Bose Acoustimass 6 Series V vs Polk Audio TL350 vs M-Audio LX5

[Nebor]

So due to the layout of my new home, I'm going to be turning my second bedroom into a combination office\movie room. Basically, in the front of the room I'll have my desk, with desktop PC & Asus Swift mounted to the wall. And above that I'm going to mount Samsung's newest 65" 4k TV. In an AV stand (formerly in my living room) I'll have my Yamaha RV-677, Xbox One, networking gear, etc.

So the problem is my, old speakers are giant, high end Polk Audio floor speakers in the front, and fairly large surrounds (the 24" tall ones.) I simply will not have room for them here in Hawaii.

My existing office speakers are M-Audio LX5 5.1 Suround studio monitors. These are awesome speakers (and I paid through the nose for them,) and I know they make enough sound to serve as my HT system, BUT I don't think there's any way to hook them up to the RV-677 since they use an amp in the sub to power them. Could I just wire them directly into the Yamaha Receiver, and use my existing Polk 14" powered sub with them? I'm not super knowledgable about audio stuff, so would the Yamaha blow out the M-audio speakers? This solution would be optimal since it would cost me no money, and then I could hook my PC up to the receiver via optical in from my Soundblaster Z, my Xbox One via HDMI and then have the HDMI out go to the Samsung TV.

If that won't work, just tell me which surround in a box set I should get, the Bose or the Polk Audio. They're priced around the same.

 

[DigDog]

i don't feel like committing to this thread but i will venture to say that Bose products will most likely be overpriced.

 

[Nebor]

i don't feel like committing to this thread but i will venture to say that Bose products will most likely be overpriced.

I had some Bose Triport headphones once that seemed pretty good for the money. And I have Bose in my Porsche.

 

[giantpandaman2]

Bose makes good earphones, terrible speakers.

Why not just use the M-Audio sub to power the speakers? You connect the receiver to the M-Audio sub the same as you connect your computer to it. Free and it will work fine. Your receiver only does the source switching then.

If size is a big hurdle, I'd probably get the Take Classic 5.1 or, if you want to move up and use your current sub, the Aperion Intimus series.

 

[Nebor]

Most receivers don't have line level surround analog outs as far as I know. The receivers outputs are from its amp. The M-audio sub is currently fed by 3 headphone jacks from my sound blaster z.

 

[giantpandaman2]

Most receivers don't have line level surround analog outs as far as I know. The receivers outputs are from its amp. The M-audio sub is currently fed by 3 headphone jacks from my sound blaster z.

My Yamaha does. Analog outs are pretty common on receivers. I'd be shocked if yours doesn't. You just may have to have a 3 stereo RCA to mini jack cords.

http://www.monoprice.com/Product?p_id=665

 

[Nebor]

My Yamaha does. Analog outs are pretty common on receivers. I'd be shocked if yours doesn't. You just may have to have a 3 stereo RCA to mini jack cords.

http://www.monoprice.com/Product?p_id=665

On a scale of 1 to 10, how shocked are you?

 

[shortylickens]

Regardless of price, I'd much prefer Polk over Bose.

 

[giantpandaman2]

On a scale of 1 to 10, how shocked are you?

Doh, the Yamaha Aventage 8 series all have pre-outs with surround. Guess the lower end receivers don't get them anymore.

Either get a new receiver/preamp or buy new speakers.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Yeah you can just run the speaker wire from the Yamaha to the M-Audio speakers. It shouldn't overpower them (although if you crank the volume up it might, but doubt you'd need to). Only other concern is if they're a weird low impedance that your receiver can't handle well (most receivers are fine with 4 and 8 ohm speakers), but I'm doubtful that'll be an issue here either. Oh and then the sub Pre-out to that on the M-Audio sub.

You'd be better off doing HDMI out instead of optical/SPDIF from your computer too.

Bose makes good earphones, terrible speakers.

Why not just use the M-Audio sub to power the speakers? You connect the receiver to the M-Audio sub the same as you connect your computer to it. Free and it will work fine. Your receiver only does the source switching then.

If size is a big hurdle, I'd probably get the Take Classic 5.1 or, if you want to move up and use your current sub, the Aperion Intimus series.

They make good noise cancelling headphones (their headphones aren't anything special soundwise though, and very likely would be worse than comparably priced headphones if you don't need the noise cancellation).

And yeah their speakers are bad because the smaller ones rely on the sub to output audio that the sub shouldn't be. That might just be the little cube speakers, but I doubt any of their speakers are special.

