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51 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not nearly as good as systems based on Bose Jewel Cube speakers, August 16, 2007
This review is from: Bose Lifestyle 28 Series III DVD Home Entertainment System - Black (Electronics)
Recently got a Bose Lifestyle 28 refurb unit, it was still pretty expensive. Quick thoughts:
Setup: the build quality and cables are all top-notch. Everything has a plug and every single wire was easy to set up. The wires didn't hide too wel in the two sets of stands I bought from Bose. Using the adapti-q system to balance the speakers was the appeal of the system.
Video: the new progressive scan features use a combo s-video and composite y-adapter to component to send a full progressive scan signal. I was skeptical at first, but was pretty pleased with the image quality and black levels put out by the unit on the LG 32LC2D HDTV. Not bad picture and it really did put out progressinve scan!
The central unit still relies to heavily on legacy ports: composite everywhere, 2 s-video, 2 coaxial and only 1 optical input. If you have an Xbox 360 and a PS3 (or two) only one of them will work with optical on this system.
Audio: there was no hiss or noise that I could hear when the system was on and no sound was playing, that's a plus. Video games through the optical sounded pretty good through the optical input, although separation was lost a little in the speakers. CD-based Music sounded pleasingly warm.
Now the bad part: this speaker set produces pretty crummy sound for movies. Dialog sounded muffled and quiet, voices were causing the acoustimass module to kick in a little too much- resulting in deep tones associated with normal voices on the Hot Fuzz DVD, while voice work in Star Wars sounded like people were talking through a pillow! Large battle scenes lost their high-end sparkle- the clangs of swords, shattering of glass, or screeching of tires all were toned down and warmed by the over-powering tilt towards mid sounds in the acoustimass module.
Bass response was powerful although undefined and needs tighter response. Staccato sounds become a constant tone.
Giant battle scenes in Star Wars and LOTR became a mess in surround- nothing was distinct or separated. The opening Tripod sequence in War of the Worlds had heavy bass, powerful mids, and almost nothing else. The bursting of the pavement was ominously powerful, but the crumbling dirt, smashed cars, and zaps of energy beams were all muted and lost by the overzealous acoustimass module. Screams of the crowd became lost in the soundtrack of the movie! Brass and violas were more readily audible than the scream of a charcter on camera.
I turned the treble compensation all the way up to little improvement, except it made "s" sounds in dialog sizzle too much, while keeping vowels in the deep mid-tone prison. Easing down bass compensation dropped the Low frequncy channel effects, but left dialog sounding way too bass heavy and overly warm in that same area of overcompensation. I ran the adapt-IQ system again and again, I moved furniture, and called customer service. These did not help and I became increasingly alarmed about spending $1850 on this system.
Ultimately, I decided to return my $1850 Bose Lifestyle 28's and stick with my $150 Klipsch Pro Media 5.1. These speakers are not great, but at least I can hear what people are saying in films. There is better seperation in this setup than in Bose's direct/reflecting speakers.
The Bose cost ten times as much, produced 10 times the room filling sound, but left nothing distict enough to hear in movies for an average OR discerning listener.
If you have the money, try the Lifestyle 35's, as they produce a much brighter sound and still have enough mid and deep range to make movies pop.
Avoid the Lifestyle 28's and get a Home theater in a box solution from one of the major retailers.
A big, and expensive disappointment.
Customer Service notes: I have to end this with the fact that despite my clear frustrations, I was treated with incredible courtesy and friendliness by everyone at Bose. I have not had a better experience so far with a customer service department.
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
home theater taken to the next level, expensive, but you get what you paid for, June 17, 2008
This review is from: Bose Lifestyle 28 Series III DVD Home Entertainment System - Black (Electronics)
I spend at least 3 months doing some research on which home theater system was the best for me. well after trying some brands that, according to the whole internet, are quite superior to Bose, and some super cheap configurations that according to some reviewers (from other sites), where better than Bose, I ended up coming back to my choice number one from the very beginning....BOSE lifestyle systems...
My friends have "yamaha", "sony", "klipch", and all the additions you can put on those HT's, but I was no satisfied. maybe it was their configuration, but the sound starts breaking after a couple of minutes after playing in higher volumes, DVD's whete OK in the sony, ang good in the yamaha, but blue ray disc soundtrack was horrible in both of them...
tryed a magnolia 1000 dollars worth from BB, andit was good, but not what I was looking for.
then decided to put some more money in my investment and ended up buying my Bose lifestyle system 28 series. I am totally satisfied. the Bass is not cheesy neither booming, is perfect. tremble was adjusted in a little lower setting, and the ADAPT IQ did the rest...since I have the bose VS-2, the DVD resolution is excellent, and sound is powerful, crisp, NORMAL (not timpanic membrane breakingly abnormal), CD playback is excellent. Playing games is a pleasure, with sorround sound, Dolby digital via optical cable...I also have a logitech squeezebox duet connected to it, and works astonishingly, with the coaxial cable connection...
well I do not know if thiis HT system was made for me, but fullfils all my entretainment demands, in one single package, easy to install and configure, and no matter how you try to hide the it (for nobody to judge just by the brand), every guest I have had, have made comments about the sound (it doesn't matter what we are doing in front of the TV), somebody notices a difference for good.
An advise is: NEVER READ REVIEWS from the interner about this brand, because the ones so called (I did not have enough money, so I decided to write a bad review instead), are WRONG. It is a grear HT and if you have the money available, get one of those, and you will forget about all those difficult to use configurations and systems that work partially.
note:
the good: great sound better that everithing else around, easy to use and set up, excellent support service, and does what it whas meant to do.
the bad: pricey, bose shuld invent "WIRELESS SPEAKERS" (all 5 of them) because cables aren't easy to hide.
all in all, bose is a matter of afordability, but if you can afford it, GET IT
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Simple. Elegant. Period., August 4, 2008
This review is from: Bose Lifestyle 28 Series III DVD Home Entertainment System - Black (Electronics)
Listen - I know deciding on a system is a difficult thing to to do. I speak from experience as I've owned high end equipment and now this Bose Series III. Everyone who states that the sound quality is not brilliant is absolutely correct. I knew that going into the purchase. If you are one that is difficult to please when it comes to audio quality, stay away. If, like me, you know what excellent sounds like but are ok w/ pretty good and you want a system that is a snap to install, a snap to operate, a snap to expand, looks great and takes up very little room....this is your baby.
I have this system in my living room w/ a pair of speakers on each of 2 patios and in my master bath, each w/ a separate remote (the patios share one remote). I can run 2 sources at a time - easily. No muss, no fuss. No wires and no massive speakers taking up the corners of my living room. Hit FM before I hop in the shower and listen to tejano (it's a recent fad for me) while my wife watches TV in the living room - good to go. I know you can have this set up w/ a more complicated system to do the same but this was much easier...and my wife can operate it without a problem (she's very intelligent BTW but hates wasting her time w/ this stuff).
I was after good sound quality, outstanding design/construction/customer service and ease of use. It beats the pants off my previous system which sounded much better as I enjoy using it so much more - it is as non-obtrusive a system as you can get.
In the end, ask yourself what you are really looking for. 3 stars for sound quality and 5 stars for everything else - and I am impossible to please. Enjoy.
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