Customer Reviews

Bose CineMate Digital Home Theater Speaker System

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

I am very pleased with the sound quality of the Bose Cinemate 2.1 system. The key to gettting the best sound quality is to follow the instructions and disable you TV's speakers, and set the audio output to 'fixed.' Prior to doing that the bass seemed very low. As soon as I made that change, WOW! what a system. I suspect others who have given the system a low rating may have not had the system set up properly. While you can set it up easily with just a few connections, it it important to adjust your TV's audio to ensure you are hearing that unparalled Bose sound.

The Bose Cinemate is not for everyone. I would primarily recommend it for people who currently use their TV's built-in speakers and want an easy two-speaker solution for a mid-size room. I have used the Cinemate for over 6 months and have had no problems whatsoever.

For larger rooms and people who want the best sound, look elsewhere. If you want Bose, I would recommend looking at pairing the Acoustimass 10 or Acoustimass 16 with an Onkyo receiver. For a comparable home-theatre in-a-box (HTIB) solution, also look at Onkyo's solutions. Otherwise, spend some time reading reviews and browsing avsforum.com. The best quality sound will result from piecing together your home theater.

If the Bose Cinemate still appeals to you, here is a list of pros and cons...

PROS
+ Includes a universal remote! This remote can be programmed to control anything (your TV, DVD player, etc.).
+ Easy to set up.
+ Great for music.
+ Looks great, doesn't take up a lot of space.
+ Top-level customer support from Bose. This is one of the reasons why Bose products cost more.

CONS
- No digital input in the US version. If you buy the Japan version, it has digital input. What does this mean? Well, you won't get the best quality simulated surround for HD content or movies with digital sound.
- No stands included. The UFS-20 Bose stands are currently $100 from Bose.
- Works best if you have audio out on your TV or cable box (red and white RCA outputs). Otherwise, it may be hard to use the Cinemate for everything.
- You will not be able to visually tell how loud the volume is. The Bose system does not cooperate with the volume bar on TVs.
- Expensive.

TIPS
+ Set your TV's volume to about 80% and adjust the sound with the Bose remote control. You'll get a better quality sound this way.

I own one of these. I also own a Victorian era house. I am NOT eager to bore holes all over the place to have a 5 or more speaker system. I purchased this system because I like the fact that the 3 speakers with this system are pretty potent. I will say that at lower volume levels, the system is not better than the factory speakers on my TV. However, when you watch a movie like "Gladiator", "Lord of the Rings", "Star Wars", etc, and turn the sound up to Movie theater levels, the system shines VERY well considering that it uses only 3 speakers. Speech is clear even in loud segments with a great deal of music and explosions. The remote control drives everything I have in the cabinet and is ergonomic. Set up was insanely easy. I do agree with one of the previous reviewers about the speaker cable length. It could stand to be at least 5' longer.
Another reason that I bought this system was the fact that I have many friends with various Bose products. None of them have ever complained about anything, except for the Acoustimas Wave Radio eating batteries. Contary to what another reviewer wrote, when you close your eyes you CANNOT TELL where the Acoustimas Module is. It sounds like its everywhere in the room.
For a person that rents movies every now and then, this system will serve it's purpose. I simply don't watch enough movies to merit a massive system. I'm happy with what I've got, and would buy another Bose to replace this one if it failed. My inlaws have a Alpine surround sound system with 5 speakers. This Bose performs equal to the Alpine, but cost less and is much easier to control.

I'm a recording engineer and I was impressed with the cinemate's sound and simplicity. I needed an elegant solution for my media center pc, and the cinemate is just the ticket. My wife didn't want obtrusive speakers in the den, and since I already have a DVD player and PVR built into the media pc, all I needed were speakers and amp. The cinemate is a self-contained system that powers it's own speakers through the bass unit. I was able to simply plug them directly into the media pc. It would have been nice for Bose to include a digital optical "in" but alas the input is analog only.

