Customer Reviews

Bose Acoustimass 5 - Speaker System, ideal for stereo or home theater use - Black

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I was having issues myself with sound quality with these speakers until I went to Bose.com and read the user guide. These speakers are meant to produce sound both directly and reflectively. If you have all of the elements pointing forward with no surfaces to bounce off of the experience is not satisfying. You need to tuck the sub away in a corner (to reflect off the walls) and the smaller speakers I find work great with one element pointing directly and the other pointing at a wall (each speaker has 2 elements). The sound with the reflection is much richer and satisfying than when everything's pointed directly at you.

Bose seem to elicit a passsionate response whenever their name is mentioned, and I will try to elaborate on my experiences and let the reader decide if these speakers are right for them.

I currently own a set of Bose Acoustimass speakers that I purchased from a friend. The speakers were in excellent shape and I felt lucky to be able to afford Bose a few years ago on my meager salary at the time.

The speakers are definitely room *friendly*, they blend in easily as their size is unobtrusive. That said, after investigating speakers recently for a planned theater upgrade, I now feel that they are lacking.

When I first got my speakers I compared them to a pair I had purchased back when I was in high-school. I didn't know anything about those speakers at the time but was happy with their sound as well(AR Holographic M1's). The results of the comparison left me thinking my ears were deceiving me "my old speakers sound better?" Anyway, I put those thoughts away thinking that I must not understand because "obviously Bose were the best."

Fast forward a couple years, all the while the Bose were up front in my surround system with the old speakers in the rear. That whole time I had no issue with the Bose, they performed well enough. After buying a new TV, I thought it might be nice to upgrade the speakers so I would have the same brand in the front and back. And so began the research.

I spent time listening to number of speakers, including high end and mid level brands at custom shops as well as entry level speakers at Best Buy and Circuit City. I have now come to desparately desire replacing my Bose speakers.

They just sound *thin*, which oddly enough was my initial impression, the one I thought I must not understand. That is the best I can describe it, music on the other speakers just sounded *fuller*, like it had more body.

I will freely admit I did not know what I was missing until I sought it out, but now that I do I feel that my Bose are no longer good enough. I will also say that this is not based on cost, I listened to a number of speakers that sounded much better at the same price, although they are NOT the same size.

In conclusion, I was looking for that fuller sound, willing to devote the floor space to much bigger speakers in order to get it. Some people might not be willing to make the trade of size for sound but for me it was worth it.

Bose Acoustimass speaker systems are a strange animal. You either love them or hate them.

It's a funny thing, This guy was at my house and heard my Quad ESL speakers (electrostatic) ($5,000) with about $6,000 worth of electronics and made the comment that they sounded almost as good as his Bose.

So there you go, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.

Myself, I'm not too keen on Bose and I could go on a tirade about what I don't like about them, but in the end, it's what you think. If they make you happy, then by God, you've made the right choice.

Bose are very colored speakers, bright highs and warm syrupy bass. This is a sound that many people like. The fact that they don't take up much room fits into many lifestyles.

If you like accuracy and want to get closer to real, then try something else.

For me, Bose has a pleasant sound that is nice to listen to at low volume when I just want background sound. I can even think of other uses for these, in non critical applications. I've even considered them for a second TV. They are much better than the speakers that come in TV's nowadays.

For the $399 they are asking for these, you could do much worse. You could also do much better depending on your preferences.

Would I recommend these? Sure, depending on whether someone wanted a small unobtrusive system or whether they liked the Bose sound. If I felt the person was inclined toward accuracy, clarity, and soundstaging, then I would steer them away from these.

Does Bose deserve all the accolades that it receives? Not really. They are very over rated, but still, they're not bad speakers.

I gave these a 3 star rating only because in some circumstances these are perfect for the application. If I were to rate it against my preferences, I would give it a lower rating.

BTW, this applies to all Acoustimass systems.

Oh, there's one more thing...

Bose likes to use the direct/reflecting concept of sound. This has the effect of making the sound more spacious, but it destroys the soundstaging. People in high end audio go to great efforts to eliminate or disperse reflections, because it ruins soundstaging and causes frequency aberrations (nulls and peaks).

