qmeister's Full Review: Bose Lifestyle 28 Theater System
About Bose
Before I type another word, let me simply say that in 21 years of owning Bose products, I’ve never had the slightest bit of dissatisfaction with them. As an example, in 1980, I purchased a pair of Bose 901 speakers from the PX while stationed on Okinawa. Around 1994, I noticed the foam backing behind the drivers was crumbling; when I called Bose asking about replacing the foam, they offered to replace my old 901s for the latest generation series for $400; a very good deal when compared to the normal retail price of $1,200, and certainly not anything they were obligated to do.
Home Theater
Before shelling out for a home theater with surround sound make the simple determination that “that” is what you want. Some people are actually highly annoyed by the sounds of tanks or airplane crashes rumbling behind them and wind up disabling the rear speakers to protect their sanity. If, however, you want to “experience” what DVDs are capable of delivering, you’ll want surround sound. If you want a good Bose system with just two speakers, I’d recommend the “1-2-3” system at around $1,000.
Set Up
What you get for $2,500 is a large box with the five “jewel” cubes, which are actually two speakers each than can rotate about 45 degrees for additional “spread.” There’s also the powered subwoofer unit, and the main module itself. Oddly enough, the power transformer is also a separate unit, which fortunately for me fits behind the modesty panel at the rear of my Ikea wall unit, as it is quite ugly and heavy. The wires are all coded “LR, LF” etc., so once you place the speakers and trail the wires out, you’ll know what goes where. Even then, a “setup & test” disk is provided to make sure the right sound comes out of the right speakers. Now for the odd part; having initially owned an entry level Panasonic system, I was accustomed to hiding the subwoofer under the sofa, at the rear of the listening area, and having the wires for it and the two surround sound speaker trailing under the large area rug to the main module. With Bose, all the speaker wires are connected to the subwoofer, which then has essentially a data cable running back to the main module. I suppose I could still place the subwoofer at the rear of the listening unit, but I might not have had enough wire; and since it’s not simple speaker wire, but rather long RCA connectors with pre-stripped ends (at the speaker end), I didn’t want to fool around. You’ll also find a weird item and two pieces of Velcro to stick on the back of your television set. Don’t throw this away; you Velcro the RF sensor on the back of your television set, and then program the unit to automatically turn the TV on when a DVD is inserted into the tray. The sensor is there to determine if the TV is already on apparently. Works rather well.
Playing DVDs, CDs and The Radio
The display on the unit itself is rather limited; so most settings are changed using your television screen. I can’t imagine someone purchasing this unit merely to play CDs, but if you did you’ll have to borrow someone’s TV to adjust the sound field, treble, bass, etc. The remote control can be programmed for your television, and all sound field adjustments are rather intuitive. One feature I do miss from my entry level Panasonic is a subwoofer button on the remote. I can adjust the “bass” using the onscreen menu, but can’t do it using the remote. When you’re setting the system up, a good default to override is the “Mute All Subtitles.” The default is to disable this – when enabled, if you’ve got a DVD playing and the Ginsu Knife people call, when you hit “Mute All” closed caption subtitles automatically appear so you can continue to follow the dialogue while you wait for the conversation to end. The radio is relatively easy to program, and the reception, even in the oddball apartment I have, is quite good with the provided “T” shaped antenna, which I have put up on the backside of my wall unit. Provided with my unit was a CD for upgrading the software, unknown to me, the unit is software upgradeable, and this operation took about 2 minutes or less to complete. Registering with Bose ensures if they tweak the software again, you’ll get an upgrade. Incidentally, despite what you see in the product description here, the unit DOES play CD-Rs (I’ve played several that I’ve burned myself), and claims to play CD-RWs as well as MP3 files.
The Sound
Obviously the sound is incredible; but I’ll admit I still enjoy the Bose Wave Radio/CD I have in my bedroom. I suspect that the acoustic properties of my living room are not optimal, but frankly I was “almost…” as happy with the Panasonic unit I used to have. Which, by the way, was only $550. The base is good, separation outstanding, and the subwoofer could, if I’m not careful, knock plaster off the ceiling. I suppose I just need a larger apartment. But again, although I could probably find a system with sound “good enough” for my 44 year old ears, I’ve never been dissatisfied with the build quality, durability or customer service of anything I’ve ever owned from Bose, and expect I’ll have this unit a lot longer than a less quality system.
Update:
I was having a few problems the other day getting the on-screen system adjustment menu to come up..thinking I'd pushed a wrong button someplace, I called the toll free "customer assistance number." My call was answered fairly promtly (under 2 minutes) and I got a helpful technician who told me to "reboot" the system by unplugging it completely. He then got my address and promised a second software patch to resolve the problem. I would have hoped they'd released a "bug free" system, but they were prompt to deal with it and try to help.
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