Audiophiles hate Bose speakers. Why, you ask? Bose speakers don’t sound that good. They are like a McDonald’s Happy Meal. They are chemically designed to give you the flavor that you crave in the moment but lack the nutritional value that make you feel anything other than sick a mere 15 minutes after you eat. Does Bose care? Nope. Nor does McDonalds. They are in the selling you burgers/speakers business.

One characteristic that is found in Bose’s headphones as well as Bose’s floorstanding speakers is that they have a very “forward sounding” treble sound. What does that mean to the non-audiophile? It sounds bright, sizzly and tiny. If you are not suffering from significant hearing loss (and many are – especially in mainstream America) these speakers can sound just outright brutal. Some suggest that they are unlistenable.

There are ways to combat such bright high frequency performance. Today’s modern AV receivers have room correction. Many of today’s best audiophile preamps have equalizers in them too that can scale back the “hot” sounding tweeters.

Some think matching a bright speaker (btw: other popular brands like Klipsch who also make subwoofers also sound bright like Bose. Bose isn’t alone.

The easiest soliton to avoiding overly bright loudspeakers is, for the same-exact money, invest in better sounding speakers.