Thoughts on Bose 235 Lifestyle System (1 Viewer)

Thanks, T

Guys, any general thought on the system? I was looking at it to be my primary sound system for my HT. I have a smallish room and like the 2.1 sound as well as the ability to play my ipod through the speakers. I have a Sony Bravia XBR 52 HX909 3D LCD HDTV 240HZ as my screen and will be buying a blu-ray player soon. Your opinions on the Bose would be very helpful.

Welcome Chuck,


Please don't take this wrong if your intentions are pure... I hope this is not a bait thread. I really hate to be baited and will not humor anyone past this post.....



Stay far away from BO$E. I do not need to go into many details. Even a quick search here and other HT forums will provide you with all you need to know.


Based on your BO$E selection, I'm assuming you have about $2500 to spend??? Do you need to have those tiny speakers or would bigger book shelf speakers be okay for you?

I really don't have the room for big speakers...can you point me to some posts here dealing with Bose? I'm not trying to bait anyone..I really need help. I want to be able to play my ipod and select tracks through any system I select.

For that amount of coin you could get a very nice receiver to control your iPod through and a 5.1 system if you wanted. There are a few good companies out there who make small speakers such as Bose with a much nicer sound IMO.

Search here and other HT forums. There are tons of posts.


Bottom line is Bose is (now) a marketing company, not a speaker company. Their speakers have big issues with producing proper sound. There are big portions of the spectrum they cannot reproduce. The saying "No highs, no lows, it must be Bose" has a good bit of truth in it. When you demo them, they make sure they control the environment completely. The speakers are in their room away from everything else and they play only their material.


Check out systems from Orb Audio or Mirage if you need the tiny cubes. If you can go with bookshelves, your options are almost limitless. My favorites are Axiom and SVS, but the end choice is yours. You need to listen for yourself (with movies and music you are familiar with).


BTW - Here's some info on BOSE. - http://intellexual.net/bose.html - I can't vouch for how accurate it is but even if it is not all true, the problems with the sound and the price they charge is reason enough to avoid them.

David, Thanks for that Bose Link


Who knows if all of this is true but we do know that Bose lawyers will go after those who challenge their Kingdom.

I can attest to one thing and that is the slick and or pumped demo at a Bose Factory store. One winter day a number of years ago I was killing some time at a local mall and after listening to a Bose demo I asked the Bose Factory saleswoman if she could play a CD I had purchased that day, as I wanted to hear how it sounded on the lifestyle system I had just listened to. She said that was not possible as the equipment is set up to for the demo. I asked her that since the Lifestyle unit comes with a CD/DVD player why couldn't she just pop my CD it in it for me. She said she could not do that as the receiver was in a different room and she could only play the demo using a remote control and it was time to play another demo. .

I


I did some shopping and listening and went with the Cambridge audio Sonata AR30. I also got the 2 speakers (bookshelf) that go with it so I will hook everything up tonite.