I worked at Futureshop as a PE in Home Theatre where I had a chance to listen to and compare these in many different situations to other products. The system itself is typical Bose "no highs, no lows", however most people have little experience with any home theatre and this is a nice first surround, I do know there is a 100% mark up in price (most speakers are) so DO NOT pay full retail or they quickly become a really expensive entry level surround. All the wires and proprietary connections are in the box. No adjusting crossovers and such on your receiver, just volume. They do go loud enough with little distortion, and the lack of ANY deep bass is a neighbor pleaser. If you want a basic 5.1 that sounds good to most people, Bose makes sound that people LIKE to hear, it may not be the way the Artist or Director intended it to sound, (sorry audio purists) but it's they way %90 of the people think sounds good to them. Listen to them and right away you will know if you need the extra bass or treble that others systems may offer. If you didn't know what home theatre is or never owned it before these will amaze you.

Found out that I don't have to plug in AC if I don't want the heavy duty base, all 5 speakers still works.
Don't have a on/off switch, so if it's plug in, it must be on all time.
Don't order from FutureShop (Canada). They shipped by CanadaPost and the mailman left at my front door when no one answered. This is the dealer and shipping matter, not the Bose unit itself

this speaker is just great because of the great sound and the smallest speaker cube. If i should recommand speakers to somewone the do not love bass frequencys, i would defenlatly not recommand the bose acoustimass because the subwoofer is really loud and you can't turn it off.

Customer Service

Really no problem with Bose costumer service!! Great guys! :)

No distortion, small, great sound

none really

I love these speakers, i dont think i could buy anything other than a bose again. It is extremely hard to tell where the bass is coming from and there is no distortion from the acoustimass module. If you watch a video clip of a rolercoaster, you feel like you are right on it with everyone else. I would highly recoment these to anyone. Room filling sound, small, stylish speakers. PLENTY of length of wire. There is no distortion from the stellites either. :)

Customer Service

not needed, but i think it is offered.

Similar Products Used:

Koss home theater system, didnt have the great high sounds.
Home-built subwoofer using a bose design

Appearance.
Speakers wont dominate your room. (Keep the wife happy)
Cube speakers fill the room with sound.
Clear highs and mids.

Weak bass.
I also didnt like the way you have to run the sattelites through the bass module.

I bought the AM10III about a year ago. I am very pleased with the system. I live in an apartment, and didn't want something too large. So l looked at the bose, infinity tss1100, and polk rm6900. The polk sounded ok, looked horrible. So they were out. The Infinity system sounded the best, but I liked the bose appearance better. The bose sounded great, not quite as good as the Infinity though. I ended up buying the bose, took them home and love them. One thing I didnt like, was the way they must be set up. Had I known the way they are required to be set up, I might have went with Infinity. Bose requires you hook all the sattelites up through the bass module, then from there you run a seperate cable to your reciever. If you run the sattelites directly to your reciever you void the warranty. The bose sattelites fill my living room with sound. I read a lot of reviews claiming this system lacks high frequency response. I disagree, highs sound great, crisp and clear. Where it does lack, however, is on the lower end. It doesnt handle the low frequencies like a true subwoofer. For movies the bass module does the job. If you listen to music on the system is where you really notice the low end problems. Just doesn't do R&B, hip hop, or rap music any justice. Country music, rock, and other types of music you dont notice it so much. Another thing I would like to point out, is that these cube speakers will not distort. I can crank them up and they do great. Distortion is something I just cant handle. It drives me crazy. These cube speakers do really well at high volumes. The bass module unfortunately, struggles to keep up. If you are not a bass crazy individual, this is the system for you, or perhaps you live in an apartment, duplex or somewhere your neighbors are really close, this isnt a bad idea. A really bass heavy system might cause some tensions there. Overall I give it 4 out of 5. It really is perfect for my situation.

Customer Service

I only had to call bose once for speaker wire. I bought the black system, and it came with black speaker wire. I wanted white wire to better blend with my white walls. It cost me $30 dollars but they were friendly and helpfull. No complaints.

Similar Products Used:

Prior to this system I had a Panasonic HTIB. Wasnt bad for $300 (I was in school). DVD player, FM tuner, CD player, reciever, and 5.1 speaker set up all in one. Along with a nice old 27' tv set

Buyer Beware the "bass" module only goes down to 46Hz (most less expensive speaker systems will go down to 29 or 30Hz such as the Energy Take 5.2 and even cheap Paradigm speaker packages). The Bose Bass module reaches up to 200Hz. Here is where the problem begins... The little cube speakers go down to 280Hz. So you are missing sound from 200Hz to 280Hz. If you listen to music or use these for Home theater, then you will be missing a pretty important part of the sound spectrum. But wait! That's not it! The cube speakers only go up to 13KHz (Human hearing can reach 20KHz). Bose has decided for you that anything above 13Khz is not important. Well, like I said before... If you use these for music or Home Theater you will be missing a lot. Unbelievable! Due to the system's internal crossover, there is an audible gap from 200Hz to 280Hz and from 13KHz to 20Khz. THAT MEANS ONLY 66% OF THE ACTUAL RECORDING OR MOVIE IS BEING PLAYED BACK TO YOU!! This is the most outrageously overpriced speaker system I have ever heard. Please do yourself a favor and go listen to other products. If you can't go to a decent audio store to audition speakers and your ONLY option is Best Buy or Circuit City, then spend less money and get the Athena speakers or JBL speakers or Klipsch speakers. Much better options (not available at chain stores yet they are probably available at a decent audio shop near you) would be speaker offerings from Energy, Paradigm, Gallo(very small speakers but impressive sound), B&W... and great bargains on terrific subwoofers can be found if you look at SVS or HSU subwoofers (not extremely expensive but great bang for the buck). Ask yourself this? Who told you Bose makes great speakers? Radio Commercial? (paid for by Bose) Magazine Advertisement? (paid for by Bose) Infomercial??? A person who owns Bose and has never ventured outside of Sam's Club or Best Buy to listen to speakers? Please, before spending your hard earned money, do some research on these speakers. Search the message boards at audio websites such as Audiogon, Audio Asylum, Sound and Vision, AVS forum, etc. etc. I don't expect everyone to take my word as Golden and I completely understand. Just do some research about these speakers!!! I probably can't post links but this will get you started... look for discussion forums at Web sites such as Audiogon, Audio Asylum, Sound and Vision Mag, and AVS forum.