# Bose3-2-1 Home Theater System?



## almostdone (Jan 24, 2008)

Does anyone have any opinions? I am wondering what type of surround sound quality you get. They say you don't have to spread them around the room. Just put them under or close to your TV.


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## Leah Frances (Jan 13, 2008)

I hate to be a hater. But you know what they say: 

No Highs. No Lows. Must be Bose.

Sorry, couldn't hep myself.:laughing:


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## ktkelly (Apr 7, 2007)

You would indeed be surrounded by sound....


The sound of your wife complaining and good ole Dr. Bose laughing all the way to the bank...


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## zmurphy (Jun 18, 2007)

*DONT BUY BOSE!*

You can buy a better system for less. Much less. If this is your first home theater, look at some good quality home theaters in a box. Yamaha, Onkyo are some of the best. i wouldn't bother with the cheaper HTiB's (Home Theater in a Box) they are limited feature wise and the typically come with cheaper speakers.

the Yamaha and Onkyo's come with receivers that have alot more connections and more flexiblity for the future. which means you could upgrade your speakers (if you wanted) down the road and keep the same receiver.

Bestbuy has a Yamaha HTiB thats around $299-350 (depending on sales) that will blow that BLOSE out of the water. it comes with nice size and sounding speakers and it come with a real powered subwoofer.


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## Leah Frances (Jan 13, 2008)

My Dear Husband recommends a 'nice little system' from Energy.


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## nacko (Jan 29, 2008)

2.1 surround sound ? the only thing 2 speakers surround is the tv set. get a 5.1 real surround sound, punch some holes in the walls and wire em up nice and have your self a nice theater room ! :thumbsup:


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## NothingsLevel (Aug 27, 2006)

Bose is crap.

Onkyo makes a nice line of receivers and you can find the lower-end ones in Circuity City now. Even their "cheaper" ones are pretty good.

I have a pair of Paradigm Atom "bookshelf" size speakers and they are terrific. The problem (IMO) with the "in a box" kits is that you've got compromises everywhere for packaging (size) and cost, as well as the marketability ("make them all look nice and a matched set). I'd much rather put together a nice system from 2 or 3 different types of speakers that complement each other than get mediocre speakers that have the same appearance.


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## kjwoodworking (Nov 21, 2007)

The Bose system may be OK for you. Go to a local retailer (*NOT WALLY WORLD* wal mart*)*where you can hear the systems and make your decision on what's sounds the best for your budget.
It is how important the sound is to you. My mother-in-law wanted a surround system and wanted me to help. Surround sound.....HA....this from a woman who listens to her music on a tiny radio with one speaker. She ended up with a surround system, DVD and crappy sound all in one box. She's happy and that's all that's important. 
It all depends on how important the sound is for you. I'm like Tim Allen in the old Home Improvement show "aargh" bigger, louder, and almost shaking the house off the foundation!!!

If you do get a receiver and the speakers then you can add to the system. CD changer, maybe more speakers in other areas of the house. If the DVD breaks you only buy a DVD not the whole system.


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## Home Media Professionals (Mar 12, 2008)

*To Bose or not to Bose*



almostdone said:


> Does anyone have any opinions? I am wondering what type of surround sound quality you get. They say you don't have to spread them around the room. Just put them under or close to your TV.


Before everyone charcoals this fine question let me get 2 cents into it: If the room has open walls, lots of windows, zero doors ( just doorways ) you can not beat the Bose system for this type of the installation; Why ?
1. You would never be able to easily run the wires out of sight and place speakers ear level. 2. Speakers you place rely on direct movement of air (bose does not) this is they trump card in open room installs 3. Non direct Sub (the one that just lets air out instead of movig air ) are expensive but almost a must for open room.

Now if you are in closed home theater, or bedroom, with doors and walls. You can do much better with a Receiver + Speakers. 

But I would never ever ever ever ( did i say never ) would recomend a all in a box solution. They are not matched for power, spectrum, and quality. So you dont even have a chance to experience the real deal.

Huge downside: Bose uses logic/delay processor to imitate surround sound. Basicaly they send surround channels with higher volume split second ahead to bounce it of he walls. This is not true Surround sound. You might miss out on birds singing and footsteps designed to be heard from the surround channels. Only loud 10db+ sounds will reproduce as designed. If you are ok with it ( most people are and can not tell the diff) then you will love the system.

FYIisclaimer: We sell Yamaha, Denon, Bose, Onkyo, HK and have all products in the showroom. hence we can compare them side by side. As far as sales, other then Onkyo that you can get at dealer cost on pricegrabber dot com, the margin on all of the others is the same. So we dont much care which one you buy.


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## Bacardi 151 (May 2, 2007)

I got used on a 5.1 bose lifestyles 25 off ebay for $525 out the door, it was $3100 in 2001. It sounds terrible, lol. I wish I knew better, I just assumed they were good. My neighbor has the 3-2-1, I don't like it. Espeically since she paid full price. Her house is for sale and she doesn't want to mess with the wires.

OP, roughly what percentages do you listen to different mediums...Eg: 33% tv, 33% movies and 33% music?

Since the bose 3-2-1 is approx $1000 (depending where you go) I'll use that price for an example. The avforum usually frowns on htib's. That due to crap subwoofers and lack of tower speakers. Typically towers speakers are going to sound better than a tiny satellite speakers. The avforum recommends a great solution to a HTiB a set of speakers from fluance, which consists of 2 front towers, center and two rears. They can be had on ebay for $228 shipped. Then a dayton 12" subwoofer from parts express or amazon for approx $170 shipped. Then one just needs receiver if they already don't have one. One could even get a 7.1 receiver in the $200 range, two more surrounds fluance's are another $100. $400 bucks if you already have a 5.1 receiver. Or total $700 for a complete highly rated 7.1 system with front towers and very strong sub. I have not heard these speakers, I'm just going off what many avforum members have stated, this is the best solution available for the money.


