It was at a Bose store inside a shopping mall. I don't think the guys working there would get the speakers set up in a wrongful manner. The sound I was hearing was nice, I didn't have a reason to doubt the wiring was wrong. And the room was quiet, not like in a large electronics store filled by lots of people and different brands of equipment.
I hate to be the one to point conspiracy on Bose, but of course they sound good at a Bose store...go figure. There are numerous stories of which Bose uses other audio equipment when demoing their products. In fact, most of the reports come from people who aren't Bose haters at all. Damn, I can't find the post I wanted you to see, but one guy said that during a product demo, he stayed behind the group of shoppers while they left with the demo guy, and he saw that the wires from the speakers weren't going to the main receiver unit (the Lifestyle Home Theater), and he found that instead, the cables lead to a five component rack. There was a preamp of which he couldn't see the brand name because of the low-lighting, but he made out clearly the name Krell, of which looked like an amp. A few minutes later, the Bose guy came back and asked him to leave the room. When asked why they weren't using the Lifestyle system, the man said that the five component rack made it easier for them...
There are lots of other posts about this kind of thing on the web, too. And most of them seem genuine enough - no one seems to hate Bose at all. In my recollection, there were at least a few posters who found that Bose used other audio equipment who were die-hard fans, and were apparently upset with the matter. Unfortunately, I do not live near a Bose store anymore, otherwise, I'd be happy to do some espionage.
Some websites even have reviews on the specs of the speakers, and such, and most of the information is true. I've taken apart an old Accoustimass system (the one with the hidden subwoofer) to verify that the components inside the unit are very cheap - and they are cheap. Honda, listening to a speaker brand's speaker at their own store is like judging MIDI sound modules based on their built-in demo songs. Obvously, the store's rooms are optimized for their own speakers (once again, go figure). This is why I don't want to go to another Bose store again.
If you haven't figured it out yet, I seriously do NOT like Bose at all. They seem to put more efforts on marketing their speakers more than on sound quality. For example, my parents have an old pair of Bose 301s and when compared to the new 301s, they're the exact same - only the newer ones look stylish. But the main reason I do not like Bose is that their prices are way too high, and that they put themselves on the market as "the best." In fact, many people think that Bose is "the best" without actually hearing a Bose speaker - my grandmother is exactly like this. She actually started to argue and yell at me on how Bose is the best, period - and the lady's never heard them in her life... They're ripping people off, and to have a pair of Bose speakers is a status symbol in America ( I don't know how it is in the Philippines). I'll give them this: they sounds better than your average econo-Japanese models, but that's all... they're certainly not worth the price tag.
Bose convinces people that they're the best through marketing. Honestly, when's the last time you've seen a Boston Accoustics commercial on TV, or a set of Paradigm up for a free trial on an infomercial? Never, and you never will. Yet I see Bose commercials on TV constantly, and it's sickening to know how many people feed into this stuff. It took me 2 pairs of speakers to realize that Bose is far from "the best," and at best, they're your average, mediocre speakers. I bought a pair of KLH that were $200 less than the Bose 601 and tried them both at my home... the KLH's put the Bose to shame. It was a night and day difference. On the KLH's I was able to hear cymbal sounds that I normally wouldn't hear on the Bose (on the Bose, they're there, but hardly audible), and there wasn't more bass, but the bass had more quality than the 601s. Also, the midrange was smoother overall. I then took them both back, and decided to try the JBLs, which beat them both (a landslide victory, I might add).
Ok, enough of my novel... lol, I'll try to dig through some forums to link some posts.
EDIT: My post was so anti-Bose, I must give them credit on two speakers. The first is their Bose 10.2 speakers, which were made in the 1980s. I believe that this is Bose's only hi-fi speaker set, as the system is awesome. While it's not up there with the world's best, these babies are nice, and if I see them on Ebay, I will definately snatch them up. The 701s are also pretty good, but the highs leave a little to be desired, as does the midrange - it sounds thin. However, these speakers are much better than Bose's modern day offerings, by a long shot actually.
