Bose speakers question?

Question

Is it possible or has anyone been able to unplug the 5.1 Bose speakers from the power subwoofer and plug it directly to the receiver and get another, more powerful subwoofer (one from Polk audio)?

Answer 1

Basically yes, you can plug them to high power receiver and get more powerful subs ( if you want ultimate power / SPL, try earthquake 15", have 1 or 2 of them and they'll shake your entire house, and maybe your neighbor's too ).
The problem is bose satellites only perform well at 200Hz and up, while most HT subs works below 100Hz, and work best below 50 Hz. So you have a frequency gap (no sound) between them.
Another problem is because the Bose drivers is very small (3" or 2.5") and have very low power handling (about 12 Watt max), you'll blow them apart with high power receiver without proper crossover setting (which placed in their bass module).
The best match for Bose satellites is their companion bass module.
Add 12"-15" subs for more earth shaking bass, but keep the bass module.
The best way - scrap your entire system and buy a new serious system. Bose systems are just "lifestyle" compact system. None sound good by professional standard. I have the lifestyle 48 (yes, the most expensive one) and end up only use them for family dinner's background music.
I use genelec system for my HT now. They sound fantastic

Answer 2

I believe that the woofer (it is certainly NOT a subwoofer) contains the amplifier for the speakers. The receiver has only line-level output, which cannot be used to drive teh speakers directly.

If you wanted to use another woofer, you would need to use another amplifier as well. But, you can't really get a 5-channel amp at a low price.

On a completely different note, an interesting Bose read:
http://www.intellexual.net/bose.html

-Dave

Answer 3

The cubes have a low impedance and only handle high frequencies. So you do not want to plug them into anything other than the Bose system it came as.

Answer 4

yes, but that new receiver is going to put out about 100 watts per channel. while your bose sub is going to put out less then 50. so in other words, you might blow your speakers. but it is possible.