Hello all, I'm brand new here. I just purchased a new Bose Accoustimass 10 speaker system - which is how I found this wonderful place. Here's my story:
1. I used to have a Bose Cinemate II 2.1 system. I actually think it was a very good sounding 2.1 setup, I liked it well enough that I had no immediate plans to spend money on a surround sound. But, it went T.U. a couple weeks ago and I wasn't about to go back to TV speakers. Bose no longer makes that system so off I went to Best Buy.
2. I bough a Cinemate 130. Sounded great in the store, and wasn't really convinced I wanted to run speaker wires through my house, etc so it seemed like a good idea. I took it back a couple days later... not a horrible speaker bar but I quickly discovered I don't like speaker bars... plus it would have been easier to live with if it was half the price. Would make a good bedroom or RV system, but has no business in a living room.
3. Decided to go for the gusto and buy a 5.1 system, got the AM 10 on sale ($600) which I though was a good deal (I should have came here first). Installation wasn't really that bad, got the wires through the wall and speakers hung on the wall.
Well, I spent 3 straigh evenings trying to get the thing to sound good. Some things sounded "OK", occasionally something would even sound pretty good, some things sounded totally unacceptable, which is why I started searching the internet for answers. By the way, I also bought a Yamaha 477 receiver - which is not a bad unit in my opinion.
After multiple times doing the set up, manually tweaking the EQ and other settings, and trying all of the built in programs, I decided to experiment and went down to the basement and brought up some old Pioneer floor speakers (12" woofers, 10" mids and a tweeter in each cabinet). I pulled the wires out of the Front L/R Bose speakers and hooked them straight up to the Pioneers. Wow what a difference. Everything immediately sounded 100 times better, no matter what source or what type of programs I watched and no matter what receiver settings, sounds great now.
I'd imagine it would even be better if I replaced the subwoofer, mids, and surrounds too, but I will say just taking the L/R fronts and putting a decent speaker in it's place sounds pretty freaking good.
Since I've alreay got the surrounds mounted and wired, I'll probably end up keeping the system the way it is with the Pioneers for front L/R and Bose everywhere else, but what a lesson I learned... Bose speakers sound like crap and it took me $600 and alot of elbow grease to learn that lesson. I'm sure I will eventually replace the Bose stuff but to be honest, it sounds good now, and I'm tired of screwing with it.
Just thought I'd share my story and maybe save someone else from making the same mistake.
1. I used to have a Bose Cinemate II 2.1 system. I actually think it was a very good sounding 2.1 setup, I liked it well enough that I had no immediate plans to spend money on a surround sound. But, it went T.U. a couple weeks ago and I wasn't about to go back to TV speakers. Bose no longer makes that system so off I went to Best Buy.
2. I bough a Cinemate 130. Sounded great in the store, and wasn't really convinced I wanted to run speaker wires through my house, etc so it seemed like a good idea. I took it back a couple days later... not a horrible speaker bar but I quickly discovered I don't like speaker bars... plus it would have been easier to live with if it was half the price. Would make a good bedroom or RV system, but has no business in a living room.
3. Decided to go for the gusto and buy a 5.1 system, got the AM 10 on sale ($600) which I though was a good deal (I should have came here first). Installation wasn't really that bad, got the wires through the wall and speakers hung on the wall.
Well, I spent 3 straigh evenings trying to get the thing to sound good. Some things sounded "OK", occasionally something would even sound pretty good, some things sounded totally unacceptable, which is why I started searching the internet for answers. By the way, I also bought a Yamaha 477 receiver - which is not a bad unit in my opinion.
After multiple times doing the set up, manually tweaking the EQ and other settings, and trying all of the built in programs, I decided to experiment and went down to the basement and brought up some old Pioneer floor speakers (12" woofers, 10" mids and a tweeter in each cabinet). I pulled the wires out of the Front L/R Bose speakers and hooked them straight up to the Pioneers. Wow what a difference. Everything immediately sounded 100 times better, no matter what source or what type of programs I watched and no matter what receiver settings, sounds great now.
I'd imagine it would even be better if I replaced the subwoofer, mids, and surrounds too, but I will say just taking the L/R fronts and putting a decent speaker in it's place sounds pretty freaking good.
Since I've alreay got the surrounds mounted and wired, I'll probably end up keeping the system the way it is with the Pioneers for front L/R and Bose everywhere else, but what a lesson I learned... Bose speakers sound like crap and it took me $600 and alot of elbow grease to learn that lesson. I'm sure I will eventually replace the Bose stuff but to be honest, it sounds good now, and I'm tired of screwing with it.
Just thought I'd share my story and maybe save someone else from making the same mistake.