Reviews for Bose® Companion® 5 Multimedia Speaker System

If all you are going to do is use these exclusively for gaming and have the money they will make you happy. However, if you want to listen to music you would be much better off selecting another product. On many of my recordings, (both CD and MP3) the vocals and guitar solos sound like they are in another room--way in back of the other instruments. It would appear that if the recording was mixed in certain manner you are not going hear an even mix. For the amount of money I spent on these I'm a little disappointed.

Set the speakers up today and am amazed on how well they sound love them!

This speakers make you feel that you are in a recording studio. They are incredible, you can feel every single sound of the song/radio etc you are playing, more than recomended!!

Awesome speakers. 5.1 surround sounds works well with dvd movies but disappointed about the fact that it won't be recognised as a 5.1 home theatre by iTunes. So you won't be able to use the 5.1 surround sound.

It's kinda painful to spend that money on these but after few hours of entertainment you won't regret it at all.
You will discover your entire library.

Have to rock the boat. The glowing reports seen here and elsewhere for this Companion 5 "surround sound" system could easily woo an innocent into believing this is a system worthy of the hefty price tag. Not so.
True it provides excellent bass, treble and other ranges with remarkable clarity. It has that "feel good" sound - you know what I mean - when you are almost swept away by the grandeur of the sound.
BUT. The vocals sound distant, far away even. And then the reverb slider gets stuck on overload. A range of different music from classical, to pop, to jazz, to electronic, to blues, to... just about any genre in my very eclectic collection yields the same result. It's like the singers are inside a glass case. Combine that with the reverb issue and the result is that you can't hear what is being sung, like a badly mixed demo tape. Hey, I like reverb too, just not all the time, and not always at the maximum setting.
Oh if you like instrumentals only, you might be happy... hmmm... well, no, not even then. Sorry. You're just missing too much from the mid-range, even with a plethora of equalizer options. I also tried using an audio cable instead of the USB connection. Same result.
Incidentally, it was the same on a different unit in the audio store when I tested the equipment. I was willing to give the sales guy a break and accept that it could have been someone fiddling with the cables behind the counter. Idiot me.
Personally, I think Bose have done an excellent marketing job on this system but the surround sound they laud is but a euphemism for "crank up the reverb and squidge the singer into a wee glass case". After nearly two weeks of trying to make this system work in a variety of locations around my house and with different inputs and devices attached, enough is enough. Be a companion, Bose - surround me with my money back please.

I've had these on my iMac for over 5 years and they are a durable product that does sound good with loud games and movies when audio accuracy doesn't play a part in listening enjoyment. However, when I'm playing music files in uncompressed files like Flac Aiff, or Wav format then these speakers show their true nature which is they are incapable of reproducing accurate tonal quality whatsoever. In fact they sound the same whether you listen to highly compressed mp3 or uncompressed music files and their bass is has an artificial sound quality. When playing music featuring an upright acoustic bass guitar it sounds like an electric bass guitar from a Casio keyboard. I find almost all Bose speakers terrible at accurate reproduction of musical notes. Only recommended if you listen to electronic hip-hop or mp3.

Bose has great marketing, but an absolutely horrible product, Im coming from years of KRK's, Bowers and Wilkins and as sound goes Bose is terrible, I bought these, listened to them for 5 minutes, put them back in the box and returned them, Horrible. All the subwoofer does is give mid's.

Problem on a newly bought Mac mini with mountain lion. I can see the Bose in the System Pref and in the Midi Audio app (utilities). The user guide shows screenshots with older OS. I tried to do the same but no sound is coming out. Contacted Bose support but they say I should speak with apple care, in other words, they say it is an apple problem. The Bose tech guy has no clue on mountain lion and said he works on windows environment only and cannot check, strange answer!

I have owned my BC5 for nearly 3 years trouble free. It is a near field unit designed to perform within range of one's arm's length. I think the adoring public forgets this fact. The BC5 can over perform and light up the room, but close or near field sonics is its specialty. Fortunately we live in an age of gadgets. High Resolution Technologies offers the HRT iStreamer. It allows one to connect the ipod, iphone, or ipad directly into the BC5. The Digital Signal Processor submitted by Bose is usurped by the Streamer which has its own sound card or DSP. The sound is more in your face. Bass response booms and the whole unit performs far better. I touched the rear of the bass module its warmer to the touch. Minus the istreamer the BC5 has met my ear expectations for ambience during school study nights. I recommend the BC5 because it musically works.

Before I bought these speakers, I read the reviews and was having a hard time deciding on whether I should buy them or not, there was a lot of different reviews. Well I bought them and I do not regret it. I am very picky when it comes to the sound of my music and these Bose rock really well. I adjusted the itunes equalizer, even after they suggested not to, and I love the sound. Very good quality and great bass. I mean they aren't pushing a thousand watts per speaker, but they are only computer speakers and great ones at that.