Customer Reviews

Bose (43478) LIFESTYLE 48 Home Entertainment System - Series IV - (Black)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The Bose(R) Lifestyle(R)48 is a very nice system. I have had the system for about 3 weeks and have given it a lot of consideration. First let me say that I should have done the research that I am going to share with you all before I purchased the unit. Nevertheless here is my review.

Pros

First let me say that I strongly recomend you doing a lot of research before buying this product. The system is a very good surround sound system and will impress you in the store because it is designed to impress you. The demos that are ran at the time of purchase are designed to pull out the best in the system, however when you get the product home it does not sound the same. The VS-2 Enhancer works very well and allows you to upscale your DVD player to 1080. The size of the cube speakers are very small and can not even be seen sometimes. The setup is very easy and hooking the entire system should not take more than one hour with no audio experiance at all. the music library is kinda nice, not very user friendly but does the job. In the right conditions the system does sound very good and is very powerfull.

Cons.

The price is the first thing that sticks out. The unit is very pricy. This is where I learned everything the hard way. After not being happy with the amount of bass, I went to check out a few other units at my local Best Buy. I was greatly displeased after speending about 3 hours in the store with a Home Theater expert to find out I could have done so much better. I built from scratch the best in home theater system that could have been built for $1896.00. That system included a reciever that supports 4 HDMI outs and 4 HDMI ins. 4 optical outs and 4 optical ins. 7 speakers with a 12inch sub. The system also included a blu ray player, a ipod with the dock as well as 4 HDMI cables and 4 optical cables. The system also included many other things as well, I was also even able to purchess 3 Blu-ray movies.

Conclusion

The Lifestyle(R) system does sound very good but is very over priced. At best the system is only worth about 1500.00. While doing research I found that many people were saying that Bose products were made from cheap parts, so i took apart the entire system. AND ITS TRUE. The most expensive parts of the system are the speakers and they are made out of the cheapest materail. Once again like I said before you cant deny that the system does sound good, but if you push any type of power, you will blow a speaker soon. When you buy a Bose product, you are paying mostly for the name. Before buying this unit I would make sure you do your homework, as well as I would look at some of their other systems. The V-series works much better if you alrady have a blu-ray player and other units with HDMI

HAPPY HUNTINGS.

CEO

Can't complain about the sound that this system puts out, it's great. However, one of the strong selling points of the system is the flexibility that the VS-2 video enhancer provides, which comes with several of the Lifestyle systems.

The concept of the VS-2 sounds great, but in my configuration, it's a paper weight. I have a DirecTv HD-DVR, which can output video from 480i to 1080i. However, when I hook up HDMI from the DVR to the VS-2, and HDMI from the VS-2 to the television, the only way I can get the video signal to the TV is to configure the HD-DVR to put out 480i. So, I basically have to have the HD-DVR downgrade 1080i shows to 480i, just to have the VS-2 upgrade it back. I will have to resort to using composite video from the VS-2 to the television (though I have not tried this yet)to get things to work right. Not using the VS-2 is out of the question, as I can't see the Lifestyle 48's controls (i.e. music library listing, etc...) without it. I tried to argue with the Bose installer about the HDMI incompatibility, but he said not to worry about it, and use Component video, which he said offers a much better video signal than HDMI (ya right).

So, I give it 4 stars for sound, 1 star for video, and a -1 star for false advertising regarding the VS-2 (and the installer giving me false information to make the VS-2 work)

I bought Bose Lifestyle 48 System over a year ago. Overall video and audio are good, but minor problems include:
a) No Blue-Ray capability for DVD's
b) Poor synchronization of remotes for peripherals like TV & cable; despite what Bose store reps tell you, you can't control eveything with one push of the button - you might as well keep all your remotes.

However, MAJOR problem has to do with UMUSIC system:
One of primary selling points used by Bose store reps is telling you that you can load 200 CDs into system, the Bose will store & remember them all, and by Gracenote technology you can create infinite playlists based on music preferences, and never have to load/reload CD's again. (technology is much like iTune Genius Mix).

