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Bose Lifestyle V30: Review

Posted to Lifestyle/ Mini Systems 2009-05-16

The Bose Lifestyle V30 is their premium 5 speaker surround sound system for your Blu-ray, DVD player, satellite or many other sources you enjoy. The system contains a horizontal center speaker, with four additional jewel cube speakers and the Acoustimass bass speaker module for surround sound. With HDMI connectivity for two sources and video up-scaling to 1080p, this Bose lifestyle system may seem like it performs, but it is a bit of smoke and mirrors.

This lifestyle system offers a simple and clean design 5.1 channel surround sound for your room. The ADAPTiQ system and included set-up microphone provides an easy speaker placement and will help customize the sound for each room. Bose Link allows you to connect compatible Bose products to your lifestyle system including coordinating a second room setting. While it only has AM/FM radio included in the main head unit, it does have a number of inputs for your other equipment.

Rating:

2.2 out of 5

Quality

One thing Bose does well is market itself. While many believe Bose offers high quality components that offer excellent sound quality, in my opinion, compared to many other systems for less price, Bose doesn't stand up. Like many other Bose speakers, the tweeters are often made out of paper and housed in a thin plastic housing. Open up a speaker and you will be shocked that it costs as much as it does. If only they spent their money less on advertising and more on quality.

Performance

The Bose Lifestyle v30 gets high marks for ease of set up and ease of use. It's almost as easy as 1,2.3 to set this system up and get it working. The system can expand to 14 other rooms in your home, and the audio-calibration system, ADAPTiQ, is fantastic. It sets up by calibrating itself to five different points in each room, so it sounds fantastic wherever you are. The jewel cube speakers produce very clean, clear sound for something of that size. At two inches, they can fit almost anywhere. The remote is radio frequency not infrared, so you can take the remote with you and have it work from anywhere in the house. The lifestyle v30 produces decent theater-like sound in your home, creating a dramatic atmosphere for your home movie watching without a complex system behind it.

Summary

The bottom line on buying a Bose system of any sort is whether or not you're willing to pay more for the Bose name. This attractive lifestyle system has the adaptability to create a decent sound in any room you put it in. The Bose system is an option for HD and Blu-ray components, matching the high def picture with a nice design. The system looks sophisticated and sleek and will accent any room in your home. However, there are many other systems that should be considered instead. Don't be caught up in style over substance. Bose often states that they are protecting their patents by not publishing any specification on their products. Think about that. Can you imagine a car manufacturer keeping the specifications a secret from a buyer to protect their patents? There is likely another reason why Bose doesn't publish their product details and you can probably guess why.

Pros

Easy to set up
Easy to use
Sleek and elegant looking

Cons

Lacks features for the $
What are the speakers made of? You will be surprised