OTHER TECH

Ready to hook everything up, I discovered that the system offers only composite- and S-video output jacks but that these can be configured as component-video outputs using supplied adapter cables. That's how I hooked up my TV. I used Bose's setup disc to verify the speaker hookup and then loaded in the ADAPTiQ disc to optimize their performance. Feeling only slightly silly, I sat in my comfy chair and put on the supplied "headphones," which actually contain no sound-producing elements but rather microphones to pick up the sound from the speakers as it reached my ears. The system plays test tones, reads the signals from the microphones, and automatically adjusts equalization, phase, and level for each channel to produce the best sound given your room's acoustics.

The Lifestyle 38 allows multiroom expansion with stereo playback - up to 14 remote rooms, or outdoor spaces, each with independent volume and mute control over one of two audio streams. For example, you can listen to CD in one room and the radio in another. You use Boselink cables to connect the Lifestyle 38 media center to powered speakers, a speaker/amp combo, or another Bose DVD or CD system in each remote room. A 50-foot Boselink B cable with four output connectors for different components or rooms is supplied with the Lifestyle 38, but you'll need to buy another remote control for each additional room. If you connect several rooms, you may need additional cables. For my test, Bose supplied a 3•2•1 GS Series II system ($1,299) and an RC-38S remote ($149). I placed the system in an adjoining room and connected the Boselink cable. When I powered it all up, yep, I had a dual-zone thing happening.

DVD PERFORMANCE Setup chores completed, I started my audition with a DVD showing of Animatrix, a revisiting of themes from The Matrix trilogy via nine short subjects featuring computer-graphics animation and Japanese anime. Final Flight of the Osiris has amazingly realistic animation, and the Bose progressive-scan DVD player reproduced it cleanly. The veins across the computer-generated male actor's biceps were clearly visible, and so was the texture of his skin. The diffused light shining on the skin of the characters, as well as their swords, looked just right. No signs of oversaturation. The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack was convincingly reproduced, with the satellites and Acoustimass bass module providing the kind of room-filling, high-quality sound that is a Bose trademark.

The Matrix-related Animatrix anthology helped the Bose system show off its DVD-playing chops.