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Bose Companion 20 - Premium portable speakers to match premium laptop?

beosound3200 said:
no offense taken, but if you think b&o speakers sound like CRAP you have no idea what youre talking about, no offense ;) there are certainly better sounding speakers for the same money, but b&o offers elegant and beautiful not bulky and ugly design and they are certainly one of the greatest innovators in the audio world, especially with their ICE amplifiers, after all this is MACrumors, no?

and yes, you probably never heard a pair of beolab 5 speakers, dubbed as one of the best speakers in the world ;)

i would never put bose and b&o in the same basket..
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The speakers may be beautiful but that's all they are. If you are a real discerning listener, you would know that B&O speakers don't cut it anymore, especially not their lower end models. If you're looking for a conversational piece the B&O works, but for pure audio quality, nothing beats old styled wood tower speakers. I've still got my Onkyo amp and speakers and they blow just about anything out of the water.

I've heard the beolab5 once. Really good but I've still heard better. Don't know what you're listening to but you need to clean out your ears a little :) B&O used to be good, but they aren't the king of the hill when it comes to quality audio now.
 
snazzyiphoneguy said:
harman kardon soundsticks.

best sound for value and function and look

sold at apple store too.

150 last i remember. GET THEM
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Soundsticks are terrible. The sticks themselves are shrill and there is a massive gap in frequency response between the sticks and the "bass unit" (can't call it a sub).

I'd heard them recommended here (and probably elsewhere) so much that when I finally auditioned them I was stunned at how bad they were.
 
imahawki said:
Soundsticks are terrible. The sticks themselves are shrill and there is a massive gap in frequency response between the sticks and the "bass unit" (can't call it a sub).

I'd heard them recommended here (and probably elsewhere) so much that when I finally auditioned them I was stunned at how bad they were.
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not everyone is an audiphile
 
negativzero said:
The speakers may be beautiful but that's all they are. If you are a real discerning listener, you would know that B&O speakers don't cut it anymore, especially not their lower end models. If you're looking for a conversational piece the B&O works, but for pure audio quality, nothing beats old styled wood tower speakers. I've still got my Onkyo amp and speakers and they blow just about anything out of the water.

I've heard the beolab5 once. Really good but I've still heard better. Don't know what you're listening to but you need to clean out your ears a little :) B&O used to be good, but they aren't the king of the hill when it comes to quality audio now.
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who said they are the king of the hill? they are the rolls royce of the speakers, not the fastest, not the most expensive ones, but still rolls royce, no?

well, look at it this way, b&o is apple, not the best in terms of performance (audio quality) but among the best + beautiful looks, just like apple, right? i am not an audiophile and i will never look for speakers that sound THE BEST, because those speakers cost around 50000 euros a piece... the speakers just need to sound great, and if you think that b&o doesnt sound great, you really dont know what youre talking about, and you dont need to clear your ears, you need to change youre whole head...

the type of sound you like is pretty much subjective, im sure that half of this forum would prefer the sound of bose with their loud and mushy bass than b&o, dont you agree? people like that 'wow' effect

and hello, op wanted premium speakers to match his premium laptop (macbook pro), name me one brand that fits better in this category...
if he had alienware (just pure performance) than you could give him advice, but with macbook pro, you know what his priorities are...

and btw, putting the bose and b&o in the same category is saying a lot about you and youre so called 'audiophile' characteristics, if you dont have the money to buy them and can buy the same performance (audio quality) for less money doesnt make them bad, dont you think? when you try to be objective about a certain product, you dont look at the price (thats subjective, some people have money, some dont) you just look at the product ;)
 
imahawki said:
Soundsticks are terrible. The sticks themselves are shrill and there is a massive gap in frequency response between the sticks and the "bass unit" (can't call it a sub).

I'd heard them recommended here (and probably elsewhere) so much that when I finally auditioned them I was stunned at how bad they were.
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For the money the new Soundsticks are excellent, and pretty much every review backs that up including ones that went in with a negative notion already. Sure their not going to sound as good as the MM-1s I have, but then they also don't cost 1/4 what those did. My Soundsticks I keep at the office now, think I paid 120-130 bucks on Amazon, very good sound for that money. And believe me I would consider myself an audiophile from my home theater setups.

Plus the sound is adjustable by any equalizer (even itunes) on a computer, and some people have put up their settings online that didn't care for the stock sound settings.

An even cheaper set that sounds good still, the JBL Creature. None of us are saying the Soundsticks are be all end all, but their hard to beat for the money and offer great sound/value combination. Just like low end Skull Candies are fine for the $ especially for someone that can't/doesn't want to pay for say Klipsch S4's.
 