Some have complained that the bass is weak and the speakers are not as lively as others. However, I found the Bose engineers to be quite ingenious as these speakers are very natural sounding - "accurate" as we engineers would say. Many home theater speakers can sound "hyped", accentuating bass and human voice frequencies (1k-3k Hz). However, good speakers should accurately represent what the recording engineers were hearing in the studio. I'm sitting here listening to "Star Wars - The Phantom Menace" and there is plenty of THUMP when spaceships take off, the music is balanced in the mix, and the dialog is clear. It really sounds quite awesome. The crossover between the satellite speakers and the subwoofer unit is very transparent and smooth. My only comment is that the satellite speakers could be a little brighter at lower volume, but one can easily solve this with some slight eq: maybe a high shelf starting at about 8k. (This is easy to do on a pc.) The brightness problem seemed to go away when the system was turned up. I think the system was meant to run at a healthy volume. It packs a lot of punch and can get quite loud. (For geeks: I don't think this is just the Fletcher Munson effect either. The brightness is the thing that got better with more volume.)

As to the claim of "virtual surround" I think that Bose is going out on a limb on that one. Theoretically it would be possible to have the speakers project to the side walls and then have sound reach you as if they are from rear speakers. However, practically the chance of this happening in a typical den or living room is almost nil. People usually have curtains, hallways, bookshelves along walls and they will most likely absorb reflected rays of sound. In my room, I definitely do not hear the surround effect.

In all, however, I think this is a wonderfully convenient package that sounds great out of the box. Surprisingly, the system has plenty of power and can obtain decent loudness levels. I think the bose engineers knew what they were doing when putting this product together. Thumbs up.

Well I actually bought one. Clean sound. Easy to install. Remote controls everything including Tivo. I have a Sony WEGA which has a nice sound without Cinemate, but the Cinemate definately makes a difference. By the way... if you need to control the bass and treble then switch your audio out to "varible" not "fixed" and turn the volume up to about 80%. Now you can shape the sound to your preference.

I purchased the Bose Cinemate home theater system about 4 months ago and have found it something of a mixed bag. That is not to say it is a bad system, but rather you need to understand your expectations going in before you purchase it. First the positive aspects of the system.

1. Extremely easy setup
2. Good to Very qood quality sound from the system
3. Universal remote works flawlessly with my Go Video DVD/VCR player and Samsung television set.
4. Good workmanship and quality materials used in its construction
5. Super customer support

On the minus side.

1. Only has left/right audio inputs for one device. No provisions for digital coaxial or digital optical inputs.
2. Need to crank up the volume to painful levels to experience any bass effects.
3. Is relatively expensive.

The first negative can be crippling unless you can redirect all sound output from the TV speakers to the Bose system. Otherwise, you are stuck using one and only one device through the Bose. In my case the Samsung only outputs audio through an optical audio cable, so I was left with only being able to use the system through my DVD/VCR. Being that I mostly use the TV for news and video playback, this is not a terrible problem for me, but it could be for somebody who expects lots of inputs for stereo and radio equipment.

Some people have claimed the system has neither the volume or sound quality for large rooms. I can't speak to that statement, but the system has ample power for the living room in my 1500 sq foot home. Sound quality is perfectly fine through my ears and quite an improvement over the stereo sound provided by the TV.

About 3 months into ownership, one of the speakers developed a distortion/feedback that required shipment back to Bose. A quick call to Bose toll free customer support number and I had a new speaker in hand in 10 business days. During the downtime, I went back to using the TV speakers and I quickly realized how spoiled I had become using the Bose. The quality of sound of DVD playback was an order of magnitude better through the Bose theater system.

So in a nutshell, if you want something so easy it is near idiot proof, with good quality construction and good support, the Bose may be just for you. If you are looking for a system that can drive a number of different audio devices, and want true surround sound, then steer clear of this system. The simplicity of of Bose is a double edged sword that limits its versatility.

Recently purchased the Cinemate system to improve sound quality for my new SONY HD TV in our family room which has very good picture but very poor sound. Cinemate is extremely easy to set up and will provide much better sound than most TV speakers. Improved clarity in the speaking parts and much richer musical aspects and effects. Enough bass for family room viewing. It is NOT going to be the equivalent of a media room type system and I don't think it is intended to be. When I want to blast the plaster I go upstairs to that room. It is the perfect system for a multi use room where one member of the family does not want wires, cords and equipment showing all over the place but someone else wants better than average sound. Keeping in mind this sets up about like and as easy as a PC based speaker system and produces nice sound with NO receiver I was impressed. If you buy it for what it is designed to do...there is nothing else like it on the market.

BOSE Cinemate Experience
First of all, I have never purchased a Bose product in my life (lets just say that I always felt that Bose products are overpriced). Well, we just moved to a new house and I am about 80% done with completing a media/office room in my basement for my main home theater (Samsung 56" DLP, Onkyo 700 series receiver, Polk and RBH speakers).

