Bose MediaMate - The Best Computer Speakers In The World?
Written: Jan 25 '04 (Updated Jan 25 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: None
Cons: Poor quality sound, Ugly, Poor configuration
The Bottom Line: The Bose MediaMate are horrible computer speakers.
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| soupcraze's Full Review: Bose MediaMate® 2 Speakers |
The Bose MediaMate are the entry-level computer speakers offered by Bose. Bose spends a lot of time marketing their products, and tries to make people think that Bose speakers are the best in the world. The Bose MediaMate are some of the more expensive comuter speakers offered at Best Buy. They go for about $99 for a 2.0 configuration. I also found the Creative Technology i-Trigue 2.1 system for about $99 at Best Buy. I decided to purchase the two systems and compare them. Here's what I found with the Bose MediaMate.
-Price-
*Once again, it looks like the Bose MediaMate is yet another case of "Bose-initis" where they make fairly poor quality speakers at a very high price. In today's computer speaker market, you can buy 2.1 systems for significantly less than $100, and you can also buy good 5.1 and even 6.1 channel systems for yet under $100! However, Bose decided to offer a set-up where you get a powered speaker plus another one which runs off of it WITHOUT a subwoofer... Most systems offer subwoofers today. This shows that Bose was very skimpy on the configuration that it offers. However, Bose and Bose loyalists still stand by the fact that these are by far the greatest speakers in the world. Well, I guess that they are surely better than a pair of Magnepan MG20.1 speakers that are $10,000/pair... Oh wait, I'll just leave it at the Creative Technology i-Trigue 2.1 speakers for $99. Overall, the i-Trigue 2.1 speakers offered significantly better performance and better bass. If you're looking for a stereo set-up, then you should look elsewhere because other speakers look better, sound better, and offer subwoofers.
-Configuration-
*The Bose MediaMate are just a pair of speakers... It seems that it would cost an extra $100 (Evident in the Companion3 system from Bose) to add a subwoofer! Well, since it looks like no other computer speaker is offering a subwoofer for under $100 (SARCASM), then Bose should skip out on it. It's just like the good ol' days before we ever had 5.1+ digital surround sound. If you just need two speakers since you're mostly into gaming or don't have the space for more speakers, then the Bose MediaMate are a good choice if you're a Bose loyalist. However, if you're looking for a 2.0 or 2.1 configuration and you actually want quality sound, then look elsewhere.
-Looks & Styling-
*I must admit that the Bose MediaMate are very ugly speakers. When you look at a lot of computer speakers today, they have very exotic looks with their nice smooth curves. But the Bose MediaMate just look like big boxes. Even though they come in a choice of three different colors, they are still ugly since they are bulky and lack any attractiveness. If you don't care about looks, then something like a Boston Acoustics BA790 would provide significantly better sound than the Bose MediaMate. I must admit that the Bose Companion3 system looks nice, but the Bose MediaMate just looks all out ugly.
-Performance-
*Bose claims that the Bose MediaMate sound awesome. Bose claims that this system uses Proprietary Bose® Circuitry which gives the Bose MediaMate a very spacious and life-like sound. However, it's far from it. When I tried these out in the store, just about every system managed to outperform it and sounded much better, even a cheaper one. The i-Trigue 2.1 sounded much more life-like. The Bose MediaMate sounded very compressed. Without a subwoofer, it was up to the speakers to be producing all of the bass. This proved to make the bass very muddy and unrealistic. They didn't sound completely dead, but the bass just wasn't there. Anything with a separate subwoofer would easily take these down. The i-Trigue with the 25 Watt powered subwoofer really pounded much better than the Bose MediaMate. The i-Trigue's speakers also used multiple drivers, and I don't know what the heck was driving the Bose MediaMate! However, Bose uses cheap paper drivers to drive speakers. This resulted in a fairly poor and unrealistic midrange. The i-Trigue speakers had a clearer midrange and had no problems recreating vocals of MP3 audio or playing sound effects of games. The Bose MediaMate just couldn't compare to the performance of the other speakers. When it came to the high range, the Bose MediaMate sounded a bit bright, yet again sounded less realistic. The i-Trigue had no problems. Overall, the performance offered by the Bose MediaMate is exceptionally poor. They can be easily out-performed by anything at $100 or cheaper. Even if the Bose MediaMate had a subwoofer, I doubt that they would compare much to the i-Trigue or other similarily priced speakers.
-Ease of Use-
*The Bose MediaMate aren't difficult to use. Everything is controlled from the powered speaker, such as the volume and other controls. The Bose MediaMate also offer a composite audio input which is nice if you want to attach another device into the system. Even though it's a basic interface, other speakers aren't any more difficult to use.
-My Computer Configuration-
*If you're curious, I was using an Aureal Vortex SQ1500 sound card to run the different speakers. My computer is powered by an AMD Athlon XP 2200+. The room in which my computer is is large, yet the speakers were placed on the computer desk using a similar configuration to other peoples' computers and the kind you see on the manufacturer website.
-The Verdict-
*Bose has yet another loser. The Bose MediaMate are over-priced and are poor performers. For less money, you can buy a 5.1 or 6.1 configuration which will sound much better than the 2.0 configuration offered by Bose. Also, against competition from the Creative Technology i-Trigue 2.1, the Bose MediaMate are blown away. With their lack of a subwoofer and overall poor sounding speakers, Bose can't cut it.
Recommended:
No
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soupcraze
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Member: Soup Enthusiast
Location: Chicago, Illinois
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