Wahl, I'm a newbie but I have learned from experience after purchasing a Bose system years ago. I was so caught up in the Bose name and the fact they were expensive, I didn't think I could lose. 6mo later I was at a friend's house who spent $1200 less for his system and it blew mine away. His system filled the room with sound plus the base thumped way louder than my acoustimass sub. When he showed me it was a low end KLH system from best buy and I almost killed myself. Needless to say now I own B&W's for the price I had spent for my Bose system years ago and I'm much happier.
I'm not telling you to kick the Bose idea out the door, I'm just saying try before you buy. Listen to B&W then some other great name systems and go with what you think is best in sound quality for the money.
True FTM.. I myself own a BOSE AM10 Series 2 system and also a very old pair of Celestions that my dad baught a little over 35 years ago. I have also owned many other brands like B&W, JBL, Pioneer, etc and they were all good I was actually surprised to hear the old Celestions perform better in bass than the specialised Subwoofer, the AM10, and the high frequencies were absolutely soothing (It doesn't hurt your ears like the bose cubes do sometimes). Having said that, I had a demo of the newer bose AM 10 series III with waveguide technology and a powered LFE. It was capable of rattling windows at very low volumes (I guess it moves a heaps of air as a true subwoofer should) and produce those lower 20Hz frequencies that most brands claim to produce but fail. The bad thing is, BOSE is very tight abt their speakers Specs. Critics give a million reasons and condemn BOSE for this reason alone, which is quite unfare coz it's not a bad system. At least I wouldn't say it's a bad system coz it's great if u know where to place the speakers.
The placement of the speakers are EXTREMELY important if u own a bose system. If u want kick @ss bass, u HAVE TO place the Bass module in a corner with the port facing the wall, preferably abt 2-6 inches away from the wall. If u place the sub in the cente of the room by the wall, u'll wonder if there's a sub in the room at all (don't wanna be harsh but it's really pathetic!)
I wont comment on Audiobahn much coz I've only heard them perform in my friends car and the JBL Infinity's in my car Kicked audiobahn @ss out of shape ;)I donno if they have home audio stuff.
It's like this Wah! U have to pay the price to own a Ferari. But if u buy a toyota or a nissan or any other Jap car and spend a bit on performance mods, u can have a car which may perform better than a ferrari for 1/4th the price ;) U know what I mean? But Feraris will continue to have their prestigious name and ppl will buy it no matter what the price tag may be, just coz it's a ferari and it's performance is awesom anyway ;)
It's upto u to decide if u really really wanna pay for the name, or the performance ;)Both can be equally good :D
I was actually surprised to hear the old Celestions perform better in bass than the specialised Subwoofer, the AM10, and the high frequencies were absolutely soothing (It doesn't hurt your ears like the bose cubes do sometimes). Having said that, I had a demo of the newer bose AM 10 series III with waveguide technology and a powered LFE. It was capable of rattling windows at very low volumes (I guess it moves a heaps of air as a true subwoofer should) and produce those lower 20Hz frequencies that most brands claim to produce but fail. The bad thing is, BOSE is very tight abt their speakers Specs. Critics give a million reasons and condemn BOSE for this reason alone, which is quite unfare coz it's not a bad system. At least I wouldn't say it's a bad system coz it's great if u know where to place the speakers.