Trying to use an older Bose Acoustimass System - Help :) (1 Viewer)

I am fairly new to home theater systems so excuse my lack of all correct terminology and likely many typos! We moved into a house that has a 5.1 Bose Acoustmass (so six total speakers) system installed and then speakers throughout the house. I bought a Pioneer VSK-1020-K 7.1 with the intention of using the multi-zone capability. There are three speakers in the front of the room (L, R, C). The acoustimass woofer is in the rear of the room with obviously the two surrounds (SR, SL). Here's the problem. I did get the multi-zone to work, which frankly surprised the heck out of me, however, after using the auto-calibration feature it doesn't seem like any sound is actually coming out of the front L and front R speakers. The center and surround L and R are working perfectly. It almost seems as though the acoustimass speaker is working instead of L and R, but C is loud. The auto calibration sets L and R volume to the highest level possible and when a movie or even the radio is on, iPod, etc. you have to literally press your ear up against L or R to hear them while C is very loud. SR and SL are as loud as C. Maybe this is normal it just seems sitting in the room that all the sound from the front is emitting from the one center speaker and then I have three speakers behind me all working fine and nearly overpowering the center. It sounds like un-surround sound! Thanks.

Well, it's not normal. Something is wrong there. I don't know very much ( nothing really) about Bose Acoustimass systems. Can you give us the exact maodel number? There may be various mode;s out there that work a little differently or are connected to other receivers in a different way. Bose systems can be very difficult to integrate with other products. That's one of the many reasons they're not popular on these types of forums.

Welcome Steve It is a little hard to exactly figure out how your Bose system is set up as you mention that the bass module is in the rear of the room. I assume that your zone 2 is using a different brand of speakers and they are working just fine. If you were to contact Bose they will tell you that your Acoustimass System Bass module must be connected to your receiver with the special wiring harness on the bass module, and all of the 5 cubes must be connected to the bass module. You cannot connect any of the cubes directly to your receiver, as it could damage it because of the low impedance of the bose cubes. However, once you have your Bose system connected correctly you will find that most of the auto speaker calibration systems will not recognise the cubes because they are connected through the bass module. As Gene says Bose products are difficult to integrate with other products. Their technology is very dated and must be connected exactly as specified.

Thanks for the replies. The system is a an Acoustimass 6 - Series II. I also did get zone 2 to work fine. They are up in the ceiling so I am not frankly sure what brand speakers they are. We have six total and each room has a volume control on the wall. All 6 of them work perfectly. So three things. I ran a wire straight from the receiver to the speakers to make sure they work and they do. I also took the center channel wire from the receiver and hooked to the posts in the wall box for the left front to see if any sound came out and it did not. I then hooked the center wire from the receiver to the posts in the wall for the surround left and sound did come out. Third, sound does come out of the Acoustmass box when only the front right or left are connected (but sound doesn't come out of the front right or left satellites at the same time). I now wonder if it's truly the Acoustimass system or bad wiring in the walls, like perhaps the wire coming back from the rear of the room where the Acoustimass box got clipped somehow . The way the system is wired now would hooking up a normal 5 + sub even work since the wires are all integrated for the Acoustimass system or do I need to rewire the whole room or just the two fronts? I thought this was not going to take three weekends to get working

Steve, I would suggest that you do a simple continuity test on all of your in wall speaker wires to make sure they are working correctly. Unless someone did some renovation and cut a wire in the wall their is little reason that they should go bad. But you need to test each of the wires. You next have to do a test to see if your Bose speakers are working correctly independent of the in wall wires. . For that you need to connect the bass module directly to your receiver speaker connections and then test wire all of the cubes to the bass module with some short lengths of speaker wire (lamp cord will do). If both the in wall wires check out and all of the bose speakers work then their is no reason that they should not work when connected to the in wall wiring. However, you have to ensure that the your system is wired this way. Receiver speaker outputs to bose bass module, Bass module to in wall speaker connections L,C.R, LS, RS. Then connect the Bose cubes at their proper position in the room. One thing you do not want to do is wire any of the cubes directly to your receiver and by pass the bass module. This is one of the reasons we don't like bose cubes as they double the number of connections you need to make and that can sometimes add to additional problems.