Simplification, ability to expand system,quality of sound, size of speakers (allowing you to put them anywhere), remote control ease, AdaptIQ.

Lack of inputs (Bose doesn't think you need all of these and they are probably right in 80-90% of the cases, but not all), matches well with Bose components - may not with others.

It amazes me to hear such conflicting reviews, and as others have pointed out, a lot has to do with personal taste, not quality per se. One person suggested a Marantz and B&W system. That is what I moved away from to get this. I listen to a lot of music, I am a musician and have a brother who is a conductor. I listen to classical (a lot of guitar, strings) and jazz. To me, the biggest differnce in the Bose system is that it is most "life-like" to my ears. I'm not putting anyone's taste down, but I doubt there is a reviewer listed in this series who has more experience than I have. So I agree it's a matter of taste. What some describe as "life-like" to them is just a reflection of what they hear. My reference standard is a concert hall, studio or my own instrument. Others have heard music usually through speakers and to them, that is what they expect. So advice is to go and listen. I did this "blinded" so my ears did the discriminating - not my eyes. I have nothing against any system or manufacturer, nor anything for one versus another. But I don't believe those who think Bose systems are for amateurs. That is simply not the case and with the AdaptIQ system, the average person can get the most from his/her system. Many top speakers are poorly utilized because they don't fit the room right and/or walls, spaces, furniture etc. all alter the sound. The systems they have aren't calibrated. Bose does this better than anyone and simplifies it. To some degree - this simplification is what you're paying for. I won't go into decoding as it was mentioned elsewhere, but obviously that is another strength of Bose, and arguably one that makes this system stand out. Another clue that some of the reviewers are just on a tirade against Bose is are the bass comments. This is nonsense. Maybe if you are a rock and roll aficionado and you want more vibration you may miss something. But to another reviewer's point, Bose's bass is balanced. Listen to it when typani are used, or in a Yo Yo Ma CD. That will be telling and to me the sytem excels because it's how I hear the music live.

Similar Products Used:

Kef and B&W speakers, Marantz and Harmon Kardon receivers, Sony home theater system, panasonic DVD player

-Ease of use -Slim design and small speakers -ADAPTIQ -Great sound -Two zone capability -Remote control works through walls

-Lack of expandability -Price

I have recently purchased a Lifestyle 28. If you are considering doing the same and have been reading internet reviews, you will no doubt have noticed that opinions are widely divided, and that people tend either to think that Bose products are the best on the planet, or to hate them with a passion that borders on the obsessive. The sensible reader will no doubt realise that such extreme views, whether positive or negative, must almost invariably be wrong. Let's deal first with the detractors, who seem to fall into two categories - those who believe the product is a poor performer, and those who believe it is over-priced. Many of course fall into both, but we'll address them separately. First the price. There is no escaping the fact that Bose products of any kind are very expensive, and their home cinema systems rank among the most expensive of all. Are they over-priced? Well it's all relative, isn't it? If you are on a restricted budget, then you should probably look somewhere else. But I doubt that you will find any competing system (and by that I mean straight out of the box with all components included) at a significantly lower price point, but still with the same sound quality, slimline design, tiny speakers and ease of use. Consumers these days are smart. With the benefit of internet research, a significant level of expertise can be gained on a subject in a very short time. If the competition truly was offering much less expensive products with all the same benefits, features and quality of the Bose systems, I don't think Bose would still be in business. In this age of information where everyone is a cynic, it is inconceivable that customers all over the world would be foolish enough to continue buying vastly overpriced rubbish purely on the basis of slick marketing. Moreover, I don't think Bose's marketing is any more aggressive than that of any other major corporation. In fact, Bose's main form of advertising is in-store demonstrations, so if their marketing is successful, it is only because of the impressive performance of their systems. People aren't just buying them out of glossy brochures. Now then, performance. Make no mistake - the sound is of a very high quality. It is powerful, resonant and clear. Unless you have very particular preconceptions of what you like and what you are expecting, or you do not take the time to place the speakers intelligently and optimise the system properly (which is incidentally very easy with the aid of the included set-up disks and ADAPTIQ technology) I can almost guarantee that you will not be disappointed by the overall sound. From what I have been reading, the people who suggest that the sound from an L28 is generally of very poor quality are usually engaged in a general tirade about hating Bose and everything to do with it. The reader must decide whether such opinions are likely to be objective. In my own experience, the Bose LS28 effortlessly fills a room of normal dimensions with quality sound, no matter what kind of music I have played on it. For DVDs, it is truly a cinematic experience. Sharp, clear sounds burst out at you from all corners of the room. Those who claim that the bass is lacking may have a personal preference for an overwhelmingly bassy sound. When there is heavy bass in the underlying recording, the Bose will make you feel it in your chest and everything in the room will vibrate - even concrete floors. But if you want a system that will turn The Sound of Music into a thumping disco track, the Bose will not do it. The bass is balanced, which is exactly how Bose describes it. So is it the best sound on the market? Clearly not. But for that you need large speakers, which means an entirely different looking system. There are some minor imperfections, such as a faint whispering pulse when something like a piano solo is played at very high volume. The sound also has a generally "warm" character, which may not be to the personal taste of every listener. Again, whether you even notice this will depend on how firmly set you are in terms of the type of sound that you like or don't like. Some have suggested that the sound is not "real", although again what sounds "real" to one listener may sound "unreal" to another. Experience the sound for yourself and then decide whether you like it. Most dealers will let you take in your own CDs and test the system with whatever music you like. I did, and I have not been disappointed. When you buy a Bose Lifestyle 28, you are buying a well designed, inconspicuous, easy to use, all-in-one home cinema system with great sound. By taking the time to assemble individual components you may, if you know exactly what you are doing, get better results for less money, but you are likely to have to rearrange your furniture to fit the speakers in, because they'll be a lot bigger than the Bose cubes. Do your homework, and if you end up with a Bose LS28, you are likely to be a very happy customer.

