I’ll admit, I think I’ve become a Bose snob. Whenever I plug in a set of Bose speakers, at least as far as their desktop line is concerned, I’m impressed. Each time the experience gets a little bit better. The Bose Companion 5 Multimedia Speaker System was no exception in bolstering the grip Bose seems to have on my multimedia perception. In fact, my wife, who could care less what speakers we have for our music listening pleasure said “those sound really really good” during the maiden listening voyage.
The speakers sound great, are designed very nicely with what feels like quality construction and look extremely nice on the desk. One of my favorite things about the Bose desktop systems , apart from how they sound, is the remote volume control with touch sensitive mute button. I use this constantly throughout the day.
Something a bit strange with this set is the USB connection to the computer. Instead of using the traditional 1/8″ plug into the computer’s sound card, a USB connection accomplishes the same thing. At first I had trouble getting this to work. A quick scan through the directions (yes, in typical male fashion, I avoided directions at nearly all costs) solved all problems quickly for connection to both a Mac and PC.
I love Bose speakers and would highly recommend the Companion 5’s as well as the Companion 3’s to anyone looking for an elegant set of quality sounding speakers for listening to music on the desktop.
It’s all about the klipsch baby….
Klipsch computer speakers are not CLOSE to the quality of the bose companion 5. While I do not feel that Bose ,in general is
in any way a high end audio company. This system does a lot right.
While the bose 5 are far from perfect they are simply the best computer music system on the market !
tech notes: Bose says not to use an any equalizer as system has it own BUT they DO need a fine adjustment which involves lowering the high freq. and slightly raising the low end. (EX. rock eq needs high sounds to be carefully lowered and the lows freq. also needs to slightly to be lowered which is still deeper then factory bass setting) note: For electronic Ambient and certain other types of music, no outside eq should be used (only the system’s ‘Active equalization’)
Klipsch is overly loud and produces limited detail and distortion at higher volumes and while the bose satellite speaker drivers (4 if you pay attention) r too small and not not high end, when connected to the amazing bose circuitry they SHINE on the majority of music. The Klipsch sub is too powerful and loud for a bedroom and also not that accurate.
Altec Lansing line also does not compare to this system.
Lastly, to anyone who may buy these $$ speakers like I did make
sure you put the computer volume (not pod volume) at between 50-70% max as anymore will create some distortion.
I heard these speakers the other day and they are LOUD!!! £300 is the pricetag put well worth everypenny
I have a Dell XPS coputer with the best X-FI sound card. I purchased the Bose Companion 5 speakers and learned my expensive sound card is not being used by the Bose is there a way to adapt the USB to an analog adapter so I can plug the speakers in to the sound card?
Hey,
I really liked ur feedback on Companion 5, but incase u’ve missed it, Klipsch has awesome Bass, which seems to be missing in Bose Companion 5. It may sound good/ its specatcular if u want to watch movies but wud fail on thumping music… 🙂
Adios…
Varun
PS: For thumps! Klipsch rocks! for everything else Bose Companion 5 sounds like da best companion 😀
I have a set of Bose’s new companion 5 desktop speakers and they are AMAZING. I totally aggre with what you said about Bose. They Rule.
I bough the companion 5 for my Dell XPS and I’m very disappointed since I get lots of blips and static, I called Bose and was on the phone with their technical team and we tried everything in the book without any success, so they replaced the speakers for me (after a 3 week wait) and I still got these blip sound.
the interesting thing is that this only happens when I connect the Speakers via USB, however when using a 3.5mm 2 way acable I don’t get these blips and static.
did anyone experiance the same thing?
bose are awesome!, i love mine!, never will part with them i have had them for a year and have been used every single day from listening to music to watching movies, just one word awesome!.
peace.
i have a sound card and didnt know you could get the two way cable, so i took my sound card out. but i have used the usb and there have been alot of power cables and what not near the bose speakers, and i have never experianced what you have had.
might be faulty batch mate.
peace
yeah baby i want those speakers righ noWW~!
I got my Bose companion 5 today. I can’t get them to work, (no sound). It’s driving me crazy !
Are you plugging them into a Mac?
I bought my companion 5 speaker set about 2 yeras ago.
I love them! ..but lets be honest. They do not deliver 5.1 surround sound experience!
They are perfect if you have limited space and/or hate cables and wires.
They work on both mac and win OS. I have not tried them on other OS like lynux or ubuntu.
regards,
r
Uhhhh, I’m pretty sure my $150 audioengine a2s that own that bose nonsense. They wooden housing, silk tweeters, and kevlar woofers. Vs bose which has plastic and paper, haha. Also, it’s silly to be a bose snob because, uhh, any real audiophile will think you’re a moron (bose is known for producing speakers that sound like a cheap sony boombox at hi-fi price)
Your the king of backward thinking person who lives in the past and is scared of moving forward the kind of person who buys primative things like people who still think BMW with its 1900s rear wheel drive is better than Audis Quattro for example.So guess you should put your head back in the sand and listen to your vintage crap!
I have been using Bose Companion 5 for over 2 years now on linux (Ubuntu). They work perfectly fine.