Bose CineMate 120 Home Theater System
$ 93.32
- This is an excellent little sound system. I think it’s overpriced, but if you can get a good deal on one (I got mine barely used), it’s worth it. I compared it to a ZVOX soundbase and a Vizio soundbar I owned beforehand, and for overall sound quality, the Bose blows them away. It seems Bose tends to emphasize mid range tones, which makes most movies, TV shows and music sound “better,” more even-handed overall, with a nicely rich soundstage. You can tell right out of the box that it’s well built…components are small but have a very solid feel. The setup was pretty easy and fairly quick…didn’t take much time at all to get going. And I love the ADAPTiQ feature…it really does what it claims, which is to measure your listening area to best calculate sound output. So even though this is not a full 5.1 surround system and will never have that kind of capability, it does a really nice job at approximating one with certain sounds and effects that seem to come from various directions. Also, I found dialog to be very clean and clear, and this is without using the dialog enhancing feature. Volume is not a problem if you need it loud, as the system can go quite loud without distorting…a very surprising and welcome characteristic of this set.Unfortunately, the nice universal remote it comes with wasn’t so universal with my components, as I haven’t been able to make it work with my cable box. My DVD player (Samsung) works, but without certain functions which can be a little annoying. Not a big deal, as it’s the sound that really makes it. I’m not a hard core audiophile, but I do appreciate what I consider really good sound, and this system definitely has it. If you’re someone who appreciates great sound but rather not deal with a complicated, large component system, the Bose CineMate 120 should be at the top of your list.