In cars Bose is basically just a brand name used largely on meh quality components. They might use some of their technology (noise cancellation, reflecting sounds) but it's not anything particularly noteworthy and other brands do similar. Although I believe some brands that use Bose do have decent quality speakers, it's not really because Bose mandated it though; my Mom's Grand Prix has a Bose system and near as I can tell its biggest pluses are somewhat better speakers and stereo than the base level ones and that they put the tweeters up in the little corner part of the window on the inside of where the side mirrors are, which is hardly some Bose innovation or anything.

 

[tential]

I dunno why you'd think a lower level Yamaha receiver would have preouts. If you want preouts cheap, you go Onkyo. I got the Onkyo TX-709 and it's great. Refurbisehd for $350, I only run the center channel off of it. The rest is amps.

 

[Nebor]

Doh, the Yamaha Aventage 8 series all have pre-outs with surround. Guess the lower end receivers don't get them anymore.

Either get a new receiver/preamp or buy new speakers.

Zounds, what an idea. Give me a minute to determine what some good options might be and I'll edit my post and put them in the thread title. Oh wait, they're already there! There must be some sort of time travel at play here!

 

[Nebor]

Yeah you can just run the speaker wire from the Yamaha to the M-Audio speakers. It shouldn't overpower them (although if you crank the volume up it might, but doubt you'd need to). Only other concern is if they're a weird low impedance that your receiver can't handle well (most receivers are fine with 4 and 8 ohm speakers), but I'm doubtful that'll be an issue here either. Oh and then the sub Pre-out to that on the M-Audio sub.

You'd be better off doing HDMI out instead of optical/SPDIF from your computer too.



They make good noise cancelling headphones (their headphones aren't anything special soundwise though, and very likely would be worse than comparably priced headphones if you don't need the noise cancellation).

And yeah their speakers are bad because the smaller ones rely on the sub to output audio that the sub shouldn't be. That might just be the little cube speakers, but I doubt any of their speakers are special.

In cars Bose is basically just a brand name used largely on meh quality components. They might use some of their technology (noise cancellation, reflecting sounds) but it's not anything particularly noteworthy and other brands do similar. Although I believe some brands that use Bose do have decent quality speakers, it's not really because Bose mandated it though; my Mom's Grand Prix has a Bose system and near as I can tell its biggest pluses are somewhat better speakers and stereo than the base level ones and that they put the tweeters up in the little corner part of the window on the inside of where the side mirrors are, which is hardly some Bose innovation or anything.

The speakers manual says "Input Impedance: 20k ohms balanced, 10k ohms unbalanced" whatever the heck that means. I guess I'll give it a shot and see how it goes.

Can I use HDMI from my GTX 980 for just audio, since my Asus Swift is connected via display port? I assume it's better than optical because of the encoding it can carry? Are most PC games capable of putting out 5.1 sound over optical or HDMI now?

 

[spacejamz]

I dunno why you'd think a lower level Yamaha receiver would have preouts. If you want preouts cheap, you go Onkyo. I got the Onkyo TX-709 and it's great. Refurbisehd for $350, I only run the center channel off of it. The rest is amps.

Has Onkyo improved their reliability on the HDMI boards on their receivers? I had two receivers (RC360 and TXSR605) go bad on me and have sworn to never buy Onkyo again....

And based on what I saw on the internet, I wasn't the only one with this issue...

 

[DigDog]

Bose doesn't make BAD products, they make good products that they sell for too much money.
Also, they are more into "living space" design which, again, they charge for; kind of what B&O does.

Go to your local retailer and talk to them. Bring cookies.

 

[marincounty]

Regardless of price, I'd much prefer Polk over Bose.

Regardless of price, I'd prefer anything over Bose.
And no, Bose is not good quality for too high a price. Bose is is crap for way too high a price.

The definition of a true con is that the mark still thinks they got a good deal. The ego of a Bose buyer won't let them understand that they have been taken.

Remember, friends don't let friends buy Bose.

Look into diy speakers: Madisound, parts express, MCM, meniscus

P.S. Car stereo guru Richard Clarke figured out long ago that car audio tweeters sound better located close to the mid-bass speakers, i.e. located down on the kick panels.

 

[grimed]

Generally Bose is overpriced for what it is. If you can afford about $1600 for the front/ left and center and would go with power and sounds M-110 speakers.
They are getting the most conversation I would say at this time in the AVS forums.
You should get a sub too but you can build one fairly easy and save a lot of money.
Or just get 2 of the M-110s build or buy your sub and then get the rest when you can afford it.

