House Pre-wired for Bose, most hardware gone, help!

[balaka2]

Hi All. Poked around this forum and on the internet for the past couple of weeks, and this seems to be the place for audio knowledge. So heres the story...

I moved into a new house a few weeks ago. The house was built for the previous owners with a bose system installed. 5.1 in the family room, two speakers in the dining room, two in the master bed, and two outside. All rooms wired up to the amps in a 2nd floor closet, main control unit in the family room and a secondary unit in the master. Then they got foreclosed on and did us the favor of removing all the hardware except for the outdoor speakers, the sub in the family room and the wiring. Thanks, jerks!

After some research here and around the web, i realized i could buy a receiver (yamaha, onkyo or denon), some ID speakers (The Speaker Company seems like a good deal) and some bose amps to fit into the closet and id be good to go and $5000 less in the hole than re-installing the bose. Sweet! But...

Im not sure what the consequences are to wiring "normal" speakers to a bose acoustimass module. Ive gathered that the module takes care of mid-range frequencies so the teeny bose cube speakers dont fry...so will that prevent a normal speaker (say a PTIW5 from tSc or Polk RC55i) from functioning properly? Or will it just keep the normal speakers from operating to their full capacity? I believe its the second but was hoping you folk with alot more knowledge than me could help.

Removing the module would require cutting a hole in the ceiling or the floor above, so it's definitely low on my list of options. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!!!

 

[BMXTRIX]

Bose designs their gear to be extremely proprietary and completely ignores industry standards in their quest for 'perfection'.

As such, they have developed product after product which just stinks.

Your smallest headache will come by removing the Bose completely from your home. It may take a day to get rid of it, but you may be able to sell it to someone who hasn't read ANY of the Bose reviews and needs the product.

You will want to ensure that they did run decent speaker cabling in your home. I have heard that some systems from Bose don't even use standard speaker cabling which could present an issue.

 

[balaka2]

Well, let me clarify a couple of things. The bass module is up in the ceiling, with the only access to it being a 6" x 2" vent that i can just poke my hand thru and touch the sub. So not only do i have no physical access to the wires that runneth thru it, to remove it i have to carve the aforementioned ceiling or floor.

Secondly, my knowledge of how to wire a home = 0, so im hoping against hope i can avoid that.

 

[zhimbo]

Well, let me clarify a couple of things. The bass module is up in the ceiling, with the only access to it being a 6" x 2" vent that i can just poke my hand thru and touch the sub[sic]

Holy crap.

 

[alexwakelin]

The Bose "bass modules" are not very good to begin with, and it sounds like it's installed in a pretty bad spot as well. You would be better off building a completely new system.

 

[agarwalro]

Balaka2,

It looks like you got a crappy situation to say the least. I say, ignore the Bose Bass Module for now. Pretend it does not exist and create your Main HT running wires outside the walls, along the floors and use the existing wiring for the other zones. Save up some money and then rewire the Main HT and remove the Bose Module.

Take a look at the wiring itself. I would doubt it is of good enough quality. This might help in the rewiring decision.

Any electrician can help you rewire and since there is existing wire that needs to be replaced, the most difficult part, fishing the run, is already done. This might help negociate the cost.

IMHO, while this may be a big investment, it will go a long way in the future. Also, since you control what wire goes in, you can rest assured that it will never the the cause of concern wrt quality, etc.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

That's the first Bose IB system I have ever heard of....

 

[lsiberian]

Hi All. Poked around this forum and on the internet for the past couple of weeks, and this seems to be the place for audio knowledge. So heres the story...

I moved into a new house a few weeks ago. The house was built for the previous owners with a bose system installed. 5.1 in the family room, two speakers in the dining room, two in the master bed, and two outside. All rooms wired up to the amps in a 2nd floor closet, main control unit in the family room and a secondary unit in the master. Then they got foreclosed on and did us the favor of removing all the hardware except for the outdoor speakers, the sub in the family room and the wiring. Thanks, jerks!

After some research here and around the web, i realized i could buy a receiver (yamaha, onkyo or denon), some ID speakers (The Speaker Company seems like a good deal) and some bose amps to fit into the closet and id be good to go and $5000 less in the hole than re-installing the bose. Sweet! But...

Im not sure what the consequences are to wiring "normal" speakers to a bose acoustimass module. Ive gathered that the module takes care of mid-range frequencies so the teeny bose cube speakers dont fry...so will that prevent a normal speaker (say a PTIW5 from tSc or Polk RC55i) from functioning properly? Or will it just keep the normal speakers from operating to their full capacity? I believe its the second but was hoping you folk with alot more knowledge than me could help.

Removing the module would require cutting a hole in the ceiling or the floor above, so it's definitely low on my list of options. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!!!

Because the fact that they ran wire it's not to difficult to use it to snake new wire in it's place. This usually requires a screwdriver. Some good tape and a lot of good 12 or 14 gauge in wall wire. Monoprice or blue jeans cable have good products for cheap. Something to look into.

I would cut the damn speaker out and use it for experiments. But I hate Bose that much. For you I suggest painting over that junk.

I think a TSC system would be nice. A couple of our responders do installs for a living so listen to them they are very helpful and knowledgeable. If they were in my area I would recommend them to all my friends.

 

[lsiberian]

That's the first Bose IB system I have ever heard of....

LOL. Maybe we could replace with an IB driver. .

 

[Davemcc]

Balaka2,

It looks like you got a crappy situation to say the least. I say, ignore the Bose Bass Module for now. Pretend it does not exist and create your Main HT running wires outside the walls, along the floors and use the existing wiring for the other zones. Save up some money and then rewire the Main HT and remove the Bose Module.

Take a look at the wiring itself. I would doubt it is of good enough quality. This might help in the rewiring decision.

Any electrician can help you rewire and since there is existing wire that needs to be replaced, the most difficult part, fishing the run, is already done. This might help negociate the cost.

IMHO, while this may be a big investment, it will go a long way in the future. Also, since you control what wire goes in, you can rest assured that it will never the the cause of concern wrt quality, etc.

This was my first reaction as well. Pretend the Bose doesn't exist. Upon further reflection, we should continue to pretend Bose doesn't exist.

 

[Rickster71]

The bass unit is powered right? So there should be access to the outlet it's plugged into.
Unless this thing wasn't installed to code.
Me thinks the access vent is just an opening for the sound, and not an access to the unit itself. (just a thought)

As for using the old wire to pull in new wires; chances are the wires are stapled and that won't work.
And you wouldn't be able to get the taped wires around corners, not without doing some cutting of sheetrock.