Bose unleashed its giant iPod dock, the
SoundDock 10, back in August -- all 18 pounds of it. Well,
iLounge has gotten their hands on one of these $600 beasts, and they've given it a nice once over. The SoundDock 10 has a nice solid build, and they grade the overall sound quality as decent... which probably isn't comforting to hear, considering the price, but they do say that it certainly outperforms its cheaper peers. They note the inclusion of extra ports -- an unusual and welcomed addition to a Bose unit -- though they also note the continued absence of video support in the dock. If you're in the market for a serious dock for your player, hit up the read link for the full review.
posted Nov 7th 2009 9:35PM
There have been ten of these?
No, I've heard that BOSE likes throwing numbers at their product names.
LOLOLOLOL@BOSE
Bose and B&O.
Bose and Overpriced.
Great, connect a piece of sound equipment with perceived high quality to a player with known crappy DACs and pathetic audio fidelity.
This headline is so stupid. It's like turning to the New York Times and seeing "Cloud sighted, probably made of water"
Want.
Think it through. For that money, you can buy a legitimate receiver with an iPod and decent bookshelf speakers.
These docks are pathetically overpriced. All of them.
"though they also note the continued absence of video support in the dock."
Did you guys actually read the review???
"On the back of SoundDock 10 are a couple of things that aren’t normally found on Bose’s iPod and iPhone systems: extra ports. One is a miniature USB port marked “updates,” downloadable software updates that the company notes “may be available in the future,” presumably to fix compatibility problems that develop with future Apple hardware and software releases. The other is a yellow composite video output port capable of outputting video from current-model iPods and iPhones while playing audio through SoundDock 10’s speakers. Unlike competitors, Bose has held off on adding video ports to its iPod audio systems in the past, which has limited the versatility of prior SoundDocks but also spared them the potential embarrassment of video interference that many similar products have suffered from. Apart from a black bar that appeared when changing videos and disappeared before a new video started to play, we saw no problems with the video output from SoundDock 10’s composite port, even when a phone call came through during video playback; that said, a system with a price tag like this could stand to use higher-resolution component or S-Video out instead. By comparison, the Zeppelin includes S-Video and composite ports, and its auxiliary audio port supports both analog and optical inputs, both steps up over Bose’s design."
"probably not worth the pricetag"
It's a Bose. That's a given.
Aww Yea!
These speakers will sound great with my high end iPod touch pumping out high quility sound samples...
/super sarcasm
Now all we need is some MONSTER CABLES to complete this big piece of shit.
make sure they are gold plated monster cables so they don't rust. and if you don't have monster cables at your local B&M store, Belkin cables make a fine alternative.
This says it all really: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bose
Buy. Other. Stereo. Equipment.
Monster cables would not bring out the sound to the fullest. Use pear audio or go home.
http://www.pearcable.com/sub_products_anjou_sc.htm
Seriously. Bose is a hype company, not an audio company. Save your money and your ears and get some Audioengine A5s for half the price and 10 times the quality.
B uy
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S ound
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B uy
O ur
S ound
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...or
B eat
O rphans
S hows
E mpathy
@ Dohnuts
B that last one
O didn't
S make
E sense
Oh please,
B arf
O ver
S omebody
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Back
doOr
Sluts
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Am I doing it right?
Fuck, apparently not. Stupid auto formatting.
This is the best thing about posts regarding Bose.
I've heard "no highs no lows, it must be Bose".
I'm a speaker, and Bose SoundDock 10 was my idea.
Bose: No it wasn't! It was ours!
Bose: *takes bat*
Bose: *smashes speaker*
Speaker: ...
Bose: *feels a little remorse, a lot gassy...probably that extra bean burrito from lunch earlier.*
Right... well... :|
...at least I'm not a PC
What a KJH(AS*A&S joke. Kiss my ass Bose.
I lost it at "Bose".
Buy
Our
Shitty
Equipment
Yeah, I stopped at "Bose" in the title.
yet you made it far enough to comment...
You pay for the brand, you get pretty good stuff and a very good brand. Get it or buy some cheap shit and be happy with it.
Hey, i bought like a car that does like 0-60 like a Ferrari , but it says FORD on it, so it´s a Ferrari, right?
LOL
No, you get very crappy stuff and a brand that people think is quality based on their advertising.
but still, if people think its quality, job done.
I have the portable version, and believe me, people are impressed by the sound when you bring it to a outdoors party or whatever its fitting..
I would have to say that the sounddock does one of the best "BOSE" jobs though, I own much more bose things, and really the sounddock looks and sound great.
