Which modern AV Receiver with legacy Bose subwoofer ?

[Explorer12gs]

Hi,

I'd like to ask you for an advice.
I have just moved to new flat and my cousin left me brand new never ever used but quite old Bose acoustimass 5 series 3 speaker system. (passive subwoofer and satellites)

I have never had home cinema system so an idea come to my mind that I might have it now easily adding proper AV Receiver 5.1 and whatever is required to that Bose acoustimass system, but it seems not that trivial for amateur to figure out which modern AV Receiver systems available now will work well with that legacy subwoofer and which for any technical reasons will not work at all.

I do not need anything fancy, just to watch movies (netflix, etc), in regular average size living room, be able to listen to music have access by wifi, bluetooth etc.

I do not want to spend lots of money for AV Receiver, subwoofer, speakers altogether.
Ideally would be to buy now good quality 5.1 AV Receiver which will allow me use for now that Bose legacy passive subwoofer and speakers and later on upgrade to better quality subwoofer and speakers.

My questions are:

1) Is that worth at all to use that Bose acoustimass 5 series 3 subwoofer and speakers ( i know that Bose are not best choice, but i have them for free) ? or it's better to forget them, sell them, etc, and buy current models from any good quality brand ?

2) If I will decide to keep that Bose set what good quality 5.1 AV Receiver would you recommend ? My budget for now is about 700$/600£ but i'm flexible.

Regards
Exp.

 

[-Jim-]

Hi Explorer,

Welcome to the Site. My experience with Bose was a short one. Ages ago my wife (along with her girlfriends) was enthralled with the size of the small satellite cube speakers and I said I'd take a look at them. Eventually she bought the acoustimass 5 series for my Christmas present. I hooked them up and was instantly disappointed with the overall sound and found the Sub not effective - just muddy. (I returned the system 2 days later.) If I were you, I'd politely pass on the "free" Bose Sub.

By the way, it's a passive Sub - which means it has no amplifier, unlike 99% of today's subs, and integrating it into a typical home theater set up it not easily accomplished; as you loose the bass management capability in most modern receivers. IMHO you'd be better off looking for used equipment to fit your budget.

Sorry if my answer is disappointing.

 

[Explorer12gs]

Wow ..that was quick to get response on that forum !
Thank you.

Well, i was expecting that it might make no sense to use them, just felt sorry to see them brand new, never used, maybe someone was not happy with quality and forgot to return them. i will check if it is possible to connect them to my PC at least.

Regards
Exp

 

[lovinthehd]

While you are fine with connecting this system to a standard receiver using the high level or speaker level output from your avr to the bass module (it's not a subwoofer, it's a an amp/bass module combo that the satellites connect to), and it would be an okay load on your avr accordingly. This Bose system is very limited in proper frequency response and I'd look for better components for the long run.....but for free why not. Here's the manual