Bose CineMate 2.1 Anyone?

[MegalosSkylaki]

Just how good is it?

I've heard it in BestBuy store, but this positions it in a huge space, so not a fair test.

Also, it's often displayed alongside a $1,000 home Theater box and I wonder if it's (the more expensive unit) is given a better sounding "source Material" to justify its higher cost.

The Accustomass module has only a single L - R RCA stereo input - no digital.

The reason for this, presumable, is that the system has its own algorithim to process sound to mimic 4.1 Surround, so it needs to start out with a relatively unprocessed sound source, that isn't already in 5.1.

MegalosSkylaki


Bose CineMate Home Theater Speaker System – 2.1 Channel - Home Theater Speaker Systems

[Bizkitkid2001]

Rule of thumb for me.


Stay away from Bose.


Seriously, $500 for a 2.1 system? Yeah, I bet it sounds good, probably about as good as a $200 system from another company

[MegalosSkylaki]

Rule of thumb for me.


Stay away from Bose.


Seriously, $500 for a 2.1 system? Yeah, I bet it sounds good, probably about as good as a $200 system from another company

Yeah..High priced.

But I ordered it for $120 less and no shipping or tax, something I coudn't avoid from a local store.

Yeah, fit of dopeyness, but I needed to replace an Altec Lansing simulated Surround Sound 4-driver sound bar plus subwoofer i had for, well since Mercada was still in business --like 15 years. Cable box to DVD/VCR to Sound Bar.subwoofer and also to HDTV.

What didn't occur to me and I bought BOSE CineMate in a hurry was that input had to be plain Jane stereo L+R RCA, not SP/DIF digital. It is a big convenience to be able to turn on HDTV and not have to turn on AVReceiver plus 5.1 speaker system to watch the weather report or "news" or X-File re-runs.

.Still, Iwas thinking it an alternative to replacing.e an old PioneerVSX DTS/Dolby Digital Receiver with a modern AV receiver, one that has like 4 X HDMI input and one HDMI output so all HDMI componants feed into the AV receiver,......Have modest KLH 5.1 speaker system

DOOG should have given another look after all these years to Pioneer receiver: it has both coaxial and optical digital INput. HDTV has Optical digital OUTput. Hence, HDTV to old AV Receiver to 5.1 speakers !. While not all the frills (e.g. Digital HD Dolby etc..), will do.

Ain't modern AV wiring and cableing Funn?

So wither goes BOSE CineMate 2.1 which simulates 5.1 sound? Have to run it through Cable set top box to get the stereo RCA connecters to Bose unit. Still in transit. 40 lbs.

MegalosSkylaki

[MegalosSkylaki]

Will refuse Delivery.
For all the Multitudes interested!

DOOOOG

[Bizkitkid2001]

Well, using RCA connections won't produce a surround sound signal for the seakers to even replicate, so you are really spending $400 to get speakers that say will simulate 5.1 but can't because of your source.


Also, I was reading some reviews on the Bose speakers above, and a lot of people were complaning about the subwoofer not being loud at all and there is no adjustment knob to make the subwoofer louder.

[osprey4]

BOSE = "buy other sound equipment"

If they spent a fraction of their marketing budget on actual engineering, perhaps things would be different.

[MegalosSkylaki]

Well, using RCA connections won't produce a surround sound signal for the seakers to even replicate, so you are really spending $400 to get speakers that say will simulate 5.1 but can't because of your source.


Also, I was reading some reviews on the Bose speakers above, and a lot of people were complaning about the subwoofer not being loud at all and there is no adjustment knob to make the subwoofer louder.

Nah, actually it would appear that using L+R stereo RCA connectors would be the only way for it to work--or such. The job of devices like this is not to replicate surround sound from its source but to "create" it, even when it was not originally there.

Problem is many sources are already in "surround sound". So the job of these drivers is to create a sound image out that sounds like that created with a 5.1 source and 5.1 speakers -- but using only a subwoofer and two side speakers. The way it does this is to take the original source, dumb it down to a simpler stereo image, and then apply an algorithm to mimic the acoustic effect of surround sound. Many HDTV speakers claim to already do some version of this and advertise SRS WOW sound or such.

If you've ever listened to an HDTV's sound system and also the output of such a device, you'll hear just how "conflicted" it sounds. That's because two separate algorithms are being applied to the same source sound. It's necessary to turn off the TV's own sound system to use these devices. Again, their purpose is to create the proverbial "silk purse out of a sow's ear".

This not what worried me and most of the complaints have to do with a simple problem, which, unfortunately, BOSE does not make clear in its advertising. I ordered this on very short notice because I wanted not only the cheaper price but also the "free" shipping on a 40 lb. package.

Many modern TVs --and mine doesn't --don't have a L+R RCA Output audio connector. So it would be necessary to run it from another device, either a DVD/VCR or the Cable STB. Since these devices don't have the array of inputs that an Audio Receiver has, it would not be possible to hook things up so that several components benefit from the common enhanced sound that the BOSE device provides. Ironically, they don't need to because they already are usually able to produce 5.1 sound by themselves. They only need 5.1 speaker system to take advantage of it, after amplification.

That's the rub. If you are going to run everything through an audio receiver, why not just use the audio receiver with proper speakers and get true surround sound? That's in fact what I plan to do.

The reason people --and even highly intelligent DooGs like myself -- get something like the BOSE CineMate is the convenience of just plugging in the TV set to a single device and letting it do the work. BOSE advertise "four connections" This is misleading. Many people interpret this to mean "four connectors or inputs.” In fact it has only one --the L+R RCA input. What BOSE means is that only four connecting wires --which it provides -- are needed. My AltecLansing sound bar (4-drivers) plus Subwoofer has both an analog (green stereo input) and a coaxial digital input. My HDTV has a Fiber Optical output. This combo precludes its intended use as a simple TV plug in. So I refused the Delivery when it came.

MegalosSkylaki

[MegalosSkylaki]

BOSE = "buy other sound equipment"

If they spent a fraction of their marketing budget on actual engineering, perhaps things would be different.

Ever notice how they don't tell you the price of their WAVE table radio.
Only that you can make 8 easy payments!

MegalosSkylaki

"Prestige Pricing" ?