BOSE Acousstimass 10 series II

Posted by Ernest [IP: 196.34.250.5] on August 28, 1999 at 20:02:08
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In Reply to: BOSE Acousstimass 10 series II posted by Edaurdo Maspero on August 25, 1999 at 17:47:07:

Hi Eduardo

I personally have a problem recommending the Acoustimass 10 series II and it is not because of the sound or that there might be better sounding systems in that price bracket. If you like the asthetics of the Acoutimass system and prepared to spend an extra $800 or so, you should rather purchase two pairs of Acoustimass 5 Series III and spend about $550 on a decent centre channel. The CC speaker is the hardest working channel with DD and DTS material and you will not regret investing the extra bucks. The B&W CDM-CSE is a good example in this price category and is excellent for music and dialogue.

The reason why I recommend two pairs of Acoustimass 5s, is that the cubes have a LF extension of about 250Hz and anything below that is produced by the bass module. Now if the 10's bass module is placed up front, the sound between your rear satellites and the bass module is not well integrated. This is not so noticable with the front satillites because the HF and LF appears to come from the same proximity. Another issue with the Acoustimass 10 is that the rear satellites have an effective lower power rating than the front satellites, due to its separate single woofer in the bass module. There are 3 woofers in the Acoustimass 10's bass module, one for the rears and two for the main. The single woofer for the rear satellites accounts for the poor bass that many people have commented. With two sets of Acoustimass 5s you do not have this problem.

The limited response of the centre cube is also one of the reasons why the Acoustimass 10 system does not fair well against other systems. Bose tried to address this problem by introducing the VCS-10 centre channel speaker, but I have not heard any good comments about it and I do not think it is one of those lets slate Bose comments. One owner even upgraded to a B&W CC6 centre, which I do not think is that good and he was raving what a big improvement it made.

My last comment is that you still need a separate active subwoofer to fully enjoy DD or DTS material. Sound levels to the LFE channel are normally louder than LF that is designated to the other 5 channels. That is why when any of the 5 channel's LF is routed to the sub, the balance is too loud for music when it is correct for special effects or when it is right for music, it is not gut wrenching for special effects.

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