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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday September 11 2019, @04:19AM   Printer-friendly
from the maybe-do-some-testing dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Hoity-toity hi-fi purveyor Bose has inadvertently silenced a bunch of its own soundbars with a recent firmware update.

The problems were first reported on the Bose support forum two weeks ago and affect the company's Soundbar 700.

Users connecting the overpriced telly speaker via HDMI are being advised to use optical connections instead as a temporary fix. Support staff have also suggested rebooting the speaker every time the TV is turned on or contacting the telly's manufacturer – ideas not broadly welcomed by Bose customers.

The Reg reader who tipped us off complained: "In typical Bose fashion thus far, they attempted to blame TV and other device firmwares and suggested asinine resolutions that seem as positive as jumping up and down on one foot to solve the issue. Lastly they suggest using optical cables rather than using what has been [the] working solution of HDMI ARC and CEC for many people since inception of the product."


Original Submission

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 11 2019, @04:39AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 11 2019, @04:39AM (#892534)

    Serves them right, dang fools.

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 11 2019, @04:48AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 11 2019, @04:48AM (#892537)

      This happens when you don't apply firmware updates over Monster Cables.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 11 2019, @05:43PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 11 2019, @05:43PM (#892821)

      Jealous much?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 11 2019, @05:00AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 11 2019, @05:00AM (#892539)

    Read that clever headline and thought I was on the wrong site!

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 11 2019, @07:21AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 11 2019, @07:21AM (#892580)

      The "clever headline" is just a variation on a very old audio catch phrase,
              "No highs, no lows, must be Bose."
      Must have heard this for the first time c.1980(?)

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 11 2019, @03:05PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 11 2019, @03:05PM (#892715)

        Could it be the fine article, were you to hover over the link if not actually read it, actually links to the register?

        and here i thought dns prefetching was bad. user apathy is worse

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 11 2019, @05:04AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 11 2019, @05:04AM (#892540)

    Support staff have also suggested rebooting the speaker every time the TV is turned on

    Once more, the old tried-and-true solution of turning it off and on again saves the day...

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 11 2019, @05:34AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 11 2019, @05:34AM (#892551)

    It is a miracle of marketing that these pieces of junk sell so well and usually at a high price.

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Mykl on Wednesday September 11 2019, @06:31AM (1 child)

    by Mykl (1112) on Wednesday September 11 2019, @06:31AM (#892570)

    Well done to those Bose customers who had the bravery to call out the stupidity of this, and to admit to themselves that this may not actually be the best product on the planet.

    My experience with Bang & Olufsen a few years ago confirmed that the emperor really has no clothes. My wife bought me a set of wireless headphones. They were in-ear buds with a cable connecting the two (I think they were supposed to be worn with the cable running behind your head across the nape of the neck). Whenever you turned, the fabric-lined cable would catch on the collar of your clothing, ripping the headphone out of one or the other ears. The things would struggle to maintain a Bluetooth connection to my phone (all of 1-2 feet away), but worst of all, the sound quality was crap. Fail all around.

    The effort required to return these was nothing short of horrific. Worst customer experience I have had in years.

    • (Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 11 2019, @12:50PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 11 2019, @12:50PM (#892653)

      Life lesson. Don't let the wife buy you your toys. Lest you get pretty instead of functional. I bet you look cute with that little cloth wire dangling from your pierced ears. ;)

      Gordon

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Rupert Pupnick on Wednesday September 11 2019, @05:23PM (1 child)

    by Rupert Pupnick (7277) on Wednesday September 11 2019, @05:23PM (#892804) Journal

    Engineering fuckups come in all shapes and sizes, but DOA firmware updates are very high on the list of Big Ones, second only to issues that affect customer safety (such as fires, for example). This is a symptom of major dysfunction and lack of visibility and control in engineering and operations.

    As to hoity-toity, I think those days are gone because there really isn't a hoity-toity market left. Bose used to distinguish themselves in the cabinet speaker market (and maybe noise cancelling headphones), but because of the incredibly media rich, mobile accessible world that we live in, that market has gone away. No one sits in front of a pair of speakers to listen to an album or CD anymore, so Bose now has to compete with the likes of Beats, Skullcandy, etc.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 12 2019, @02:08AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 12 2019, @02:08AM (#893023)

      > No one sits in front of a pair of speakers to listen to an album or CD anymore,

      I beg to differ. While I use headphones most of the time, it's really special to wait until everyone else has left the house, put on an album/CD and then sit down in front of my B&W speakers, similar to these, https://www.ebay.com/c/927546539 [ebay.com]
       

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