Home Theater Systems Help

See for yourself. . . Bose Lifestyle 12 Theater System First, let me state that you will NEVER see this system in stores. I searched for a good home theater system for ...

Great speakers, Poor Music Center Bose Lifestyle 12 Theater System I bought my first Bose speakers -- Acoustimass 5 Series II -- many years back, and I have been happy with the prod...

A little bit of history. I was drawn into a trademark Bose theatre show exactly four years ago (i.e., near Xmas time) and that first Bose exposure impressed me very much. But I didn’t dig into my pocket for a Bose, any Bose, until a month ago. Main reasons?

1. Way too pricey. The then Lifestyle 5 went for two grand and the salesman said it was a bargain - by throwing in a Bose Wave Radio. Well, considering Wave Radio went for $300 firm, he had a ground for the claim but… And the ball mark price never falls significantly. (Bose is the only consumer electronics company I know that maintains street price to equal list price, which by the way puts their direct sales in odd direct competition with their distribution channel.)

2. Sound impression v.s. sound quality. I am always skeptical of theatre shows. Not only do they use controlled material to impress, but also in nearly all Bose showrooms, Bose-run or independent, you don’t get to listen side by side with other high-end units. Additionally, I spoke with the Bose rep after the show, and learned that the sound effect came from heavy electronic manipulation. This certainly concerns me. (In case you haven’t noticed, Bose never publishes any response curve.)

This said, I am still very impressed by Bose’s trademark small footprint, theatrical effects, and VideoStage technology that renders monaural recording into an immersive stage. OK, Dolby ProLogic II later caught up in the latter but first impression is important. I also discussed room acoustic factors with the rep, and he ensured me that the larger-than-living-room size of the showroom wasn’t a real help. So I told my then girlfriend: If I ever buy Bose, I’d wait for Bose price to drop like all electronics. Well, Bose has defied gravity and never dropped its price, but apparently permitted retailers to give discounts on some discontinued products.

So that morning a month ago, my wife and I - in different rooms - eyed on the same ad in the newspaper: Bose Lifestyle 8 Series II (hereafter Lifestyle 8-II) for ~$600. I didn’t know that she was a dedicated Bose fan until I accidentally mentioned this ad; she certainly is price aware, but leans more toward sound impression than quality. We immediately agreed to give it a try, outside of budget. In case you don’t know, here in the U.S. West, we have a great electronics store that allows you to “evaluate” pretty much anything at your own home.

Below, I’ll describe my observations and experience so far, and remark on the religious war around Bose.

Ease of use -

This is, in my opinion, the most significant advantage of buying Bose. You don’t get much control if you opt for Bose Lifestyle. (And even salesmen (non-Bose) will tell you not to drive Bose speakers with other’s electronics, although lately Onkyo teamed up with Bose in co-marketing.) But Lifestyle sounds amazingly pleasant out of the box. You connect the dots by following the poster-sized quick start guide and get Bose sound very much like what you hear in the showroom - I can’t say the same with other home-theatres-in-a-box.

Interestingly, while I can assemble a component system without reference to a manual, I had to look attentively at the Lifestyle poster guide, and occasionally refer back to the manual. This is due to the special connection between its trademark Acoustimass base unit and the control centre. However, Lifestyle’s superior out-of-box sound quality stands for ease of use in its true sense.

One additional note on this: do not buy “professional installation” for a Lifestyle. No one needs it. (I nearly laughed when I saw that astonished look on the Bose outlet rep who hesitantly replied “Yes, we offer professional installation” to a lady shopper. Obviously he wasn’t used to this inquiry.) If you can assemble an Ikea bookshelf, or operate a Graco foldable stroller, you are more than qualified to obtain “professional” results from Lifestyle which, like Bose’s later 3-2-1, engineers great consideration for non-professional users. Prerequisite: you must have experience of hanging picture frames straight on the wall before attempting DIY a Lifestyle. (Of course, if you are crazy enough to pay close to $2,000 for this Lifestyle - or any Lifestyle, you probably don’t care about the $75.)

The lack of balance control, and lack of even path compensation in Lifestyle 8-II must be daunting to anyone knowing the basics of electric sound systems. But Bose does a really good job to allow control-free operations. The lack of an equalizer could be something of a miss, though, especially if you paid list price.

Automatic gain control (AGC - what Bose prefers to call “digital dynamic range” with a %26reg;; I am really surprised that Bose could get a registration on such a generic phrase) is on by default for video sources so you don’t have to turn down volume for your midnight movie, which is a very helpful consideration. (AGC is off by default when the sound source is CD or radio.)

Another considerate design is to turn on VideoStage by default when the digital source indicates monaural recording. (For non-digital sources, if you want VideoStage, you’ll have to press the button yourself.)

