List Price: $499.00
Sale Price: $379.95
Today's Bonus: 24% Off
I purchased the Onkyo LS3100 ENVISION system for $500 from Fry's Electronics after listening to similar speaker systems for our new flat screen TV. The salesman demonstrated three other systems, all costing $100 to $300 more than the Onkyo system. I purchased the Onkyo system because it seemed like it provided acoustically similar sound to the higher priced systems, and the price was better for our budget. A week after purchasing the Onkyo system, Bose put many of their speaker systems on sale, and the price of the Bose CineMate Series II Digital Home Theater Speaker System dropped to just above $500. For that price, I thought the Bose might be a better sounding system. So, I purchased it from Fry's knowing that I still had time to return the Onkyo system if I decided to keep the Bose system. I set both systems up in our family room connected to the TV, and played them one against the other to the same DVD at different volumes. I concluded that the Onkyo system not only sounded better, but had more features to offer, such as the wireless subwoofer and Bluetooth features (the Bose system lacks these and other features). The main reason I think the Onkyo system sounds better is because the subwoofer sounds better. It will play louder than the Bose subwoofer will, if you want it that loud. By comparison, the Bose subwoofer was limited at full volume and did not have the same sound definition as the Onkyo subwoofer. Because of this and since the Bose system does not have as many features, I will be taking the Bose system back to the store.
UPDATE 2/23/2013. We did not immediately return the Bose CineMate speakers. My wife and I did a side-by-side comparison of both speaker systems for about a week. We both concluded that the Bose CineMate speakers had an overall better sound--a little fuller and warmer sounding. However, to put things in perspective, at this price point the better sound of the Bose CineMate speakers is only marginal, which is why we kept going back and forth for a week as to which system had the better quality sound. We almost kept the Bose speaker system because of this. Still, even though the Bose CineMate speakers may sound better, the Bose system really lacks in the features that the Onkyo speaker system has, so we kept the Onkyo speaker system anyway. Here are a few of the features that the Onkyo speaker system has that the Bose system does not have:
* The Onkyo speakers automatically come on when we turn the TV on. Not so with the Bose, which requires you to separately turn on the speakers with the little remote required to operate the Bose speaker system.
* We can adjust the volume of the Onkyo speakers with any other remote control device that we have in the house, including our cable remote. This is because the Onkyo system is pre-programmed to operate with many other remote controls. With the Bose system, you can only adjust the volume with the Bose remote.
* The Onkyo system has a wireless bluetooth subwoofer. The bluetooth in the system can be used to pair up any compatible bluetooth devices to stream music through the speakers. My daughter loves this feature to play music from her iPhone. The sound of the music is as good as any stereo system we own, although I'm sure there's better sounding speakers for this purpose if you're willing to pay for them. This is a definite plus for some people. I asked at Fry's and was told that no other speaker system comes with this bluetooth feature built into it. The Bose system definitely does not have it, but you might be able to add it with a third-party device.
I still give the Onkyo speaker system 5 stars because it is decent sounding and feature laden at this price point. Others may prefer the sound of the Bose CineMate speakers and not care about the features of the Onkyo speaker system, however.
0 comments:
Post a Comment