I recently bought a new TV. I was putting up with dreadful sound out of the back because I thought I was going to make suitable speakers. I had my Quad 405 and pre-amp on standby. After paying to much money for the cables and optical to phono converters. I was ready to go. Except for one thing, I wasn't finding time to build my speakers. My idea wasn't surround sound, which is quite unreal to me, but just stereo with sub. By chance somewhere distant I wandered into a Bose shop, had a look around and a chat and listened to the larger of the Acoustamas setups. Anyway I decided to buy it.
The reason I'm writing this is to say that the system is very impressive. I never thought that I would be saying this about a Bose product. Because although they have had their place and served the Audio world well, the sound was never real and dynamic enough for me. However with a slight tweeking on the quad front end, the sound is very impressive. The bass is the most impressive which comes from 2 6.5 speakers. Our TV is placed in the corner of the room the set of sats sit on top of a TV cabinet and the sub is behind facing upwards into the corner of the room.
At my age listening to big systems is sometimes a worry because you never know whether you're getting everything. However, I can hear low notes from this totally coherent system that I probably wouldn't hear from a large system. The same goes for Hi Fi, suppose. The lows are warm and even. This is the best TV sound I've ever had. Isn't it a pity that we can't really get the same effect out of big systems.
I have thought about looking into the sub and making a 2x18 version, but I would need Bose knowhow regarding the cone speakers.
Anyway, If you don't have a special setup for the Tele, I would recommend having a listen to this system. I'm well impressed.

Them bose speakers are very cool. A friend of mine has has one of their surround sound systems and was impressed upon hearing the big sound coming from those tiny satelites . I was even more impressed with sub.5.1 is cool for movies but I also prefer a 2.1 for music .
Its no small feat having a system which sounds good with movies and music alike and the Bose systems does this very well.
Enjoy your new system Tony .

haven't heard the lastet acoustimass, but on previous systems , fisrt reaction was: "where's the low mid????" It was poor, no definition. I know some people that ware impressed with bass on this system, but if no low mids...

I guess it depends what sats are used. I believe there is a choice of two sizes. I went for the bigger ones. The small ones did sound thin by comparison. I also have a very good amp on the system, which also helps.
It is also important to ensure that the sub blends with the tops, this relies on getting the distance right between them. I've heard a few setups where the sub is too far away from everything and you can hear the separation. At this point, it is also out of time.
I'm still happy with mine, which is really a surprise to me, because I am very critical about sound and not easily pleased.

how does the drum roll on Eastenders sound?

Bose plays a trick on you, it sounds good when you first hear/get it, then when you've had it for a while you want to throw things at it.............................<Eastenders drum roll>

@Narinda, what HIFI tube amp is that in your Avtar?

Mike, I guess we all get used to our own systems at which point they can sound quite normal, I suppose that's the reason why there are so many wonderful discos still doing the weddings.

Hi Tony

The acoustimass sub is an 8th order bandpass enclosure, as sketched on this site somewhere (Jake drew the diagrams a while back).

I remember thinking, when I saw one of these, that the phasing ought to be all over the place because of all the resonances. But I was told that it is not, and when I did the maths I discovered that if aligned correctly, it doesn't have to be.

Since then I've designed several 8th-order subs for PA. My current S15 cabs are close to 8th order (more like a hybrid 6th). And the controversial MIGHTY DUB PASS is in fact an 8th order bandpass based on a single 18". If you look inside your Bose, and compare with the diagrams, you should be able to match the chambers and ports 1:1 between them.

In scaling up to PA, the biggest problem for me is that it's hard to get them to work well above 100Hz. They want to be true subs that operate with equally large upper-bass or full-range boxes. I think in home cinema the mid-bass range is less important (maybe because in home cinema the physicality mostly comes from sub, wheras with live music the physicallity is in midbass and/or sub).

I've got some decent results with the S750/TY. S750 goes higher than most bandpasses due to the hybrid aspect. And I overlap in-phase with the TY, which gives the impression of midbass when there isn't really a midbass cabinet there. But it's still a compromise. Something like S750/HD15/TY would be needed if kick was important.

Hoping to bring them out to a meet some time...