Sounded great at the time to me so I bought it, and spent COUNTLESS hours (60? 100?) loading CD's (each takes 10-15 minutes), categorizing them, then training the presets to play what I want (e.g. I don't want Beach Boys singing their version of "Silent Night" when I want to hear a jazz mix...)

Then, one day, our power went out. Only for 10-15 minutes, tops. WIPING OUT ALL MY SAVED CD'S. Now there is no stored music. I talked to Bose rep, at his recommendation sent it to their service center (at my cost), and spent over $150 for them to replace hard drive, AND THEY COULD NOT RECOVER MY STORED MUSIC.

So basically right now I have a basic DVD player with a decent sound system. Needless to say I was P.O.'d. It will be FAR less traumatic for me at this point to connect up my iPhone & play my easily-personalized playlists from that than to waste another month of my life reloading CD's into Bose.

Bottom line: don't waste your money on this turkey. Or your time.

I Purchased the Lifestyle 48 when it first came out. Did not take long to see lack of newer video formats, but I could live with that. I am very happy with sound performance and have no complaints, and don't care about what material speakers are made of. They sound great and no issues. I have had remote control working the unit issues and they sent me a new remote no charge, but still operates inconsistently. The big complaint and maybe this is a component quality issue, I am getting a hard drive error message and Bose said the only fix is to send unit back and they will do a complete refurbish, for $170 dollars and I pay shipping to them. I have used the hard drive very little and this is poor performance for a premium priced product. Now if they were going to upgrade the video to HDMI on this refurbish then I say that would be OK. I hope I can use as a very high priced speaker system, but the Bose tech could not say that the unit will continue to work even if I don't use hard drive. VERY POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE and VERY UNHAPPY CUSTOMER>

I bought my Lifestyle 48 a little over one year ago. The system sounds and works great and I enthusiastically give it a 5 star rating.

Setup was a breeze. I agree with much of what Philippe "Phil Reviewer of things" said in his review. I am using Comcast cableTV and had no problems connecting the system to my Sony XBR using the VS-2 video enhancer. The Lifestyle 48 system includes a setup disk that automatically calibrates each speaker and subwoofer to 5 locations in your room to ensure the audio is optimal. The system delivers stunning sound, with great depth and realistic, distortion-free surround sound. If possible, you should really demo the Bose speakers in the quiet comfort of a Bose store. Don't believe everything you read in these reviews. You really need to personally experience the clarity and crispness of the jewel speakers and just-right, undistorted bass. Decide with your ears. I did and after researching and listening to many other systems costing more and less I found the Bose Lifestyle 48 out performed them all. My only disappointment was the Lifestyle DVD player. After I got the Sony XBR HD TV, the "regular" DVD player in the Lifestyle 48 produced expected average picture quality. For little money (not sure yet which direction HD DVD tech is going) I purchased a 1080p Upscaling DVD player with HDMI output which looks much better. I use the DVD-CD player in the Bose mainly to store new CD's. (The new systems have offer the upgraded DVD player)

To date, I have loaded over 200 CD's. I have not encountered any hardware of software problems. The Bose uMusic "artificial intelligence" approach to cataloging music, customizable genre presets and nicely detailed music library information database, and a long list of other usable features really make this system a joy to use. I recently added a Boselink AL8 wireless "transmitter" to the Lifestyle 48 and a Wave radio with an AL8 "receiver". I use the Wave radio in my bedroom, one floor above where I have my Lifestyle 48 system. Using the Personal music center II remote control (the one with the small LCD screen) I can access my music library on my Lifestyle 48 system from my bedroom and play it back through the Wave radio. The AL8 transmitter can accommodate a total of 14 remote (receiver) locations.

The Bose Lifestyle 48 is a great surround sound audio system. It's customizable and expandable to meet just about anyone's need. Bose offers excellent quality and stands behind their product. I purchased my Bose equipment from their store in Columbia, MD. These folks are knowledgable, friendly, professional, and true audio "geeks" who love everything audio-visual and are there to show you Bose technology, and answer your questions not just sale you stuff. Over the past year, I have made routine and not-so-routine calls to Bose tech support and they have always provide excellent, patient service.

