It’s a weird thing that so few electronics companies market a complete home cinema package. Lots of them make screens and sound systems, but when it comes to packaging the two together, they mostly leave that to their dealers.
Maybe it’s because when packaged sound
systems started to become a genuine marketing proposition — and I reckon that happened when Sony introduced the DAVS300 at $1499 in 2000 — we all had cathode ray tube televisions because flat panel plasmas were still the stuff of dreams. Back then, they were nudging $20,000.
Ever since, sound and vision have continued to develop separately, to be bought in separate packages and put together at home by the buyer.
Well, Bose may have just changed all that. It has two televisions, a 117cm and a 140cm, with sound built in. Now we’re not talking the regular couple of minuscule speakers at the bottom of the panel that rattle around like tinny old soup cans. Embedded in the back of the television are six bass drivers using the same waveguide
technology that delivers such rich, crisp bass in the brand’s Wave Radio.
And there are 10 additional higher range drivers that shoot the sound in a number of directions so that, as it bounces off walls and
ceilings around the room, it gives the impression of surround sound. This idea is not new; Yamaha made it mainstream tech seven years ago with its first soundbar, the $2500 YSP1, and while
it’s still nowhere near as good as the real
thing, it works better these days thanks to clever electronics.
With the Bose you put on a headset with a built-in microphone and take your seat, and the system calibrates the speakers to get the correct sound at that point, whatever the shape of the room may be. It’s all done in minutes and, if you change the position of the television you just run it through the routine once more.
Despite the generous sound you’re hearing, all you see is a television and a small console below it, into which can be plugged your Blu-ray or DVD player, satellite box, games console or whatever. And there’s only one cable running
between this console and the screen.
The speaker array behind the screen means that the screen’s cabinet is not the slimmest in the game, but it is slim enough to be wall-mounted with minimal intrusion into the room.
The odd thing is that these televisions have no tuner, so you’ll need a set-top box or a video recorder.
The system is controlled by a simple remote that can be touch-memorised in no time, and it operates through radio frequency rather that infra-red. This means your equipment can be kept inside a cabinet and the remote will still operate, and it doesn’t have to be pointed at the equipment to work.
For the package, you pay $6999 for the 117cm and $1000 more for the 140cm.
