Bose® CineMate® GS Series II Digital Home Theater Speaker System

EDIT: Got a response back from Bose yesterday. Their customer support sent me two codes, the latter worked for me. Here is the email text in case anybody else has this problem: "Try codes: "00858" under CBL-SAT brand "Motorola" or "01998" under V-ACC brand "Motorola"" I finally decided that I'd had it with the built-in TV speakers, and purchased this system. I shopped around for about a month before finally settling on the CineMate GS Series II. I opted for this because it didn't require me to run wires all around my living room. I also figured that if I'm going to go for a 2.1 system without true surround sound, I should get the maximum benefit from the smallest package possible and go Bose. Pros: This system is easy to setup and takes up very little space. The sound is great, and plenty loud enough for my smallish living room. So far I've played music, movies, and video games on my television and have been pleased with the results. Turning down the subwoofer at night is a must as it tends to noticeably vibrate the upper floors of my house. All wires, batteries, etc. come in the box so you don't need to buy any accessories to get it up and running. Cons: There are absolutely no options for tweaking the sound other than a knob on the back of the sub, which only changes the sub level. Personally I don't have a need for more than that, but audiophiles more demanding than I will miss that sorely. The universal remote doesn't have a code for my U-Verse cable box. I have a support email out to Bose, and am currently still waiting to hear back. Only has two inputs, one optical and the other is the usual RCA red/white. I have an optical out on my TV and I run all my HDMI cables through it, so again, not a con for me personally but could be for others. Overall: I'm extremely pleased with this system. The sound is as excellent as one would expect from a Bose system. While it's not as full featured as other systems at this price range, it more than meets my needs in sound quality. I would recommend this to anyone who doesn't want a complicated setup, or lots of wires coming out from behind their TV. It's a little pricey as all Bose products are, but in this case I firmly believe you get what you pay for. This system won't meet everyone's needs, and while it's a great set of speakers, it falls a little short of a true surround sound home theater system.

The sound from these is awesome. We've gone from watching "TV" to having a full-on movie experience. I ran into a few roadblocks doing the installation that are worth mentioning: 1) The speaker cable wasn't nearly long enough to go from the acoustimass unit to where I was installing the speakers on a shelf over the TV, so I had to buy the longer 40' cable separately; 2) The Bose system accepts audio inputs in only two formats: the optical "toslink" digital, or old-fashioned RCA stereo analog. My TV falls in the middle, and has neither of those audio outputs. Instead, it has a coaxial RCA digital output. To make the TV talk to the Bose unit, I got a digital audio converter to make the translation. The two digital systems use the same encoding, so the converter just has to change the signal from coaxial to optical. There are lots of units for sale that will do the job. I selected one that is very flexible in that it will convert coax-to-optical, optical-to-coax, or act as a relay (range extender) for either format. It is reasonably priced at $24, and works perfectly. (http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FWM0UNS/ref=cm_cr_ryp_prd_ttl_sol_8). 3) The cable connectors are quite large. I installed my system into a built-in book case, so I was able to make the necessary large holes at the back of the shelves where they won't be visible, but the hole in the floor to connect the acoustimass module will be quite visible if I ever move it. So, don't think that you can install this unit will the small holes that you'd use for running simple speaker wire. I have not yet tried to program the remote to control our Dish Network box and Philips TV, so I can't speak to how easily that is accomplished, or how well the remote works. For now, we are using the Dish remote to control the TV and the Dish box, and the Bose remote to control the volume. All-in-all, the sound is great, and the system setup is super simple if you have one of the right outputs from your TV, and still pretty simple if all you need is the converter mentioned above. Highly recommended.

We recently purchased a 46 inch Samsung TV and needed a sound system to really round-out our home cinema. The Samsung systems we looked at really didn't impress me with their reviews or features. Between the PS3, the Blu-Ray player we got free with the TV, we didn't need another Blu-Ray surround system box on our stand. Due to the small layout of our living room, we really didn't have a good way to run side and rear speakers anyway. We went to the Bose store and fell in love with the sound quality of this system. It's a little pricey for only two speakers and a woofer, but the quality is great. First of all it's easy to set-up. You have two speakers that run into the Acoustimass module. The module then runs into the power outlet and runs into the system's control box. The really nice thing is the small control box. It's smaller than a pack of cigarettes. It is simple. You run eithet a optical or RCA cable into the control box and you're ready to go. All cables needed are included, although the optical cable seemed a little small and flimsy. I used a Monster cable I already had. This system is not a surround system but has "simmulated" surround. It does a great job for what it's intended for. The sound quailty is great and it does not clutter our room up with 40 miles of cables and a large component box. If we had a bigger space we would have purchased a true surround with better side and rear performance, but for a small area I don't see how anything else could come close to this system.

Cons: 1. The dialog from TV or Movies gets lost to the point that you need to increase the volume over and over again, until the volume is overwhelming, at which point, you still can not clearly hear the dialog (the voices), just the background sound effects. 2. Proprietary cables limit distance and use of provided cables. 3. The optical cable does not fit into the control module. It constantly slides out of the back of the unit and you lose all sound until you place it back into the unit and try to balance it so it does not fall out again. I tried several optical cables from cheap to expensive, and the fact is, it doesn't fit. Pathetic for an expensive piece of equipment like this. 4. Any type of universal remote control does not work with this bose, this means you have to use the bose remote to turn on your sound, and adjust the volume separately every single time you watch tv. This is obsurd. And a complete waste of time in today's day and age. Who the heck wants to use a separate remote just for sound. 5. The sub woofer is big in size, yet weak in sound. Where is the base with this unit. I couldn't tell you, because I have been unable to find it yet. 6. Price. 600 dollars. Really. Pros: You have been warned before your purchase, read above Cons.

