Topic: Under Cabinet AudiO player...recommendations??

[rrocket]

No..nothing yet.  Still looking....

[barrie1]

For the kitchen I do have to agree with the Bose system myself as in a smaller area they do sound fabulous. I have Bose 501's and a pair of 901's in the rec room but thats a lot bigger then the kitchen for sure. I would suggest the Bose Wave system with the built in CD player system as well if you want really good quality sound. 

[rrocket]

^^^^Yea, they sound great.  But horribly over-priced IMO...

[tortoise]

Agreed.  It's wierd how the quality range seems to go from sub-standard cheap models to over-priced bose with nothing in between.  Surely there has to be a market for something of similar quality to the wave radio that's $250 vs.  the $500 for the bose.

[Wolverine]

Something like this maybe:



It also works with iPod, CAD$149.90 at Apple Store: http://store.apple.com/ca/product/TR142LL/A?fnode=MTY1NDA1NA&mco=MjE0ODI3NA

[safristi]

 a chery DashBOARD??

[tortoise]

Something like this maybe:

Doesn't play CDs, or even radio for that matter.

[Wolverine]

Something like this maybe:

Doesn't play CDs, or even radio for that matter.

Darn, one down.

[barrie1]

Yes the Bose are pricey but sometimes you do get what you pay for. I believe they have a one month free trial period as my buddy did this and sent his back. He is a pro Drummer and needed a larger size system as his needs was really all the problem was but it was good for what it did do tho. 

[barrie1]

My 901's which I bought slightly used from a friend came with their own equalizer and can handle unlimited power i understand I have them suspended from the rec room ceiling as I have a ceiling high enough to do this in. The 501's are on stands which are around 19" high off the floor. I have had many different types of speakers in the past including Castle, B&W and Electravoice I believe they were called. These were a Canadian made speaker at the time as well as being made in the  in the US also. The Bose has given me the best performance yet of all the different brands and models I have tried. The Bose at one time were around the $3500. price area per pair with the equalizer included. The older Mark 4's are lifetime warranty as they replace them if they go bad. Leons has been the main dealer in Canada for a while now as well I understand.  They were for sure in London as these are replacemnt ones as the original cones all cracked and fell apart after 30 plus years of usage in the original pair. The rubber disindegrated around the speakers which renderd them useless until the warranty replaced them about 3 years ago and they were shipped back to Toronto for replacement.  Everyones ears and their tastes in music vary a lot so what sounds good to one may not to another.  Same goes for the Wave radio also.

[initial_D]

I doubt that you’d get anywhere near as offended as I do by this — but it might still be an interesting experiment for you to make such comparison take place for yourself: get yourself a WAVE, or a Bose table radio, or a pair of ANY of the Bose “hi-fi” speakers, and set them up — blind, of course, so you’ll need at least one helper -- for a series of A/B comparisons with any of the competing products from REAL hi-fi firms. I would, if you were the betting type, be willing to lay BIG odds on the outcomes.

The wife and I did a sound identification test a while, with a pair of Paradigm, Energy, and Bose 301. We listen to different type of music, classical, jazz, blues, rock, pop, and rap. The Bose 301 wasn't that bad, in more 'natural sound recordings', it is a lot worse than then the other two. With enhanced and re-engineered sounds, electronic instruments, as in some pop songs, rap, they sounded much better. The Energy and Paradigm sounded different with different type of recordings as well, we can tell which pair is which. However, there were some music that we couldn't tell much difference.

[quadzilla]

The wife and I did a sound identification test a while, with a pair of Paradigm, Energy, and Bose 301. We listen to different type of music, classical, jazz, blues, rock, pop, and rap. The Bose 301 wasn't that bad, in more 'natural sound recordings', it is a lot worse than then the other two. With enhanced and re-engineered sounds, electronic instruments, as in some pop songs, rap, they sounded much better. The Energy and Paradigm sounded different with different type of recordings as well, we can tell which pair is which. However, there were some music that we couldn't tell much difference.

I've heard from people in the biz that most of today's music* is so filtered, modified, compressed and normalized that it really doesn't make much difference what you listened to it on. There for playing this type of music the difference between quality and not so quality systems will yield little if any differences.

* I'm talking about top 40 pop, rap, hip hop

[initial_D]

All speakers were under $600 a pair, what I paid anyway. I played the music, the wife did the listening, she didn't know what speakers were on. She plays Cello, she can identify the sound difference on that. The solos of pure music instrument really tells the sound reproduction of the speakers more.

Not a true test by any means, but just some curiosity, since we know the stuff already.

I don't mind Bose stuff, just won't pay retail for it. The article was a bit over the top, IMO.


Edit:

I bought the 301s at the local Brick store in 1995(?), put them on the 12-month no payment plan, cost was $329.99.

[initial_D]

Though about the parts and their cost, wouldn't bother me so much. All these brand name stuff are part of the 'image business & game', some people are happy with them.

The father-in-law gave me a Rolex watch for my wedding, I wear it about 3 times in the last 8 years. Are the parts in it really worth $10,000? The mother-in-law gave me Armani shirts, I hardly wear them, because the price tag made me so uncomfortable, scare to get them dirty. They are made of good fabric, but still, ... Bose did well cashing in on the brand name game. I bought it! 

[quadzilla]

.....c'mon, super cheap paper cones when everybody else is using butyl rubber/kevlar/titanium etc....

I like these cones 

[initial_D]

Like those.

and this one too.

[initial_D]

 

My take on that is ... most GM cars are not worth the price of the parts that put together.   

[barrie1]

Shame the topic had to wander off again but the Plastic style new speakers are not perfect either as I had them in my B&Ws and Castle speakers both. They both blew out as they seem to have a bad habit of tearing around the rubber coning of the speaker. Had them both fixed under warranty a few times but they only seemed to last about another year before going again every time. The Bose 901's have taken the test of time and still sound better to me and are still great after only 4 years now while the others had been back a No. of times in that short period. I do have a set Paradines out in the shop as well as a old pair of the Radio Shack Realistic speakers. Both are still preforming well after at least 15 years now of usage on both sets. They are run by a older 150 AMP Sony Amp which I paid $65.00 for many years ago. Still works great. 

[initial_D]

You actual know and spell the word shame correctly ... 

[barrie1]

Thank You for the Compliment.