No highs. No lows. Must be Bose! Bose stands for "Buy Other Sound Equipment". Everything they make is cheap junk with a premium price attached. Wait until you have to order some proprietary replacement part from them- you'll be crying.

Design, sound and expandability

price

This review is for both the products and the store. The reason being is because two fold, one for the stores excellent customer service both before, during and after the sale and the products excellent design and specifications. Firstly the store, www.pinnaclesound.com is by far the best in ease of use and orderability. I found the product within seconds and could custom order my unit based on color, country of use and shipping methods. they accpeted american express directly and up to 7 other payment methods including www.escrow.com It is rare that a online company will use escrow.com as most online companies do not stock the items and drop ship everything. Pinnacle Sound doesnt drop ship and actually ships from there office in IL, USA. The shipping price is UPS actual cost and they shipped it the same day ordered. (which is REALLY RARE) I ordered the Lifestyle 48 system in Dual Voltage region free. The system arrived in 5 days with UPS and in perfect condition. this being my first transaction overseas is really optomistic. As for the system the Lifestyle 48 system has an enormous amount of specifications. It plays DVD, cd, mps burned to cd and also vids from burned videos off the internet. I have expanded this system to 3 rooms but can even go further by adding an additional 11 rooms. It comes in black, silver, and white and the wiring is more then you need for the average room configeration. the bass response is amazing and the cubes for trebel are directional and perfect both in sound and design. Its probably best to receive the unit and then map out the system to the rooms, as the cords are long need to be hid (in my opinion, behind the wall) The overall rating i want to give the Bose Lifestyle 48 systems is a 9/10. the reason i dont give it a 10/10 is due to the price, which is a little high but if you buy it from www.pinnaclesound.com you will save between $600 and $2100 off european prices..

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none

Size, expandability, sound quality, digital jukebox

once you store all your CDs in the Lifestyle it tends to loose a little sound quality. This comes from the compression however, it is most reasonable given the functionality. It's not cheep.

I had to write after reading all the posts on the Bose Lifestyle systems. While I have no experience with earlier Lifestyle systems, The Lifestyle 48 is a technology marvel. The sound quality is exceptional from the new jewel cube speakers and the Acoustimass module produces a very sold range of low tones. The mid and high ranges are equally good. I think the key to getting everything from this system is understanding the acoustics of the room. Speaker placement is vital. After running the AdaptIQ CD that came with the system, I moved my speakers to a slightly different location. This provided all the rich sound in the room I was looking for. I acutally replaced a Denon AVP 8000 Pro with 3 Sound Stream DA-1 power amps and 6 Amrita Audio custom speakers with the Bose system and all in all, I am very impressed with the performance of the Bose Lifestyle 48. The lights in the house no longer dim when I turn my stereo on and I have re-gained a ton of space in the room. Great sound and esthetics to boot, how can you go wrong. I'm very happy with the system and so is my wife and we all know that is also a major consideration. Also, the progressive scan DVD built into the Lifestyle 48 is awsome. Another interesting thing I noticed was; because of the reflective technology as opposted to direct sound that Bose uses, I get equally good sound when I am not in the room where the syste is. Another factor to consider is that the Bose system will support up to an additional 14 sound zones which, if you want to enjoy music on the deck while someone else is watching a movie in the family room, is a very nice feature. Even my Denon AVP 8000 couldn't do that and it was 2X the cost of the total Bose system. I would highly recommend a Bose Lifestyle 48 if you have the 4 grand to shell out for it.

check this out http://www.intellexual.net/bose.html

I have bought a BOSE lifestyle 5 system back in Jun 1999, & it has been giving me many hours of pleasure listening since then. I am not an audiophile, so I'm not particularly obsessed with bass/treble quality as many reviewers here are concerned with. I'm more of a new lifestyle sort of guy, & sleek design & aesthetic appearance is top of my list. Bose lifesyle 5 is good in Bass/Treble if comparing with other similarly range audio products.

When displayed in a minimalist-styled living room (which I'm living now), & uses the Bose tall speaker stand, the total experience (sight & sound) is out of this world. Many of my friends commented Bose system has exceptionally good clarity in sound reproduction; & like the sleek & futuristic look it gives to my home. This is the modern-age audio system every house should be looking at, rather than the bulky system audiophile prefers which makes the house looks like a junkyard!

