Drink more beer!

My post of a couple of days ago entitled Like Bose? wasn't meant to bash their products, just relaying a story. It sure got a lot of people talking so I thought, well, what the heck. Let's go bashing! I am reminded of a story years ago that involved the manager of our local Pacific Stereo store and a pair of Bose 901 Direct Reflecting loudspeakers. So for those of you that don't remember, the first big product Bose ever had was a speaker that used all small drivers (I think they were 5") that were heavily EQ'd to increase the bass and treble to something close to "flat". They then pointed the speakers at the rear wall to give a big concert hall effect. It actually wasn't a bad idea and in some cases could sound pretty good. Not in this case, unfortunately. The manager of the store, Bill, was a total Bose devotee who owned all Bose electronics, the speakers and then dedicated a room to the system. In a Bose dedicated room what you did was reinforce the rear wall to achieve maximum reflectivity. In this case a floor to ceiling set of bricks were cemented into place to act as a reflector for the sound. The 901's were notoriouslyinefficientbecause of the need to EQ them, so this required a huge amplifier (which Bose made) of which Bill had and was quite proud of. One day, while in the store, he cornered a couple of us and was raving about the great sound he was getting. "Concert hall performance" in his listening room. Had to be heard to be believed. We were taunted into coming to hear this because we were "Audiophiles" who made fun of Bose and we needed to be set straight on how music really could sound. Came the big day we were ushered into Bill's living room, offered a beer (which I declined) and spent the next 30 minutes listening to Bill talk up the system's virtues. Then he placed the needle onto the album and we started to listen. I think I lasted through half of the first track before I went to cover my ears up. Seriously, this wasn't Audiophile snobbery on my part this was pain avoidance. "Bill, can you turn it down?" I yelled over the music. "You can't enjoy a concert with the volume down" Bill yelled back. "Yes, but doesn't this hurt your ears?" "Yeah, but then I just drink more beer and it sounds great". By golly, best advice I've ever gotten for a tweak.