My lifestyle system, I cant really protect as the one item, the sounddock.. How the hell it can sound so high and witch so good base and clearity I dont know. As for my home Bose system, its costing alot and lacking just about every function you can get from a cheap system.. mp3, divx playback and so on.. But somehow I´m paying for design and "pretty" good sound, and offcourse the brand. And thas oki with me.
I had very good sound and amp before, it took up 1/4 of my living room. Maybe I´m just getting old =)
Those words after comma aren't necessary. I mean since when Bose products worth the price they asked for. I have yet to see one.
True, like buying designer jeans
If you pick the right designer jeans, they'll make you look good. Bose, will not. In fact, if you want happy ears, there's lots of better choices.
The review actually said that the bass was actually restrained, and the sound rather clinical. What the ...? Does this mean that Bose finally decided to make good speakers? Still, at such a price point I would rather go for two Nubert nuPro AM-10... should deliver much higher soundquality. Or some small Genelec (ok, they cost more).
And... what does iLounge know about sound? I mean they want to be impressed by something that is only $600?
iLounge has come a long way, but go back to the times they said a Sony EX-71 sounded better than the Etymotic ER-4. That was many years ago, yet the aftertaste still lingers for me.
"What does iLounge know about sound?"
We've tested virtually every major iPod audio system released over the past 6 years, say nothing of all the stuff we play with for fun and don't review.
"I mean they want to be impressed by something that is only $600?"
No. We don't "want to be impressed." Readers wanted to know how it compared with other $600 iPod and iPhone audio systems, as well as less expensive ones, so we got one and compared it to the other $600 iPod and iPhone audio systems we have on hand.
"Go back to the times they said a Sony EX-71 sounded better than the Etymotic ER-4."
Yeah, no. Might want to let go of that particular misconception. The ER-4 (and its sorta-sequel hf5) have won multiple awards from us and were always in a different league from the nearly disposable Sonys. People apparently read what they want to read; the SoundDock 10 review makes very clear, for instance, that Bose includes video-out support, even though the summary above says otherwise.
Fair enough.
But I think you should also have something higher end as a reference point... something to calibrate your ears against. Of course I do not expect a $600 speaker dock to sound as good as a much more expensive studio monitor by Genelec e.g., but it would be nice to read how close (or not) the speaker gets to it.
I am so sick of trying to find speakers for my mp3 player that DO NOT HAVE IPOD DOCKS. It sickens me to see all the sheep going for the marketing hype.
Studio monitors shouldn't have iPod docks, do not require an external amp and should usually sound great. Though they tend to be a bit expensive...
2 things. $600 is not a lot for speakers, and Bose is not a good manufacturer, that IMHO usually charges 5-10x of what the competition charges for a similar product. I am very confident that my speakers (about $300 each) can easily beat the Bose, though that price doesn't include the amp and each woofer is bigger than the one in the Bose, so maybe that is a bit unfair. But for whatever Bose charges you can expect more from a decent company.
Please, Engadget, fix that commenting system!
So what is the size of youre speakers then? sure for the $ you can buy alot of speakers. But the sounddock is made to be a smal and compact system. I have heard one system that blows everthing else away , and that is the B&W Zeppelin. Not small, not sheap, but oh, the sound. So we are talking small compact systems allthough the price is something else, right?
First of all small is bad in the world of speakers. You have to have a certain size, eventhough there are certain things one can do to have extraordinary bass even with relatively small speakers, though with small I do mean at least 8-9" woofers, and speakers that do these things are quite expensive, like the Klein + Hummel O 300, which are about $2800, per speaker. I am using bookshelf speakers with the dimensions 38 x 24,5 x 30,4 cm, each speaker weights 9,5 kg. They get down to 41 Hz at -3 dB. That is what I would consider the absolute minimum for good sound, I do hope to upgrade some day, perhaps the top of the range Nubert (currently using entry level Nuberts), or some Geithain, or something along those lines.
wow, that was a bold statement. I have those Sonys (because they were VERY cheap and people don't think you are an alien (KOSS might make the worst/strangest looking headphones on earth... I think I looked like straight from a sci fi movie wearing those...)), and they sound... well, not good. Not good at all.
Bose Blose...
yall ain't lying. A ton of ipod accessories are way beyond their price tag. The vendors are price gauging worse than gas hogs after a hurricane. I like incase but shit, nearly 40 bucks for a simple ass case? I have one though. Black with a rubbery texture.
U all missing the point.
This simply another component of the ecosystem.
This sets iPhone levels above all.
I experienced very positive remarks when people actually get to listen to this product.
