Bose Lifestyle 38 for $1799 - worthwhile...or not?

[notlob]

I have just been offered the above, a demo model, for the price of $1799 (regularly $3499). Not knowing too much about the home theatre world, would this be worth getting? Also, is the extended warranty for this worth getting...I believe this is approx $299. TV-wise I am looking at purchasing a Panasonic PZ850 when it comes out next month (July....or so I am told). Thank you for any advice.

notlob

[Spinner]

NOT!

For $1,800, you can buy a lot of quality components for your home theatre that will totally outperform anything from Bose. Bose is all about marketing hype and outrageously priced gear.

It really depends on what components you currently have now. However, I assume that you don't have a blu-ray player (which will also play regular DVD's and CD's for that matter) which you will want with your new Panny 1080p TV. A good choice for blu-ray is the Sony Playstation PS3 - while it is a gaming console it is also so much more - it really is a computer that has a blu-ray player in it. It can also play blu-ray movies (stunning, if you already haven't experienced it), connect to the internet (i.e. surf the internet, but not really recommended if you already have a computer to do that), hold music (that you download to the PS3's memory), play CD's and a bunch of other multimedia things - both now and in the future (plans for the PS3 to work with Netflix for streaming movies from internet to your TV, instead of renting discs).

I have the 40Gig model and find, for my purposes it has more than enough memory. However, the internal hard drive can be replaced by the owner (sanctioned by Sony and easily done) for a larger drive (takes laptop type hard drive). The 40Gig model goes for about $400.00 right now, but if you look around, there are some deals from time-to-time -e.g. save the tax, etc.

For a receiver, there are quite a number of new generation receivers that are coming to market now - Pioneer and Sony come to mind. The Pioneer 1018 lists for about $650 but can already be had for under $600.00 in the U.S. If you are close to the border, you can usually save money - and if you have the cojones not to declare it at the border on your way back, you can save the GST and PST you would get charged.

For speakers, there a quite a number of low cost options . It looks like you are in the market for "small" speakers - possibly to please someone else in the household who thinks that bigger speakers are ugly. A place to try is AV123 web site www.av123.com for their close-out deals on some of their x-ls encore speakers. Currently, a 5.1 system (4 x-ls encore speaker (2 fronts and 2 rears), 1 x-cs encore for the Centre and a x-sub subwoofer (for those much needed deep bass sound effects in movies - think big explosions etc) is going for $686 plus shipping. This is a US based company (that a lot of people rave about - see their "Community" linked from the main web site) that can ship to Canada but you can usually save money by having it shipped to somewhere close to the border and pick it up yourself.

Of course, doing it this way involves more time and effort, but in the end, will likely be much more fulfilling. You'll just end up with a better system, with individual components that can be upgraded, etc. individually as your budget and tastes allow.

You can do a lot of research with respect to Audio Video equipment. Another good site, other than this one, with a ton of information is a v s forum (name and website link gets blocked out automatically by this site - just Google it).

Lastly, don't get sucked into buying expensive cables to interconnect the various components in your system or for speaker wires. Shops like Futureshop and Best Buy are famous for trying to sell you $100 Monster cables which are no better than a $10 cable available from a reputable internet cable store such as Blue Jeans Cable or Monoprice. Also, as long as the gauge is big enough (wire gauge - lower number means thicker wire), you can use "cheap" speaker wire cable or even lamp wire available from Home Depot, etc. and add you own end connections (spades or banana plugs) or even use bare wire connections. Just another way to save a bunch of money and still get quality sound and picture.

Hope this helps,

Cheers!

[eljay]

notlob, the general concensus on this forum site is that Bose audio products are overpriced. A price tag of $1,800 for a used system consisting of a receiver/DVD player combo., a bunch of little cube speakers and a small subwoofer only reinforces that perception.

After reading through the Home Theatre FAQs, do some searching in the various forums on this site and you'll find plenty of information about the components you should be looking at, and what deals are available on them. For the same $2,099 ($1,800 plus $299) you're considering spending on that little Bose system, you can get yourself a lot of really great gear!

Happy browsing / shopping!

[jlet]

notlob, also see:
o Why does everyone hate Bose: http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=64588
o HDTV Frequently Asked Questions: http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=57741 (great Newbie info)

[cfraser]

Bose. Bose Bose Bose.

Just wanted to post that, most audio/AV forums I frequent don't allow that four-letter word to be posted. To keep things civil.

To ask about Bose is really to ask: who has the best marketing? There is no other good reason to discuss them in an enthusiast's forum, except for the jokes and humor of course. If they sold at a price in the league of their same-quality competitors, then there could be a reasonable discussion. Also, if they allowed their products to be honestly evaluated and the results published, there would be some facts to discuss. Bose themselves don't really allow this, so it's all just opinion, and if somebody thinks they're worthwhile then go for it. But most people here are looking out for you, it doesn't materially affect us what you buy, so take the words from that perspective.

[notlob]

Thanks very much to all ofyou for your very helpful suggestions! I am pleased that I did post this onto this website as I would have purchased the system thinking that I had 'the best' as I always thought Bose had a 'good reputation'. After reading some of the websites sent me however, it does not appear to be that good....and it must have been the marketing that got to me! I will not be getting this system now and will look further at some of the websites you all kindly sent me to review. Thanks again.

Best wishes

notlob