Marketing

artificial bass, no treble, etc.

I owned a pair of Bose 901 VI for several years, and although they have some nice features (i.e., open soundstage), it took me most of those several years to realize that I overpaid for them. Now, Bose has moved on to other products like the Acoustimass line. They are using the same marketing strategy as the Bose 901 strategy (i.e., add more speakers) which have some accoustical advantage (i.e., increased soundstage and loudness) and people will think they are good speakers.

Now, I agree that speaker choice is a personal decision with many variables. Thus, my favorite speaker is not going to be your favoriate speaker, but there are distinct categories of quality. Typically, those categories fall within price differences.

The problem with Bose is that they produce lower end speakers in a much higher price range than the quality of the speakers. Hey, I admit that I was duped into the 901s. The unfortunate thing about the Acoustimass systems are that they sound worse than the 901s (artificial bass, no highs, and muted midrange. Of course, due to the nature of their size, they do allow you to blend the speakers into your home. But, if blending your speaker into your home environment is your choice, there are better speakers.

I can admit I was duped with the 901s, can you admit that you were duped with the Acoustimass debacle.

Similar Products Used:

Bose 901 VI

Great Sounding Home Theater
Remote control
Aesthetically pleasing (very compact system)
Ease of set up

Awful for music, uncontrollable mid range, poor low midrange or high bass. Lack of sound control.
It seems like the strengths outweigh the weaknesses, but it's all about the sound. The listed strengths are secondary to the real purpose for having a sound system.

I purchased the Bose Lifestyle 25 Series II in an Ebay action from an Electronics Liquidator (that explains the low price). When I received the system, I excitedly spent close to four hours setting it up just rights. I purchased wall brackets for the speakers and placed the speakers according to the manufacturer's suggestion. My wife loved the system because it's small and aesthetically pleasing.

The moment of truth came. I turned on the system and cranked it up. Then the disappointment ensued.

For the home theater experience, the system was awesome! Very nice surround sound. Unfortunately I tested it with a movie that did not have great sound (Meet the Parents), but none the less, I was pleased with how it sounded.

Now came time to test the system with music. Talk about being disappointed! The mids were overpowering! And there is no ability to control the sound. Highs were crisp. But the bass was a little muffled. The subwoofer has bass and trebble controls. But this does very little to control the overpowering mids. And besides, I will used the system more for music than movies.

I was very excited when I received the system. I was even more excited when I returned it. Luckily I purchased it from a business that took it back for a full refund. I would have been stuck with it if I had purchased it from an individual. So the only loss is the $80 I spent on the wall brackets.

I fell victim to Bose'd marketing and reputation. This experience has made me a much better consumer. I am now leery of listening to a system in a store. They set it up just right, in their perfectly outfitted listening rooms. In my house, the system didn't even sound close to the way it sounded in the store.

I am not a Bose basher by any stretch of the imagination. In fact I own a Bose wave Radio/CD. I hooked it up in my bedroom with Bose Lifestyle powered speakers and am very pleased with it. I may have paid too much (as is the case with all Bose products), but I am not terribly disappointed because it meets my needs just fine. I tend to believe I have an awesome, nice sounding, loud alarm clock.

So I am not here to discourage anyone from buying Bose products. I just feel the Lifestyle 25 does a great job in the home theater arena, but lacks a great deal in music reproduction.

My replacement system is as follows:

Harmon Kardon AVR 510 Receiver
Polk RT1000i mains
Polk CS245i center channel
Polk rt25i surrounds
Polk PSW350

I still have not received this system. I just ordered it last night. But I am sure it won't let me down. I did a lot of listening to it and did a ton of research. I am sure I will be a lot happier with this system than with Bose. And I'm saving some money along the way.

I am no loger a Bose fan. They are overpriced for what they give you. Take it for what it's worth.

None

Price, and no bass, this system is convenient and pathetic

A sad, pathetic product. Jason Weaver in an imbecile. Bose truly sucks for the price. For the 3k he shelled he could have gotten

Satellites: Boston Acoustics 9000K
Main Speakers: Boston Acoustics VRM-50
Receiver: Denon AVR3801
Subwoofer: Klipsch KSW-15
DVD Player: Pioneer DV-434

Boston Acoustics r incredible for the price

Similar Products Used:

Bose Acoustimass

None

Price, and no bass, this system is convenient and pathetic

A sad, pathetic product. Jason Weaver in an imbecile. Bose truly sucks for the price. For the 3k he shelled he could have gotten

Satellites: Boston Acoustics 9000K
Main Speakers: Boston Acoustics VRM-50
Receiver: Denon AVR3801
Subwoofer: Klipsch KSW-15
DVD Player: Pioneer DV-434

Boston Acoustics r incredible for the price

Similar Products Used:

Bose Acoustimass

Footprint; RC-remote; ease-of-use; price is fair in after-market; I wouldn't buy new.

