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bose sub, any good??

aidynphoenix

aidynphoenix

Super Member
fixed a neighbors computer.. he comes over to pick it up today. brings over some items he found at a house he is moving in to..
one of which is a Bose-Acoustimass 3 series II subwoofer..
looks good condition, opened it up to check the surround.. still good :thmbsp:
 

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It is not a Subwoofer, thats why they call it a "Acoustimass" You may be able to find use for it but whats funny is Bose speakers that go with that go down to like 280hz and the "woofer" goes to 200hz, wheres the missing 80hz?
At any rate maybe you will find a use for it.
BTW just for informations sake Bose specs are +- 10.5 db, thats just silly!
 
so this woofer plays up to 200hz? wouldent that mean its a sub???
anything under 1000hz is a sub right??
so its pretty worthless without the matching speakers huh?
 
anything under 1000hz is a sub right??
Click to expand...

absolutely not! its a matter of opinion , but "subwoofers" produce anywhere
from 20hz up to 150hz(imho , the highest freq a sub should produce)
 
Call it what you want, but it's not a subwoofer. It's a woofer that has little usable response below 50Hz and a bumpy ride above that.
A good sub will reach down to the bottom octave around 30Hz or lower and without a hump in it's response.
 
aidynphoenix said:
so this woofer plays up to 200hz? wouldent that mean its a sub???
anything under 1000hz is a sub right??
so its pretty worthless without the matching speakers huh?
Click to expand...

Subs should not play that high so IMO (and Bose) its not called a sub woofer, plus its also not a "sub woofer" because its the only woofer, you gotta have one somewhere else before you can have a sub woofer.
 
Ive got a pair of dvc sherwood sp 155w mid woofer boxes. I call them those because they play past sub territory. Above 150hurtz, heck they play midrange quite well.

Sherwood markets them as sub modules.
 
aidynphoenix said:
fixed a neighbors computer.. he comes over to pick it up today. brings over some items he found at a house he is moving in to..
one of which is a Bose-Acoustimass 3 series II subwoofer..
looks good condition, opened it up to check the surround.. still good :thmbsp:
Click to expand...

Don't get no respect ...

I have had a couple (well me and my brother) different Bose systems. The 10.2 series II with its Acoustimass will waste 12" woofers vented in big boxes. If you can find the Stereo Review for the II series it will say the following. The speakers was very smooth +/- 3dB 35hz - 20khz. And listening confirmed it had that high-end sound. The bass had no distortion as it was coming from two ports that filtered harmonic type distortion. The output was rock hard, and I mean real solid, there is no way on earth a 8" driver should be able to do what it did. It sounded like a 12" driver with a small mid-bass peak and tons of punch, but also with an extended bottom end that was clean down to about 30hz at room shaking volume. The tweeters were regular cones, it used nothing special. I don't know how Bose does it. But for some like me, they have a nice sound and are very functional in the room. At least some models.

Any of the bass modules are worth something IMO.

I believe your free sub goes down to 40hz clean and loud, that's not bad and may be useful for something. Really I think it goes lower but can't find any written data. At the very least you could make one heck of a PC speaker system out of it.
 
thx guys.. i hooked it up.. it sounds alright.. not a whole lot of sound.. and yea doesent really move alot of air.
it has a crossover inside.. i opened it up (when i checked the surround)
when i really give it some volume.. it makes a breathing noise.. not sure if that means i am pushing it too hard,, or if there is something in one of the ports..
its a good looking little woofer though. its between 4" and 6" big.. dual voicecoil..
might make ok sound if it were in a tiny room... bathroom or car sub.. :D
50w x2 so guess 50w peak per voicecoil??
i googled it.. amazing how small the speakers in this set are...
so if i were to use some little speakers with this i should find some that go down somewhere around 200hz?
ty.
 
How in the world anyone can possibly say that the acoustimas could "waste" a 12" sub ported or sealed is beyond mean. Physics are physics and the Bose really does not do anything special here. The box is designed to give more boost at around 50-60 Hz (what many consider "low" bass and the amp provides a boost in order to do that. The driver (I can't MAKE myself call it a subwoofer) runs out of steam fairly quickly, but loud enough for the average listener. The x-over point is much too high and localized to be considered a subwoofer as well (200-250Hz I believe). There is much stereo info at this point. Its design allows a shallow roll-off that helps it to blend in with the other speaks that are rolled off naturally around 280Hz. The missing Hz here is balanced somewhat by the shallow x-overs.

I have listened to the bose systems and honestly the only point I can concede to them is their size. Compared to my generic 12" sub in a down-firing custom cabinet and 150w, crossed at 85Hz @12db/oct (WOW real stats) to DIY cheapies (5.25" Goldwoods and .75" tweets) 150Hz @ 6db/oct, the bose were sent packing.

I really don't mean to hate on the Bose as they have developed some interesting ideas, but the vast majority have been marketing ploys and manipulations of stats that the average consumer does not understand.

To the OP: Play with it, see if you can make anything out of it! Examine the heck out of it and maybe even form an idea or two about how to actually make it into a real "subwoofer" Hint: It will require making much larger enclosure and tuning it at actual sub type freqs.
 
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The low power output and cheap speaker connectors speak volumes about the quality of this unit. There is an excellent Bose sub, if you can find it. It's called a Bass Cannon. A 12 ft. long tube with a high quality 12 in. driver at one end. Used mainly in movie theatres.
 
sealy said:
The low power output and cheap speaker connectors speak volumes about the quality of this unit. There is an excellent Bose sub, if you can find it. It's called a Bass Cannon. A 12 ft. long tube with a high quality 12 in. driver at one end. Used mainly in movie theatres.
Click to expand...

hehe that sounds like a fun toy :D
 
Try tapped horn then! The bass canon does OK, but runs out of steam quickly in the lower registers. Compared to a 6' tall tapped horn, the bass cannon ends up sounding like a pea shooter!
 
that's why bose is targeted towards the general people who don't want a big footprint and ok sound ( not everyone wants, or knows about audiophile sound) most people haven't heard about the brands that are mentioned on here, and wouldn't go out of their way to learn about them
 
The Bose woofer systems (notice I didn't say, subwoofer) are actually just a cabinet designed so that the woofers inside will produce sound between 2 frequencies. The cabinet, then, is just a band-pass filter for the drivers inside. The ports are designed so that the end frequencies of this band-pass filter form the upper and lower ends of that band of frequencies.

You can put your hand over the ports while its running and the sound will go to almost zero. Prattle all you might about whether this is actually a woofer system or not. The fact is that it provides sufficient bass that meets the needs of many non-discerning folks. They spend $$ on gear, too, you know.

BTW, I purchased one of the early AM-5 systems back in the 80s. They did quite well in the living room for almost 10 years and met the family's requirements. Me? Well, I had my vintage Marantz and Advents in the office for real audio work.

Just keep those 2 things separate and we can talk about the Acoustimass systems all day long.

Cheers,

David
 
About 10 years ago I found A buyout of Bose drivers at Martin Sound in Ohio .4$ for 6.5" woofers. 25 cents for Tonnegan tweeters and 3.95$ for Sony cube 2.5". I used the 6.5' in t-lines good for AM Radio. The cube drivers are good table radio speakers.
 

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well before this thread dies out..
i also got a centerchannel from the guy...
its a paradigm cc-70 v.2
anybody know anything about this one :D
 
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