Need some help here? I have a Denon AVR-1602 5.1, 1970 Advent (25'' X 14" two way) fronts and am using the Bose Acoustimass 3 speakers for the rear set. What I want to do is remover the crossover from the sub cabinet, disable the subwoofer and buy another sub hooking directly to the receiver. I have some questions regarding this operation and need some help. I am a software engineer and know little of the hardware so please, no formulas.
1. I will remove the crossover from the cabinet and remove the sub so I can keep the cub operation, do I have to terminate the wires with a resister or can I leave the circuit open and insolate the ends?
2. I know that Bose doesn't publish their specs on the hardware so if indeed I can perform the above operation, what frequency range sub will work the best. Based on browsing this site I will need at least an 8" sub.
I hate to sound rude here but why not just get rid of all the Bose speakers (sell it as is) altogether? This would open up many more options that would greatly improve your system.
Pat, why don't you just discard the Bose module and use the Denon's LFE output to the new sub? The Denon's crossover system is perfectly capable of handling bass management.
Q - Why don't I unload the Bose speakers? A - Well to tell you the truth, the rear speakers were installed on the ceiling with cube brackets and I really don't want to shop for new ones and then have to patch the ceiling.
Q - Why do you need to perform surgery on the Bose bass module? A -- I want to use the crossover for the cubes and get rid of the base module enclosure. That way I will purchase a separate subwoofer and connect to the amplifier. That being said, do I have to terminate the wires with a resister or can I leave the circuit open and insolate the ends?
Seems to me that installing better speakers with a subwoofer would be a whole lot less work but more importantly result in much better sounding results.
By the way, any self powered subwoofer is going to have a built in crossover so there really is no surgery necessary.
I think that Pat wants to use the Bose cross over because he thinks he has to in order for the Bose satellites to work correctly. Pat you don't need the cross over, those Bose speakers will work fine plugged directly into your receiver.
"Pat you don't need the cross over, those Bose speakers will work fine plugged directly into your receiver."
As I said earlier concerning the sub, the same thing applies to the surround sound allocation in the Denon receiver. There is nothing magical or special about the Bose "cube" speakers, except maybe the mystical hold over certain people susceptible to brilliant corporate marketing strategies.
Thanks everyone. I will take your advice and connect the cubes directly to the receiver and see happens. I thought that the crossover was used so the smaller speakers would not carry a frequency that would compromise the sound or cause a problem/failure. By the way, I just purchased a 50W 10" Polk subwoofer to get some base when watching movies. The room is small and I think that wattage should be sufficient. I ordered it online so it will take some time to get here.