Sound is so-so. Can't upgrade the system. (Unless you can figure out how to use the subwoofer and control module with other components.)

Actually, I'm reviewing the Lifestyle 12, series II which is similar to the 25 I believe. (I think the 12 has a single CD player and the 25 has a cartridge.)

It sounded great in the store and when I saw it on e-bay, I bid and got it. I really like how you can "hide" the speakers so easily; I bought the speaker stands for the back speakers. The RC remote is cool - you don't have to point it at the control module. The control module hides a little too much; you can't see the display unless you're standing over it.

After living with it for awhile, I wish I had checked out some other brands. Movie sounds don't appear to come from where they're supposed to. Maybe that's just how I placed the speakers. The overall sound quality for regular CD's isn't as good as my regular stereo (Polk SDA-2B's, which were only $600/pair used and a cheap receiver/CD player).

I only intended this system for casual listening and for playing DVDs; the fact that the system is invisible makes me still satisfied with it. However, I will boil down my recommendation to this: If you intend this system to be your primary stereo system, I expect you can do better for the price. Don't be fooled by an impressive audition at the stereo store. I'm sure you can do worse, but if you stick to good brands (I like Polk for the price), again I think you can do better.

size to sound quality comparison. great bass. RF remote.

sometimes too harsh on the top end

i work at a bose store, and sick of those audiophiles who get all picky about things the common listener doesn't care about. Guys, get over yourselves, this product wasn't designed for you!!! you may know everything there is to know about being a wanker and tell everyone how good you are but stop pissing us retailers off!!

bose is a great product for the money you pay, of course they made some compromises in sound quality when reducing the size of the cubes, but you can't have everything at once. Comparing Bose to someone like B&O, Bose definitely comes out on top, i would prefer to pay A$2000 for a set of good stereo speakers than $10,000; wouldn't you, especially when they are very similar in quality.

i may not have the best ear in the world but i know when something sounds good, and i personally WOULD buy a Bose system if i had the money!

Similar Products Used:

Marantz, JBL, B&O (not impressed at all for price)

Small, easy to set up, very easy to set up, can't go wrong with set up, fantastic sound for all music types

treble can be a little overpowering but usually sound balance is excellent, price

Got it out of the box and working within 5 or 10 minutes and have not switched it off in 3 months!!

Every bit of music and TV watched to and listened to in this house is played through the bose system... God only knows what the neighbours think of us now.

Would I buy it again?? definitely YES.. but I wish I had the white speakers.

Similar Products Used:

sony dolby pro logic surround system

Small, easy to set up, decent sound for the size

insufficient bass response, not expandable/upgradable

Let it be known that I am NOT a Bose fan. In fact, I think that they downright blow, and rob people blind with what they charge for their over-priced, and WAY over-valued products and reputation.

Having said that, I did not pay $2500.00 for my LS 25 II. I picked it up through a friend who worked for Bose, for $750.00. And for that price, it isn't a bad system. But no way is it worth the full price that they fix on these things.

It is a full dolby digital system, and produces amazing sound quality for the size, not the price. At full price, you could do better for much less. It works fairly well for music as well, though sometimes the vocals aren't as strong as they should be, and the videostage decoder for music (that's an oxymoron, isn't it)often leaves tracks sounding a bit thin in the skin. YOu can switch to the two speaker mode, but when you do that, the tunes lose a lot of oommfff.

It doesn't exactly have inputs galore, but for what I'm using it for, it works. One digital input, though, is simply bad form. For a small room, it's great. But I wouldn't go using this in any family rooms with cathedral ceilings.

Hey Woochifer, if you hate Bose so much (as I do) why did you buy TWO rather expensive systems from them? At least I got mine in the bargain basement. But even at $750.00, my bud told me that they were more than doubling their money on the thing. Insane mark-ups. They were clearing them out to make way for the new systems, that my buddy tells me have been plagued by technical difficulties galore.

