bose sub, any good??

[budgetaudio6]

that CC sounds much more promising...But wire that bose speaker in series with small speakers. Perhaps with that ccenter channel.

 

[aidynphoenix]

..
i took a listen.. sounded horrible.. like a pillow was in front of it..
found out the tweeter wasent making noise.. opened it up.. found out the coil got disconnected from one of the connectors.. some carefull soldering and its working again..

however there is some kind of brown grease around the VC.. thought maybe this was a berilium tweeter.. scared the $%*! out of me.. looked up some more about this and cant find anything about beryllium tweeters.. guess im ok.. phew!!

 

[jamesm007]

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.

Ive been around a long time in this hobby and you can take it to the bank. Your not picturing the right system. Here is the system I had and yes it could waste a 12" woofer because it has two peaks one at the upper ~60hz and one at the lower end ~30hz this 6th order loading in a big enclosure seriously reduced cone excursion of the 8" driver a lot, a whole lot. Hearing is believing. Have you ever pushed the speakers below with a 150wpc amp and compared? I have :thmbsp: I speak from decades of experience with so many speakers I really don't remember all of them at one time.

This was a decent size tower and the woofer had lots of room, yes an enclosure like this will beat a 12" vented woofer in the same size enclosure in having less trade offs, the Bose can keep the cake and eat it too in this design (almost) It had punch, deep extension, high output (due to the cone hardly moving) and low distortion because these ports filtered high order harmonic distortion. Punch it into any online calculator that can do this type of enclosure and see what you can do with an 8" woofer. You did not know Bose made speakers like this(?) is what I am thinking.

It was reviewed by Stereo Review back in 1989 and the woofer has outstandingly low distortion and extension to 35hz (flat) and could take the peak power of their amp with no bottoming of the coil. According to Bose Techs I talked to getting a replacement cap, it was better than the 901. Its still considered by many even today their finest speaker made; although I can't say that for a fact.

BTW re-reading your comment... the Bose system did not need an equalizer for the low end, only the smaller systems did as most subs today do. This full range speaker as I said has two peaks and needed no boost to shake the room at 30hz cleanly. And the boost in the smaller systems was small, a vented speaker has one peak, the acoustimass system loads both sides of the driver for two peaks one high one low, and of course it reduces cone excursion a lot... Because all the output comes out of ports the upper harmonics are filtered out, this was the secret the let you place the sub (in the 3 piece systems) anyplace and not be able to locate it even with its highish crossover; If a sub emits just a tiny bit of harmonic distortion high enough for you to hear, you will be able to localize the sub. If you here anything from the ports its a mechanical problem with the driver or other problem in the system. When it works right no audio distortion is heard.

 

[isaeagle4031]

Sorry but no. Yes the bose has 2 peaks, its in a 6th order parallel tuned BP. Take some real measurements and see what it does. Bose again used a marketing tool! I've been at this hobby for some time as well and have auditioned bose systems as well as many others (even going so far as all of the bose room treatments etc). Even the system showed above can not compete with a 12" driver properly loaded into a ported enclosure. The suspension of this 8" driver was not that great to start. Remember you are still comparing the Sd of a smaller driver to a larger one. It can only go so far! While excursion is controlled, the driver has almost none to start! While the bose you mentioned needed 2 large cabinets and 2 woofers, in comparison my 12 needed only 1 and only 1 cabinet that is roughly the same size! Also look at the bose you showed, is the woofer/midrange able to dig down to the 60Hz range you mentioned? More than likely not as the volume behind it is just too small, so the freq is probably higher on the 6th order side or they just left out a bit of a whole between them. See the flip side of a 6OBP is that output drops quite rapidly above and below the port freqs.
Also while these of course have no amp, other bose amplified systems or eqd systems apply generous amounts of boost in the lower registers to compensate for what isn't there to begin with starts a whole nother can of worms


To the OP glad you also got a CC out of the deal. If you can build some small satellites, it could mean for a small bedroom system or such.

 

[jamesm007]

I dug for awhile and found my Stereo Review, review of them. They were -5dB at 35hz. I always measured speakers, I had Bass Mechanic CDs (PC software was big $$$ back then) and a Radio Shack sound level meter. They were flat at my listening position to 35hz. Considering the ports face the back and room reinforcement it pretty much is in agreement with stereo review. I did not remember the 8" drivers range right. I am not trying to deceive as I had a choice not to post this copy of the review that shows me wrong in some areas (my memory - this review was 21 years ago!). They fell at 18db an octave below 35hz. So with room enforcement they would be useful at around 25hz (but just); as I measured, The midrange really went into the woofers range 130hz (port 140hz). The key is the low distortion. With it this low you can imagine with a 150wpc receiver it did beat my JBL CF120s (for deep bass extension) and equalled my brothers PF15tl to 35hz. And they hit hard, real hard. Like it was a 12" woofer. My speaker with two 8" drivers would smack the back. One of my vented speaker with a 12" driver smacked the back. My system now is Definitive Technologies BP10s and surrounds with a PF18TL sub. And I would still love to have them back (I sold them 10 years ago) as they were a neat fun speaker that did as Bose claimed. Me and my brother 10 years ago bought and sold more speakers than I can remember for years! (the BP10 settled my quest as they are wonderful to me) here is the review. The impedance peaks show it was tuned to 110 and 30hz. This means at 30hz or 35hz the woofer was not even moving (well very little) with 150watts in them... that's the truth.

