Bose Accoustimass 6 Series II Speaker Placement w/ Pic's (1 Viewer)

[John McDevitt]

Hello everyone! I suppose most of you will kill me for wasting my money on the Bose Accoustimass 6 Series II System, but I'm stuck with it now and I want to make the best of it. I was VERY disappointed with the Bose sub(not powered) and ended up hooking up my old JBL DPS-10 powered sub. I had a installer from Best Buy (I think he knew less about speaker placement then me!!!) hook up the cubes on the wall. He had mucho problems getting the wire in the wall, therefore my left surround speaker wire has white molding. Anyways, I feel like he installed them too high, except for the center which sits on the TV. I guess my question is how should I position the front and back speakers? Should I be pointing them towards the wall, couch or other? When setting the volume level for the speakers, should they all be the same volume? I have some pictures of the speaker setup just under my pic if you would like to see for yourself. Any suggestions would be awesome
This is the hardware if it helps any--
Toshiba 50H81 16:9 HDTV/ Yamaha HTR-5280 Receiver/ Bose Accoustimass 6 Series II Speaker System/ JBL DPS-10 Powered Subwoofer/ Pioneer DV-414 DVD Player/ Sony SLV-N51 Hi-Fi VCR
Thanks--

 

[Cam S]

It requires a password to see the pics John.

 

[John McDevitt]

sorry, link fixed

 

[Chu Gai]

Well I won't put your system down. Bose speakers are small, unobtrusive, make great use of your space, and the sound is underated. Everyone likes to jump on the anti-Bose bandwagon, often parroting the mob. They don't know why they hate them, but its safer to be in a crowd that has the same mindset. Yet while they may have fine speakers themselves, rarely are efforts made to get the most out of them.
Now that you've got things up, what're your plans...have your run SPL checks and all that? Gonna do some basic room treatments?

 

[John McDevitt]

what're your plans...have your run SPL checks and all that? Gonna do some basic room treatments?

I've never done any of that kind of stuff, but I'd love to tweak the system just right. Could you point me in the right direction via thread or website? THX!

 

[Mark Fitzsimmons]

To balance speaker SPL I use my Fight Club DVD's THX optimode section and my radio shack SPL meter. Others recommend the Avia or Video Essentialls DVD's which are undoubtedly better and I plan to get, just haven't shelled out the $50 yet.

Balancing is very easy to do, it plays the same tone through all your speakers and you watch the SPL on the meter and set each speaker within your receivers options to 75db. I believe it takes a trained ear to notice if they are balanced or not (unless they are way off) but the peace of mind of knowing your system is operating in spec is nice.

 

[Chu Gai]

well for starters, relax a bit. you'll need to get an SPL meter and either use something like Mark suggested, or the capabilities of your receiver, or even something from a movie. Then just do a bit of reading...http://www.dolby.com/ht/Guide.HomeTh...0110.html#s3.2 like this for now...easy does it...nothing in haste...just get some ideas, then we'll move on

 

[John Garcia]

just haven't shelled out the $50 yet.

Mark, you can get a copy of Sound & Vision Home Theater Tune Up for as little as $12, and I actually find it better than VE for audio calibration. I still use VE for video.

 

[Ned]

The front left and right cubes should be mounted level with the center cube and perhaps 1' out from the edge of the tv sides. Up high might be nice for room filling music but movie panning effects will sound crazy.

 

[Chu Gai]

You realize, that on Bose's site, they have something called 'Room Planner'. It states

Use Room Planner to view any Bose product in any room you choose. You can save rooms to review later and e-mail your layouts to Bose for expert review.

Why don't you give that a try first. You want to get into SoundAdvisor Guide and then you can select Room Planner where you can create your room, putting in dimensions, furniture, all that. It utilizes Flash so on a dial up it might be a little pokey loading and all that. You can save your room layout, and even email Bose with questions/comment/feedback including the balancing of sound as well as your issues with the Acoustimass module.