Review submitted by Peter Q. Venkman
Author’s Rating:
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.

Review submitted by I. bocanegra
Author’s Rating:
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

Review submitted by S. Vela
Author’s Rating:
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.

Review submitted by Adam G. Arker
Author’s Rating:
I recently bought the Bose Lifestyle V28 System but actually at a Bose Outlet store. I paid $1299 refurbished but ended up having some issues with setup (one of the wire prongs had been broken in shipping). I called Bose to explain the situation and they were not only helpful but bent over backwards to try and make it a pleasurable experience. I’ve had problems with other electronic manufacturers in the past who were not nearly as understanding. To make up for this Bose shipped me a BRAND NEW SYSTEM overnight, along with a pair of the new QC 15 headphones (valued at $299). Now to the product itself. Although I understand how to hookup audio/video, I am certainly not an expert and the Bose system was extremely easy. The only downfall was they do not have many high quality jacks (1 optical in, no HDMI) for the product. In any case I figured out a few workarounds and had it up and running after a quick trip to Best Buy. That evening I decided to watch Slumdog Millionare(great flick) which was not exactly an action movie but had some scenes which would demonstrate the system’s capability in my house (since it almost always sounds better in the store). I am not an audiophile, however I do appreciate great video and sound when watching movies, sports, etc. and am fairly knowledgeable about the subject. The sound was incredible, especially considering the streamlined look of this small system. As usual Bose delivered. When helicopters flew by you thought your hat would fly off, when dogs barked I couldn’t tell if it was my labrador or the movie, when gunshots flew I almost wanted to duck. The bass was loud and crisp but not overdone like other systems (i.e. Klipsch, Sony, JBL) and the mid-tones/high tones were amazingly realistic. I would absolutely recommend the Bose Lifestyle V28 to my friends, family, or however else would ask. Like any other purchase there is always a superior product if you spent more money and the true audiophiles who drop 10K on a system may tell you different but for the 1.3-2K this system delivered my expectations and more.

Pros: Great Customer Service, Easy Setup, Tight Bass, Incredible High/Midtones, Small and Streamlined Look.

Cons: Few High End Jacks, Not The Quality of an “Audiophile” System, No Media Server

Review submitted by PT Cruiser
Author’s Rating:
I bought this system a few years ago and have never regretted my purchase. The first time saw and heard it was in a crowded electronics store, out in the middle of the floor, terrible acoustics and lots of noise all around. They had the unit sitting on a display with two arching arms going back over where I stood in front of it and maybe 9 or 10 feet behind me. The sound was amazing, even in that environment.

My problem with our family room is that with lots of windows and doors, no drapes and with the length of the room it’s an acoustic nightmare. This system seemed like a solution. I brought it home and the hook-up was easy. There were lots of spots in back of the unit for all of our other devices that we wanted to run through it. I followed the diagrams in the manual and didn’t run into any problems. There were several alternative ways to hook up things like an old tape player and VCR. Last year we added a Sony BDP-S300 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player and play the HD movies using that but run the sound through the Bose. I even added a cable connector to connect my iPod so I could listen to my playlists in surround sound.

I like the speakers because they’re small and unobtrusive and the sound is crisp and clear. It’s amazing the sound that you get from these little speakers when watching a movie with a lot of action and different sounds. More than once I heard a dog barking or a phone ringing in a movie and thought it was coming from my home instead of the movie. And there is nothing like listening to a classical CD or selection from my iPod in surround sound. It’s like sitting in a symphony hall with the music all around you.

The remote is easy to use and you can control all your other devices from it as well. The unit itself is elegant and looks great in the cabinet. Bose automatically sends firmware upgrade CD’s from time to time if you register the product. We’ve never had a problem, have thoroughly enjoyed it and I can highly recommend it.

Review submitted by Matthew Morse
Author’s Rating:
I recently purchased this Samsung system as a replacement to my previous Samsung system that was destroyed in a house fire. I’m no audiophile, but I do know good sound when I hear it.

Before buying this set, I had considered sound bars and other 2.1 systems (mainly Bose) as I live in an apartment and my living room isn’t all that big, nor did I want the system to blow away my neighbors. I ended up with this, though for a couple of reasons:

For the money, it’s a good system. It’s almost identical to the last albeit with wireless rear speakers. Which is my first point. The wireless rear speakers just work. You plug in a transmitter to the back of the unit and then plug the rear speakers into a receiver unit that you plug into the wall. So the rear speakers aren’t truly wireless, but they’re good enough. I did buy some nice stands to put them on so that I could hide the speaker wire. The receiver box is small (about the size of a Nintendo Wii or similar) and unobtrusive. I set it next to my couch on the floor under a side table and you can’t see it unless you’re looking for it. Also, the couch hides the wires coming from the farthest speaker.

The speakers are good. Not great, but they’ll do. They don’t have any grilles on them, which is a bit annoying. They look good, but if you’ve got toddlers on the move or a big dog, I’d suggest wall-mounting them or putting them up on stands to get them out of the way of curious fingers and/or sharp teeth. My rear speakers exhibit a bit of fuzziness at low volumes, especially when I’m sitting right next to one of them, but turn up the volume and have a steady flow of sound, and you never hear it. I’m guessing this might be a slight loss in transmission from the transmitter to the rear receiver, but I may be wrong.

The setup for this system was incredibly easy. Samsung color-codes their speaker wires so you can’t really mess it up. The only bad thing about this is that if you want new, more or better speaker wire, you’re going to have to get something Samsung compatible with their connections or either do some MacGuyvering to get their connection onto your wire of choice (which may defeat the purpose of better speaker wire). The good thing about this system vs. my last one, is that the wires weren’t permanently attached to the speakers so I can upgrade my speakers at any point by just unplugging the wires from these and plugging them into the back of something nicer. I doubt I’ll ever need anything more, but it’s an option. Back to the setup, Samsung provides a microphone for an auto setup feature and while I never could get it to pick up every speaker every time (it would miss at least one each time), it did seem to get things close enough for me.

This system works flawlessly with my Samsung 46″ LCD HDTV and while I don’t use the remote (I have a Logitech Harmony remote), it seemed easy enough to use and matched the remote to my TV almost button for button.

For the money, there aren’t much better systems out there. Especially if you’re looking for rear speakers that are wireless. It’s a good starter set or a replacement to an old setup if you just want to add in the all-in-one capability of the box.

Review submitted by YabbaDabbaDoo!
Author’s Rating:
So I could go into detail about this system (it’s decent), its sound (okay, but not great), its design/quality (looks good/feels cheap, get’s dusty easily), etc. But the thing that seems the most notable is how horrible Samsung’s customer “service” is. My remote was defective and the system’s compatibility with my Samsung TV wasn’t great (I know – the least they could do would be to get it to work well with their own products!). It took me more than a dozen calls to get to their Tier 3 technical support, and still they couldn’t resolve all the issues with this system. Along the way their customer “service”:

-Lost my work ticket 3 different times

-Failed to write down the details of my problem so I had to explain it to each new person I was passed to

-Ordered me the wrong remote (twice)

-Lacked proper documentation for system (I stopped counting the times they told me to try changing the batteries)

The bottom-line is don’t buy this system. Its compatibility my Samsung HDTV isn’t great, the user interface is clunky and confusing, the sound quality is only okay, and if anything goes wrong, you will spend a year of your life dealing with Samsung’s customer “service.”