What's Up Mac?

What's Up Mac?

By Bill Rose

Bose Companion 3 Speaker System

I like music. A lot. In my younger days I spent copious amounts of long green folding stuff on albums and stereo gear and hanging out in the various clubs in my area that played rock music. You may have heard of that area. It's called Asbury Park, NJ and if you are not sure where you might have heard of Asbury Park think the home stomping grounds of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.

Besides the clubs I almost never watched TV at home preferring to listen to music. At one point I had over 1200 albums and played them through a Pioneer system (amp, tuner, cassette player, CD player and a very expensive linear arm turntable all by Pioneer plus a cartridge and needle that alone cost almost $400) that cost almost $4000 and a Polk Audio speaker system with subwoofer (they were first entering the market back then) that cost another $1000.

Those were the days but things change. I have a much better system these days that costs maybe a quarter of what my early top of the line system cost. Equipment gets better and cheaper and sometimes the whole technology changes. Those 1200 albums have been replaced by CDs and digital music. My stereo is now stereos because by adding some good speakers to your Mac you have a kick ass stereo/home theater system. I bought into the whole "Digital Hub" concept that Steve Jobs trotted out to MacWorld in 2001. My Mac was primarily a productivity tool but with the advent of MP3 digital music and iTunes plus movies both streaming and digitized my Mac paradigm shifted. My Mac became a digital entertainment hub.

Of course I had all the pre-requisites for a digital hub in my Mac itself but one of the key additions to my Mac was the Bose Companion 3 speakers I added 4 years ago. Paired with my 21.5" iMac (8 GB RAM, 1 TB HD 3.06 Intel Core 2 Duo) I now have the a wonderful Digital Hub setup. My Bose speakers made a huge difference with quality high fidelity sound for my music, movies and games.

The Bose Companion 3 speakers, two satellites and a powered subwoofer, were not cheap and to be honest you have a lot of choices out there that can do a wonderful job. I have the Bose Companion 2 speakers connected to my bedroom TV and they are marvelous and at $99 a pair they are a bargain compared to the $249 I spent on the Companion 3 series. Audioengine, Altec Lansing, Harman Kardon, JBL and Logitech have impressive computer centric speakers systems too ranging in price from $325 for the top line Audioengine A5B to $99 for the Logitech Z523 Speaker System. Apple has carried the Harman Kardon Soundsticks III ($169) in their retail stores since they first opened.

Speakers are a matter of personal taste and the size of your wallet but one key feature is that they be powered. Speakers that use your USB port to power up tend to be far less expressive than powered speakers. The test is a piece of music you know well that has a lot of components to it and a lot of musical range. Play it at a low volume setting and see how it sounds. Good speakers sound great at low volume settings while cheap speakers trick you with volume that masks a lack of dynamic range and timbre.

Add a good pair of speakers to your Mac and you are on your way. I listen to music while I work so good speakers make that experience far more pleasurable. Bose has a little hockey puck On/Off control so all I have to do is lightly touch it and the sound mutes if I get a phone call. Once I get tired of actually working I can watch movies and TV shows I have purchased through the iTunes Store or tap into the movies and TV shows I have digitized using Wondershare Video Converter ($69) for the Mac.

Bose has made their reputation on high quality and affordable speakers that accentuate spatial sound to simulate higher end speaker systems. The sound quality I get for movies depends on the movies themselves but uniformly the quality is excellent. My office is very small so I don't need a lot of sound but the powered amp (12.5 watts per channel) is more than adequate. For larger spaces Bose has a Companion 5 series ($399) that has a little more oomph.

I had Altec Lansing speakers on my system before this and they worked fine though the quality of the Bose is far superior. Of course it should because I spent $79 on those Altec Lansing speakers. ; )

As I said before though just add any good speaker system to your Mac and then sit back and enjoy.

* Bose no longer makes the Companion 3 Series but you can still find them for sale. They continue to make the Companion 2 and Companion 5 speaker sets along with their MusicMonitor and Companion 20 2 speaker systems for computers.