Bose CineMate 1 SR Digital Home Theater Speaker System

I have installed this under a wall mounted 50" Flat Panel TV mounted above a fireplace. Must have a Mantle to protect from rising heat. Unit fits very well under the TV and sits on the mantel with no overhang. Sound is fantastic! Set up was easy and calibrating to my room set up was equally as easy and intuitive.Sub woofer works wirelessly as advertised and was easy to set up and get connected to main speaker unit. Highly recommend - although more expensive than other brands - as is BOSE tradition - I think it worth the price - sound performance well out classes the other brands. Remote control was also easy to set up to all my other devices with only one exception - I have DirecTV system that their remote can not be set to turn the BOSE sound system on or off. It will control the volume of the Bose Sound System, but I have to use the Bose remote to control all the systems - was just trying to have a second remote to use in the room.

I chose this product after much review. My 52 inch Samsung was very hard to hear in my room which has a 25 foot ceiling with an L shaped loft, fireplace, hardwood floors and many glass doors and windows. My old Sony RXD5 helped, but it was very difficult to watch a movie without having the sound so loud the walls shook. I realize this is not true surround sound, but for my situation, without having speakers and wires all over the room and a major price tag, it is a very significant improvement. I can now watch TV and hear dialogue! The wireless feature of the acoustimass and it's smaller size is a big plus. I have it placed 25 feet from the TV, hidden in the loft. This is a very good option for people with similar situations or for those who hate the clutter and appearance issues with true surround systems. This unit may be high priced for what it is-but it is Bose, and excellent design and quality.

what a surprise- this is easily the best-sounding product bose has made in decades [not since the original 901 direct/reflecting speaker]. this speaker can provide for many people, quite possibly the best audio reproduction they will ever hear. but before you conclude that i'm a shill for bose, let me say that this speaker's main claim to fame is 1] it never fails to sound inoffensive on just about any material you play through it, and 2] it does throw a wide soundstage [several times wider than the soundbar] with an incredibly wide sweet spot whose instrumental placement stayed put in at least a 100 degree arc in front of [and to the sides of] the bose sr1 cinemate soundbar, with a very "wet" venue ambience reproduced clearly. the soundbar is the star of bose's show here, it threw a wide and stable stereo image no matter where one sit or stood in the listening room, and its location could not be localized by the ears. i first became aware of this when i performed the AdaptIQ process to configure the system's room response for my rectangular listening room- part of the process is to wear head-mount microphones [like headphones sans phones] while moving to 5 different listening positions, and the stereo lateral test signals seemed to come out of the side walls on either side of the soundbar no matter where one stood- e.g., the right test signal stayed to the apparent right of the listener even when standing near the right wall of the listening room! on certain material [like the stereo version of the phil spector xmas album, recorded in wide stereo] the stereo image was spectacular, with vocals centered solidly, and horns/percussions to the far left/strings and effects to the far right. granted, my magnapans will do the same thing but only if one's head stays in a one-foot-wide sweet spot, whereas the bose sr1 lets me move about the room without any tonal changes nor the collapse of the image into the nearest side. NO OTHER stereo speaker system i've ever auditioned would let me move about the room while maintaining a solidly uniform stereo image, IOW the sound of regular stereo speakers would collapse into the nearest speaker to where i was sitting. this one NOVEL feature was the sole reason i bought my sr1 [used].now for the downsides [the price included]- the sr1 bass bin [judging from a CD with test signals on it] could produce "usable" [IOW audible to some extent] bass down to the low 30s [but at least 10 db lower than the broad hump between [approx.] 40 and 250 cycles per second, and this hump [along with a fair amount of harmonic distortion] gives the little bass bin the impression of much more deep bass than it actually can cleanly put out. indeed, on some material its harmonic distortion/doubling is unmasked, but these occasions are thankfully transient. i threw my standard torture tests at the bass bin [wurlitzer theatrical pipe organ recordings with strong deep bass down to 16 cycles] and the bose bass bin gave at least the impression of some deep bass often enough, but on some ranks of pipes with pure fundamental bass tones [with no reinforcing harmonics] the bose bass bin could put out only faint acoustic energy with doubling predominant. the bass bin is wireless but don't let that fool you into believing that you can place it anywhere, it puts out a noticeable amount of low midrange signal [up to 250 cycles or so] which [along with the aforementioned harmonic distortion] means that the ear can localize its position if it is not placed within a few feet of the soundbar. thankfully in this instance, corner placement didn't seem to extend its bass down any further [due to sharp bottom-octave filtering to protect its 5" woofer]. so to keep the bass together with the rest of the spectrum i had to place the bass bin no further than about a foot lateral to the soundbar. the sr1 bass bin IS an improvement over the one bose uses in its cinemate II [two stereo speakers] system, in that it is a bit smaller but puts out deeper bass]. but the bass it puts out had a noticeably persistent "thickness" [harmonic distortion and midbass hump] one could hear on all types of music as well as many male [baritone] announcer voices. yet another downside were the HRTF mics, whose 30 foot cord tangled no matter how i tried to keep it straight- for the amount of money bose is asking, the sr1 should have a WIRELESS AdaptIQ mic system!i think i'll keep my bose soundbar, though- it is very convenient [compact and uncomplicated] for general music listening enjoyment [as opposed to critical musical evaluation], it's full-bodied tonal balance makes all music sound equally inoffensive and easily listenable, rarely calling attention to itself [except for a bit of boom in the bass from time to time]. i can't believe i [over the years] have bought 4 bose products [quietcomfort headphones, acoustic wave music system, lifestyle 30 and now the sr1]. those readers who aren't fans of bose might ask, am i a glutton for punishment or what?

My title says it all. As usual I did my research reading on the web, consumer reports and reviews on Amazon and Best buy. Against by better judgment I bought this product.Few Pros-The product is sleek. Very limited wiring and the subwoofer is wireless.Cons-1. First of all the optical wires that came with the unit are FLIMSY to say the least. They don't fit well. For the first half an hour I couldn't get it to work only to realize that the optical wire had slid out because I had moved the unit barely 3 inches. One of them was actually defective.2. I am no audiophile but do have a pair of ears that work. The product does do a good job of projecting back ground sound. However, trying to understand what people are actually saying is a struggle. I was watching a basketball game and I was SURPRIZED that I could barely understand what they were saying. Finally, I muted the volume and watched the game without the sound.3. I also like watching movies and TV shows. I had to constantly turn up the volume. However, when you turn up the volume the back ground noise goes up as well. So u have to turn up the volume to hear what the people are saying but then immediately turn the volume down to reduce the back ground noise. A 1500$ product with only one option-volume up or down.4. There is no blue tooth capability.5. There is NO surround sound effect. I have to be fair and say my living room is rather open but still I was dissappointed. I suppose if your living room is a perfect box this may work.6. At one point I actually felt better with the TV off in my living room. That’s when I decided that this product wasn’t for me. I really enjoying watching TV after a day’s work but this took the fun out of it. Now I am back to using my 15 year old Optimus speakers that I bought from RadioShack and really appreciate what I have.

Te remote is not universal