Six Bose 191 ceiling speakers... how do I hook these up? (1 Viewer)

[krash999]

We just moved into a new home and found the master bedroom and living room are wired with six Bose ceiling speakers, three in the front of the room by the TV and three in the back. I can't make out how to best utilize six speakers. I've setup surround sound 5.1 before but the only thing I can think of is the previous owner had two center (one in the front and one rear center. If so, how do I connect these to a receiver or amp with only one center connection?

Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks!

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Curious speaker arrangement. Typically a rear center channel is only used in 7.1 arrangements. I’d suggest simply doing a standard 5-speaker arrangement and not use the rear center at all.

Better yet, ditch the front speakers and get regular ones. In-ceiling speakers are “worse case” for the front three speakers. You can’t expect much from speakers firing severely off-axis at the floor. To get an idea of what I’m talking about, next time you’re at a “big box” store, check out how much different – and better – one of the speakers sound when you’re directly below it vs. several feet away.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[Al.Anderson]

My first guess is that it's a 6.1 arrangement: front left, front right, center, L/R surround, and one rear. It's not very common anymore, but was a standard 3rd option a few years back. Just for grins I checked the lowest line Yamaha and it supports 6.1. Having the surrounds and rear in a straight line is not ideal, but then, as Wayne mentions, having ceiling speakers is not ideal; so the original owner may not have cared.

Second guess is they installed them in a mirror fashion so they could swap where the TV goes.

The OP's idea is not bad guess either. If you want to have a front and rear center you'd connect them is series to the one center channel. So Rcvr-R to Cntr1-R, Cntr1-L to Cntr2-R, Cntr2-L to Rcvr-L. That will decrease the power/volume available on the center channel, but not damage the receiver (if you connected them in parallel, you could damage the receiver, or at least cause it to shut down). Since the center will have reduced power when you do the system calibration it'll probably reduce the dignal to all the speakers to keep it level. You may not care than much for a ceiling set -up.