Pros: High and mid-range sounds from the cubes are very crisp, especially during gaming. System has a good all-round sound for the xbox 360, dvds and for music but fall short of excellent. The cubes deliver an amazing sound volume for their size and look great on the top of the piano.

Cons: Bose should make it clear that the bass module is not a powered sub-woofer. It does not deliver any where near the lows of a powered sub. This did not matter to me because I planned to add a sub anyway. Bass module is not all that easy to hide.

Other Thoughts: I've read many negative reviews about these (positive as well). I would rate them an 8.5 to 9 on a scale of 10. I played with these quite a while during set-up. Wiring, placement and amp quality are huge variables with this system. If the buyer expects subwoofer lows from the bass module, it won't happen. The bass module is not easily driven, a weak, low current amp won't adequately drive it. I replaced inferior speaker wire with high quality Monster Cable and it made a significant improvement. Lastly, the bass module provides PLENTY of (non-sub) bass when wired and placed correctly.

It may seem strange, but just about all the complaints and praise are valid.
It is necessary to match the right speaker system to the correct needs. I have owned a Bose Acoustimass System for over 10 years. I HATED it at first, until I finall got it adjusted to my 15x21 living room. It took about a YEAR of constant fine tuning, to get it to sound like the demo in the Bose store. Now I can hear the different instruments in a song or movie, firing from different points in my living room. I did feel ripped off by Bose, in the first year of owning this system. I blame Bose for not working with their customers in order to ensure satisfaction. They have a good product, but their staff is geared to sell, sell, sell and no customer satisfaction.

The problem with the Bose Acoustimass 5 system is that it is NOT A POWERED System. Repeat, it is NOT POWERED! You will need an amplifer or receiver. This creates a variable in the sound and creates a host of more wires. People looking for a two satellite system, are not looking for more wiring and complication. They are looking for simplicity.

I originally bought This system to pair with a 40" Samsung LED television in my bedroom. The electronics of the Acoustimass overpowered my bedroom, which is quite large. I had wires and equipment running all over the room. My wife was not happy! I decided to send this unit back and purchase the CINEMATE System which has two speakers and a POWERED bass module. This system is so powerful, that I was forced to moved this system into our recreation room. The sound is now excellent, with the POWERED bass unit.
Bose needs to change the Acoustimass 5 System to a Powered system and it would be ideal for someone that wants the rich Bose sound WITHOUT all the satellites.

BTW, I purchased a quality powered sound bar for my bedroom Samsung led television. Wife is happy and she now makes me happy. :)

i bought these and found them to be simply awesome. i know im not going to be believed when i say this but i literally have this system hooked up to a 2 watt per channel rms amplifier i removed from a crap pair of speakers and it gives me a great full sound. it even gets pretty loud so this tells me that these are VERY efficient speakers. again i realize i wont be believed but its true. i have hooked them up to other amps and they still sound amazing. i love these speakers and enjoy using them daily

I am not an audiophyle, just a music lover. My main system consists of Proac 140 speakers, MF x 150 amp and XRay cd coupled with PSU and MF DAC. I have a Michell Giro turntable. Whats this to do with Bose? may you ask. Well just intended to say that I am used to a middle range audio equipment with pedigree. It hapens that I spend many hours in a private office home, crowded with shelves, books and papers, so that I have no space to position box speakers. Recently I decided to purchase a Bose kit. My amp is a old Pioneer A 400, and a Marantz CD 76 MkII is my source.
My previous speakers were a Solid Ovale set built by B&W. It produced a boxy sound without live or body. Then the Bose kitt was seted up. WOW...WOW. Now my office is full of a rich and involving sound, realistic and detailed. I cant undestand why are people saying there is no bass.... Well I have ears, and years of music listening experience. The results are amaizing. The most impressive is that I have the sensation of presence of musicians performing in the room. Probably stereo image is a bit confusing as is the sound stage in the classical sense of stereo speakers. However is what we got when listening music live. Can someone in a concert hall define the exact posittion of musicians while closing the eyes????. This one is a great speaker set. I cant talk about buid qualities or engineering. Honestly I do not care if this set is based on cheap componets as some argue, since I am much more concerned about its sound, and it sounds lovely

If you're looking for a small footprint, then these are excellent. My wife was tired of the big boxes next to the entertainment center, so we now have the acoustimass module behind the couch and only the cube arrays on the entertainment center. I used a DTS version of Steely Dan's Gaucho to give them a test. They passed with flying colors.

