All, I am thinking about purchasing the Pioneer 811S Receiver but here is my bigger issue. I currently have the BOSE Acustimass 5 as my fronts and Bose 101s as my rears with the VCS10 center channel. I am planning on upgrading to Bose 161s as my Rear speakers and am thinking about a subwoofer. I have been told not to get one because I have the Acustimass already. What are your thoughts. Thanks
dan
Posted on
Shawn,
Does the Bose have a subwoofer? If not, you will need a seperate sub. I mention this for Bose as they love to make very small speakers that don't deliver much bass and rely on a seperate sub.
If you already have a sub and was thinking on a rear sub, that is a personal opinion. Some like more bass than others.
I hope this helps.
Dan
po
Posted on
I take it you are taking the line level out of your receiver and connecting it to the acoustimass which, in turn, drives the cubes?
Then are you driving the surrounds and the center with the receiver or are they also attached to the acoustimass unit?
With Bose, upgrading can be a little tricky as the cubes and acoustimass kind of go together. The acoustimass is indeed a subwoofer, it's just not a very good one. Adding another sub to hang off your sub output of the receiver could actually be good to supplement the extreme lows that the acoustimass can't hit.
Get one with a settable crossover and set it as low as possible so the new sub is hitting those major lows. Watch those windows!
Thanks. Yes I am using the acoustimass to run the fronts. The wires run from the fronts to the acoustimass to the receiver and the surrounds and center connect directly to the receiver. I don't want to get rid of the acoustimass because the cubes run off it. I was going to add the subwoofer because I feel like I am not getting all the bass that I should be. Do you have any recommendations on subwoofers (Sony, Kenwood, JVC) I am trying to read up on them. I am also thinking about buying another set of rear speakers and going to 7.1 sound. What do you think?
Jeffrey
Posted on
Get rid of the bose speakers and get a nice new complete set that gives you full spectrum sound. The Bose speakers have terrible audio properties for reproducing flat sound that is from 20Hz to 20KHz. Look in your Bose manual anywhere to see if they tell you these specs, bet they don't because they are a marketing machine and you bought the hype. There are infinitely better speakers for the price you paid for the Bose name.
You can get a nice set of JBL's, or Paradigms for $600-$1000 without or with a sub, and have much fuller sound that is not colored like the Bose speakers. Ask yourself, in the acoustimass, how is it that one 2.5" paper cone driver can reproduce the sound of a two speaker setup that might have a kevlar driver and metal based tweeter? It can't, that is why Bose hides the specs. Their speakers cut out at something like 13KHz, so you missing all the sound from there and up.
rob
Posted on
im connecting bose acoustimass 3 subwoofer to bose double cube speakers . how is this done? do i need any special cables or connections?
po
Posted on
Jeffrey is right. In the long run you're better off buying a reasonably matched set of "real" speakers if you really want good sound.
Also I wouldn't recommend JVC, Kenwood or Sony subs. They're all crap.
If you're on a tight budget, check out www.hometheaterdirect.com and look at the level 2 speaker set. It's an unbelievable deal at $550. You'll have much much richer fuller sound with those speakers with 5 or 6 inch drivers than the bose cubes. The Bose 161's are suitable for surround duty since you already got them but you gotta ditch the cubes for the fronts and center. Sell 'em on EBAY, someone will buy 'em.
As Jeffrey mentioned, Paradigms are great too. The Atoms or Micros are very cheap and great sound. It's just a little harder finding a Paradigm dealer.