Product Description
Home-theater surround sound is a wonderful ideal but it can be intimidating to many. First, not all homes have a rooms that can accommodate the 5 or 6 speakers required for Dolby-Digital surround. Second, the actual wiring of those speakers could be quite complicated. The concept behind Bose 3-2-1 is delivering a relevant surround experience using only 3 speakers - 2 special Gemstone array speakers and 1 Acoustimass subwoofer. There's no rear surround to contend with yet the surround effect more than compensates for the loss.
The 3·2·1 system's elegant media center orchestrates your complete home entertainment experience, including today's most popular audio and video content. It houses an integrated progressive scan DVD/CD player, AM/FM tuner and inputs for three additional sources. And the sleek media center is designed to complement the look of most plasma/LCD televisions.
Bose 3·2·1 II systems are equipped with Videostage 5 decoding circuitry to deliver home theater performance from almost any source. Even classic movies and TV programs recorded before surround sound will sound lively and room-filling. From vintage videotapes to the latest DVDs, 3·2·1 systems make a difference in all your home entertainment.
Customer Reviews
I do not recommend this equipment
Unfortunately for me, I didn't do an in-depth research of this product, and was carried away by the promises of high quality and superb sound that BOSE boasts for its products.
The 321 GSX broke down only after 3 months, during which I gave it little use. I was loading a CD into the hard drive and the equipment went crazy, turning on and off on its own, non stop. I had to unplug it to make it stop. Most embarrassing, I was hosting people and they were making fun of how much I had paid for a piece of junk (compared to their lower-priced but much reliable Japanese or Korean entertainment systems).
After several (and useless) calls with technical service, they indicated that there was no fix (no way to reset it) and that I had to exchange the equipment. Doing some research, I realized that this same problem has happened to several other people, so evidently they have a serious quality control problem. Had I known this, I would have thought it twice!!!
Unfortunately for me I was unable to return it, plus I had incurred in installation costs, so I am "stuck" with it.
The worst sound quality is that you don't have, so don't be deceived by BOSE's promises of superb sound; if it breaks down, you won't hear anything. So save yourself some money, and don't make the foolish decision of buying this equipment, is really not worth it.
burning mad at 3 am
I feel angry and duped by BOSE. today I had my second, yes second, GSX321 system installed and it worked wonders for all of 7 hours before it began to shut down after a minute or less. Would never have believed the other negative reviews posted here had this not just happened to me. I bought the first unit two months ago and it worked for all of a couple of weeks until it too just began shutting itself off.
for the second unit, today, I had the BOSE staff do the installation, so nothing would go wrong. boy was I foooled. another 400 dollars wasted.
that bose knows about this and does nothing but ship out replacement units, and they do do this fast, must confirm they know it's a lemon and are just trying to hide this from the public.
SHAME SHAME SHAME. Don't waste your hard earned $1500 on this garbage.
Mostly Junk
We just returned our Bose 3-2-1 GSX system. When it works properly, it works great, but getting it to work properly is the key. We bought it for the features, sound and brand and returned it for it's quality.
Though the sound is great, some remark that it has negligible mid-tones. This is correct, but didn't affect our enjoyment at all. The sound is great and the simulated surround is excellent. You have to set the small speakers so the inner edges focus on the center of the listening area. The subwoofer can be anywhere, but we placed it under the TV. The late-1980's-era LCD display cannot be shut off and doesn't have a clock display.
The problems started when it couldn't read some tracks on some CDs we had. Then, when we tried to load CDs into the internal HDD, the system crashed. It kept powering on & off. Unplugging and doing a hard reset didn't work.
On the plus side for Bose, we got through to tech support almost immediately, and this is on a Sunday morning. Of course, the tech had never heard of this issue, and he said they would send a replacement main-unit. I said that I would just bring it in to our Bose store and swap it out.
Before I left, I read many reviews, including those here, and decided to return the whole thing. My recommendation is if you end up buying this, save the packing materials.
It's astounding that Bose would let a product which has issues like this out the door. I hope they can figure things out before they loose their reputation.
Pros: Excellent features, excellent sound, easy to setup.
Cons: Poor CD read, poor overall quality