Bose has flooded the market with their TV ads and several friends bought
the Wave system. They all complained that the bass was excessive. When I
was at their respective homes, I noticed that their Bose was sitting in a
corner of the room, either on a shelf or on a piece of furniture . Because
of its shape, the Bose lends itself to that sort of installation. When I
relocated the unit away from a corner, the bass went down 6 dBs which is to
be expected due to the laws of physics and acoustics. Suddendly, the unit
sounded fine like it was meant to be. Perharps Bose should include a guide
for dummies warning them about corner installations.
Louis
2014-02-20 6:46 GMT-05:00 Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]>:
> I agree that describing sounds is an inexact thing. Say what you will
> about audiophile writers like J. Gordon Holt, Harry Pearson and some of the
> current bunch at Stereophile mag, they have come up with a language (mainly
> invented by Holt and enhanced/evolved by Pearson) that describes sounds
> heard and the behavior of audio equipment in transmitting sound.
>
> Regarding bass, "boomy" is a very common term, and what it seems to mean
> is "too much upper bass (around the 150-200hz region) for the liking of the
> person calling it boomy." Bose seems to get this reaction from a lot of
> people, both those not used to much bass with their music (due to
> tiny-speaker computer listening, or just consuming music via a laptop or
> tablet, or being accustomed to TV speakers) and those who want deep bass
> but hear too much higher bass with the Bose speakers.
>
> David, what do you think of the bass drum on the Fennell Telarc recording
> of the Holst Suites? That's usually a strong "acid test". Also, do you have
> that album made in Washington DC in the 80s by, I think, the US Air Force
> Band? It's famous among audiophiles, in fact I just had it played for me by
> one of the better-known LP advocates on a system that costs more than my
> house and cars combined. I thought, lots of bass drum but I'm not sure the
> music calls for that much bass drum. So is it musical or is it a woofer
> reality test by design? If I recall correctly, the record was cut by Stan
> Ricker, who knows his bass.
>
> One thing I do hear with modern recordings, especially those using
> no-transformer recording chains, is that deep bass is sharper, more precise
> and more focused if it's recorded well. I assume the reason is no phase
> shifts from transformers. Some people really don't like that because it
> definitely sounds different. LP fans often lodge a complaint about digital
> bass that I think points to a similar situation -- all LP cutters have to
> sum some portion of strong bass energy to the center in order to make
> records trackable. A system with strong bass response and really
> quick-reacting speakers in a decent room won't be "bass is non-directional"
> to careful listeners. So someone who grew up with an LP and was accustomed
> to its sound may not have had the double basses as clearly deliniated to
> the right, or the electric bass in a Beatles recording actually panned
> off-center like it often was in the later years (and in fact if they grew
> up on the Capitol USA records, they didn't hear the bass as it sounded on
> the approved UK masters). In some rooms, bass that is centered and slightly
> high-passed, as is the case with many LPs, may work better because it
> creates fewer frequency bumps around the sides of the speakers. Something
> precisely placed and of the frequencies and balances of the master tape may
> create a boom around or behind a speaker, or might sit wrong in the room,
> or in some other way not sound "right", and the LP fan tends to blame this
> on "digital" without looking at the differences in the media and the
> playback systems.
>
> -- Tom Fine
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "DAVID BURNHAM" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2014 3:52 AM
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Computer desktop power speakers recommendation
>
>
> There is often a problem communicating with listeners who try to describe
>> what they're hearing in non-audio subjective terms - warm, cold, dry, wet,
>> tight, wooly, wooden, etc. and terms which are more appropriate like boomy,
>> resonant, sizzly, thin, etc.
>>
>>
>> When I use the term "boomy", it usually means a strong bass of a specific
>> frequency - like the sound you hear when a car pulls up beside you with
>> strong sub-woofers. Perhaps when the Bose Wave was introduced they still
>> had some work to do to perfect the concept. After listening to the demo CD
>> which is included with the Bose Wave, and which includes the double bass
>> solo I mentioned previously which sounded convincingly like there was a
>> double bass in the room, we listened to the entire "Nutcracker Ballet" by
>> Tchaikovsky. If you know the music of Tchaikovsky, you know that he makes a
>> lot of use of descending scales; the Pathétique Symphony is full of them
>> and the tune of one of the waltzes towards the end of Nutcracker is nothing
>> but a descending scale. I listened particularly to these passages to see if
>> the bass range was even and it was very much so.
>>
>> A number of years ago, I purchased a CD on the Reference label of
>> military band music and was really disturbed by the bass drum. This
>> instrument should have no definite pitch at all but on this recording there
>> was a very strong specific pitch and it made it sound like you had your
>> head in the bass drum. I wrote a letter to the company pointing this out
>> and comparing it to some of the fine Mercury recordings, (no pun intended),
>> where the bass drum sounds as it should. I got a letter back from the
>> company telling me that I could not communicate directly with the recording
>> producer/engineer but that she had passed my message on to him, (a Doctor
>> something or another, I've forgotten his name), who explained that I
>> obviously am an inexperienced listener with inferior equipment. There was
>> no point in pursuing the conversation any further.
>>
>> db
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tuesday, February 18, 2014 10:58:16 PM, Paul Stamler <
>> [log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> Back when the Bose was introduced, my late mother bought one. After two
>>
>>> days she sent it back; she said the bass sounded too boomy.
>>>
>>> Peace,
>>>
>>> Paul
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
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