I've seen people talk much positively about B&O while paying more but usually their product brake down in a short time. Same goes for many cheap brands. Yes, they maybe cost-effective at first glance but are very easy to brake down. I have not experienced this with Bose. When you pay that 600$ you know that you'll be using that product for at least a decade.
"brake" down
??
Meant "break down".
Why should it break down? I'm using a NAD amp that is 35 years old, still working great. My speakers are now 5 years old, and I expect them to last for many years to come. Just because a manufacturer is less known in the mainstream doesn't mean it's not as good.
Who gives positive remarks about the BOSE? Most people haven't heard good speakers, and compared to what they are used to the BOSE may very well be good.
B&O is a bit like BOSE, design, marketing and image is more important than sound quality.
I didn't say less known brands break down easily. It's the cheap brands that do. There are many less known brands that are much better in all fields yet due to less advertising don't get the attention they might have deserved.
I personally needed to buy a headphone each year as they break down until I bought a Bose headphone. The people that gives positive remarks are the ones that actually try the products. It's kinda obvious when those that give the most negative remarks are the ones that know nothing about acoustics as the examples that they give as the better products are from companies like Logitech or Creative. Of course, there are certain brands that do not fit in this description. I'm just making a generalization here.
Has any bose product ever been worth the money?
Bose 301's, decades ago. However, it doesn't matter how good your speakers are when your source sucks. Your sound is only as good as your weakest link, and in this case, that's the ipod.
Hmm, I glanced over the comments.. glanced. Anyone bother comparing the system to another portable iPod dock? Maybe I don't want to drag my receiver, subwoofer, and bookshelf speakers all the time to say a... pool party for example. Most are comparing apples to oranges regardless of Bose performance to price. I'm not an expert in the portable iPod dock by any means, but my limited knowledge is that Bose has the best product for this market segment not considering price. Please correct me if I'm wrong...
Opsis, try checking out some of the docks from Logitech. Much cheaper. I haven't heard the sound dock 10 (since they just released it), but historically Logitechs docks have always outperformed the Bose docks at a significantly cheaper price point.
Look into the Klipsch dock too. Since you say it's for a party, you'll want something that goes loud and sounds good, and with the horn-based tweeters you should have no problem with that on Klipsch.
Friend don't let friend buy Bose.
Gotta disagree Elvis. The 301s have always sucked too. As bad as the iPod may be, I'll still take the sound dock as the weak link here. All bose products throughout the history of the company have been horrible and shrill on the highs, and they've never had a speaker that did lows worth a crap. The only thing they've ever been mediocre at reproducing is mid range vocals, and the only thing they've ever done well is paying Paul Harvey *cough**billy mays**cought* enough to lie to the public and talk their company up.
Why would I get this over a B&W Zeppelin or Zeppelin Mini? I've heard the Zeppelin and some previous SoundDock side by side - no comparison. Coming from an owner of B&W in my home theater, I'm not saying the Zeppelin was great, but sure as hell blew the SoundDock out of the water.
Of course, this also disregards the fact that you can get numerous amplified speakers that sound at least as good as the SoundDock (M-Audio monitors, or even the Klipsch 2.0 desktop setup), get the mother of all iPod docks (with remote and video out) and still have at least $300 left in your pocket...
The price will go down, just wait. There is no substitute for nice speakers
"though they also note the continued absence of video support in the dock"
But it does have a video out!
"we saw no problems with the video output from SoundDock 10’s composite port, even when a phone call came through during video playback; that said, a system with a price tag like this could stand to use higher-resolution component or S-Video out instead."
"though they also note the continued absence of video support in the dock."
But it does have a Video out!
"we saw no problems with the video output from SoundDock 10’s composite port, even when a phone call came through during video playback; that said, a system with a price tag like this could stand to use higher-resolution component or S-Video out instead."
The review also says:
"On the back of SoundDock 10 are a couple of things that aren’t normally found on Bose’s iPod and iPhone systems: extra ports. One is a miniature USB port marked “updates,” downloadable software updates that the company notes “may be available in the future,” presumably to fix compatibility problems that develop with future Apple hardware and software releases. The other is a yellow composite video output port capable of outputting video from current-model iPods and iPhones while playing audio through SoundDock 10’s speakers. Unlike competitors, Bose has held off on adding video ports to its iPod audio systems in the past, which has limited the versatility of prior SoundDocks but also spared them the potential embarrassment of video interference that many similar products have suffered from."
"continued absence of video support"?
It's got a video output so you can plug it into your TV and see the video output of your iPod...