To all those Bose haters...

[NIIKME]

Not to this audience specifically but I got plain fed up with all the negativity towards Bose on the internet whilst researching my latest acquisition! I've had a Bose sound dock for a number of years and figured if that was anything to go by their home cinema must be equally awesome.

So £1500 lighter and I have a Lifestyle T10 installed in my family room. It is quite simply OUTSTANDING!! I traded up from a sony 1200ES amp, and a Jamo satellite package. This sounded good but was increasingly frustrating for the family (and me) with numerous remotes, turning the TV volume down with one, the AV on with another, selecting the right HDMI input with another remote etc etc. A nightmare. Only to be solved with a geeky programmable remote control from Logitech perhaps - or in fact you could just ditch the lot - which is what I did!

So from the moment I opened the Bose box the quality is unmistakable. It also comes with everything from HDMI leads to a USB key for software updates (nice touch). The speaker brackets are quality, and have a flush mount which is hidden behind a plastic clip over plate (again nice and smooth touch). When you fire it up the setup procedure is a real eye opener! Their "unify" process basically hand walks you through plugging all the cables in, to asking you to use your old sky remotes/tv remotes so that the Bose unit can identify their buttons. Then it asks you to wear some microphone laden headphones in 5 different places in your room so that it can measure the sound waves reflecting off walls! All impressive stuff and I was a happy man already

Then I turned it on. Just about every channel or disc I have put through it has unmistakable surround sound. It upscales everything right out of the box! Any channel in HD is most impressive. To be honest I was a little taken aback at how much better it sounded compared to my old system? I think on reflection my old system was a combination of highs (from the satellites) and bass from the sub. Not much in between and the two components felt 'distanced' if that makes sense? With the Bose you are encapsulated in full sound and have absolutely no idea where its coming from whether it be the front, back, or sub.

So like I say, to all the haters, the lifestyle system is the mutts nuts. I've no idea why I could only find bad reports from so called 'audiophiles' so here is the first good one If you have the money go buy one they are all 25% off at the moment and I hope I have inspired someone else to take the plunge.

Edited by NIIKME on Thursday 8th September 09:19

[NIIKME]

Hi - I've got the single cubes with the T10, the T20 is the same unit but with double cubes for an extra £300. In the store I couldn't hear that much of a difference and was advised the difference only really becomes noticeable in a big room. Since mine is a small room (6x3M) the singles made more sense.

[NIIKME]

Overpriced I hear you say.... But when you realise how much software engineering has gone into making my 1 remote home cinema a pleasure to use it actually feels extremely good value (in addition to sounding awesome).

[NIIKME]

Oola, nice website!
I look forward to the day I have £50k to spank on kit with hidden racks, speakers, and key pads in every room.
Then we might be able to talk business. Until then....

[NIIKME]

headcase said:

It isnt 3d complaint out of the box (apparently there is a software upgrade but im yet to see it) so if you have a 3d tv and a 3d Blu-Ray then it wont work in 3d unless you plug it straight into the TV but then defeating the whole purpose of unify and it also dosent get 5.1 from a Sky HD box, its the age old problem where sky only ouputs stereo from the HDMI and 5.1 from the optical, the problem is that these new T10's dont allow you to get the picture from the HDMI and the sound from the optical as the optical is permanently mapped to the component or composite input so unless you have a old HD box with Component out you are cream crackered. The get around is to plug sky into the TV then optical to the Bose but yet again you are defeating the whole purpose of unify...
Apart from that its a nice bit of kit, especially the one with the propper ipod dock.

Hmm confirm I do not get 5.1 through hdmi.....thanks for pointing that out! With that said i am amazed i hadnt noticed since it sounds so good?? Perhaps theres a lot of processing going on.
Have not tried a 3d blu ray, but 3d sky is just fine.

Edited by NIIKME on Monday 12th September 12:36