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic 5.1 Home theatre system.

I know everyone is getting tired of these reviews so let me save some future purchases of this system. I work at a store that sells bose and other systems. please let me save you $$ and get you better sound out of the same size. I would just like to give you a couple of comparable systems that sound better for less $$. Definitive ProCinema 100 - $1400 Definitive ProCinema 80 - $1000 Paradigm Cinema 70 - $780 Paradigm Cinema 90 - $1000 Klipsch Cinema 8 - $1200 Klipsch Cinema 10- $1500 add a nice receiver $400-600 and a dvd player - $100-200 and you have a system with bass and tweeters!!

Great 5.1 displacement. Just awesome sound in DVD movies. Bass not to too dry or annoyingly boomy. Very elegant and compact.

For the price it should play Mpeg4 Not THX Certified. After 50% sounds become more audible.

Considering they don't claim to be the best, having so small cube speakers, sleek design and not paying outrageous prices of over 5000+ I'd say it's worth every penny. I can say that most people don't have the right accoustic location in their homes and this attributes mostly to the poor sound. I can honestly agree that music sounds fair but not great, but when it comes to movies it's plain superb.

Similar Products Used:

Hi fi, good sound for the price, but to the train ear completely fake.

- understated compact styling - smart split of component functionality - simple setup - outstanding room eq compensation - easy to set up second listening area - awesome 5.1 sound for speaker size

- music reproduction average - better sound can be had for less money with bigger more complicated components

The things that get said about Bose just amaze me. They make a great product that is well suited to a certain market. This market is not "stupid", "gullible" or "wives". I am a professional musician and audio enthusiast of some 15 years experience. I live in an inner-city part of Sydney (Australia) and space is tight. I run two systems with Bose as HT also driving a Denon amp with a set of Krix Equinox speakers (these are an excellent audiophile quality Australian speaker). I shopped around and agonised over this purchase and I am completely convinced it was the best system for me. I am also a visual artist and have some experience with marketing, which brings me to a fundamental point about Bose that the self-professed audiophiles just don't get. There is more to a home theatre system than pure sonic accuracy. Aesthetics, expandability, ease of use and extremely compact design are legitimate and valuable considerations when choosing a home theatre system. Different buyers will weight them differently, but to argue that Bose is overpriced when compared to other products based on sonic accuracy alone is unfair and plain insulting to discriminating purchasers of their products. What other product has such discrete speakers, a single beautiful head unit, such easy setup, so few connections, and can drive a second system in another room easily with an RF remote? If these things are important to you, the Bose Lifestyle 28 is excellent value. Unbeatable. Finally, the sound from this system is amazing. There are certainly comparable sub-sat configurations, and if you want big speakers and a number of seperate components there is no question better sound can be had for less money. But this is not the value proposition from Bose, and there is no pretence on their part that it is.

Similar Products Used:

- Denon Amp - Krix Equinox Speakers - Tannoy M1 Speakers

The ADAPTiQ is pretty nifty, it would be a nice touch instead of having to use a sound meter and test tones to tune up the system.

