|
| 
 enlarge | Brand: Bose
Category: CE
List Price: $499.00
Buy Used: $425.00
You Save: $74.00 (15%)
New (10) from $459.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  48 reviews
Media: Electronics
Batteries Included: No
Shipping Weight (lbs): 40
Dimensions (in): 11 x 22 x 19
nv:Speaker Type: Home Audio
Speaker Setup: 3 - speakers
Warranty: 1 Year Limited Warranty
MPN: 37487
Model: Digital Home Theater Speaker System
UPC: 017817372336
EAN: 0017817372336
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Customer Reviews:
 Underwhelming April 29, 2006
26 out of 30 found this review helpful
Positives:
1. easy, idiot-proof set up
2. looks great, especially next to an all black plasma
Negatives:
1. no big improvement over internal TV speakers at low and mid-volumes
2. "acoustimass module" has little presence, and there's no way to boost the subwoofer's weak output
Sum:
Looks great, sounds less than great. Returned for a Sony DAV-X1, which gave me all the home-theater performance I was hoping for, and comes with an uprezing DVD player to boot. Check out my review of it on Amazon.
 My first Bose January 7, 2006
24 out of 24 found this review helpful
Well I actually bought one. Clean sound. Easy to install. Remote controls everything including Tivo. I have a Sony WEGA which has a nice sound without Cinemate, but the Cinemate definately makes a difference. By the way... if you need to control the bass and treble then switch your audio out to "varible" not "fixed" and turn the volume up to about 80%. Now you can shape the sound to your preference.
Recording Engineer's Thumbs Up June 21, 2007
23 out of 24 found this review helpful
I'm a recording engineer and I was impressed with the cinemate's sound and simplicity. I needed an elegant solution for my media center pc, and the cinemate is just the ticket. My wife didn't want obtrusive speakers in the den, and since I already have a DVD player and PVR built into the media pc, all I needed were speakers and amp. The cinemate is a self-contained system that powers it's own speakers through the bass unit. I was able to simply plug them directly into the media pc. It would have been nice for Bose to include a digital optical "in" but alas the input is analog only.
Some have complained that the bass is weak and the speakers are not as lively as others. However, I found the Bose engineers to be quite ingenious as these speakers are very natural sounding - "accurate" as we engineers would say. Many home theater speakers can sound "hyped", accentuating bass and human voice frequencies (1k-3k Hz). However, good speakers should accurately represent what the recording engineers were hearing in the studio. I'm sitting here listening to "Star Wars - The Phantom Menace" and there is plenty of THUMP when spaceships take off, the music is balanced in the mix, and the dialog is clear. It really sounds quite awesome. The crossover between the satellite speakers and the subwoofer unit is very transparent and smooth. My only comment is that the satellite speakers could be a little brighter at lower volume, but one can easily solve this with some slight eq: maybe a high shelf starting at about 8k. (This is easy to do on a pc.) The brightness problem seemed to go away when the system was turned up. I think the system was meant to run at a healthy volume. It packs a lot of punch and can get quite loud. (For geeks: I don't think this is just the Fletcher Munson effect either. The brightness is the thing that got better with more volume.)
As to the claim of "virtual surround" I think that Bose is going out on a limb on that one. Theoretically it would be possible to have the speakers project to the side walls and then have sound reach you as if they are from rear speakers. However, practically the chance of this happening in a typical den or living room is almost nil. People usually have curtains, hallways, bookshelves along walls and they will most likely absorb reflected rays of sound. In my room, I definitely do not hear the surround effect.
In all, however, I think this is a wonderfully convenient package that sounds great out of the box. Surprisingly, the system has plenty of power and can obtain decent loudness levels. I think the bose engineers knew what they were doing when putting this product together. Thumbs up.
Not worth the money... January 18, 2007
22 out of 23 found this review helpful
BOSE Cinemate Experience
First of all, I have never purchased a Bose product in my life (lets just say that I always felt that Bose products are overpriced). Well, we just moved to a new house and I am about 80% done with completing a media/office room in my basement for my main home theater (Samsung 56" DLP, Onkyo 700 series receiver, Polk and RBH speakers).
In the meantime we are watching a 32" LCD TV (Polaroid 3232) in our living room. When I bought the Polaroid (for a ridiculously low price), I knew it had a few expected shortcomings. The major shortcoming is the horrible sound from the internal speakers (think clock radio sound)..
So, on somewhat of a whim (I did a little research here and CC) I picked up a Bose Cinemate system for $499 (+ tax). I liked the Bose for its small form factor, clean look, and sound. Let me mention that my wife is totally against having large speakers in the room (that is what the basement is for) and our 20'+ vaulted ceilings really make it tough to have any type of large sound. My wife does not want speaker wire running everywhere, and is against having 5+ speakers in the room. I really thought the Bose would do the trick..
PROS:
- Great form factor and size
- Very easy setup
- Good sound when watching DVD's and cranking the volume
CONS:
- No digital or component hookups (only RCA)!
- No ability to control individual sound settings (treble, bass, etc)
- Lack of depth at low and mid ranges
- Little to no bass through the subwoofer unless the TV volume is cranked up
- DVD's sounded good when the volume was cranked, but there was little improvement to listening to the TV at normal volume settings.
Contrary to what Bose claims, we had a hard time hearing dialogue during TV shows, and kept missing conversations when characters talked low or whispered. The lack of digital inputs should have been a warning sign and the "subwoofer" is anything but unless you have the volume cranked.
I was really disappointed with the sound at normal volume levels. As a test I hooked up my HK computer speakers ($50 speakers) directly to my TV and the sound quality was only slightly worse than the Bose (which cost over $450 more!) Needless to say I packed up and returned the Bose system for a full refund.
Based on my budget I decided to go with:
- Onkyo TXSR304 5.1 receiver
- Polk Audio M10 bookshelf speakers
- Sony WMA250 100watt powered 8" subwoofer
I hooked that system up last night and it completely blows the Bose away. The Polk speakers coupled with the subwoofer have a very clean crisp sound and have much more overall depth and range. We no longer have to crank the volume to hear dialogue and there is much more bass.. In the process of getting a better system, I saved about $150.... My advice is to shop around. You can do much better for $500.
 amazing sound for the money! October 16, 2005
21 out of 26 found this review helpful
i just purchased the cinemate at target after listening to the display and i was amazed. 3 speakers in front of you and it sounds like a 5 speaker home theater? i had to play it a few times to make shure i was not dreaming. and it really cranks pretty loud if you like to watch concert dvds. this is a no brainer! if you got the cash make the dash.
|
|
|
2005-2007 Zone1electronics All rights reserved.
| |