To the OP Bose systems are good if you listened with an open mind. Your sub although not like the one above working properly will give distortion free bass and satisfying volume down to about 45hz. Its really not bad. That is if everything is working properly. I would just save it for a future project with satellites as stated above. There are reviews of the system if you dig and you can find the proper crossover. Or measure how high it goes with no roll off.

 

[JimPA]

What kind of spl's at 1 meter did you get out of curiousity. I measure a lot, for comparing my favotie cd's. The reviews in early 90's were terrible for the cube speakers frequency response with the bass module using 5" subwoofer. I believe Gefco made their 8" drivers for some models.

 

[jamesm007]

What kind of spl's at 1 meter did you get out of curiousity. I measure a lot, for comparing my favotie cd's. The reviews in early 90's were terrible for the cube speakers frequency response with the bass module using 5" subwoofer. I believe Gefco made their 8" drivers for some models.

Yes the bass drivers in these appeared to be the same as in the 301 book shelf, at least they looked the same. And the sub and midrange were the same drivers (had the same part numbers on them) Bose really knows how to save a penny but...

For bass I honestly don't remember I would be just guessing. The best I can do is compare. With almost 200 watts of power the 10.2 IIs hit as hard as the Mach Ones (4029) and was very impressive at around 40Hz-30Hz only one speaker exceeded it at those Hz and power, the JBL CF150s (crazy loud). The SPL would for sure be over 110dB.



Yes most Bose speakers are musical, but... I would never have anything to do with them but this one; if your seeking hi-end sound (the others sound nice) but pass. This one was a winner. OK I know high end sound. The Mach Ones nope, the JBLs (nope), the Bose 3 piece systems nope, the Bose bookshelf systems nope, Advents (any) nope (large close), Bose 901 nope (sorry IMO), KEFs yep, Paradigm studio yep, the high end sound is very smooth and flat through the midrange, they have a clean open sound... These Bose speakers had that sound, you could compare them with Paradigm Studio speakers in smoothness, they would not win but would not be blown away in sound quality they could hold their own; considering the drivers I was always to this day like "how did they do it":scratch2: . Look at the review its response was very good in the very important 200Hz-2000Hz region with good dispersion. I don't know how they did it with those cheap drivers but they did. And to top it off the speaker had unreal clean bass to 35Hz, your amp would clip before they gave out. This was IMO and some folks at Bose IMO, Bose best speaker ever.

My friend came over to hear them, and the first thing he said was "they have that sound". He was saying the high end sound.

I am really hyping them up, I know... but these are one of those speakers that stand out in your memory. If anyone has a chance to hear them do so. You may like them and get a great deal on high-end sound IMO (no sub needed). Remember there are two version of the 10.2 from Bose. Only the second version 10.2 series II has the acoustimass bass system and was much better overall than the first. Always hunt for the series II, if interested.

 

[classic carl]

It's not a subwoofer. Bose doesn't even call it a subwoofer. They call it a "bass module".
A good friend of mine has an $1100 Acoustimass system and it doesn't sound very good IMO. He has it in the same room as a Klipsch 5.1 system and has them set up so that he can A/B them with the flip of a switch. There is no comparison. The Klipsch are bookshelf size speakers with a real subwoofer. The Bose are those little cube sized boxes. I cringe when he turns on the Bose system.

 

[whoaru99]

..
i took a listen.. sounded horrible.. like a pillow was in front of it..
found out the tweeter wasent making noise.. opened it up.. found out the coil got disconnected from one of the connectors.. some carefull soldering and its working again..

however there is some kind of brown grease around the VC.. thought maybe this was a berilium tweeter.. scared the $%*! out of me.. looked up some more about this and cant find anything about beryllium tweeters.. guess im ok.. phew!!

The brown juice is likely ferrofluid for cooling the tweeter voice coil. I don't believe Paradigm used beryllium tweets until more recent versions of their high end Signature series.

Anyway, beryllium isn't particularly dangerous unless you somehow vaporize it and inhale the fumes, or perhaps inhale fine particles of it say from airborne beryllium dust.

 

[budgetaudio6]

wonder if those paradigm tweeters will trickle down soon?

 

[whoaru99]

My guess is no, at least not until they come up with something they think is even better for their TOTL speaker lineup. Of course, you probably could buy them from Paradigm parts...for a hefty fee.

 

[aidynphoenix]

The brown juice is likely ferrofluid for cooling the tweeter voice coil. I don't believe Paradigm used beryllium tweets until more recent versions of their high end Signature series.

Anyway, beryllium isn't particularly dangerous unless you somehow vaporize it and inhale the fumes, or perhaps inhale fine particles of it say from airborne beryllium dust.

tyvm.. thats good to know.. dont wanna keel over beause i was poking my screwdriver in the wrong places