Oh I forgot, how in the hell does Bose get away with using cheap spring clips when everyone else uses 5 way binding posts Build quality is awful compared to B&W and KEF, have you seen the aluminum shells on the KEF's now there is real quality. Terrible sound, way overpriced, I paid $600 for my Marantz SR4300, $1700.00 for my B&W system, and 400 for my DVD/CD player. What's with that lower midrange and the bass?

I no longer own this system, I returned it just a few weeks after purchase because frankly, they were just awful. I am now the proud owner of a B&W and Marantz, which was actually cheaper and much better sounding than the Bose system. The problem with one review I read was that you are comparing the $10,000 B&O system with the Bose system, as with anything there is a law of diminishing returns with Hi-Fi. The real task is whether or not Bose stands up to comparably priced equipment. Sure the Bose was easy to set up, it took me less than an hour to get everything up and running whereas it took me days to get my B&W system tuned up a few months to run it in. But I definitely say it was worth it. You can't compare these speaker to say Sony or Yamaha home theater in a box because these speakers are crap and not even in the same category, its like comparing apples to oranges. Its whether the Bose stands up to the likes of the B&W VM1, Energy Encore, KEF KHT 2005, and the like. Against competition like this the Bose system sounds anemic, it is thin without any sense of dynamics. I can hear a gap between the upper base and the treble and it always seemed like the speakers were struggling to reach the upper frequency, it sounded more like static than anything descript. Against my B&W subwoofer the accoustimass module sounded slow and undefined, The low rumble of a diesel engine just didn't sound like an engine more like a whump, whump, whump. What is it with Bose not publishing their specifications, while I agree that it isn't the end all be all, at least it should be a starting point. When you see frequency response dips and poor off-axis responses, that does point to potential problems. I have listened to a lot of systems, from $3000.00 to $30,000 (McIntosh) systems and I have to say the Bose isn't even close to most of the systems I've heard in reproducing movies or music. The issue here isn't whether Bose is good on their own, its whether they stand up to the competition. This is your hard earned dollars at work, why spend 3500 bucks on this crap when you can do so much better for the same price.

Similar Products Used:

Marantz SR4300 Denon DVD 900 B&W DM601 S3 B&W VM1 KEF KHT 2005

Small speakers One receiver/DVD unit RF remote AdaptIQ for customizing to individual rooms Excellent, no-brainer rear-surround out of stereo sources

Price Better sound can be had for a lower price (try JBL) if you don't mind larger speakers

Alright, I have read enough of this crap. I work at a retail store, where there are still commissioned salespeople. I want to make that clear, as I want to give my honest opinions here. Just like computer systems, it sounds as if the majority of the problems encountered by some of these disgruntles owners, are of the "operator-error" kind. I also agree with several reviewers that noted that some people's expectations are too high. While Bose's reps will probably never admit it, I will - Bose is great sound, IF you want a small, easy to use, good sounding package and don't mind the price. I tell my home theatre customers this, and then add that for the price ($2500) you can buy a far superior system, but your speakers will be larger, you will have at least one large receiver and then a dvd player. Add to that the difficulty of properly setting a receiver for the individual room (which Bose's AdaptIQ does w/an interactive DVD in about 10 minutes) and many people's complaint of poor rear-surround sound out of VCR/TV stereo signals (which Bose's Videostage 5 processor does a very excellent job of converting to surround) and I think you can understand where Bose is coming from. Are they the best? No. Are they the best for your average consumer who values small, sleek, elegant and (usually) ease of use over pure quality of sound? Yes

Similar Products Used:

Harman Kardon / Onkyo receivers JBL / Acoustic Research speakers

Well it's a BOSE, what more could you say!

Everywhere you look.

The system sound great when it works properly. The system will not work properly with some DVD's you CAN NOT turn off subtitles. Also the settings which should appear on the screen sometimes do and mostly don't. Do yourself a big favor and do not fall victim to their junk. Their outley center has some perfectly designed acoustical room so the system sound great, when you get it home it sounds good but ahs proven to be very problematic.

AdaptIQ will correct for any room problems. Small satellites have high WAF. The system can be equallized back to perfect flatness if you change the room or speaker location.

Some competitors have larger subs that go deeper (but none sound tighter). Occational glitches in the software.

Please see my extesive review for the Lifestyle 35. The sound quality is the same after using AdaptIQ.

Similar Products Used:

Boston Acoustics Micro system Plok Sub/Sat

USING ONLY 4 MONTHS AND THEN START PROBLEM, STUCK CD INSIDE, AND FINALLY NO FUNCTION. MY MOST COMPLAIN IS THE CUSTOMER SERVICE, AFTER ONE MONTH STILL I DON'T HAVE MY UNIT READY! I REGRET BUYING THAT.