The cost. But who cares... I'm rich!

Extremely sleek & sexy system for the new-age guy.
Bound to make any girls you bring to your home to fall down to your knees when you turn on the system.

The brand name and disappearing act (well, it should because it would be too embarassing to show what makes the noise). But, you have gotta acknowledge that their imaging is not too bad, and that they don't need any break-in -- they sound equally bad before and after, LOL.

Fatiguing highs, thin and muddy mids if at all, and boomy and undefined lows -- the trinity of true high end speakers!

My girlfriend loves the speakers I have from the very beginning; nevertheless, she had been a stout backer of the Bose satellite systems -- claiming that they are the best in terms of sound and looks. Contrary to a previous reviewer's claim that these speakers are expensive, they are relatively cheap comparing to the speakers enthusiastically sought after by many. So, to break the myth held by my girlfriend, I bought them with 30 days return policy guaranteed (make sure that you have that escape route).

She apparently loved their cuteness. After a day or two of endearing their cuteness, she began to raise questions such as "it sounds different from the ( ) we have." My ( ) is soliloquy 5 -- not that expensive (about $200 more than the Bose) yet "good" sounding. I did not express my opinions about the Bose at all and told her to try them out. I added that we would keep them and sell the Soliloquy if she liked the Bose better.

In the fourth day, she tried the Soliloquy back. Yeah, she noticed the improvement right away. She could not pinpoint the difference in precise terms; nevertheless, it was not that difficult for her to acknowledge the superiority of the Soliloquy in very simple terms, "I like this sound far better." Of course, she should -- my Soliloquy's would be a Ferrari if the Bose were a Yugo although both are similarly priced (alright, 200 bucks more). Then, she realized --again -- how classy the Soliloquy's looked comparing to the toy-like quality of the Bose.

The Bose went back to the store promptly. Never has she paid attention to any Bose since then.

The Bose represents a true triumphant story of marketing over quality. A lot of fancy yet inappropriate terms such as "acoustic mass" and weird advices such as "hide the bass module behind a couch."

Many fans of the Bose have not tried good speakers in the matching price range. That is one big reason that they settle for "the Bose sound." After riding overpriced used Escorts (e.g. some low end yet surprisingly expensive speakers from sony, pioneer, even infinity), a new Yugo (e.g. Bose) would be appreciated.

There are many good sounding and handsome looking bookshelf speakers. Once they give them a serious try, they will realize what a rip-off Bose products are and never look back. The only advantage of the Bose satellites is in size, which can be easily countered by other products such as NHT Superzero (and the matching true subwoofer).

Again, the Bose can be an relatively inexpensive alternative only when taking the size into consideration. However, if you are willing to do a bit of research, you can use that money much more wisely.

Finally, yeah, my speakers (NHT Superzero, B&W CDM1SE, and Soliloquy) impressed a lot of girls. :)

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Is there anything like the Bose? I challenge you to name a lemon in that price range.

slimline compact cd unit, amazingly small spreakers.

Price....No bass...Weak midrange...Some sort of gap in the frequency range of the system...

We decided to look at a purchasing a moderate home theatre system to go into our lounge. Consideration also had to be made as we didn't want huge speakers and need to use the room for other uses and not primarily a music/movie space.

My partner remarked how the Bose Lifestyles looked so small and pretty and compact and would be soooooo unobstrusive in our lounge. This is the SAF (Spouse approval factor)to take into account with these purchases.
Also someone had remarked to my partner previously that the Bose was a 'good' system, along with several other 'cool' comments.


We then borrowed a system from a friend for a couple of days and tried it out. It sounded OK but something didn't sound right. So after investigating how much $$$ was involved I deciding to see what other thought of the system. I let my fingers do the walking....I searched the Web and came across the excellent audioreview site.

Well...taking note of what most had written about this product, I was able to gather some info and line up some options for the Bose against alternative systems and also audio-dition these.

I'll cut to the conclusion straight up and all I can say is THANK GOD and I'll say it again THANK GOD I didn't fall into the hype and pay out some moolah to buy one straight off without listening to alternatives or geting a cross-section of reviews beforehand.

We listened to a range of receivers/dvd/sat speaker& sub combinations from specialist dealers within our price range .

THEN and only then we decided to go and audition the Bose in the shop to give it a fair hearing, as there may have been something wrong with out trial setup.

