You know there's just something wrong with the world when Bose ends up being THE #1 most TRUSTED brand, beating out Apple and Dell for the top spot in a recent survey.

Link below:

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060330-6491.html

That is pretty startling. I guess we have to give Bose's marketing department credit for doing something "right" (if we can use that term for a marketing plan that uses rather a lot of deceit) even if their engineering remains almost bizarrely off-base.

Yeah and build quality. In the past they used to wire wrap the wire in their Acoustimass cubes to the binding posts instead of soldering them like every other reputable speaker maker does, not sure if they still do this, but it wouldn't surprise me if they did.

With great pain and considerable reservation I admit that I bought Bose Quietcomfort 2 earphones. There weren't many good choices. They are comfortable and they work ok--typical Bose sound, as in not great but very relaxing on long flights. In two years they fell apart so I e-mailed Bose to ask how I could get them fixed. To my amazement I received a quick response which after exchanging a couple of e-mails has me receiving a free replacement. Now that's good service these days. I was shocked but I have to admit they stood by their product. Raised my opinion of Bose 1000%. It may not be all marketing. There may be happy customers. I am happy with them. When was the last time you had something that cost $300 replaced for free (even if they were only worth $50 initially)?

My wife chuckled and pointed out that now I could listen to the Bose earphones for another two years until they fell apart.

Outlaws are you listening? We need noise cancelling earphones.....

There are many happy customers. In some cases, it's due to experiences like yours (I've heard other good things about their noise cancelling headphones enough times and from enough reliable sources to admit that their headphones are at least reasonable products). On other cases, though, it's sadly because they've been led down the Acoustimass path by cunning marketing and ended up spending in the neighborhood of $1000 for a poorly-designed set of speakers that ought to sell for more like $200.

Or the absolutely awful Bose Premium Stereo in my Mercedes Benz C32 AMG. An expensive car that was supposed to have an upgraded sound system. Jeez! My wife's Subaru wagon has a McIntosh upgrade that absolutely buries the Bose. In fact, I have yet to hear a Bose stereo in a car that wasn't just plain bad. They are uncanny in their consistency--maybe they use old left over Acoustimass drivers. How they get car manufacturers to install their stuff is obvious. Not marketing, but lowest possible cost. People who aren't audiophiles fall for it. How many times I have heard someone tell me what a great Bose stereo they have in their car. Not my job to set them straight. If they're happy they're probably better off than most audiohphiles. I also seriously doubt that Bose is about to replace my premium car stereo just because it sounds bad.

That doesn't surprise me that much. IMO you would have to trust bose to think they sounded better than what else you have heard. I think most people who hear Bose think way in the back of their mind that maybe it doesn't sound as good as the jvc (whatever) they were just listening to, but tell themselves that "It's Bose, it has got to be the best" and buy it anyway. To me, that is the ultimate trust and it is the only thing that sells their speakers. Reputation, reputation, reputation.

Most of the folks I know who paid premium for acoustimass had no clue what sound quality is about (one guy I know also bought "awesome" speakers off the back of a truck, which he never used), satisfaction seems based upon how loud it can get and how high the cool factor/WAF is. The QCII headphones are very nice for the simple reason that I can wear them on the plane without a cable and sleep soundly, and there's really no other noise cancelling headphones that deliver as much (not when I bought them, anyway). The fact is, Bose is good at making products that appeal to other than audiophiles, and they've cleverly developed a premium perception in spite of that (see Wave radio). A sales staff dedicated to the brand doesn't hurt, either.

I have never heard a Bose product that I liked. The best they could do was the 901 and I found them to be absolutely lifeless. There's a reason that Bose is cagey about providing tech specs for their products....

A lot of it is cranked out by low bidder shops in Malaysia and other far eastern countries. That's not to say that good products aren't also produced in those countries...they're just not produced for Bose. Blech...

As far as I'm concerned Amar Bose is the P.T. Barnum of the audio industry. They should have called 'em Clever Little Speakers. 8-)