Did you know that their new dvd players are made by Toshiba. They won't tell you that, just like they won't tell you that their cd players are made by sanyo. Yup! You're paying thousands of dollars for sanyo sh#t!

Bose Blows!

Similar Products Used:

Denon based system

Looks pretty; cube units make great fetch toys for your pets

Sound quality, build quality, features, waddya expect ... IT'S A BOSE!

To all you Bose myopians -- WAKE UP FROM YOUR DREAM! I HAVE heard the Bose Lifestyle 20 and 35 systems (please see my review of the Lifestyle 35 under the review topic for the Lifestyle 30), and they are a sick sick joke. The ultimate triumph of marketing over performance. Contrary to what John from Oz says, some of us who bash Bose do so because of what Bose does to music! As a former musician, I care a lot about how accurately a system reproduces the sound of a musical instrument or voice. HIGH FIDELITY implies that the equipment is faithful to the original source, and Bose colors the sound in ways that impress during product demos in mass market chain stores, but fail miserably under more critical conditions like controlled comparisons with similarly priced competitors. Bose relies on impulse buys, laziness, and ignorance.

Also, contrary to what John from Oz says, specs DO matter. Having a flat frequency response is desirable because this means that the system is reproducing the music as originally intended by the engineer. People who've tested the Bose Lifestyle systems with lab equipment generally note that the Acoustimass speakers have frequency gap between what the bass module reproduces and what the cube units reproduce, with a boost in the upper bass to compensate. This is not audiophile nitpicking, having an entire part of the frequency response MISSING (not just inaccurate, but absent altogether) means that lower female voices will sound unusually husky (because of the midbass boost) while some male voices will sound shrill and only halfway there.

On the Bose Lifestyle 20, it sounds better than your average mini-system, and if it were priced around $500, it would be a very attractive buy. But for its list price of $2,000, the Bose unit is way out of its league. If anyone says that they've compared Bose Lifestyle systems to comparable systems before buying, they really must mean compared to Aiwa, JVC, or Sony mini-systems, because that's the market segment where the Lifestyle belongs. At $2,000, you can buy a Denon or Yamaha receiver, get some B&W or Paradigm speakers AND a DVD player (which is NOT included with the Lifestyle 20), that will FAR outperform the Bose system. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either delusional or already owns one.

Anyway, I do agree with some of the Boseophiles, go out and listen for yourself. But, Bose contractually obligates its retailers to set up its systems in their own displays and NEVER next to comparably priced competing products, which negates the opportunity for a one-to-one comparisons. As I've asked with Bose's nonexistent specs, WHAT ARE THEY HIDING?

It is a Bose

That's up to you

Apologies that this is not a review of the LS25. It is a general comment to those looking to buy one. I have an LS12 and a wave radio CD - both of which I listened to and compared against the alternatives before purchasing. I am pleased with both. Sure, they cost a lot but I don't spend money on things I don't like - do you?

Firstly, ignore the ridiculous negative comments made by some "audiophiles" on this site. These people are obsessed with specifications, generally pay little attention to aesthetics and fail to accept that Bose outsells their favourite audiophile brands because people prefer them. They know what a technically correct system sounds like and they only look for that - music (and human ear characteristics) means little to them.

Bose doesn't publish specifications. I suspect because on paper they look bad and people too lazy to listen to them first will be put off. Do you buy an audio system for it's paper specs? - NO. You buy it because you listened to it and it sounded good to you - you probably also like the looks and functionality of it and it was in your price range. If you listen to this system and don't like it - DON'T BUY IT AND DON'T DAMN WELL RUBBISH IT ON THIS SITE!! But please don't listen to the audiophilic Bose bashers - go and evaluate the system for yourself. You can decide for yourself if it sounds good and if it is good value. You don't need to be told what you should and shouldn't like.

Back to the specs. Bad audiophiles and people with bad ears look at the paper specs. WOW it has a flat response from DC to daylight - it must be good. That is so stupid for many reasons. Sure, Bose speakers have a strange frequency response but they do sound good (to most people). Maybe that's why my audiophile mates come over to listen to my Bose as a reference system... Hmmm - perhaps Bose have done their research after all.. And believe me - most manufacturers lie profusely (or otherwise rig unfairly) with their published specifications. They usually aren't worth the paper they are written on.

To Bose bashers - give it up. Everyone is sick of you and it's not funny anymore.

Look, listen and buy it IF (and only if) you like it. I suspect you will.

Similar Products Used:

Bose LS12, Bose wave radio