As we all know... If all components were the same... Bose would sound absolutely terrible. Ever hook a jewel cube up to straight amplification? They need their electronic EQ tricks to make the speakers sound halfway decent (note I said halfway) and flat out tell you NOT to hook it up any other way.
I recently went through Bose training and was impressed by two things. First... the trainer acknowledged fully that his speakers were NOT the best sounding things on the planet... in no way shape or form did he blow smoke up our butts. Second... he put buckets over the speakers and ran ADAPT-IQ. The speakers actually sounded better after done (although still not anything I'd ever put in my own house). Removing the buckets... the highs cut right through your ears. This system (the AV-28) will sell a lot of units to the 65% of the people in the midrange of the audio video buying bell curve. With the marketing behind it there is no amount of Bose bashing that will stop this force. We, as business people, decide where we want to be. The posters on these threads that are in the business are for the most part, working with the 5-10% at the upper end of the AV buying bell curve... Bose should not even be mentioned here in this area. All I know is that an easy sale... to a tin eared client is sometimes just what the money doctor ordered and if the upper end that I target isn't presently buying on any of my bids... whether I'm considered a sell out or not... I'll take an easy foray into the 65% area and feed my kids... sorry.
As for speakers...if all components are the same... just about every speaker brand on the planet will sound different. The engineers color the sound of speakers with crossovers to achieve the sound they are after. I just went to a demo of JMLabs Grande Utopias and can honestly say that what I heard was the most all encompassing " in the hall with the symphony" sound I've ever heard. My brother in law asked me if I considered it worth it. My response was yes... if I was worth about 50 mil it would be a drop in the bucket and I'd have them... in the room next to my million dollar theatre adjacent to my garage with the Mercedes and the Hummer. Since I am but a lowly installer though... a set of their Cobalt series sounds just fine to me.
I don't know what our debate is here... its all relative and very subjective. A metalhead (like Me) likes a different sound than a Classical music lover (like Me). I find it hard to pin down a set of speakers due to a broad spectrum of musical tastes. I love bass but not rap style... just the kind you feel during bass guitar lines and tympanis. When the wife gets involved it also gets down to aesthetics.
The last thing to consider is to go over your own experiences when picking speakers. While you were shopping... it was intense... you picked apart every detail. Now that you have them in your house you listen to them when you get the time and all is well... you probably don't have time to keep listening and replacing (if you do... please find an installer other than me!)
