11 out of 14 people found this review helpful.
What I wish I knew about this system before I bought it
Date of Review: Oct 12, 1999
I purchased the Bose Acoustimass 5 Series II system for various reasons:
(1) I am a college student living in a dormitory. My living arrangements offer me little room for massive stereo components. These speakers fit well in my room; you would never know that I have speakers unless I turned them on.
(2) I got this system for mad cheap. I saw an opportunity to get a system that I thought sounded good and provided a lot of sound for my dollar. The total cost to me was $50 more than the Acoustimass 3 system.
Why I dislike this system after a year of using it:
(1) I listen to a wide variety of music, however, I prefer rock above anything else. Unfortunately, this system does not sound its best when it is playing rock. The design is more conducive for the heavy bass and and high trebles of dance/rap/hiphop etc. It also sounds best on classical or jazz which also use the trebles and the occasional bass. Because rock fully utilizes all parts of the spectrum, and this system consists of a subwoofer and tweeters, there are two negative impacts. The first is that it tries to put midrange and bass through tweeters which are not built to handle those frequencies. Also, because of the heavy emphasis on the tweeters, the system can sound blaring and harsh at times. I guess it depends on the music you like, but if you are like me, you might be better off with a conventional speaker system.
(2) Bose Direct/Reflecting system works well for an area in which you do not care about separation and clarity, ie a store or cafe. Because I am not using the system in this environment, I do not reap the benefits of the Direct/Reflecting system. Actually, the speakers sound distorted and muffled because of Bose's technology. Once again, this depends on your uses, but this did not work for me.
Therefore, after just over 1 year of ownership I am selling them for a better system. This is partially due to the fact that I have more living space. However, the bigger factor is the fact that I have grown sick of the distorted, blaring sound that these speakers give off. My advice: If you want a small system that hides away easily and you need to fill a room with sound, consider this system. Everyone else, save your money and go for a conventional speaker system that will provide you with far more clarity, separation and far less headaches from a shrill sounding speaker.