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beosound3200 said:
who said they are the king of the hill? they are the rolls royce of the speakers, not the fastest, not the most expensive ones, but still rolls royce, no?

well, look at it this way, b&o is apple, not the best in terms of performance (audio quality) but among the best + beautiful looks, just like apple, right? i am not an audiophile and i will never look for speakers that sound THE BEST, because those speakers cost around 50000 euros a piece... the speakers just need to sound great, and if you think that b&o doesnt sound great, you really dont know what youre talking about, and you dont need to clear your ears, you need to change youre whole head...

the type of sound you like is pretty much subjective, im sure that half of this forum would prefer the sound of bose with their loud and mushy bass than b&o, dont you agree? people like that 'wow' effect

and hello, op wanted premium speakers to match his premium laptop (macbook pro), name me one brand that fits better in this category...
if he had alienware (just pure performance) than you could give him advice, but with macbook pro, you know what his priorities are...

and btw, putting the bose and b&o in the same category is saying a lot about you and youre so called 'audiophile' characteristics, if you dont have the money to buy them and can buy the same performance (audio quality) for less money doesnt make them bad, dont you think? when you try to be objective about a certain product, you dont look at the price (thats subjective, some people have money, some dont) you just look at the product ;)
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The OP said he had a budget of $250, you recommending B&Os which costs four digits and up shows you aren't addressing the OP's question. He was looking for a pair which is space saving, sounded good and was within his budget.

And your comparison of B&O and Apple couldn't be further from the truth. Yes, spec-wise Apple can be considered inferior to other products in the market, but under the hood, they use better components than most manufacturers out there, which is why I'd rather pay the price Mac than a Dell or HP. On the other hand, if you tore down a B&O product and put their components side-by side a speaker which costs below $500, you'd be surprised how similar they are and how similar they would sound. You're essentially paying a four digit sum for something which would cost a few hundred if you didn't name it B&O.

And how is B&O any different from Bose now, essentially they are driven by marketing hype more than quality now. But that is just my own professional opinion, after owning a JH-16 IEM, tube amps and speakers that actually cost five digits. I KNOW how things should sound and I'm not asking the OP to get what I have because that is just crazy, but I do know how a $100 speaker should sound and how a $10000 speaker sounds. I'm just helping the OP get the best bang for his buck and sharing my knowledge which apparently you aren't helping out at all with your recommendation. And it doesn't have to be a B&O to be aesthetically pleasing too.
 
Boy...

It doesn't take long for this kind of thread to degenerate into "my opinion is more valid than your opinion" nonsense. I especially appreciate being informed that I cannot trust my own hearing when listening to speakers and that I was just a consumer dweeb when I bought mine. (I guess I can't win seeing as how I got tricked into buying Bose... :rolleyes:)

I think that the OP has enough suggestions to work with. See ya!
 
negativzero said:
The OP said he had a budget of $250, you recommending B&Os which costs four digits and up shows you aren't addressing the OP's question. He was looking for a pair which is space saving, sounded good and was within his budget.

And your comparison of B&O and Apple couldn't be further from the truth. Yes, spec-wise Apple can be considered inferior to other products in the market, but under the hood, they use better components than most manufacturers out there, which is why I'd rather pay the price Mac than a Dell or HP. On the other hand, if you tore down a B&O product and put their components side-by side a speaker which costs below $500, you'd be surprised how similar they are and how similar they would sound. You're essentially paying a four digit sum for something which would cost a few hundred if you didn't name it B&O.

And how is B&O any different from Bose now, essentially they are driven by marketing hype more than quality now. But that is just my own professional opinion, after owning a JH-16 IEM, tube amps and speakers that actually cost five digits. I KNOW how things should sound and I'm not asking the OP to get what I have because that is just crazy, but I do know how a $100 speaker should sound and how a $10000 speaker sounds. I'm just helping the OP get the best bang for his buck and sharing my knowledge which apparently you aren't helping out at all with your recommendation. And it doesn't have to be a B&O to be aesthetically pleasing too.
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based on this statement, im absolutely positive that you have no idea what youre talking about, you probably dont even know how to read music let alone how music should sound.

so the question is, how things should sound? (i know the answer)

i think that youre just one of those bitter self-called audiophiles.. to say that b&o doesnt sound great (great means you need to answer the question above to know what i mean) is plain stupid, no offense, nobody called them the best, that would also be plain stupid, and youll never find them in professional recording studios, but again to make a statement that they dont sound great is plain 'you know what'

and why are you always mentioning money, dont you remember my statement about being objective? it appears that the only criteria for you is cost/benefit, well its not the same for me, i find a best product for me, my needs and wants, and i buy it, or if i dont have the money, i think of some financial plan to buy it. btw, the general consensus in the audiophile world is that beolab 5 (16000usd a piece) are very competitive price-wise for what they offer and how they sound, you should know this already..

