Bose Lifestyle 25 Series 1 (1 Viewer)

[George Esser]

I am very new to all of this, but my interest has been spurred. I recently bought a home from a divorcing couple that had a Bose Lifestyle 25 Series 1 in place. Apparently is was an unpleasant divorce. Upon taking possession I discovered that the previous owner left me with only four of the double cube speakers, the audio input cable, and the am and fm antennas. What can I do to match up some other compatible Bose, or other components to make this thing work reasonably well? Oddly, there was another Bose surround sound system in another room and the seller left me with only four speakers there also. I think I need an Acoustimass module, the Lifestyle music center and its power supply, and hopefully a CD magazine. Does anyone have a creative suggestion besides throw it all away? Incidentally, the seller has been totally uncooperative and claims they are only speaker and I should just plug them in. Ha! Thanks for any help someone can provide. George

 

[Carl Johnson]

I'm with the seller, I think that you should plug them in and see what happens. Rebuilding the componets ala carte would probably cost more than was paid for it in the first place. On a side note, if the system was any good to begin with the original owners wouldn't have forgotten to take it with them.

 

[Dave Hahn]

Welcome to the forum George!

I think you'll soon find that Bose has a very poor reputation here on the forum. Most members here, myself included, are of the belief that Bose speakers are 90% marketing and 10% speaker. You can find superior speakers at much lower prices.

That being said, if you choose to keep the cubes there is no need to purchase the Bose "media center" or "Acoustimass® module." For what you would pay Bose for the aforementioned equipment you can buy an entry level a/v receiver, dvd player and subwoofer. This would give you a much much better system than the "Lifestyle 25."

You can use the cubes with any home theater receiver and sub-woofer. Per Bose the cubes are:
If you decide to use the cubes without Bose's "media center" you may want to get another cube off of Ebay for use as a center channel speaker.

 

[ChrisWiggles]

what dave said.

I wouldn't put any money in trying to re-build a bose system. Sell it and buy superior equipment.

 

[Jack Briggs]

Though we're talking about a specific model here, I think this thread merits remaining here in the Basics area. Please note the comments in red at the top of the thread-listing page. If you all start to talk about specific speakers to replace the Bose unit, I'll move the thread over to the Speakers/Subs area.

 

[George Esser]

Hi Jack;
Since I am new to HT and to the forum, I would like to know what to do next. It appears that now that I want to talk about alternate choices in speakers I should be in a different forum. I think? Since I have the four Bose double cube bose speakers and I have a Yamaha 5740 amp/tuner, I guess all I need now is a subwoofer and a center speaker. I can always change out the Bose speakers later. The question now is what to buy as a subwoofer and a center speaker and I am looking for recomendations.
Thanks for your help. George

 

[Lev-S]

Buying any half-decent center channel will and putting in between the cubes will make for some uneven sound. You might consider buying a pair of mains first, and using cubes for center and surrounds until they can be replaced by matching units as well.

 

[Carl Johnson]

You don't have to have all five speakers to set up the system, why don't you start with just the four? Somewhere in the receiver menu there will be an option to either turn off the center channel speaker or to put the center in 'phantom' mode.