There might be a reason to by Bose

My work requires me to go to various offices, so I get to check out people's workplaces.

And there was this guy with a pair of Bose Companion 2 sitting on his desk.

So just now I thought, if I were to have a pair of speakers at my workplace, what would it be?

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For a while, I couldn't think of anything but the Bose.

I'm definitely not going to have bookshelves sitting on my work table, so something small is necessary.

Creative T40? Too big. T20? Too muffled and not enough bass and slightly too big. I-Trigue 2200? Not enough bass. HD50? Overpriced crap. Anything below T20 and I-Trigue 2200 sounds too horrible for consideration. So T20 would be the only alternative which is pushing the various limits a little, and considering it's just at the starting point of PC audiophile category in both performance and price.

Then remembering the Audioengine A2 brought me a revelation. It's a sure choice for small and compact speakers at $299, because it was the only one with any amount of bass and also great overall sound quality to boot. It will never win my current speakers, but at 2.75-inch vs more than 5-inch, and that the Atoms will be more expensive factoring in shipping and amp, and you won't need too good speakers at your workplace, the A2 might just be my choice. It's not very clear or clean, the bass is pretty uncontrolled, but who cares since it still sounds quite normal.

Subwoofers are a no-no. And even with subwoofers, the requirement of small satellites stay, so MX5021 is out. And the sub must be on the floor, so lifestyle products like the harman/kardon Jellyfish Soundsticks are out too. (They sound suck anyway) I'll never get the Creative T3 because despite the claims of its supporting flock of hyping sheeps, the sound is FUBAR and will never be audiophile sound. So no need to talk about it beating the Bose Companion 3, matching it is already a big problem; that one actually has some redeeming points. And I believe that the frequency gap in the T3 is bigger than in Bose, and the good part for Bose is that the gap is less audible.

So enough of T3 bashing and A2 praising, if I were a normal person who wants to have a bit of quality sound in a small package and didn't know about the A2, Bose would be my best choice.

Yes you didn't read that wrongly, Bose would be my best choice. Because there really isn't any better choice out there. Unless you can name a pair of better speakers for $199, in which case I'd gladly ask you to share with the whole world.

As for Bose Companion 2 vs T40, I'd go for the Bose, even though the T40 is more expensive.

So there you have it, Bose isn't the most overpriced shit in audio.

Small size, big sound. Sounding acceptable with a small footprint, add the famous name, no wonder it's the best speakers to many. Not everybody can put up with big bookshelves beside their monitors.

And this is the market segment I want to attack should I become an engineer in this field. Small, compact, and portable speakers that do not sound like sh!t. Not many choices out there. I'm probably going to need a lot of SRS's technology for this.