Thread: Bose Acoustimass Middle Speaker Issue

A client has a Bose Acoustimas 5.1 speaker system that he wants to keep and use with a Pioneer Pro-95HD Plasma monitor.

Problem is there is no good way of placing the center cube speakers on the furnature console they have (the wall is not an option either)...

Since the plasma has speakers is there a way to wire it so that the plasma speakers can replace the center bose speaker channel??

I don't know about this particular system, but most receivers support "phantom center" configuration: without center speaker at all. Works well if you are not sitting too far off-center.

I was once an unfortunate owner of the Bose Acoustimass 5.1 speaker system. all the cube/satellite speakers connect to the "sub" with proprietary cabling. You then use regular speaker wire to connect the Acoustimass module to your receiver. You could simply disconnect the center speaker, then, if your TV supports it, you could run speaker wire from the receiver's center out directly into the TV. Some TV's support this function, which then lets you use the TV speakers as a center channel speaker. Most, however, do not.
Given the extremely limited dynamic range of the Acoustimass 5.1 speaker system, trying to use a phantom center would most likely yield poor results. Since the center channel is responsible for something like 80% of all dialog, and the Acoustimass 5.1 speaker system really struggles with dialog in the best of circumstances, you might just be better off with the TV speakers instead. I know that when I had my Bose system, I always struggled to hear dialog, and later found that most dialog, especially when men are speaking, falls in a certain frequency range that the Acoustimass 5.1 speaker system doesn't cover well. End result, the musical score of a movie, with its higher notes, always seemed to drown out most dialog.
So, I guess I would recommend using the TV speakers instead of the Acoustimass 5.1 speaker system.

I appreciate the input, but your reply is rather dramatic (and obvious) given that my post stated that the customer has this system and doesn't wish to change.

Given the cards dealt I look to this forum for answers rather than shouldas.

Anybody else?

Originally Posted by winesmile

I appreciate the input, but your reply is rather dramatic (and obvious) given that my post stated that the customer has this system and doesn't wish to change.

Given the cards dealt I look to this forum for answers rather than shouldas.

Anybody else?

Well, the answer is in there. Check the TV. Can it accept speaker wire and act as a center channel? Some TVs can, most that I've seen do not.

And I still stand by my earlier statement; Those speakers without a true center channel will sound quite poor. If actually hearing the dialog is important, ditching the Bose speakers all together in favor of the TV's speakers should be considered...

I used small decorative chain to suspend speakers from the ceiling. Depending on the weight of the speaker different sizes can be used. The clear speaker wire wove thru the chain links. Back in the good old Bose 901 days I did this to reduce vibration from feeding back to the turntable.

My brother-in-law just setup his system with a wall mounted plasma. The wall mount allows for the TV to be adjusted in tilt, height and side to side. They installed the center speaker derectly behind the TV so that isn't not visible.

We have a entertainment center where we put the center speaker on the shelf. To not disrupt view of the entertainment center, we hid the speaker by placing a nice plant over it which covers the look of the speaker.

The client needs to ebay that marketing hype Bose crap.