In the meantime we are watching a 32" LCD TV (Polaroid 3232) in our living room. When I bought the Polaroid (for a ridiculously low price), I knew it had a few expected shortcomings. The major shortcoming is the horrible sound from the internal speakers (think clock radio sound)..

So, on somewhat of a whim (I did a little research here and CC) I picked up a Bose Cinemate system for $499 (+ tax). I liked the Bose for its small form factor, clean look, and sound. Let me mention that my wife is totally against having large speakers in the room (that is what the basement is for) and our 20'+ vaulted ceilings really make it tough to have any type of large sound. My wife does not want speaker wire running everywhere, and is against having 5+ speakers in the room. I really thought the Bose would do the trick..

PROS:
- Great form factor and size
- Very easy setup
- Good sound when watching DVD's and cranking the volume


CONS:
- No digital or component hookups (only RCA)!
- No ability to control individual sound settings (treble, bass, etc)
- Lack of depth at low and mid ranges
- Little to no bass through the subwoofer unless the TV volume is cranked up
- DVD's sounded good when the volume was cranked, but there was little improvement to listening to the TV at normal volume settings.

Contrary to what Bose claims, we had a hard time hearing dialogue during TV shows, and kept missing conversations when characters talked low or whispered. The lack of digital inputs should have been a warning sign and the "subwoofer" is anything but unless you have the volume cranked.

I was really disappointed with the sound at normal volume levels. As a test I hooked up my HK computer speakers ($50 speakers) directly to my TV and the sound quality was only slightly worse than the Bose (which cost over $450 more!) Needless to say I packed up and returned the Bose system for a full refund.

Based on my budget I decided to go with:
- Onkyo TXSR304 5.1 receiver
- Polk Audio M10 bookshelf speakers
- Sony WMA250 100watt powered 8" subwoofer

I hooked that system up last night and it completely blows the Bose away. The Polk speakers coupled with the subwoofer have a very clean crisp sound and have much more overall depth and range. We no longer have to crank the volume to hear dialogue and there is much more bass.. In the process of getting a better system, I saved about $150.... My advice is to shop around. You can do much better for $500.

Spouse hooked it up of course without reading all the directions...sound wasn't great but just before I was to pack it up and return it, I called Bose and found out my husband did not (1) turn up the volume on the tv remote and then (2) put the tv on internal mute. Therefore the amp in the tv wasn't working right causing the Bose stuff to pull all it could without a properly functioning amp. Well the Bose crew helped me fix that and now this system ROCKS!!!!!!! It is just as good as the 321 Bose sysyem now. We moved that one to another room so the Cinemate was replacing it...it is really cool now so think about calling Bose if you don't think you are getting what you paid for...they were great.

My wife and I have been wanting to get a home theatere speaker system for some time. We wanted something that would enhance our movies without taking up a lot of space. I did a little research and came up with the cinemate system. Today the wife and I were walking through Target and heard this system on display, we checked it out turned it all the way up even though we were a little embarrassed from all the attention the system impressed us. So we plopped down our 500 and off we went to play with our new toy.

The set-up was a breeze the DVD isn't necessary because the system is so simple but it has some nice demo's on it that are worth checking out.

The system screams quality from the thick wires with custom jacks to the stylish refined but simple remote.

After setting everything up we got ready to be blown away!!!

The first demo went off and it just didnt seem to have much bass, so I tried another and another. I quickly realized the sound was lacking bass as well as any fullness, the accoustamass module seemed to be over powered by the front speakers I had to get right up on it to make sure it was even on.

Here is the kicker, I turned off the bose speakers and turned my TV speakers back on. To my surprise the speakers that I'd been listening to for the last 2 years sounded pretty good, in fact they sounded better than the BOSE system.

The fact is that my TV (60 inch Philips) had much more bass and fuller sound than the BOSE System, while the BOSE did seem be a little clearer it just didnt compare to my regular old TV speakers. I tried all the settings, clicked back and forth about 50 times in multiple scenarios between the BOSE and TV speakers and came to the conclusion that My television produced sound that was right on par with the BOSE and bass that was at least twice as good.

PROS: Neat and tidy wiring
OK sound
Easy setup

CONS: OK sound
Not for larger sets

This home speaker system is not for big screens chances are the speakers inside your set will be better, if you have a small TV and want better sound go for it otherwise look elswhere.