Experiencing the new Bose VideoWave

Walk into any Costco store and you're immediately in the TV zone. Amazingly 60" screens look small in their cavernous stores. Yesterday I walked into a Bose store at the outlet mall. I wasn't looking for anything in particular, just being curious. Immediately the salesperson ushered me into a vault-like home theatre room in the back of the store for a product demonstration. I sat in a chair facing a darkened flat screen television mounted on the wall surrounded by various sized black speakers. After the effects of lightning and thunder filled the room with sound the screen came to life with concert footage, sports action, roller coasters, ... the usual beauty shots with distinctive audio. What was amazing was during the demo the salesperson from Bose went up to each speaker and pulled away black covering to reveal NO speakers underneath. Even the big subwoofer box on the floor magically disappeared.

Rather than painstakingly rigging wire all over the room to individual speakers and a receiver, the Bose folks invented VideoWave. It's actually Bose's first television, a 46" LCD with a secret. Behind the HD display lie sixteen built-in speakers, enough to fill the room with rich, real, and booming sound. The sound comes from left, right and all around. It was quite amazing. They even created an intuitive, non-intimidating remote. Unfortunately at over $5,000 for the whole set-up the price is quite intimidating. But what's is the escape of consumer electronics if not for some new gadgetry to jones for? See - and hear it - if you get a chance.