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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #201 in Home Theater
• Brand: Bose
• Model: 321GSX GRAPHITE

Features

• A home theater experience to thrill you. And a simplified setup that requires no wires running to the back of your room
• Includes uMusic system for 200 hours of digital music storage. It also listens to your music and learns your preferences
• Bose link allows connection to compatible Lifestyle systems for whole-home entertainment

Customer Reviews

Not Ready For Prime Time
Wow! What a cool idea! It's like having an integrated MP3 jukebox, DVD player, CD player, radio, & home theatre in one small unit. At least it would be a cool idea if it worked. Unfortunately, the 3-2-1 GSX simply doesn't work and Bose needs to come clean on that issue.

I purchased this system (despite the steep cost) because of previous positive experiences with Bose. I'll admit I was happy with the sound of the system but became concerned when the unit began to refuse to store CDs to the media center. After talking to Bose's tech support, I was again impressed when they overnighted a replacement system to my home.

After setting up the new system, I attempted to load the music database update I'd recieved in the mail ... the update refused to load and locked the system up. We also began having problems with the system freezing during DVD viewing and refusing to eject the disc. Each of these discs played flawlessly on our other two DVD players. After several calls to tech support they again sent out a replacement media center.

Round three: After setting the system up (again) it did load the music update & appeared to be functioning properly. However, later the same evening the system inexplicably went mute ... there was no audio regardless of volume setting for any input other than stored music. Powering the system off & then back on resolved this glitch.

For the money, this ought to be a plug it in and never-worry-about-it system. Instead it's nothing more than an expensive headache. Shame on Bose for marketing such a poorly designed product with buggy software.

DVD Player does not work properly
I am a fan of Bose and their quality sound systems - or at least I was so far. The 3-2-1 GSX is a great idea and the sound is very good. But the box has so many glitches that it is extremely frustrating. The biggest problem is that DVDs tend to freeze or stop playing at the slightest imperfection. We rent DVDs from Blockbusters and almost never had a problem on our old DVD player. Really bad discs would cause some image distortion or strange effects on the screen but they would normally recover once over the bad spot and never freeze up. The Bose has a hair trigger sensitivity to the slightest imperfection on the DVD (and which rentals don't have a small scratch or dirt). The Bose will simply stop playing, display a message ("can't read DVD") and stop. All tricks trying to fast forward or somehow skip that spot fail. Imagine you are in the middle of a thriller! In all such cases we played the same DVD in our old player without any problem.
I am in the high tech business and used to systematic fault isolation. So I took one disc that froze the Bose (in that case it did not even eject the DVD and I had to recycle the power) to the store where I bought the Bose and tried it on other high end players. It worked fine in all cases and got over the trouble spot. The I played it in the top end Bose Lifestyle system. It jammed for a while (also very sensitive) but it recovered.
I had a lot of interaction with Bose support on this. They sent me a software update CD which made no noticeable difference. The dealer just says such a high quality system is very sensitive to disc defects. That's balloney, 80% of all rentals from Blockbuster freeze the system.
I have given up having Bose resolve the problem since there is an obvious flaw in the DVD reader and they don't admit to it. I am now buying another DVD player to add to the system since I am tired of the frustrations with the 3-2-1 GSX.
If you have a choice, don't buy this sytem.

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