and yeah, youre probably tasteless too..

thats it for me, no need to fill this thread with garbage, just wanted to offer an option to op, to REALLY match his PREMIUM laptop (you know what premium means, right?) and those are pretty decent sounding speakers for 2.0 system (you need to know what good sound is) only they are a bit expensive, but thats for op to decide
if you didnt post a stupid comment like the first one (putting bose and B&O in the same basket) i wouldnt need to write this much, so please retain those comments to yourself, no offense ;)
 
SurferMan said:
For the money the new Soundsticks are excellent, and pretty much every review backs that up including ones that went in with a negative notion already. Sure their not going to sound as good as the MM-1s I have, but then they also don't cost 1/4 what those did. My Soundsticks I keep at the office now, think I paid 120-130 bucks on Amazon, very good sound for that money. And believe me I would consider myself an audiophile from my home theater setups.

Plus the sound is adjustable by any equalizer (even itunes) on a computer, and some people have put up their settings online that didn't care for the stock sound settings.

An even cheaper set that sounds good still, the JBL Creature. None of us are saying the Soundsticks are be all end all, but their hard to beat for the money and offer great sound/value combination. Just like low end Skull Candies are fine for the $ especially for someone that can't/doesn't want to pay for say Klipsch S4's.
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had mine for 2 years. great speakers!
 
MonkeySee.... said:
Blimey whats the matter with people. Bose and B&O are crap now are they?

Jesus :rolleyes:
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I'm not saying their crap, B&O is great but your paying more for their unique designs etc. Plenty of other speaks that outdo them performance wise for cheaper, but they do have some ubber cool designs. The problem with Bose is well, the sound quality sucks compared to others and just in general overall, they just charge too much money for what they offer. For example, go setup a Bose system in the same size room as Cube setup from Orb which competes against it, the Orb system will make the Bose sound cheap. Bose was good in their heyday, but there are too many other companies now whose offerings just destroy them for the money. If you want, go to any avs or audiophile forum and and search plenty of reviews comparing them.

But then again it's just like people who buy a new lcd/plasma and hook right up and think the picture looks excellent and sharp.... and they don't know about calibration. Example, my neighbor had me help him bring his new 70" Sharp he bought. Few days later he's telling me man this looks incredible you gotta check it out. Me, I was like mehhh (didn't tell him that obviously lol), what did I do, went and got my calibration disc and calibrated his set... he couldn't believe the night and day difference. But plenty of people are happy with non correctly calibrated sets at the same time, if your happy either way then that's what matters, just like there are plenty who are fine with their Bose setup which theres nothing wrong with that if its what they enjoy.
 
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I'd echo the majority view here that Bose speakers are extremely mediocre products dressed up in expensive hype.

For a pair of budget speakers that sound good for the money (which was what the OP asked for), I'd go listen to some HK Soundsticks. Sure, there are much better speakers out there if you want to spend a lot more (and I did), but in the sub-$250 bracket those are not at all bad.
 
SurferMan said:
For the money the new Soundsticks are excellent, and pretty much every review backs that up including ones that went in with a negative notion already. Sure their not going to sound as good as the MM-1s I have, but then they also don't cost 1/4 what those did. My Soundsticks I keep at the office now, think I paid 120-130 bucks on Amazon, very good sound for that money. And believe me I would consider myself an audiophile from my home theater setups.

Plus the sound is adjustable by any equalizer (even itunes) on a computer, and some people have put up their settings online that didn't care for the stock sound settings.

An even cheaper set that sounds good still, the JBL Creature. None of us are saying the Soundsticks are be all end all, but their hard to beat for the money and offer great sound/value combination. Just like low end Skull Candies are fine for the $ especially for someone that can't/doesn't want to pay for say Klipsch S4's.
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I've never seen a good review for the Soundsticks except at sites like CNET who know nothing of good audio. I don't read reviews at general tech sites like CNET etc. If I want audio advice I look to Stereophile, Home Theater Mag, What Hi-Fi, etc. Same reason I look to Shutterbug or Digital Photography for Camera reviews. CNET and the like almost always give good reviews to low end consumer stuff as long as its popular. I'd love to see a link to a positive Soundsticks review... my bet is that same site probably gave a positive review to a BOSE product or Beats headphones.
 
Some people that were new to the audio world, would pick up bose right away as a permium speaker because of brand recognition not because of accurate sound reproduction.
 
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