tex_man's Full Review: Bose Lifestyle 28 Theater System
I purchased the Lifestyle 28 system after an impressive live demo at an electronics store. On getting the unit home, I found it to be missing one of the two users manuals, and the software driver. After receiving it in the mail from Bose a week later, I was astounded to find the picture jittered when playing DVDs! The unit also powered off by itself on occasion, and flat out froze on other occasions (not responding to the power off switch or the remote--Bose tech support said to unplug it from the wall to reset it).
About five calls to Bose tech support over the next few months resulted in numerous software upgrades and even a replacement unit. Still it has sporadic glitches, such as surround speakers cutting out, TV powering off by itself, the unit powering off but leaving the TV on, not recognizing audio CD tracks in the CDR format the documentation says it recognizes (but re-inserting the same CD seems to fix the problem!).
These minimal glitches might be acceptable if the sound was as amazing as the in-store demo. It isn't. It isn't even close. The bass is anemic and the surround quality is marginal. It has the performance of an $800 system for a price tag three times as much.
Other reviewers seem to like theirs--maybe I got a lemon (which was replaced by another lemon). To their credit, Bose customer service has been helpful. They set up a special hotline for this product (which suggests I'm not the only one having issues). They even recently sent out free Blockbuster video rental cards to Lifestyle customers for the inconvieniences "a few customers may have had" (again, companies don't do that unless they've goofed).
I will steer clear of Bose products in the future.
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