You can't go wrong with Bose. I've had friends who spend a lot more and get a separate receiver and speaker system. But this one worked just right for my living room. Assembly was not very difficult although keep in mind that you need to fund a right spot for the receiver as the receiver needs to be kept around 3 feet away from the TV and since my TV is wall mounted I had to keep the receiver on the floor. But once this was set up and I turned the speakers on - my family was thrilled with it. It had a very nice surround effect as well as when you turn the bass to full or even halfway the effects are amazing. We watched a 3D movie with this and the sound effect with the bass on full were excellent. The biggest plus with this was with the Universal Remote it comes with. I wanted to buy a Universal remote and instead of buying a separate one from Logitech I decided to use this one that came with Bose. And it worked great - paired well with my Panasonic TV, Panasonic Blu Ray and Xfinity. Only item it could not pair with was Roku Player (wish they come up with some firmware upgrade to make that work) but I know that's not possible. For 1 flaw can I really take a star away. Nah...Its a rockstar of a speaker system and 5 stars for that.

I know a lot of people like to knock Bose. I've heard "no highs, no lows, must be Bose" and then I turn around and someone else is shouting how Bose only has lows and highs and no mids. I just went through several sound system attempting to find one I like. I wanted something simple and didn't care to have wires running everywhere so I canceled out surround sound. I went through many soundbar type systems and was disappointed to say the least. I started researching these speakers online and found that the people who bought them liked them but others said they were no good just due to the Bose name. A person on one of the forums mentioned a soundbar system which I had previously returned as being comparable to these speakers yet nearly $500 cheaper. Now having owned both system I can laugh at that statement as there is no comparison. None of the other systems came anywhere close to sounding as good as these. Crisp highs, loud vocals, rich mids, very deep bass. I have to turn the bass down on this system so things will stop shaking on the walls. You can feel the bass. On the system that these speakers were compared to, I could only hear bass if I had the volume maxed and I had my ear pressed against the subwoofer. Not even joking. People who haven't owned a Bose system ever, or in the past several years, really need to stop bashing something they know nothing about. I will admit that maybe they are priced a bit high. However, you get a great sounding system and I'm not sure you could do any better at this price. I have heard speaker systems (receiver/speaker/subs) that cost over $1000 not sounding as good as this system. My expectations were shattered by this system and I would recommend anyone who has the money to spend and wants a simple, elegant and great sounding system, to pick these up and the nice stands (~$800 at this time for both speakers and stands). (I do not work for Bose, am not some Bose "fanboy" (this is my first Bose system), have never posted anything about Bose before anywhere.)

Great system! The sound is awesome, and better than I'd hoped for. Hookup was easy, though I had to fiddle with it some to get it to work with my 7-year-old HD TV. My TV does not pass digital audio through to its Audio Out jacks - RCA or optical, when either of its HDMI inputs are connected. So, I can't connect component audio directly to the TV and get an Audio Out signal. When I hook audio from components directly to the Bose inputs, the optical input rules, and cuts off the RCA input - makes sense - can't expect the device to differentiate. Anyway, I hooked my satellite box and my VHS player into the RCA inputs on the Bose using "Y" patch cords, and my PS3 into the optical input. I just have to turn off whichever unit I'm not using, so flipping back and forth between devices is a bit more involved than it could be. If my TV passed digital audio through, I could hook its optical Audio Out directly to the Bose, the component outputs directly to the TV, and it's a one-wire audio hookup to the Bose. Bottom line, though, is the great sound. The auto shutoff feature is absolutely no problem for my application. The universal remote that comes with it works great and is dead easy to set up. All-in-all, an excellent value!

We had to stop watching some of our favorite TV shows because the idiots in programming think that mixing the background music with an equal volume of dialog is okay. This makes the dialog too muddy and my wife and I have to strain to hear it. When I saw an ad for the Bose Solo for $359, I thought that this may be a viable solution. I already have a nice dolby 5.1 surround sound system, but it's only good for watching movies since the sound has to be turned up so loud to hear anything. The Bose Solo marketing literature says that it provides clarity at normal volumes, so my interest was piqued. As turned out though, my 46" TV base is too large for the Solo, so I stepped up to the Cinemate GS II for $539. I could have gotten the first generation Cinemate for less, but all of the reviews said to go with the GS (to get the Gemstone speakers and the multi-function universal remote). I also could have purchased a decent sound bar from Pioneer or Panasonic for a lot less, but I wasn't interested in replacing my TV speakers with one long speaker and a sub-woofer. Also not interested in faux surround sound, more bass, or gimmicks. I just want to be able to hear the stinking dialog and perhaps hear other things in the soundtrack that I can't hear out of my TV speakers. Since Bose is never on sale and I know they'd take them back if I didn't like them, went ahead and ordered the unit a week before Christmas with the free shipping option. Amazon's initial confirmation said they'd arrive within a week, but they actually arrived within two days of ordering. Installation was a snap and I replaced my Verizon Fios remote with the universal remote and couldn't be more pleased. The first codes I tried worked my Samsung TV and the Verizon DVR. Remote works great on the DVR portion too. Can skip forward and back, but can also now step in slow motion forward or backward as well which I couldn't do with the Fios remote. Only reason this product doesn't get five stars is that it isn't under $400. Oh, and by the way, this product provides excellent clarity at normal TV volumes. Can hear the dialog now while enjoying the background music instead of cursing it.