Bose speakers without Bose, how do they sound?

[JimShaw]

My neighbor has a Bose Lifestyle system. Was installed by Bose in 2001.

He just ordered a new TV from Value Electronics. He has owned a Sony 65" rear projection also since 2001 and I've just programmed a Harmony Elite for him.

He is 75 years old and not going to change the jewel cube speakers. So, please don't bash Bose or recommend installing new speaker other than Bose.

I know I can eliminate the Acoustimass and connect the Bose jewel speakers to an A/V receiver and they will play.

My question: Has anyone on this forum done that and if so, how do the speakers sound? A decent sounding speaker? Add a subwoofer and all will be pretty good to a man who has, in the last few years, only been listening to the speakers from the TV. The Bose system quit on him years ago.



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[beefytwinkie]

The Bose speakers I had used in the past were the cubes which looked like two cubes stacked together and you can swivel them a bit. I paired them with a Sony stereo receiver without a subwoofer. I did not hook up the Acoustimass bass module.

The speakers I had did not sound great but they were just a bit better than the speakers in my Sansui television. One thing I noticed was the frequency range was cut off really high. I had read about the frequency response of these speakers but never experienced it before. I did not have a way to measure them but there was zero bass. They sounded slightly better than my television speakers at the time but to compare, my television speakers in my Samsung MU8000 actually sound better than the Bose speakers I had.

If you are able to get a decent subwoofer for your neighbor it might help but in my experience subwoofers have a low pass filter which goes to about 120Hz to 160Hz and from what I was hearing, my Bose cubes definitely did not go down to 160Hz. You can see the problem where you will be missing some audio information between the speakers and subwoofer.

But this is based on my own Bose speaker experience. Maybe your neighbor’s speakers are way better than mine. Mine were from 2008 or so. Hopefully, since his are older they might be way better than the ones I had.

I will conclude this saying the Bose speakers I had were not awful. There was certainly room for improvement but for my needs, they worked as I am sure they are just fine for your neighbor, too. If your neighbor is unable to obtain a subwoofer, you should consider implementing the Acoustimass bass module and not just use a receiver with the speakers. I hope you are able to demo them so you can see for yourself and figure out how you might be able to help him customize his setup to enjoy it to the max.