Review by Peter Q. Venkman for Bose Lifestyle 28 Series III DVD Home Entertainment System – Black
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 by S. Vela for Bose Lifestyle 28 Series III DVD Home Entertainment System – Black
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 by PT Cruiser for Bose Lifestyle 28 Series III DVD Home Entertainment System – Black
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.