Bose Lifestyle V20 Home Theater System - Black

by Bose

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 69 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B000UQURH0
• Item model number: 41793
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #35,957 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Product Description

Bose Lifestyle V20 Black 51-channel Home Theater System - LSV20HTBLACK

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Techy guy who wanted 1 Remote Simplicity (and some good sounding surround sound), December 20, 2009

By 

Mark Gabryjelski "Gabbs" (NH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bose Lifestyle V20 Home Theater System - Black (Electronics)

OK, so all I wanted was a great surround system that would accept an optical cable to throw out surround, and did NOT want to have a large receiver sitting under my TV for just that only purpose. The Display being separated from the Media Unit is awesome. I have an Xbox 360, Comcast Tivo (yes, Tivo from Camcast), and an Apple Mac Mini hooked up to a 52" Samsung LCD (1080p) TV, and just wanted surround sound. I was not evening looking for a remote...no remote shipped with any system actually works, right? I was still looking for a 1 remote control solution. (more on the remote later)

Forget the fact that I paid $1700 for this...I know would still pay the $2,000 for it. I know Bose can be pricey.... If you are looking at this, you're considering it too. I would do it again, even without the sale price.

It sounds damn good. It blows away any of those all in one's you see out there for $1,000 or less. I'm sure that at some price point, an all in one will sound better, but I'm sure it will cost a pretty penny. There is even good bass. Can I get more rumble with at 'proper' 8" or 10" subwoofer? Yes, if I want to, but LIstening to Rush, Moving Pictures sounds PERFECT! (had to up the Bass to a +8 to make this sound like that).

Surround is good, bass is good, TV pass thru (for video) is good...even the remote is more than I expected.

Points:
Ships with (just about) everything you need: HDMI, components, composites, & speaker cables, remote, IR transmitters, batteries.
Speaker wires: 3 x 20', and 2 x 50'

Wishes:
it came with speaker stands/mounts. But, most high-end systems don't, and look what it DOES come with. OK, I can give some slack here, but the stands/mounts were $30 (MSRP) each. Found them online for less than 1/2 of that.

REMOTE
Now, I was ready to go buy a true universal remote (Logitech, or old Harmony remotes), but was going to try the Bose remote first.

Waited until I had a few hours, because I had to re-run my HDMI cables. Took the Xbox360 and Comcast Tivo, removed them from the TV, and hooked them up tot he HDMI in on the Bose. Bose is now connected to the TV over HDMI. Played with the remote settings, and was surprised as anything when it worked EXACTLY like I wanted it to. Thought I would have to run the IR Emitters....nope. PLEASE...take your time with the remote settings. There are a LOT OF CODES for your to search through. Don't stop at the first one just because the power on/off feature worked. Write down what worked, and keep moving down the list. Took me 7 working TV codes to find the one where the menu button actually brought up a working menu. Took me 3 tries to find the right Comcast Tivo code. I figure this is why people have problems with the remote's universal feature (that they stop on the 1st working code). The remote is Radio Frequeny for the Bose controls, and will do IR for the other components without requiring the IR Transmitters.

Enjoy

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth the Wait, June 28, 2008

By 

Rick (Odenton, Moldova, Republic of) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bose Lifestyle V20 Home Theater System - Black (Electronics)

We waited over ten years before finally taking the plunge with Bose and it was well worth the wait. The sound quality is superb and it does everything I need it to do. I test ran it with Saving Private Ryan and finally re-experienced the theater quality sound I couldn't get with our Klipsch or Sony systems. HOWEVER, it took me two weekends to figure out how to make all the connections (DirecTV, TIVO, DVD...) work like they are supposed to; if I had it to do over again I would pay the Geek Squad or somebody to set it up for me. But now that it is up and running I only regret that we waited so long.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as I thought, September 18, 2009

By 

D. L. Michie "Hit im high mitch" (tx) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bose Lifestyle V20 Home Theater System - Black (Electronics)

I purchased the Bose v-20 a couple of weeks ago. I have a PS3 for blu-ray, a new Samsung LCD, and Direct TV HD DVR hooked to the bose. The remote didn't initially work with anything until I figured out how to change it to IR. I had to search on line for a solution. The biggest problem is that when ever I change chanels on the Direct TV HD DVR the Bose goes "dead" for a minute or 2 and then will come back on. It really is annoying. The sound is ok but not great. I have the surround sound up almost all the way and I still am not super happy with it. My room is about 20 x 25 but that should not be a problem. Since I have my components hooked up using HDMI and I am having problems switching channels and losing sound I'm going to try hooking my Direct TV HD DVR to the bose v20 with component and see if that works, of course I will have to change sound hookup also.

I think there is a problem with Bose HDMI inputs, but I'm not technically proficient enough to know how to verify this.
Also, I wish that there were more HDMI inputs, 2 is not enough now days.

I did send a note to bose asking them questions and they responded quickly.

I have multiple bose products and I have to say this is the first time I'm not 120% satisfied.

I also find that the sound isn't as loud as I would like. I don't think there is enough power. Bose told me to disconnect everything and re-do the connections in a specific order. But, it is a lot of work to get to everything.

I think the system is great overall, but overpriced. I am still about 80% satisfied with this system, but am really thinking about returning it. I saw an amp that sells for $900 that has 6 HDMI inputs and it seems like it might work better than the bose. I'm going to give it another weekend after I make all the new connections and then if I'm still not satisfied I will return the system - which will make me sad because I really wanted Bose.

UPDATE: After about 3 weeks I got tired of trying to get this system to work the way I wanted. Bose support told me to hook my DVR directly to TV with component and just running sound through the Bose to get best picture and sound - I tried that but it still wasn't giving me sound I expected. The surround speakers just didn't have power to give me good sound. After much work and lots of frustration I returned the Bose and purchased a Denon AVR 890 and got back over a $1000. The Denon is a pain to set up, but the sound is so much better I can't believe it. Bose really let me down. I always trusted them and felt if I spent more I would get more, but in this case it wasn't true. Oh, by the way the Denon has 5 HDMI inputs. Come on Bose, you need more power and more HDMI inputs. The Bose is really for small rooms.