Price Paid:  $2500.00 from Bose store

Summary:
Bose 35 has no upgrade capability to add and Ipod or other MP3 docs. The packaging with the jewel cubes is nice but the upgrade path is dead end for sure.

Strengths:
Packaging.

Similar Products Used:
Denon products sound far better and are more expandable.

Chris A

Overall Rating
 2 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
3.06 of 5, 16.00 votes

Price Paid:  $110.00 from Used furnishing stor

Summary:
Bought a used white Bose Lifestyle 20 sub woofer amplifier for CD $110 in 1998 (about 10 years old?) - no satellite speakers or CD/FM unit avail. Had heard the Lifestyle 20 in a Hi-Fi store demo room in Buffalo (US$1,800 for the system) and was quite impressed with the DEMO setup - and that is my conclusion: the Bose system is a bottom end rumbling DEMO-Toy type of product, at unbelievable retail gross margins for Bose and its dealers? My son started to use the Bose in his stereo setup after I added a pair of Realistic 3" driver cubes (similar to the studio reference Auratone T5 cubes used in every commercial recording studio as a home stereo TV or clock radio sound sanity check). Got info on the Din plug pinout from Bose, who faxed together with some basic tech specs - they were quite accomodating, as I only had part of a system. Anyway, am not fond of the 'hole...e' response of this type of product (poor 30Hz to 250Hz linearity) and the bottom end boom is annoying as the port is not tuned properly - resonace around 70Hz? The quasi transmission line approach for bass loading (done perfectly by PMC speaker in England) does not cut it!

Strengths:
None

Weaknesses:
DEMO-Toy product, poorly made, quite high hum level from the power supply, poor input signal level window.

Similar Products Used:
My surround setup includes Energy 22.2's (-3dB @ 34Hz) an original Energy ECC-1 Center and a pair of Energy Pro 2.5 Rears - NO SUB! Drive the 22.2's with a Bryston 4B (200 Watts/channel) Response of the system is smooth and sounds spectacular - and can run levels above 100dB (from a Radio Shack spl meter). Suggest to avoid satellite/sub woofer (bass heavy lifting) products unless setting up in a very small room!

Price Paid:  $2600.00 from Bose Factory OutletS

Summary:
My Review is of the Lifestyle 35. I have never had such buyer's remorse in my entire life. I was deceived at the factory store....How do they do it?? I hooked it up at home and it sounded like "tin cans" tacked up on the walls. Honestly, it played movies pretty well...but any form of music sounds better on my daughter's Aiwa boombox I purchased for $59 bucks. I am mosty dissappointed in how the system fails to fill the room with sound. Perhaps an entry level Bose system would work well in a small apartment...but at the $2500-$3000 price range and for a full size room, Bose is definitely not the way to go. I am returning the Bose immediately !! After investing a few hours online and visiting a couple stores, I believe I will customize a Klipsch reference speaker system and plan to drive it with a Denon AVR3803 (and have money to spare!!!!)

Price Paid:  $3000.00 from Bose store

Summary:
I purchased a sony home theater in a box and had trouble with the surround sound. It never was true enough. I decided to search for a better sytem, which led me to Bose. I have been very happy. If you get the right action movie it is quite the system. No complaints so far. I've had it for about 9 months.

Strengths:
Sound, clarity and small speaker size

Weaknesses:
kinda confusing manaul

Similar Products Used:
sony home theater in a box

Price Paid:  $2999.00 from Bose

Summary:
WOW! This is an incredible movie system. I can not believe the performance that I was getting from this small system. My Velodyne sub was equal to that of the Bose but twice the size. I will admit that the playback of music in stereo was slightly better on my BP's but, when I play a DTS 5.1 disc. WOW! I was also able to expand to the other area of my house so I can hear my MP3's playing (150 Songs on one disc) while my wife listens to the sat. music off this one system. I could go on and on but the home theater magazine says it all. You can build a system that will perform like the Bose or close for the same money if you know what to look for but it will be 20 times larger, 50 times more difficult and if it wont be able to be placed as simply for the right home theater impact. Thank you and I love hearing about how bad my system is by others. I think I will go listen to my new MP3 disc I just made.

Strengths:
Powerful Bass, upgradable via software, PAL,NTSC,MP3, DTS

Weaknesses:
Not multiple disc

Similar Products Used:
Adcom,Definitive,Velodyne