studio series speakers, and then compare those to Bose. That will give you a vaguely accurate comparision of the Axioms and the Bose. Of course, you may well choose to buy the Paradigms, but those are still more expensive. B&Ws of various type, as well as Monitor Audio Silvers are also similar to the M60s.

The Bose system has a lot of neat features in the player and electronics -- built in MP3 recording, ability to learn your listening preferences etc... -- but the speakers are really too small to fill a room that size. If your listening area is off in one corner of the room the Bose system can sound pretty good, but the Axiom system would be in a totally different league. In all seriousness an M2 based system with a decent sub would be a surprising step up from the Bose speakers.

It would probably be worth your time to try and audition a couple of good high-end home theater systems to get an idea of the kind of sound you can get from good, full sized speakers. If you don't walk out having had a "holy &%$#^!!!" moment, try somewhere else.

The Bose system is a great step up from a typical TV sound system but the speakers are designed to fit unobtrusively into a typical living room, not to deliver the "best" sound for the $$. I think you will find that the M60s will deliver as much or more clean bass than the "Acoustimass" woofers, and the EP350 goes much deeper into the bass for movies.

BTW we're not saying that only Axioms can do this -- any high end full size speaker system will do -- we just happen to like the Axioms a bit more than the competition. Actually some of us even own non-Axiom speakers but hang out here anyways

The Bose 48 is a 5.1 system if I remember correctly.

I am almost scared to respond too, but I feel I must do Drew88 the service of "saving" them before that waste their money on Bose.

Bose are about the worse speaker you can buy for the money... Actually I think that they are THE worst you can get for the money.

Check This Out
More People's Thoughts on Bose

And a quote from another audio forum

Quote:

---

They use 2x $5 speakers per satelite speaker, and $10 drivers in their "bass" module. Add in a couple of $20 amps and a little badge that says "BOSE" and they charge you $2000 Must be top quality... Better off going to JB/Autobahn and getting some car speakers as you would get a more full sound.

---

I will say this for Bose. They have a truly amazing marketing department (really, really top notch stuff), and they make decent car audio equipment. Strangely, this expertise does not translate to home audio--although my understanding is that the high end (non-acoustimass system speakers) are actually halfway decent, if a little wimpy on the bass. I believe they cost somewhere north of $5K for a pair, though.

In fairness to Bose, a lot of people do not buy systems based on what is going to give them the best sound. Bose systems are nicely integrated, have lots of ease-of-use features, are extremely unobtrusive, and can fit into almost any living room without taking it over.

Our systems may sound *much* better, but you have to be willing to have "noticeable" speakers in the room, and there is the whole WAF thing for a stack of electronics as well. The Bose systems sound decent and are totally WAF-friendly, and honestly most people really don't care about the sound quality as much as we do.

Drew88, we're not trying to scare you away but in all seriousness the Bose and Axiom systems, particularly an M60-based system, are aimed at two totally different kinds of customers. If you had the two set up side by side in the same room you would laugh at the difference when switching back and forth. I kid you not.

Again, it's not just Axioms here. Axioms just happen to be perhaps the "best sound quality for the dollar" leader, while Bose is really the king of the "lifestyle" systems.

Thanks everyone for your advice. I have grown increasingly skeptical of Bose over the last few weeks of research, but my only comparison has been my own $350 dollar Sony HTIB, therefore I've failed to see what was all this hype on why Bose sucks.

Keeping in mind that I am a newcomer to sound and still farely ignorant to the subtleties of a great speaker, will I be able to sense an instantaneous upgrade in the "WOW" effect of these speakers in comparison to the Bose? Will friends and family, who are even more ignorant than I am, feel the same? I'm sorry to bug you all with such superficial questions, and thank you in advance! **Note...I am not utilizing the entire room, therefore the dimensions I have given are a bit misleading. Would the M60 set up be overkill in such a "closed in" configuration? My couch is only 9 feet from my TV.

Welcome!

Been there. Done That.

It was a huge shock to the spouse when the Axiom M60s arrived. "They aren't going in the living room, are they?"

"Just wait", I said. She was amazed by the sound of the Axiom system. All smiles after some music and movies.

The two systems just don't compare!