I love Bose. I used to sing their praises like a blind follower.
"The best audio anywhere! It is unbeatable!"
Well, the audio is awesome, but their video is crap.
The Lifestyle 48 can't play DVD or Netflix or anything without something going wrong with the video.
Multiple calls to customer service is making me wish I didn't pay thousands of dollars for this.
Please. I've learned from other Amazon reviews in the past, BUY SOMETHING ELSE!

I live in a high rise condo and hence a system with small footprint, but good sound quality for movies and cable was very important. I have the following sources feeding into the Bose 48 system:

1. LG BH 200 Blu Ray/DVD Player
2. Apple TV
3. Cox HD DVR
4. Polk Xrt 12 XM radio
5. Sony Digital Photo Album (not used much after getting Apple TV).

PROS:

1. Accepts a wide variety of audio formats
2. uMusic music playback quality is excellent since it preserves the original CD quality.
3. AdaptIQ really makes the sound all enveloping in my living room/dining room where it is set up.
4. Runs cool and hence can be placed inside a cabinet with no problems.
5. Super reliable and operating it, even with all the systems feeding it is easy.
6. Sound stage is impressive and both movies (I watch mainly Apple TV HD content and Blu Ray sound great).
7. Nice, small footprint speakers.
8. Nice thumping bass (the Acoustimass speaker has to be place correctly for best impact).
9. Tremendous flexibility when it comes to speaker placement.

CONS:

1. Video switching for component and s-video work fine with my VS-2 Video enhancer. However, the hdmi is flaky when connected to my Pioneer display (handshake issue - and therefore I am connecting my Blu Ray and Cable box video directly to the display (hdmi) and not going through the Bose 48 system. Apple TV is connected via component and connected via the Bose and it works fine.

2. When connected via hdmi, the DVD upscaling on the Bose is very good. However, the default connection (via component) is so so. Since I use my LG BH 200 to play both DVD and Blu Ray, it is not an issue for me. But when upscaled via HDMI, the DVD playback was very close to my Oppo DVD Player - which is often considered to be one of the best. In fact, once I saw the upscaling, I took out the Oppo from my system. However, the Oppo does play DVD-A and DVDs from other region.

3. At this price, Bose should have included DVD-A and SACD playback as well.

4. The analog inputs should have supported 5.1 (instead of just 2.0). I am using digital coax and optical because of this limitation. HDMI is for video only.

Given the overall performance of this system, the solid reliability and Bose customer support I give this a 4 star. The sound quality is far superior to the Sony 5.1 system that it replaced - by a big margin.

All is fine, music, sound, quality and shipping very fast.
One only problem is the different voltage between USA (110 volt) and Italy (220 volt): for many money that we paid for this bose system, i think it would be much better if all components were made in dual voltage

So this is what you get for $4,000. I've listened to this system many times, although I do not own it. I don't hear anything special about it and can't believe the high cost. I would not every pay $4,000 or even $2,000 for this. This fits between $500-$1,000 like many of the HTIB systems. There are no highs and no low's with this. The bass is a joke...well, what bass. I realize many people want small speakers and good sound. You won't get the same sound with cubes as you would with taller floorstanding speakers or even bookshelf type speakers, but these claim to be the same. They aren't even close. For even $2,000 - $4,000 you can put together systems from Paradigm, Ascend, Boston Accoustics, Cambridge Soundworks, Polk, Klipsch, Aperion, Axiom, PSB, Harmon Kardon, Onkyo, Yamaha, Kef, and list goes on and on. Kef and Mirage are just two companies that make small speakers that will blow Bose out of the water. Don't buy into the Bose hype and go try and research all the other quality speakers for yourself. Bose's speakers are made from paper cones and plastic that I've heard companies can reproduce those same speakers for $30-$50. So your basically paying for the Bose name markup and nothing else. Just do yourself a favor and try some other systems out and do some testing and you will realize all the sounds you are missing.

I bought this item about 18 months ago and honestly I think I wasted my $4000
- sound system is not any different than other systems that cost only $400-$500
- it does not have HDMI connection
- remote control is terrible and designed very poorly
- you can't categorize your music easily.
- You have to have your TV on to see your sound collection which is very bad design and not user friendly.
- when you send email or contact Bose, they do not even reply.

Please DO NOT WASTE your money, You can easily buy a better system under $1000.