The Bottom Line: For the price, they are an ok deal. For a low priced speaker they have a nice open sound quality and they are aesthetically appealing, especially with the floor stands

As a real Klipsch-biggot (a less than lover of Bose) I was pleasently surprised by the Acoustimass 5 III's. They are open, airy and have an appealing sound quality, which is kind of wierd coming from a person who thinks Bose stands for Better Off with Something Else.

I went to the Bose store, here in Natick MA, where the sattelites were less than the optimal 6' apart and they had some nice open, lite sound to them. The bass module is a tad boomy and there is a sort of drop off in mid bass, but for $359 on the web store, they are darn good, so the stands make it $459, still, not bad for a sattelite/sub system.

Would they be great home theater speakers, well, no, but they are like other some Bose products, pleasent. They eat power like crazy and really, sort of defy measurement, which I guess why I call them pleasent. Would I use them for an AV show, no. Would I use them as a casual pair of speakers in a low sound requirement room, yea.

For a movie test, I listened to a slice of "The Transporter II", and found they really lack the dynaic range to do action justly. Could I hear the cartridges clink as they fall and hit the floor, well, no, indicating a lack of detail in the upper midrange-high end.

The are good for what they are, a kind of attractive, pop art, inexpensive speaker.