Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
The Bose motto must be "sell the sizzle, not the steak."

CAVEAT EMPTOR
Stay away.

Strengths:
Good advertising and demonstration of their products.

Weaknesses:
Equipment is a joke. CD changers break down regularly, Amps are terrible, inputs limited and nonexistant. Sound is good unless you compare it to anything else.

Price Paid:  $3999.00 from Bose in Columbia, MD

Summary:
The Lifestyle 48 system comes packed with features and includes a calibration disk that automatically tunes each speaker and subwoofer that ensures the system is optimally tailored to the room. I think some folks forgo reading the manual and end up less than successful in the setup, tone adjustments (treble-bass balance) and the all-important placement of speakers. Setup and tweaking the Lifestyle 48 system takes a little patience but the end results are nothing short of stunning sound and well worth the effort. The Bose speaker technology are industry leaders for a reason - they provide sound realism, crisp highs and undistorted lows. To date, I have loaded over 200 CD's. I have not encountered any hardware of software problems.

Strengths:
Great sound realism
Crisp highs and undistorted lows
Music storage
uMusic feature
Ability to wirelessly link music library (AL8's) to other rooms (up to 14) through Bose speakers and/or their Wave radio

Weaknesses:
DVD player (I purchased a nice HDMI DVD player with much improved picture quality)

Price Paid:  $1999.00 from outlet

Summary:
Real crappy unit. DO NOT RECOMMEND TO ANYONE...RIP OFF. Cheaply made and bad warranty service ... took bose months to get in contact with. Wholesale clubs sell it for half the price. Goto Best Buy. Don't let them sucker you into the 24 month payment plan. Real junk.

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
The hard disk storage system has a problem for classical music listeners.

I was very disappointed to find that it puts a gap (and a click) between every track. Try listening to an opera like this - it is ruined.

Bose say they are aware of the problem, but there have not been enough complaints for them to bother to correct the fault!

Price Paid:  $3999.00 from Tweeter

Summary:
The LS 48 is the best all round system going. Would I have paid that much for it had it not been a gift.....no. But we love it; more each day we use it. It's total music convenience. Are the people that dump on Bose, the same that dump on Mac computers ? Seems to me. The sound has it's limitations....But in the 40 years I have been chasing the best speaker system, and ultimately building my own at one point, my conclusion is this. Music appreciation is a personal matter. EQ's, analyzers, sound pressure meters etc. I've used them all in house to evaluate my speakers. They are all starting point; after that let your taste take over. Having someone tell me not to buy a Bose speaker is like telling me not to buy "Steely Dan and Neil Young". I'm tired of listening to employees of home entertainment depts. tell me which systems to buy and how Bose does not produce the "full range" sound. Bose does produce a profit...and someone out there must like them. Stop crying and compete.
Our family room has a "better sounding" component system. Guess what ? We don't use it .

Strengths:
Total convenience....very good service from company. when one speaker went bad and had questions on storing music. Listenable over long periods of time. Great remote function. Hides well. Self adjusting, sounds good everwhere w/o beaming. Very compact.

Weaknesses:
If you're a "techey" and want to tweak and compare with other systems..this ain't for you. You're a PC buff and not a Mac owner.

Similar Products Used:
Onkyo, Sony, Technics, AR, Boston Acoustics, Velodyne, MCM