I didn't really forget about it, I never knew about it, but everything about this is cool looking. I'm a big fan of square CD players, I think they look hundreds of times better than the egg shaped ones and this whole systems has a semi-heavy duty, serious vibe about it. Does anybody have this cool system, definately not cheap, over $1300.00 USD back in 1984. It looks like the ridges on the speakers mesh with the top of the amplifier, and where are the cables? Maybe FM broadcasting? This was the beginning of Bose taking over the home theatre speaker segment, everyone I knew had their little speakers around the TV set. While Bose's Quality is questionable, they did put a lot of money into the cosmetic design, most of their equipment is very nice looking.
The Bose RM-1 RoomMate, this is pretty interesting, this version has the amplifier in the speaker. At $260 USD it was probably a nice unit, I'll have to keep my eyes open now that Bose Equipment is showing up more on the used market.
It looks like Bose went 2nd generation on the Bose RoomMate II Compact Speaker System, these are interesting but they were very expensive back then.
I've been digging into the Bose RoomMate Speakers and found this nugget with the Apple IIgs Bose RoomMate Version. The MacIntosh had some legs at this time but it was expensive, this version of the Apple II had a huge library of software and was still an effective word processor, kid's homework computer and game machine. This was great marketing for Bose to tie in with two iconic products, beforehand they were known for their funky speakers and matching EQ, now they were going head first into the mini-speaker/home theatre revolution that followed in a few years. I still wonder if there was any Marantz tie-in, some of the Bose 1980's Equipment was made at Marantz's Miyako Factory. If you love old computers, here's the full issue https://archive.org/details/IIgs_Buyers_Guide_1988_Winter/mode/1up
It looks like toward the end of the golden age of pocket stereos, Bose was looking for a new market for these speakers and computers were the perfect product. At $299.00 USD they were pretty expensive although they were probably discounted to around $199.00.
Ah, the signature Bose sound.....All muddy boomy bass, distant mids, no highs. "Active equalization" to hide the fact that the speakers themselves were built cheaply and lacked tweeters.
People liked that sound and women loved the small footprint. I'd even say that they severely hurt hi-fi stereo at an already difficult time for audio in the late 80s. The wives would look at a tiny Bose Speaker System and say "why do we have those huge (vintage) speakers in our living room." Stereo lovers were forced to downsize because "it sounds the same." I used to go to a lot of ice rinks that originally had nice sound systems, I'd see Altec Lansing, JBL, Frazier Speakers, from the 60's-early 70's up in the rafters. During the early 2000's all of the rink managers wanted to upgrade to Bose, luckily I was able to save a lot of the old speakers from the trash.
In 90 or 91 I interviewed for a job selling Bose Wave radios door to door. It was actually a Bose contractor. Bose themselves didn't want to hire salespeople. So they hired a contractor to cold-call people and persuade them to schedule a visit from "audio specialists" who would come over and demo the Wave radio against their current hifi system. It seemed really stupid. But in retrospect I guess it wasn't difficult to make it sound better than the shitty Yorx or Amstrad rack systems most people had during those years.
That's interesting Reli, door to door audio. The wave radio seems to have a following, over in Japan they still go for decent money. I used to be a delivery driver in the 90's and I'd love to hear Paul Harvey's afternoon story on the radio, his stories were great, usually about someone famous doing something in their childhood (look them up), but he always was plugging the wave radio as the best sounding audio bar none.
My brother in law bought one of those 20th Anniversary Macs with Bose audio. Cost more than $7K back in 1997.
Never seen that one Reli, you have to love the dual branding. I wonder what that computer is going for now-a-days, it's pretty cool looking but man, that was big money even now over 20 years later.
Found some more info on this, I guess they wanted some nice speakers to go with the D-5 so people at trade shows could actually listen to the CD's without headphones. From 1986 MART Magazine (for retailers)
Found an ad for Bose RoomMates II from 1990, they must have been pretty popular being around for several years.
