Bose Companion 5 Multimedia Speaker System - Graphite/Silver by BOSE
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Digital camera reviews of Bose Companion 5 Multimedia Speaker System - Graphite/Silver
Digital camera Review: Follow proper setup and enjoy
Summary: 5 Stars
Like other reviewers, I felt the digital processing of the Bose speakers minimized the vocals and certain instrument tracks when playing music through iTunes. It was almost as if the vocals were recorded from the bottom of a well, completely lost in the mix. The set-up instructions for the Mac were very specific when it came to the adjustments to be made in System Preferences-Sound, and using the Audio MIDI Setup in Utilities. They also said to turn off any sound effects processing, but were not specific in what this meant. Another review I read turned-on a lightbulb when he mentioned some audio controls inside iTunes. Go to iTunes-Preferences-Playback, and deselect the Sound Enhancer. Problem solved. This speaker system now performs beautifully.Digital camera Review: Good But WAY overpriced
Summary: 3 Stars
I am a very picky person when it comes to things like this. I agonized over which computer speaker system to buy and spent way to much time in retail stores listening to everything I could.
The Bose Companion 5 sounds very good, and looks nice, but there were a few other systems that I can honestly say sounded just as good, and perhaps better for about half the price. And other systems that sounded about 80 percent as good for much less than half the price. Don't be hosed by Bose. Don't think you are getting what you pay for. While Bose wants you to think their stuff is worth the premium, I just can't justify it. You can do just as good for a lot less money.
Digital camera Review: Good Speakers but not good enought to replace Cambridge SoundWorks
Summary: 3 Stars
I got myself "BOSE Companion 5" 5 days ago in an attempt to improve sound in my TV room. My TV room is longer than it is wider therefore all previous setups with floor standing speakers and surround channels did not work due to the sound bouncing all over the place. I just needed something smaller to improve our TV experience.
BOSS was a logical choice after I have heard my father's Companion 3 performance in his computer setup. The thing is - I already own "Cambridge SoundWorks FPS 2000 Digital" (CSW) 4 speaker surround set I got 9 years ago as a present from my wife "girlfriend back then" It has been performing admirably in my computer room on a 2nd floor to this day.
Back to BOSE: I got my speakers and paired them with IBM T60 laptop hooked up to my TV and Dish encoder/decoder. Ofter playing various audio files/CDs and listening to sound coming from TV and DVDs I was puzzled with luck of "OMG!!!I am blown away by this!!! OMG!!" factor. Something was wrong here. The speakers sounded OK but just OK. I have tweaked various Win 7 settings on my laptop in an attempt to achieve the breakthrough in performance to no avail. I even compared the same CDs and MP3 by listening to them through my CSW rig on the 2nd floor. And again I could not reach conclusive decision since side by side comparison could not be made. Finally I had enough and brought BOSS Companion 5 set to the 2nd floor to meet my workstation and "Cambridge SoundWorks FPS 2000 Digital"+ Soundblaster Live. BOSS speaker set was hooked up to my desktop under a minute and had a first go with Pink Floyd's "Wish you were here" in the CD drive. I turned the lights off and listened to the music. I've caught myself nodding - the performance was good.
Then I switched to the CSW setup and played the same song again and my jaw dropped. The sound was SOOO MUCH BETTER - full of character, warmth and soul. Exactly the qualities another reviewer [P. Lau] described in his post as "`warmth', `soundstage', `smoothness',`less fatigue'." These qualities were missing from Bose Companion 5 reproduction of the sound. This could be due to the fact that it is a new system which does not have a lot of "burn in" time yet or it could be something else. Nonetheless, the difference is profound enough for me to send it back for a refund. I guess I must give Bose another shot some other time. Once again they did not sound bad, no no, they sounded OK but just not better than Cambridge SoundWorks FPS 2000 I already own. I might have kept them if they weren't caring BOSE name and were under $99 or I did not have a chance to compare them to my existing system.
Once again I do like Bose brand and will not bash them needlessly. Make up your own mind since this review is based on my personal biased experience. My father seems to like them better than my CSW setup - go figure!
Digital camera Review: Good but not the best system for the Price - unintuitive MUTE indication on control pod!!
Summary: 4 Stars
I was assuming these would be amazing/outstanding multimedia speaker system when I ordered them. After using them for a few hours now, I started to feel that they are good speakers, but NOT outstanding one in any manner. Sound quality was good and crisp, as promised/mentioned in the BOSE website.
I have hooked this speaker system to my Windows XP laptop using the USB cable and it worked immediately out of the box - nice job BOSE.
But the thing that annoyed me very much when I first installed the system is - the mute button on the "control pod". When I was installing the system, I had accidentally touched the top surface of this control pod and didn't realize it has muted the system. After every thing was setup, I was trying to play the DVD that accompanied with this system for the first time and to my surprise I didn't hear any thing!! So I checked the sound controls in the laptop and it was all set exactly as recommended by the BOSE user guide document in the box. The volume ring on the "control pod" was also somewhere in the middle. For the next few minutes I didn't understand what was going on, I've checked the connections and everything looked OK.
So finally after trying every thing, I just tapped the top surface of the "control pod" and then BOOM - I started to hear the sound!!
There is a small LED on this control pod and when I touch the top surface of the "control pod" it gets brighter and this is very hard to tell if you are viewing from some angles. I think the company (engineering/design team) didn't really think a whole lot about how unfriendly this visual feedback is.
Instead of a tiny LED light on the control pod, I would rather prefer a small Speaker LED Icon on it with a "X" or "/" symbol on top of the speaker icon when it's muted. This looks like very clean user interface to me and very intuitive!!
BOSE - if you have a solution like this, I would like to switch my control pod as soon as possible!!
Digital camera Review: Good speakers, disappointing USB features
Summary: 3 Stars
They sound great, if you like Bose's clean, monitor-like sound. The sound is powerful, crisp and there are no distortions. I can't say I was impressed by their 5.1-like capabilities, but I don't have a lot of 5.1 content to throw at them. Design-wise, they are everything I hoped them to be: slick, mate metal and solid plastics, none of that shiny plastic nonsense most other manufacturers seem so fond of. They look very nice next to my TV.
I've purchased the Bose Companion 5 specifically for their USB connectivity. USB audio devices can be fully controlled from the host PC or Mac. The volume control on the host is replaced by the volume of device: changing the volume on the USB speakers/headphones or on the PC have strictly the same effect. The volume indicator on both the computer and on the device are updated in sync. It's really slick. Why is this important? There are two great advantages to using a USB audio peripheral, besides the fact that the digital sound is delivered directly to your digital device: 1. the control is very precise and 2. you eliminate a remote control.
However, this is not the case for the Bose Companion 5. The speakers have their own volume setting, independent of the volume on the host PC, or Mac in my case. So, the integration is far from seamless; you end up with the same double-volumes control scheme as with any 3.5mm jack connection. If I knew this before, I would've opted for the Mackie S.5 Studio Monitors or the AudioEngine 5 instead. They sound better, are built just as well and cost less. And they all have the number 5 in their names, for some reason.
I'm disappointed and I will return mine.