Home > Consumer Reviews > Bose 3-2-1 GS Series II DVD Home Entertainment System - DVD surround system - radio / DVD - silver

This is a great system. The sounds is amazing, the setup is easy and the configuration of the system with it's 2 small but powerful speakers is fantastic. I own a number of BOSE products and needless to say that this piece of equipment very much lived up to my expectations of a BOSE system - for the first 8 weeks!

After 8 weeks of blissful enjoyment, the honeymoon was over! First, one of the speakers stopped working. BOSE asked us to return the speaker for replacement - which we did - leaving us with only 1 working speaker for 3 weeks.

Following this replacement, another 3 months passed before the second original speaker followed the same fate as the 1st! Again, we were asked to return the faulty speaker for replacement. 4 weeks passed and the replacement speaker arrived - unfornately it was the wrong make and model! BOSE were somewhat apologetic and sent us the correct speaker 2 weeks later.

A further 4 months of enjoyment followed before the base unit started to falfunction. BOSE suggested fixing our faulty unit, but after a protracted phone argument, they agreed to replace the entire system at my request! I was asked to pay for the $60 return postage to BOSE for the faulty system and again, another 4 week wait followed awaiting the replacement.

The upshot of all of the above is that I have been able to enjoy my system in full working order for 7 months since purchase 10 months ago, I have had to make 3 factory returns for replacement & exchange and the whole ordeal has cost me $60! Genuinely superb customer service.

At this point it is worth pointing out that not a single person from BOSE has ever been sympathic with my plight and I have been offered no compensation for my trouble - and why should they - I am a but one small customer whereas they are a huge multinational corporation!?!

Having just received my replacement system I am understandably keeping my fingers crossed this time although my confidence levels with the product are at an all time low.

Buy at your peril - you have been warned!

Strengths: 

Really good sound from only 2 small speakers and bass module
 
Weaknesses: 
 
Horrible DVD performance on HDTV/questionable surround sound reproduction

Summary:
 
Music sounds great on this system. I like how big and clear the sound is without being overmodulated and that it comes from such a small package. It is well built, simple to set up and use, and frankly, just an elegant piece of equipment. However, I am returning it tomorrow.

The DVD video quality is horrible! I'm not exaggerating. The picture is so bad at times, that it looks almost solarized. The picture looks like a computer monitor set to thousands of colors. It is really distracting and in no way acceptable in a system that costs more that $1400.

Surround sound reproduction from the (2) speaker system is just ok. You do get a sense that there is a center speaker, but rear imaging is just not there. It's not even better that my TV's built-in pseudo surround sound.

Inputs on the back are limited to (1) AUX and (1) Cable/Sat input. I like to keep it simple, that's why I bought this system after all, but it is so limiting that I can't even hook up a VCR and an iPod at the same time. Geez.

I wanted to like this system, and I do for music, but that's not enough to justify the price.
 

I bought this system for my bedroom to get better sound than was produced by the little speakers built into the TV. I was looking for a system that offered good sound quality, a DVD player and would provide a surround experience using a minimum amount of space. I did not want speakers in back since it was hard enough to get my wife to agree to put any speakers at all in the bedroom. This is a very compact system that offers great sound for what you see. I also have a full blown home theater set-up in my family room that cost many thousands of dollars and provides even better sound than a movie theater. The Bose 3.2.1 is not that kind of system and does not pretend to be. It is an excellent system with two very small speakers and a sub-woofer that only has a dvd/cd player to power it. I would buy it again.

I bought this system for the compact form factor and good sound. At home, the sound is adequate but not great. The size is good. And for the first 5 months, the performance was okay. I read many reviews about problems with this system crashing and counted myself lucky that I didn't get one of those 'lemons.'

Well, think again. In the last 4 weeks, the system has begun to crash repeatedly. Many times, I can't get eject my DVD without restarting >10 times. Many times, I hear the DVD spinning even when the system is supposed to be off. Some people say they can't play 1/5 DVDs. Well, it's more like 80% of my DVDs! I put them in my other system and they play flawlessly. This system has ruined my perception of Bose - poor quality with horrible support (they refuse to fix this fatal problem). I will never buy from them again - and I would never recommend this system to anyone. Believe the bad reviews - don't waste your money.

I thought mine was a lemon from the start but from the other reveiws I see I am not alone. I sent it back for repairs in the first year. (a piece of inards came out with a dvd when I ejected it) It has major problems reading discs of any kind. Currently it will not play DVD's at all. I now have a $30 player for that. A few months ago the volume went out. I now play everything at 60 or 70 volume where 30 used to be loud. Not so bad except that every once in a while it realizes where it should be and blasts for a second or two. Scares the you-know-what out of everyone especially the dog! Latest problem is one of the speakers (or wiring) is on the fritz. It constantly goes in and out. Did I mention that the screws that hold the wires into the back of the amp lost their thread bolt inside of the amp within about a year. Nice thousand dollar paper weight...