I can't help but wonder if the negative reviews are from people who haven't properly set up the equipment. You must run wires from the amp to acoustimass module, then back to the cube arrays, a total of 4 wires. This is also something you need to consider if you want to hide the sub.

Another thing to keep in mind is that this is not a powered subwoofer. The 3 piece system is intended to replace 2 large speakers, not 2 large speakers and a powered subwoofer. If you're using a powered sub for the x.1 low frequency effects, plan to leave your powered sub in the system. There is no way to send a dedicated x.1 signal to the acoustimass module.

Don't be fooled by the naysayers on the Bose speaker systems, especially the Acoustimass satellite systems. These speakers will blow you away for their size. I bought a Lifestyle system when they first came out back in 1994. I was amazed, and everyone who has never heard a LS system from Bose, is completely blown away by the sound from such a small package. The LS systems are overpriced UNLESS you need and want all their features (and then probably still given you could build your own theather system cheaper with "different" sound, but not necessarily better sound). You're paying for the SMALLNESS, not necessarily the BEST equipment.

These speakers we are talking about for this review my friend purchased after I got my lifestyle system back in 1994. She hooked them to an Okyio (sp) with about 100WTS per channel. Completely blew everyone out of the house, which was about 2000 square foot two story.

If you don't have bass, then I would advised investing in a amplifier with more than 10 WTS per channel. If you want to test the naysayers, just pick a set up and plug them in. If you don't like them, take them back. You will see that 99% of the people who bad mouth Bose have more to say about "Bose marketing, you suck" blah blah than the speakers themselves. Those who say they bought a 35 dollar set of speakers that blew these away are so obviously writing from simply hating Bose it's pathetic. If anyone can show me a set of 35.00 speakers that sound better to any random majority of people than these speakers, I'll send you a 1,000,000 check. But whoever takes me up on this, the reverse is true. You owe me 1 million if your random test fails you--so don't bother me.

Bose prides itself on spartan, small systems with VERY good sound, especially when you look at the size. And the bass in any Bose speaker system will not sound like your local low rider with a 20" bazooka sub in the trunk playing "Taste the Bass" CDs. In other words, you never get "boomie" loose sounding base from a Bose. They are very tight sounding, and if the CD calls for a "sub" frequency, you will REALLY hear it and feel it. Bose isn't into cranking up the volume gains and playing with frequency responses to get unnatural boomie, booingie bass that distorts the original music into a overpowering (headache inducing) Shiitey, boomie, boing, boing, boing sound. The Bose bass feels like someone patting your chest very firmly--tight, thump, thump like, very fast base response. Try the The Prodigy with the song "Diesel Power" and tell me these speakers don't thump. Yeah, right.

I have always valued reviews from users of equipment I am contemplating buying, and I have always been amazed at the negative reviews I read about Bose sound equipment. With this purchase, I own a Bose CD Wave radio, a pair of Bose 151 outdoor speakers, and now an Acoustimass 5 system, with a Bose center speaker on the way. As has always been the case, I am extremely pleased with the product I received.

I bought the Acoustimass system to replace a pair of big old floor speakers on an old stereo system that were just too big for my new digs. The cubes are perfect up on the new entertainment center, and the bass module fits perfectly under a side table in the corner of the room.

As for sound quality, I have been buying quality audio equipment for forty years, and have had great systems throughout the years. The Acoustimass system stands up very well to any speaker system I have owned. I am so pleased with the sound that I have decided to throw out the old stereo receiver, and just purchased a Denon 1911 and will build my home theater around the Acoustimass.

Like I said, I have "No Problems With Bose"!