The Lifestyle 135 and CineMate 1 SR are soundbar versions of Bose’s similarly named home theatre systems. The CineMate is streamlined and the Lifestyle is juiced. The LifeStyle sports an attached iPod dock and 4 HDMI inputs while the CineMate connects to the TV with “just one cable”. Both come with a subwoofer.
The systems also have cool automated technologies on board. Each speaker detects whether it is mounted vertically on the wall or if it is sitting flat on a table. Bose also claims that built-in tech detects where a speaker is placed in a room and calibrates the sound accordingly. The most frequent complaint I hear about Bose gear is that it’s too expensive, and these soundbars are no different. The Lifestyle 135 costs $US1500 and the CineMate 1 SR costs $US2500. [TechCrunch]
B3n
Tuesday, September 27, 2011 at 9:44 AMthat would be money well spent, but, of course we all want them to be cheaper… they simply have amazing sound quality!
Pops
Tuesday, September 27, 2011 at 10:16 AMActually the most common complaint about Bose products is that they sound crap.
red t-rex
Tuesday, September 27, 2011 at 2:04 PMSpeakers are a very personal preference thing. Everyone that I know has some different brand or combination of speakers setup like Harmon Kardon, Yamaha, Jamo, or even a Panasonic Home Theatre in a box setup and others. Each person likes to demonstrate how good their system is (in their opinion) when you go over they crank it up to demo the Eagles – Hell freezes over or U2 Live DVD (Love the Eagles, don’t really care for U2).
Personally, I went to an audio showroom armed with a selection of my favourite movies and music and gradually narrowed it down from 8 brands to the one I chose which is Bose. I chose based on sound “quality” alone i.e. what I enjoyed the most. To me, the Bose speakers gave a better surround experience. I know others disagree with this choice thats their right and good on ‘em as it often leads to some interesting conversations over a beer.
I know there are people out there who regard themselves as “audiphiles” who have the opinion that Bose speakers are crap (including @Biderjum below who can’t seem to put forward a rational argument and wheels out the usual BOSE acronym by the Bose haters who sound pretty much like the “they took our jurbs” group fom South Park) but why force your view on everyone else. I know there is even some solid evidence that they miss out on some of the high and low frequencies. In the end it doesn’t matter, I like what I like. I don’t agree with your choice either (which is my opinion) so lets leave it at that.
Rob
Saturday, December 3, 2011 at 3:45 PMJust picked this up for $1199 CDN at Future Shop and it was by far the best sounding sound bar they had on the floor, with te possible exception of the $999 Yamaha that they couldn’t get working for us. Build quality is solid and in home performance has been good so far. We’re using it as a sound bar for our multi media centre. Have only had it running for about 2 hours now and have yet to run the auto setup while wearing the little headphones. Anyone who takes the time to actually go audition one of these will be suitably impressed. Yeah sure, a little pricey, but that’s Bose, so if you’re prepared to spend a little more, you’ll walk away with a good solid performer.
Well, just ran the auto setup and it sounds significantly better! Much more like the demo unit in the store. Gonna try a concert video now!
And don’t worry too much about the haters. The commenters who take the time to explain the reasons they dislike Bose may be worth your while to read but people who simply cry “garbage” or make up silly names aren’t worth your time! Enjoy your sounds.
light487
Tuesday, September 27, 2011 at 10:45 AMHrmm.. I seem to recall some Yamaha sound system doing this..
..here we go:
• YPAO sound optimisation for automatic speaker setup
The chepeast model I can find with this tech is a factory refurbished Yamaha YHT-294 Home Theatre System for $320AUD.
Here’s the blurb about this “Yamaha” tech:
Your Room, Your Set-up:
The YHT-294 comes with Yamaha’s YPAO technology making a professional setup in your own home quick and simple. Simply plug the included microphone in and the system will calibrate itself based on the room acoustics, speaker size and handling capacity – the YPAO does all the work for you.
Biderjum
Tuesday, September 27, 2011 at 11:16 AMBOSE = Buy Other Sound Equipment.
Ask anyone into sound and not sucked in by BOSE’s marketing, they are garbage.
Another Aaron
Tuesday, September 27, 2011 at 1:23 PMSomeone please tell me what a good sound bar purchase would be, getting info and product reviews for sound bars is damn hard!