Features -

Lifestyle (and Bose in general) is, in my opinion, designed for ease of use, so don’t look for features in it. In Lifestyle 8-II, You get all the standard input/output set (less optical digital input, less analogue 5.1 input, none of which is necessary) for a home theatre, a top-loading CD casket, FM/AM tuner with 20 arbitrary presets, a built-in Dolby Digital decoder (no DTS or any 6.1), an Acoustimass base unit plus five jewel cube speakers, an RF remote control that is fairly basic. For one thing, you can adjust surrounding speaker level (as a pair) and centre speaker level, but can not adjust left and right channels independently, front or surrounding. As I mentioned above, there is no balance control, no path compensation, no equalizer.

One potentially useful feature is independent (and remote) control of additional speaker sets. With the RF remote control, you can fill your bedroom - or any other room - with a different source of sound from your living room, all the while entertaining your guests with living room music from yet another set of speakers. This was only possible in Lifestyle 15 (then $3,000) when Lifestyle 5 would have costed me $2,000. How time has changed.

Bose’s trademark jewel cube satellite speakers and hide-away base unit are a great space saver and are visually pleasing. Though acoustically unsound, they manage to sound surprisingly well. Until I become filthy rich, small is beautiful - if it sounds as good.

As mentioned above, Bose’s proprietary VideoStage processing is a welcome feature that makes mono recordings live. Of course, Bose also does ProLogic from your Dolby Surround sources.

One interesting feature is called “enhanced mode”. According to Bose, this makes “bass and treble settings specially designed for proper playback of movie soundtracks.” I suspect that this is just Dolby B or C noise reduction - there must be ways to use a similar profile without infringing Dolby’s rights, if there are any. As Bose critics noted, Bose rarely ever mention Dolby - never prints the (nearly) ubiquitous double D logo on its product. Even in manuals, it scarcely mentions Dolby Digital and Dolby Surround; when it does so, there is no %26reg; indicator. Anyhow, “enhanced mode” is turned on automatically when you select a video input unless you manually turn it off.

Sound quality -

Basically, a Lifestyle system is WYHIWYG - “what you hear (in showrooms) is what you get” - forgive me for coining such a poor imitation of WYSIWYG. Don’t expect more, but you shouldn’t expect less. For the general public, getting showroom sound is more than sufficient. For most home-theatres-in-a-box, your purchase nearly always loses the appeal it had in the showroom the moment it enters your living room. Not Bose.

As many have noted regarding Bose in general, the bass is full, mid-range solid, and high crisp - but somewhat exaggerated. The sound stage is spacious, impressively clear and stable - just don’t look for accuracy. It really gives you the theatrical feeling - again, not necessarily realistic. I suspect that Bose also exaggerates low bass to “enhance” theatrical effects, but the solid mid-low at low loudness levels is very pleasant. If Bose engages loudness compensation (without telling users), that’s extraordinary application of this technology. I wish other (cheaper) boxed home theatre systems had the same result. In fact, I was unimpressed by some (cheap) loudness controlled systems I listened to.

On the flip side, I do not believe that Bose, especially Lifestyle, is designed for sound reproduction with high fidelity. From Hi-Fi stand point, Bose sound quality isn’t very good for your money. You don’t have to be a professional, nor do you need extremely subtle materials to listen to. Simply listen to a mono sound source, and you’ll notice hisses from all speakers that shouldn’t speak. With some other sources, especially voice with little instrument, you can also easily notice exaggerated high pitches in addition to hisses.

Acoustically, regardless of how Bose defends its “direct-reflecting” technology, which advocates facing satellite speakers away from the listener, the unpredictable acoustic paths (unless you happen to have a special listening space) makes fidelity impossible. I don’t know how much (and what kind of) feedback Bose picks up from sound producing units (i.e., the cubes), but the best they can do with those feedbacks is a _guess_ of the listener place. And that cannot be accurate. (I initially thought that they employ an intelligent built-in test logic until I bought this unit. They don’t.)

Additionally, my living room geometry is asymmetric like most apartment dwellers. This also stands true to listening conditions of most home owners. Some incompetent salespeople may tell you that Lifestyle is smart enough to adapt to any room configuration. Don’t trust them. Bose cannot totally compensate for room configuration. Ask a serious Bose technician. (In contrast, non-Bose systems all use direct acoustic path, which is less sensitive to room asymmetry.)

* Bose’s later ADAPTiQ technique employs a feedback microphone at listener position. This lays the base for automatic volume and path compensation. But this is available in Lifestyle 28 and later, not in Lifestyle 8. *

Additionally, not being able to completely disengage their digital processing can be frustrating at times. As many Bose critics have noted, Bose sound fills the space when it shouldn’t.

