Bose (43478) LIFESTYLE 48 Home Entertainment System - Series IV - (Black)

All is fine, music, sound, quality and shipping very fast.One only problem is the different voltage between USA (110 volt) and Italy (220 volt): for many money that we paid for this bose system, i think it would be much better if all components were made in dual voltage

I bought Bose Lifestyle 48 System over a year ago. Overall video and audio are good, but minor problems include:a) No Blue-Ray capability for DVD'sb) Poor synchronization of remotes for peripherals like TV & cable; despite what Bose store reps tell you, you can't control eveything with one push of the button - you might as well keep all your remotes.However, MAJOR problem has to do with UMUSIC system:One of primary selling points used by Bose store reps is telling you that you can load 200 CDs into system, the Bose will store & remember them all, and by Gracenote technology you can create infinite playlists based on music preferences, and never have to load/reload CD's again. (technology is much like iTune Genius Mix).Sounded great at the time to me so I bought it, and spent COUNTLESS hours (60? 100?) loading CD's (each takes 10-15 minutes), categorizing them, then training the presets to play what I want (e.g. I don't want Beach Boys singing their version of "Silent Night" when I want to hear a jazz mix...)Then, one day, our power went out. Only for 10-15 minutes, tops. WIPING OUT ALL MY SAVED CD'S. Now there is no stored music. I talked to Bose rep, at his recommendation sent it to their service center (at my cost), and spent over $150 for them to replace hard drive, AND THEY COULD NOT RECOVER MY STORED MUSIC.So basically right now I have a basic DVD player with a decent sound system. Needless to say I was P.O.'d. It will be FAR less traumatic for me at this point to connect up my iPhone & play my easily-personalized playlists from that than to waste another month of my life reloading CD's into Bose.Bottom line: don't waste your money on this turkey. Or your time.

Can't complain about the sound that this system puts out, it's great. However, one of the strong selling points of the system is the flexibility that the VS-2 video enhancer provides, which comes with several of the Lifestyle systems.The concept of the VS-2 sounds great, but in my configuration, it's a paper weight. I have a DirecTv HD-DVR, which can output video from 480i to 1080i. However, when I hook up HDMI from the DVR to the VS-2, and HDMI from the VS-2 to the television, the only way I can get the video signal to the TV is to configure the HD-DVR to put out 480i. So, I basically have to have the HD-DVR downgrade 1080i shows to 480i, just to have the VS-2 upgrade it back. I will have to resort to using composite video from the VS-2 to the television (though I have not tried this yet)to get things to work right. Not using the VS-2 is out of the question, as I can't see the Lifestyle 48's controls (i.e. music library listing, etc...) without it. I tried to argue with the Bose installer about the HDMI incompatibility, but he said not to worry about it, and use Component video, which he said offers a much better video signal than HDMI (ya right).So, I give it 4 stars for sound, 1 star for video, and a -1 star for false advertising regarding the VS-2 (and the installer giving me false information to make the VS-2 work)

Honsuperstore was a pleasure to do business with, any problems with an order they were willing to make it right for (me) the customer.Thanks,TH Mack, Sr

Very nice...Thank You!!

So this is what you get for $4,000. I've listened to this system many times, although I do not own it. I don't hear anything special about it and can't believe the high cost. I would not every pay $4,000 or even $2,000 for this. This fits between $500-$1,000 like many of the HTIB systems. There are no highs and no low's with this. The bass is a joke...well, what bass. I realize many people want small speakers and good sound. You won't get the same sound with cubes as you would with taller floorstanding speakers or even bookshelf type speakers, but these claim to be the same. They aren't even close. For even $2,000 - $4,000 you can put together systems from Paradigm, Ascend, Boston Accoustics, Cambridge Soundworks, Polk, Klipsch, Aperion, Axiom, PSB, Harmon Kardon, Onkyo, Yamaha, Kef, and list goes on and on. Kef and Mirage are just two companies that make small speakers that will blow Bose out of the water. Don't buy into the Bose hype and go try and research all the other quality speakers for yourself. Bose's speakers are made from paper cones and plastic that I've heard companies can reproduce those same speakers for $30-$50. So your basically paying for the Bose name markup and nothing else. Just do yourself a favor and try some other systems out and do some testing and you will realize all the sounds you are missing.

I Purchased the Lifestyle 48 when it first came out. Did not take long to see lack of newer video formats, but I could live with that. I am very happy with sound performance and have no complaints, and don't care about what material speakers are made of. They sound great and no issues. I have had remote control working the unit issues and they sent me a new remote no charge, but still operates inconsistently. The big complaint and maybe this is a component quality issue, I am getting a hard drive error message and Bose said the only fix is to send unit back and they will do a complete refurbish, for $170 dollars and I pay shipping to them. I have used the hard drive very little and this is poor performance for a premium priced product. Now if they were going to upgrade the video to HDMI on this refurbish then I say that would be OK. I hope I can use as a very high priced speaker system, but the Bose tech could not say that the unit will continue to work even if I don't use hard drive. VERY POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE and VERY UNHAPPY CUSTOMER>