I was curious to get some details on the Bose system components from the knowledgeable sales person.
Well I got told that there were no fact/data sheets as Bose don't put these out. Other dealers had willingly supplied these sheets and also freely gave me photocopies of independant reviews and tests of their products and components.

I asked about the paper in the speakers, and was told that Bose used paper as it has the highest flashpoint rating before catching a hot speaker catches fire.????? Hmmmn shouldn't the material be geared to provide first and foremost a decent sound?.

A demo was then provided in the dealer home theatre setup. It was just the same as our 2 day demo. The Acoustimass module seemed to omit just the same one thud....thud...thudd noise consistently instead of the bass sounds of the other auditions. The midrange was lacking in comparison as well.
It wasn't even close, and seemed to be something that one could expect for say 50%-60% of the asking cost.


So...to sum up....A big thankyou to all those posters, you all know who you are.! and also to the site moderator who hopefully won't delete my small contribution as not specifically having actually owned a Bose Lifestyle.


Our new system arrives soon, which I feel is a great compromise between...cost..smallish speakers..great theatre and good CD audio....as well as including a dvd which the Bose didn't come with.



It is..
Denon 1601 Receiver
Kef KHT 2505 Home theatre system incl sub
Toshiba DVD

Cheers
Grant

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Sony, Aiwa

Good sound, good design, good remote and good customer service

A little on the expensive side

After reading the various reviews on this site, I felt I should add my 2 cents.

I have used various conventional components in the past and “borrowed” my sister’s Bang & Olufsen as well. I would have liked a Bang but the price was exorbitant (it makes Bose seem reasonable, well, almost) so I decided to purchase a Lifestyle 10 back in 1993 (the Lifestyle 5 was not in existence yet).

I was impressed with the sound; it had smooth & full bass and a clear & bright mid to high range. The radiofrequency remote was great: it worked through walls and floors. The sleek silver music centre was nice but the remote was a little on the ugly side.

I had experienced problems with the CD player however, and had to take it back for repairs on a number of occasions. On the last occasion in 1995, the shop was burgled and my (broken) music centre was stolen. I was given a new Lifestyle 5 and a cheque for the difference in price between the Lifestyle 10 music centre and the Lifestyle 5 music centre. I got a new music centre and an extra remote (which looks much nicer) and money back.

I have had the Lifestyle 5 music centre for 5 years now and the AM-5P speakers for 7 years and it still looks great and sounds great. I have not had any problems with it since either. It sounds better than the Bang and is much cheaper (although it does not look or work as nicely). It sounds and looks better than any conventional components (albeit circa 1993-5) for around the same price as well.

I don’t know why people would complain about the sound and the customer service, as I have been happy with both, and would gladly recommend a Bose to anyone.

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1. Bang & Olufsen BeoSound Overture
2. Various components including JBL, Polk Audio, Sony, Denon, Yamaha, Luxman, Rotel, JVC, Pioneer plus others

Minimalist kit - Decent sound

Cost- BOSE are Expensive

Having had Hi Fi systems made up of separates in the past much to the dismay of "Her Indoors" She asked is there nothing that we can buy that sounds good without so much kit. I looked around at various options such as Nakamichi- Bang & O -Sony - Speakers from Acoustic Energy the new Ego ones coupled with the Linn Classik etc. But finally I decided to go for the BOSE Lifestyle 5 series 2.OK it may be expensive but it looks great and sounds pretty good too. All my friends comment about it, but to the purist the mid is a little lacking, and you have to be careful about Subwoofer placement, and adjust the controls on the sub but once it is set up how you want it the sound is perfectly acceptable.
The shortcomings are a bit of a trade off, but a trade off well worth making. I am very pleased with the BOSE set up.The remote is a joy to use from anywhere in the house. One of my best ever purchases in life.

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I have had Arcam/Pioneer/Akai/Technics/Marantz Hi Fi products in the past

its a bose

its a bose

when i heard an in-store demo being done, i could stop laughing at how truly horrible this system sounded - this is true of ALL bose products i've come across - in fact two weeks later i'm still laughing.

there is nothing good i can say about this or any other bose product ever produced.

i can't understand why people continue to buy products from this company - do the "plant" people in the audio industry and the general consumer public to say good things about bose?

too bad there is no zero star rating.

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many