In short, Lifestyle is great for casual enjoyment, best for theatrical productions (movies, rock concerts, for example) which tend to use heavy processing to begin with. Life-like is the word, but not faithful. If you are extremely serious about listening to your favourite string quartet, voice quartet, or even orchestral productions, look elsewhere.

Put in “professional” talk, Lifestyle 8-II _produces_ great sound effects, but does not _reproduce_ good sound.

General quality -

For a home theatre in a box, Lifestyle carries superior quality in both design and workmanship, to every detail including the foamfree packaging. (Maybe with the exception of the supplied RCA audio cable.) Just look at the way the main cable is laid out - they really know how real people use their product.

Performance/Price ratio -

In case you missed the showdown(s), “To Bose or not to Bose” is never a Shakespearean ponder, but always a religious debacle. Many in the anti-Bose camp point to Bose speakers’ inferior sound quality. I think they missed the point. No wonder they always end up being stared at by the general public: Inferior sound? What interior sound?

In reality, Bose hurts your pocket more than it does your ear. True to Bose-nots’ statement, if you are serious about getting good sound, and have $2,000 to burn - not to say the $3,500 demanded for Lifestyle 48, AND if you have the time and skill to shop, I must add, you can easily assemble a home entertainment system whose sound quality is far superior to Lifestyle. (By the way, how many boxed systems you see list in this price range?)

However, the last “if” is a really big IF. Most people don’t have the time and skill to shop. (Well, not everyone has $2,000 to throw to a sound system, either, like myself.) To argue that if you get $2,000 to burn on sound you’ve got to go component is like saying if you get $3 million to blow on automobile you’ve got to build a car factory. Additionally, to not Bose also means that you must cut out more of your living space to accommodate your woody friends.

I think Lifestyle is superior to most boxed sound systems (most of which Japanese, as Bose-nots correctly pointed out) in terms of sound quality. But really I don’t think it’s worth the price Bose insists on. If I have %26gt;$2,000 to blow out, I will go component. That is another reason why I resisted Bose and settled for a cheap Sony, in addition to being cheap myself.

But at %26lt;$600, Lifestyle 8-II is a great bargain. After all, you don’t get a Bose at Pioneer price every day - Fry’s knows consumer psychology, and staged a “one-day sale”, which they later repeated. Forget that it doesn’t play DVD, that it doesn’t do DTS, doesn’t do 6.1, doesn’t even take your analogue 5.1 input if you happen to own a great Dolby Digital decoder. (Lifestyle 8-II has a built-in Dolby Digital decoder, but takes only co-axial digital input. The lack of optical input does not affect quality in any way.) Forget that this product is discontinued. Bose promises to support all products till death, although you need some patience to find documentation about Lifestyle 8-II on their Web site. (This has never been a main entry in Lifestyle line-up, so you cannot even register the proper product.)

Hypothetically I can still take my $600 and go component, possibly get slightly better sound - and much more features. But that much trouble for this little benefit would be insane. Here again, the ease of use (read instant gratification:-) plays a significant role in my evaluation of performance.

To compare apples with apples, Lifestyle is a (terribly overpriced) boxed home theatre system. This $600-Lifestyle 8-II beats a similarly priced Kenwood I previously used hands down. It also easily beats similarly priced Onkyo which my friend recently purchased in sound quality. I am a casual listener when it comes to home “theatre” - like they say, go to real theatre for real music. And like Bose-nots charged, my ears had long been abused by cheap Japanese boxed sound and could not tell better from best.

So, after 30 days, we decided that this Bose, when it came at Pioneer price - albeit out of budget, was a keeper.

Shopping assistant -

There are only two applicable rules. 1) Bose electronics and acoustics are all ridiculously overpriced for their sound quality. 2) You don’t buy Bose for Hi-Fi, but to please yourself. (This is almost like ice cream. You don’t eat it for nutrition. Isn’t every ice cream overpriced?)

In my opinion, value-minded shoppers should wait till the product goes out of market (so Bose will not be able to impose its list price on retailers). Truth is, sound technology does not evolve all that fast. Bose sound four years down the road will not be very different from Bose sound today. (Same is true for other quality vendors, too.)

Of course, you are taking a risk that the product you liked - or any discontinued product - may not be available, ever. You are also losing some electronic gadgetry (which is often, eh, just that - gadgetry). OK you lose bragging rights as well - but if you are inclined to buy Bose (or anything) for bragging rights, you should not be reading ePinions. (Put it this way: you lose more bragging rights when you buy Bose at list price. Your quality-minded friends sneeze at you for buying “inferior equipment”, while your value-minded friends laugh at you for buying “overpriced”.)

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Tags: Bose, Kenwood, Onkyo, Pioneer, RCA, Sony