I ended up returning my Bose Acoustimass 5 series III system after just one day. It simply did not meet up to my expectations. It did not sound nearly as good as the ESM-3 bookshelf speakers I was replacing. One of my ESM-3's developed a rattle, but I was able to do a comparison of the remaining ESM-3 to the Bose Acoustimass 5 series III system.

I used Dave Koz's The Dance CD for the test. There was a troubling lack of mid-range response. I could hardly hear the keyboard part and the sax sounded extremely nasal. The bass also sounded weak. I tried repositioning the bass unit in different ways to adjust the bass response per the Bose instructions. I know Bose tries not to overemphasize the bass, but it sounded lacking.

I am not sure why it sounded so good in the store or at several Bose demonstrations I have seen. I am sure the type of music has a lot to do with it. I also suspect the demonstrations are highly tweaked to hide the weaknesses of the system. Anyway, I was disappointed because I had wanted this system for some time and when I finally got it, it was a big letdown. Now, it seems like it was too good to be true - such good sound from small satellite speakers.

It may be good for home theater or if you absolutely have to have satellites, but I can't recommend it for pure musical listening. I am going with towers.