Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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128 of 156 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty pathetic system if you ask me., August 13, 2003
I am a former BOSE Acustimass 10 owner. When i got into Home theater, I was a newbie and pretty much bought into the marketing power of BOSE. They had the nice little Demonstration stands at Best Buy and at Fry's Electronics, they have the Soundroom that is tweaked to make the Bose sound incredible. Problem is, that room costs hundreds of thousands of dollars of technology to make the BOSE Accoutimass speakers sound that good. I don't have $$$,$$$.$$ to spend on a room. You need to see the EQ equiptment in that room. Safe to say, I was slightly dissappointed then these speakers did not sound as good in my house as in the store. Still un-deterred, I figured it was my room (of course, it can't be as good as THAT sound room) and they still sound better then some other satellites speakers (though not by much) is why i justifying paying a much higher price.
Little unknown fact: These little cubes cost BOSE about $35.00 to make each double cube speaker. (5x35 = 175.00 plus probably 75 for the bassmodule = $250. This means on a $1000.00 system,the retailer and BOSE is pocketing $750.00 of your dollars)
You can buy replacement drivers on the web for about $35.00 per pair. They are paper cones and plastic casing. http://layneaudio.hypermart.net/specials.htm The most important thing is, if you have a decent A/V Receiver, you should be able to select "Source Direct" which means the Reciever acts as a pass through, adding no EQ to the music, and just supplies power to the speakers. When playing anything in "Source Direct" mode, these BOSE speakers were the same as a cheap clock radio or the TV speakers. Actually, the TV speakers on my Sony Vega was better. Only if you use EQ, like Jazz Club, or Stereo or something like that did the speakers a little better. This is for music.
I am glad for 1 thing. I was not duped into getting a Bose Lifestyle system. My AVR and DVD separates are much better then the lifestyle box. I mean.. come on BOSE, can't you put a Progressive Scan DVD player in it? For HT, the accoustimass is slightly better. since they do play squeakly noises good, you are able to get pretty good glass breaking sounds. This is because BOSE has almost no lower midrange sounds to speak of. This way, the sqeaky highs are of course going to sound more defined. The Bass module is way underpowered. You will never get the feel like a real subwoofer. Thats a little dissappointing with the movies and no "boom" effect during explosions. Almost everyone who keeps the AM system will get 1 or 2 subwoofers. (250 to 500 a piece). At that point, you are already almost in 1500.00 area. That puts you direct against some "reference" lines of Klipsch and Polk Audio. Still, i was not so upset to return the system. I pretty much decided that all speaker systems sound good at the store, but will lose something at the house. It wasn't until recently when I started to learn more about speakers like Polk Audio and Klipsch did I realize what I was missing out on. I bought a new speaker system and sold this BOSE system on EBAY. I am happy that BOSE has good re-sell value due to their extensive marketing. I have a new klipsch system which forced me to re-listen to every music CD that I had to see what i have been missing all this time. Its truly incredible. I had to re-watch my movies on DVD and they all seem more alive and exciting. Much more like the theater. To say the least, if you only listen to BOSE or the stuff at Best Buy, you have little to compare with. The better audio stuff is only a few dollars more, are more flexible and deliver superior performance for the dollar. I guess BOSE will sound better then those cheap 200.00 systems, but only marginally better. I bought a cheap kenwood 206 system for my mother. It under $250.00 and it was very comparable to this Bose system for $999.99 and it came with a A/V Receiver!!! What are you paying for? I guess the rights to those 4 letters... B-O-S-E. For my money... BOSE is not much different from WOES.
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16 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Satisfied, October 3, 2005
I have always run all of my media through my pc and my former speaker set (a Midiland 5.1 system) was thoroughly aged and falling apart I decided it was time to upgrade. I wanted something that had incredible sound with both music and dvd's. I shopped around and came to the conclusion I would aim for the form factor speakers. When considering this bose system, this MUST be taken into account.
First off, this system is expensive. For just under 1000 dollars (doesn't 999 sound sooo much better than 1g?) you get 5 bi-directional midrange speakers, the subwoofer unit, and speaker cable. At this price it is very disappointing that bose does not include some sort of receiver, but no matter this leaves room for the customer to customize his/her choice to suit any personal needs and/or budget. Bose includes 3 colors (white, silver, black) and all the speakers are well packaged and aesthetically pleasing with the exception of the sub unit (a large rectangular box meant to save space but does not).
What brought me to look into this system was the specific size of the speakers and there general attractiveness. For their size the bose do a very good job of reproducing any sound-granted they are paired with a competent receiver. Anyone who has any qualms about this system should first consider what they are running their sound through, without competent equipment these speakers will not be on par with what you heard in the store.
Once I got the system home it was very easy to set up and install. Bose packages the speakers with clear instructions and all of the wires are meant to be hidden and include markings as to what speakers they belong to-a very handy feature especially when one is trying to hide this system. The only serious issue I have with this system ended up being with my receiver (an Onkyo) and not related at all with the speakers.
Since I do run this through my computer (presently a laptop) I had a few troubles setting up a new sound card and getting it too mesh with my receiver, but when that was all said and done, I was extremely please with the system. With a bose the tweaking one needs to do is very minimal and thus why this deserves the higher price tag-its target audience is usually those more affluent and unable to spend hours tweaking individual speaker levels and sound ranges.
My test soundtracks included: Gladiator, Matrix (II or III), Snatch, and music tracks ranging from techno, rock, classical, and alternative. Everything sounded great with enough low, high, and midrange response. The second complaint I have with this system is not differentiating in the least between any of the satellites. I found myself turning the response on the center channel up so the front speakers weren't drowning out the voices. That was solved with a little tweaking so nothing major there.
All in all this speaker system is a great investment in my mind satisfying all of my needs (though draining my bank account) and providing me with great surround sound.
Good: Great range and volume of sound. Easy set-up. Well built speakers-aesthetically and physically. No interference or feedback.
Bad: Subwoofer awkward, no dedicated center channel, pricey, no included receiver.
For their size these speakers more than compete with any full-blown tower 5.1 system. Here is one satisfied customer.
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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Terrible sound with no mid-range, January 2, 2007
I am not sure why everyone has such a love affair with Bose speakers. Perhaps it is the marketing or the fact that the bass module produces a lot of bass (although it is not very accurate.) The largest problem with these speakers is that there is absolutely zero mid-range. The highs are decent and the lows are powerful, but there is nothing in the middle - zilch. Nada. I would not recommend buying these speakers. There are many better systems out there for the same money.
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