MojoLists

 Aside from times when my son or wife talks me into seeing something at the Alamo Draft House in Austin I buy or rent movies. I see no reason to endure the crowd, rude people, poor sound systems and dull pictures so often associated with going out to a movie.

 I buy a pretty good number of movies on DVD, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD but most of the movies I watch are rentals. I have belonged to both Netflix and Blockbuster, even both at the same time at one point and I have been reasonably happy with both. A recent thread at my favorite online hangout, The Home Theater Forum, was about which rental service is better. The main complaint about both was the long wait for many titles and I have experienced the same problem but I have always been able to make it work. I don’t bother with downloaded movies so I will not be discussing that option, available from both parties.

 I started with Netflix about a month after they came online. I was in hog heaven, movies right to my door, no late fees and an amazing catalog of movies to choose from. I dismissed Blockbuster altogether at this point because of a grudge over late fees that I felt was unfair and it was some time later that they introduced their online plans.

Years later Blockbuster came up with their trade in deal. Instead of mailing the movies back, I take it to my local brick and mortar in exchange for an in store rental, at no cost. I decided to give it a try and it has worked so well for me I dropped Netflix.

The movies I put in my Blockbuster queue do tend to be older classics, cult favorites and concert videos. These types of movies tend to have a short, long or very long wait associated with them. While that would be a problem with Netflix, it isn’t for me as the wife and I make a pilgrimage to the store every Saturday and pick up the latest releases, often on Blu-Ray. Occasionally, if there is a standout release I will go in on a Tuesday morning. This works, I get the best of both worlds for the cost of a single subscription.

  If you sole purpose for renting online is to never walk into the store again and you order a lot of older movies and classics you are likely to be disappointed by the wait associated with these types of selections. My advice is to brave the sun once a week or so and take advantage of the Blockbuster trade deals, they let you have your cake and eat it too.

I am just estimating here but I would say 99.746% of people believe Bose is the best speaker ever made or as Bose claims are the most respected speaker ever. I hear it all the time, some guy bragging about his superior Bose system.  Bose owners look down on the rest of the audio world as if they were driving a Ferrari. The problem is that they are in fact driving a Yugo and not even a new one.

Bose survive, hell they flourish because of an amazing marketing drive. They have brainwashed the world into believing they build the greatest speakers in the world.  Nothing could be further from the truth, Bose are simply the biggest rip off in the audio world.

Bose uses paper cone drivers that have been around for decades, unchanged. Why does this matter? The sound these diminutive paper cones produce require the elimination of a vast swath of the frequency range used in common recordings. They don’t just remove the top end or the bottom end, they hack the mid frequency range to pieces as well. A full 80Hz is missing if you use one of their Acoustimass modules, while a mind blowing 180+ Hz is missing without it. According to Intellexual.net the actual frequency response of the Bose speakers is 280hz – 13.3kHz, even the cheapest speakers fill 120Hz – 20kHz and better speakers, even at a fraction of the cost of Bose are 40Hz – 22kHz.

Just for a reference, the same cone speakers found in most Bose systems are also used in alarm clocks that cost under $25. So how can they sound so good? Well, they don’t but they certainly sound better than my alarm clock. This is accomplished by removing much of the frequency range from the music before it is sent to the speaker. This is why it is difficult or even impossible to use the Bose speakers that come in a kit with other brands components. This is especially true of the Bose car audio systems that require a complete rewire to replace the head unit and speakers.

In addition, the cheap plastic boxes and cubes used for Bose enclosures are inexpensive and reduce the quality of sound even further. Anyone who has ever looked at how to build a speaker understands that plastic is one of the worst materials you can use. I will concede that building an enclosure out of aluminum cans would be worse but at this level of badness I don’t see that it would make a difference.

I can go on and on about how Bose refuses to release frequency response information for their systems, something that every other manufacturer, and I mean every other manufacturer provides. I can go on about how Bose displays in the store are designed to provide sound within a very specific area that cannot possibly be recreated in your home. How about the fact that they use amps that cost thousands to drive them, instead of using their own system, which is what they make it appear to be doing.

Enough about why to avoid them, what should you get instead. One of the things people do really like about Bose is the size of the speakers and I admit that is a tough one to find elsewhere but you don’t have to go much bigger. Almost any Home Theater in a Box will sound better than Bose once calibrated. I am including the Panasonic unit that can often be found under $150.

Will the Panasonic unit give you great sound? No, not even close but it is as good as anything Bose puts out if you set it up properly. Home theaters in a box are easily bested by buying the speakers and receivers separately but if you want Bose equivalent sound at a fraction of the cost, this is a good place to start.

Don’t fall for the marketing hype, anyone legitimately serious about home theater or audio will tell you about Bose, if they suggest otherwise, you are talking to a home theater poser.

 First, I want to say that overall The Cosmos Rocks by Queen + Paul Rodgers is sonically a first class album or to be more accurate in this case, CD. The musicianship and vocals are top notch as well with a mix of thumping rock and power ballads that take you back to the late 70s.

 Paul Rodgers, also known as The Voice, throws his vocal weight around and makes the band his own, perhaps to much his own. After listening to the album I didn’t have a song from the CD stuck in my head, I had a Bad Company song humming away from the depths of my brain. Pull out your old t-shirt with the picture of a wolf on it when listening, it should heighten the time travel aspect of this CD.

Cosmos Rocks didn’t grab me, not a single track stood, it felt like three masters of their art getting together and playing songs they left off of previous albums. The album is good enough to merit a listen but I would be surprised if this gets past a second play or even has a song slip into a playlist on my iPod.

For some, the amazing capabilities of the musicians alone will warrant owning this disc but for the casual listener, pull out your old Queen or Bad Company albums and give them another play.