Customer Reviews

Bose 321 GS II DVD home Entertainment system

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

While out searching for a decent sound system for our home theater. We began to realize our limitations. 1st, there is no clear back wall for us to mount rear surround speakers. 2nd, there is no crawl space or attic to run cabling nor do we have carpet to hide unsightly wires.

These setbacks led us to the Bose 321 media center. I found this product basically by accident and was really impressed with the sound quality. We picked one up and set it up immediately.

The system has been pretty flawless, only thing I would change physically is the cable that connects the Sub unit to the media center could have been a bit longer to better suit the directions. It requires the unit to be 3 feet from the TV, but never took into consideration that someone might want it on the opposite side of the TV from the media center. If this was a standard optical cable or some other form of cable, it would have been no problem. This however is a propriatary cable that I have never seen before :shrugs:

I also have been having trouble programming my Tivo remote to work with this unit. It appears that BOSE has stuck to the same IR schematics throughout it's history in making audio equipment. Very few of their receivers use IR, as they have opted for the more versitile RF models. However, their standard remote code does not work with this unit. I have been unable to track down a working code for my Tivo thus far.

All in all I would definately reccomend this to anyone with space limitations as well as constructual problems that might limit the possibilities for your home theater system.

I also bought this system primarily for the Bose name and quality, it did sound much better and deeper in the store, it was easy to hook up and at first was impressed by the ease of use and sound, but then I started experiencing problems with the unit freezing during movies. the only way to get it to play again is to unplug the unit from the wall and "reboot" and then spend 10 minutes trying to get back to the place you left off. After reading some other reviews about the 321 system, I see that this is a common problem. It will freeze on some movies and not at all on others, it makes no sense whatsoever. I also own movies in my DVD collection that it refuses to play at all, but will play fine on my 8 year old Pioneer DVD system. I am not satisfied with this system at all and consider it way over priced for performance and craftsmanship. I will replace this unit next year, but it will not be a Bose. Stick with the speakers from Bose, not the electronics. Lesson learned!

For 4 months, I thought this system was 'okay.' Sound is mediocre when you get it home - not like in the store. There is no Eject button on the remote control. I lived with these minor problems even though I should have gotten more for my $900. Then, I started getting Format Unsupported Errors on every DVD I place into the unit. Many times, I can't get them out for 1-2 days. I have completely stopped watching DVDs since this is now hardwired into my home theater system. I would like Bose to replace it, but after reading the pervasive problems online, I think it's better just not to buy this system at all. Don't get fooled. This system will ruin Bose's already poor reputation for video hardware - and will waste your money.

We have had our 3-2-1 for almost a year and I wish we had investigated more before our purchase. The sound on the 3-2-1 is great but if you want to watch movies...forget it. "Format unsupported" or "can't read disc" will be what you are looking at instead of your movie. The system will not play some DVDs at all and will play some one day and not the next. I wish we had never bought this system!

Overall I've been happy with the sound from this unit in my relatively small living room.

However, I have experienced several of the software quirks mentioned by other readers. When playing DVDs, the unit will periodically lock up, requiring a hard reset to function again. The system also occasionally gets into a state where the sound has a deteriorated "tinny" quality -- this also goes away with a power cycle of the unit. Defects like this are a bit disappointing from a relatively mature (second edition) product from a name like Bose.

One tip is that while the system ships with relatively short custom cords for connecting the unit to subwoofer and the subwoofer to the speakers, longer versions of both cables can be ordered directly from Bose for relatively nominal cost (one was free and one was less than $50 if I recall).

My DVD's (old olds and new ones) would stop alittle beyond half way into the movie. Called Bose. They
sent me a DVD disk to upgrade the systems firmware. Upgrading the firmware was easy. But after the upgrade, ALL CDs and DVD's were flagged by the system as unsupported format. SO I put the DVD firmware upgrade they mailed me into the system AGAIN. This time the CD's played and the DVD played. I went back to play a CD later and ...sigh, once again got an 'unsupported format' warning and it wouldn't play. So I stuck the firmware DVD in AGAIN, ...but this time it didn't work. So I opened the tray, and tried again to start the music CD, this time pushing
the remote control PLAY button several times in a row, and it worked. What a finicky piece of equipment.
Considering dirt cheap DVD players play everything, this near 1000 dollar system is really quite a disappointment. Bose needs to offer a STURDIER replacement for the box that plays the DVDs, ....but as for the speakers and the subwoofer, they are fine. I agree with everyone about the sound quality, its good.

I have just set up our new 321 GS Series II DVD. I concur, the cable jacks want to fall out - but I just bought a better set from Radio Shack and cured that problem. The manual was also confusing - and clearly gives incorrect information regarding set up for best possible video results (leading to a whacked out video with green skies, etc. until I figured out the problem). Two major gripes - the "system" button on the remote is recessed deep into the face of the remote making it difficult to access (maybe they do this on purpose?). And some DVDs, which work just fine in other players, will stop at some point during the program and you get this bogus "can not read disc" error message. The trouble shooting portion of the manual (which is somewhat skimpy) suggests the disc is dirty (not, it is brand new) or defective (again, not, since the movie plays just fine in other players). Don't waste time going to their online customer support and sending them an email -

When everything is working correctly, it's an awesome system.

I've used the Bose 3-2-1 GS Series II DVD system for over six months now. The DVD unit is outstanding and possessed all the inputs/outputs I needed to integrate with digital cable HD service and another DVD/VCR (including optical in). The surround effect is excellent, although you should be prepared to fiddle with speaker direction/placement if you wish to maximize the surround sound effect. I have a five-speaker surround system in another room, and the 3-2-1 unit comes very, very close to approximating its sound (but I didn't have to climb in the attic and string wires all over earth to receive the effect with the Bose). It's expensive, but Bose quality, ease of use and ease of installation justify the cost in my mind.

I just got mine yesterday and played with it all day. The sound quality is there as I thought it would be! I like the looks and design of the system, the remote is easy to use and once I programmed all my other components for the first time I actually can put away other remotes since this one actually does work all the functions on my TV and SAT box that I regularly use.

I will say I am replacing a Yamaha 5.1 with Bose/JBL speakers all around and of course I don't get that behind the head sound movement but man this thing is very impressive when you look at the two little speakers producing the sound.

If there is a down side it would be no HDMI output (so I took away a star) but I get around that by leaving my Sat box plugged in to the TV with the HDMI cable while running the sound through the Bose unit. If you are using the book and do not have a lot of experiance in hooking up systems it does lack in clear explanation all hook up options. I have not watched the DVD supplied yet and will this weekend.

I see some strong complaints about no headphone jack, well so what I didn't buy a 900.00 system so I could listen to it on headphones so that is not an issue to me.

I will continue to play with it and do appropriate feedback as things developed but I am very pleased with it so far.

Sound is fine and it is nice to have an all-in-one system. I have had it a week now and have discovered two missing options: an audio out connection from the media center (which is useful for headphone users) and zooming capability for DVDs. The BOSE technical person said the "engineers were going a different route" when leaving out a headphone jack. Don't know what route that would be...except the one that leads back to the store. The puzzling thing is that the SONY and Samsung all-in-ones also lack an audio out. There must be an over-riding reason, but I don't know what it is.

BOSE is a company that is know for headphone technology, so one might think they would start with a headphone jack and build up from there.