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## ktkelly (Apr 7, 2007)

Bacardi 151 said:


> I got used on a 5.1 bose lifestyles 25 off ebay for $525 out the door, it was $3100 in 2001. It sounds terrible, lol. I wish I knew better, I just assumed they were good. My neighbor has the 3-2-1, I don't like it. Espeically since she paid full price. Her house is for sale and she doesn't want to mess with the wires.
> 
> OP, roughly what percentages do you listen to different mediums...Eg: 33% tv, 33% movies and 33% music?
> 
> Since the bose 3-2-1 is approx $1000 (depending where you go) I'll use that price for an example. The avforum usually frowns on htib's. That due to crap subwoofers and lack of tower speakers. Typically towers speakers are going to sound better than a tiny satellite speakers. The avforum recommends a great solution to a HTiB a set of speakers from fluance, which consists of 2 front towers, center and two rears. They can be had on ebay for $228 shipped. Then a dayton 12" subwoofer from parts express or amazon for approx $170 shipped. Then one just needs receiver if they already don't have one. One could even get a 7.1 receiver in the $200 range, two more surrounds fluance's are another $100. $400 bucks if you already have a 5.1 receiver. Or total $700 for a complete highly rated 7.1 system with front towers and very strong sub. I have not heard these speakers, I'm just going off what many avforum members have stated, this is the best solution available for the money.


 

Fluance? Another no name POS. A Dayton (no name again) 12" sub for all of $170.00 shipped? I'm sure there's some quality in both of these...:laughing: 


What EVERYONE needs to get a grip on is that you simply cannot get good quality sound from cheap junk. 

You buy your clothing from Wal Mart? Drive a Yugo? 


GET A GRIP!


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## Bacardi 151 (May 2, 2007)

ktkelly said:


> Fluance? Another no name POS. A Dayton (no name again) 12" sub for all of $170.00 shipped? I'm sure there's some quality in both of these...:laughing:
> 
> 
> What EVERYONE needs to get a grip on is that you simply cannot get good quality sound from cheap junk.
> ...


KT, in your opinion how much do you think the minimum amount needed to spend to achieve good quality sounds?

As you saw in the begginning of my last post, I was sticking to $1000 or less price point as that's how much the OP's Bose 3-2-1 system cost.

You have a great point. The fact of the matter is the vast majority of people simply will not spend the large amount of money needed for "GOOD QUALITY SOUND". So rather then utilizing their TV speakers, the vast majority buy an extremely popular HTiB. Most of them time, they are impressed with what you'd call "SUB-GOOD" quality sound. Why? Because it's still a huge step up from TV speakers. The "solution" I posted was dubbed by many Audiophiles as a POS/crap system that will sound better than any HTiB, even the top brands.


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## ktkelly (Apr 7, 2007)

From my company a decent "budget" system?


$449.00 Denon AVR688. 

$2,400.00 BG Corp Z-5 Center Channel, Z-Sub and 4 Z-1.


And you would want:

$650.00 URC MX900 w/MRF350 for control.


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## nap (Dec 4, 2007)

Home Media Professionals said:


> 2. Speakers you place rely on direct movement of air (bose does not) this is they trump card in open room installs 3. .


You are going to have to explain the physics of that one. Unless Bose has some futuristic sound system, all speakers require air movement to produce sound (hence the phrase; in space, nobody can hear you scream. due to the lack of air in space, there is no sound transmission). So you are saying you can use Bose speakers in space and be heard?


Actually, Bose claims to be able to artificially simulate surround sound by providing timing variances and volume variances their system controls so that the sound from each speaker is recieved and percieved by the listener as emenating from various positions.

They do call each speaker unit an "array" which would tend to make me believe there are multiple speakers of each freq range in each unit. They broadcast the sound in different directions with different levels of volume and proper timing to cause the listener to actually percieve the sound as coming from an area (due to the workings of your mind and how sound is percieved and processed by your brain) other than where it was actually broadcast.

It sounds like a possibility but I still have not found tiny speakers that can produce the full sound of a larger speaker. The sound they do produce is also limited as to its broadcasting abilities as well.


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## ktkelly (Apr 7, 2007)

Home Media Professionals said:


> .
> FYIisclaimer: We sell Bose


 
FWIW: *"Professionals"* will not sell that product line.


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## Bacardi 151 (May 2, 2007)

ktkelly said:


> From my company a decent "budget" system?
> 
> 
> $449.00 Denon AVR688.
> ...


Sounds like a great setup! Add potential tax, and roughly 10% for cables and you're most likely $4K. If you're a poor military person like myself, $4K just isn't an option, unless I buy a yugo and future clothes from Walmart, lol. Do you feel that if one makes sub-$40K a year, that they must suffer for 3 years with tv speakers while they save for $4K? Or do you approve that a $500 system is better than tv speakers?



ktkelly said:


> FWIW: *"Professionals"* will not sell that product line.


Professionals SELL, regardless of product lines or get fired.


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## ktkelly (Apr 7, 2007)

Bacardi 151 said:


> Do you feel that if one makes sub-$40K a year, that they must suffer for 3 years with tv speakers while they save for $4K? Or do you approve that a $500 system is better than tv speakers?


Driving a Yugo might be a bit much :laughing: but saving for something better would be a definite recommendation from me as I don't believe in "throw-a-way" stereo gear. 





> Professionals SELL, regardless of product lines or get fired.


Again, the "throw-a-way" thing comes into the equation. While I understand that you must sell what the company has, you can always recommend the better items the company has (that cost LESS than the dreaded four letter word product) without getting fired.


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