Ugh.

The semi-wealthy older men of the area I live in have fully bought into Bose (even my father in law). I've gone into several homes to help them with their home theaters, and had to work with these damn "acoustimass" (I really hate that word) systems. Most of the time, I just sigh and live with it, but this time I'm trying to help out someone with a setup that's weird even for Bose.

Up front, he has three sets of those double-cube things on the wall for L/C/R. Those are all wired into an "acoustimass" (ugh) on the floor, and the wires all go back to a standard receiver. I was surprised to see that they didn't go back from that point to one of their proprietary "lifestyle" units, but that's how it was set up.

The trouble seems to start when there are other wires going into the wall and disappearing, and reappearing (I believe) at a plate in the back of the room, emerging, and going into a second "acoustimass" (*shudder*), going back out into the wall again, presumably to connect to the two speakers mounted on the back wall acting as the satellites.

*Phew!* That was far more than I've ever wanted to talk about a stupid Bose setup.

The problem is that I can't get anything out of these rear speakers, so I'm not sure what to do now. Ideally, I'd remove these "acoustimass" (I give up) units and wire the speakers directly to the receiver (along with a traditional sub), but I've been reading up and it sounds like Bose makes these speakers to be 4 and sometimes 2 ohms, which I assume would not be good for your standard Sony receiver like this guy has.

What do I do? Push as hard as I can to get this guy to replace every part of this stupid Bose system, instead installing normal effing speakers? Can I work with the speakers I have? Has anyone heard of a Bose configuration like this? Is it basically just fudging a 5.1 system by cobbling together a 3.1 and a 2.1 system?

"acoustimass"


ps- In true Bose fashion, it seems like every bit of wire running through this guy's setup is the thinnest gauge you could think of. Looks like ethernet stranded pairs back there...

*edit*

I forgot one of the things I was going to ask. I have this basic toner and probe kit. In the past, I've been able to use the red and black leads to send a tone to a speaker (useful for quickly figuring out which of the wires in the box is left, right, or center). But I wasn't able to get a tone to generate on these Bose speakers. Is that because of the impedance? Something else?

Perhaps the wires you think are going to the back speakers are not the ones you think they are.

A toner does not need a load connected to work. Disconnect the rear speakers and use the toner and sensor to figure out what goes where, wiring wise.

Yeah, I'll do that on my next visit. I just thought it was strange that nothing was coming out of them. The problem could be somewhere else, I guess.

BTW, what's the best way to splice speaker wire together to create a longer run? Just twist and wrap with electrical tape?

At the very least twist and solder, then wrap with tape. Better yet, bullet connectors or similar.

tanstaafl.

Do you have a small speaker or two you can bring along to test without the acoustimass thingy?

-jk

If future disconnection is not required then crimp type butt connectors can be used.

I favor the heat activated butt connectors which internally self solder the joint and have heat activated adhesive sealant which seals the insulation to the connector shell. Waterproof, reliable wire connections. I use these on marine wiring which requires high tolerance to moisture and corrosion.

Careful use of a lighter or compact flame torch makes quick work of heating and sealing the connection after crimping.

This is the solder and seal version

These are heat sealed but do not have the self solder feature.

So far as your description leads me to believe, the installer tried to be clever and merge together a 3.1 system (front) with a 2.1 system (rear). It seems that job one is to construct a wiring diagram of this poor fellow's setup.

If I had to hazard a guess, one of the wire runs flaked out or got damaged, and you'll end up offering your client a variety of choices, ranging from re-pulling wires, to "normal" speakers that a standard amp can drive, to some sort of soundbar (as my parents have ultimately done).

Meta: these posts that you put up about your travails remind me a bit of the NYTimes column where they present you a medical case mystery. Readers write in with their interpretation, and then the result is finally unveiled.

Haha, glad to offer some mystery I apologize for using you guys as a resource. It's just so tempting when I have some a wealth of knowledge here!

I do have some fun stories from my years of doing this kind of work. I also have some mildly depressing ones, like the email I received from a client today. Here's the gist: I got a message on my computer saying I needed to call this number, so I did. I let them into my computer and they showed me all these problems. They said I should sign up for ongoing support from them, which I negotiated down to $450.

I'm going out to her home on Monday morning to remove whatever stuff these vultures put on her computer.


Anyway, I think the combo 3.1/2.1 system is correct. It's also stupid. I don't know why anyone installs one of these things. Most receivers aren't going to understand this wiring setup. As far as it thinks, there is no sub in this system.

I'm going to be very uncool here and say I don't understand all the Bose hate.

I've had several Bose products over the years, always sounded great and worked well. I currently have a 2.1 Acoustimass system for my office setup connected to my Mac Pro.

The acoustimass system is largely designed for someone with no clue to install themselves. So a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing

The super thin speaker cables have always bothered my though. I swapped them out once, couldn't tell at all.

Sounds to me like someone has tried and failed to be cleaver with this system. I would tone back from the speaker end, disconnect everything at the receiver end and see if the tone is coming up on something un expected, sounds like a wiring fault to me.

Edit - You should also be able to use the Tone and probe to see if one of the pair has been cut along the route, it was very very handy when I used to work in Telecoms!

Cheers

Cris

Perhaps you need a sticker placed on the monitors of such clients, reminding them that they already have a trustworthy guy for computer support!

Honestly, I would do my best to lock down such (naive?) clients machines so they could not allow remote access from untrusted third parties without your involvement/permission. Or get them off Windows entirely...