This may sound expensive but if you look at the DIY tempest speaker it is close to the same cost. And you have to build it yourself. Many don't have the skill, tools, space or time to do that. Your front set is the most important part of the HT sub being included.

 

[MongGrel]

Bose doesn't make BAD products, they make good products that they sell for too much money.
Also, they are more into "living space" design which, again, they charge for; kind of what B&O does.

Go to your local retailer and talk to them. Bring cookies.

+1

Sounds like you have money to blow but you're living wait out on the island there, I used too.

If going Bose might look into some old classic 901's with some others and customize it a bit.

 

[Nebor]

Generally Bose is overpriced for what it is. If you can afford about $1600 for the front/ left and center and would go with power and sounds M-110 speakers.
They are getting the most conversation I would say at this time in the AVS forums.
You should get a sub too but you can build one fairly easy and save a lot of money.
Or just get 2 of the M-110s build or buy your sub and then get the rest when you can afford it.

This may sound expensive but if you look at the DIY tempest speaker it is close to the same cost. And you have to build it yourself. Many don't have the skill, tools, space or time to do that. Your front set is the most important part of the HT sub being included.

Those speakers are even larger than my M-Audio LX4 speakers. If I'm going to buy something new, they're going to be small, like the ones I listed in the OP. The form is far more important to me than the sound quality.

 

[gar655]

Those speakers are even larger than my M-Audio LX4 speakers. If I'm going to buy something new, they're going to be small, like the ones I listed in the OP. The form is far more important to me than the sound quality.

Get these-

http://www.svsound.com/systems/prime-systems/prime-satellite-5-1

Or just the speakers. The sub will no doubt be better than any polk sub.

Or get 4 NHT SuperZeros and the Super Center or a 5th SuperZero if you have room for an upright center.

Maybe the super ones for left and right and the zeros for surrounds.

http://www.nhthifi.com/High-End-Audio-Super-Series

Or 4 of these and the matching center
http://emptek.com/r5bi.php

 

[Nebor]

So I ran an LFE RCA cable to the M-Audio sub's LFE input and used an adapter (that I was previously using to go from RCA -> 1/2" jack from the sound card's headphone jack.) Then I wired the M-audio speakers directly to the receiver, and ran an HDMI cable from my GTX980 to the Yamaha receiver. It all worked with no issues. So I ordered some bookshelf speaker wall mounts from Amazon for $75 and I'm just going to stick with the M-Audio LX4 for now.

 

[DigDog]

just curious, what kind of sound are you looking for? (loud? colorful? reference? extra bass?)

 

[HeXen]

I wonder how many people here just repeat what they have read on the internet over the years without every actually experiencing ?
My favorite so far was the guy here a few years back who hated W8, bashed it over and over and inadvertently mentioned in response to a discussion about how he never used it. Cracks me up.

I think people do the same things in regards to discussions of Bose. Sorry but those open store demo's aren't going to do any audio system justice nor does that 10yr old improperly placed, never tuned system your friend of a friend's g/f has in their awkwardly sized living room either.
Either you bought one and have a system to compare it to or you don't but everyone's tastes in audio will differ.

 

[fuzzymath10]

I'm surprised the v677 lost the analog in and out. I have the 667 and they are definitely there. The non-North American version also had a phono input with the necessary preamp but we instead got the option for satellite radio (a lame trade).

 

[darkswordsman17]

The speakers manual says "Input Impedance: 20k ohms balanced, 10k ohms unbalanced" whatever the heck that means. I guess I'll give it a shot and see how it goes.

Can I use HDMI from my GTX 980 for just audio, since my Asus Swift is connected via display port? I assume it's better than optical because of the encoding it can carry? Are most PC games capable of putting out 5.1 sound over optical or HDMI now?

That's for the inputs not the amp/speakers.

Yeah. It depends if you want to do any of the Creative audio processing. The benefit of HDMI is that you can pass through lossless surround (like from Blu-Rays). If you don't need to do that then you can use optical/SPDIF from your card or motherboard or whatever. Yeah most games now feature their own audio processing and you'd set it in game.

So I ran an LFE RCA cable to the M-Audio sub's LFE input and used an adapter (that I was previously using to go from RCA -> 1/2" jack from the sound card's headphone jack.) Then I wired the M-audio speakers directly to the receiver, and ran an HDMI cable from my GTX980 to the Yamaha receiver. It all worked with no issues. So I ordered some bookshelf speaker wall mounts from Amazon for $75 and I'm just going to stick with the M-Audio LX4 for now.

Good to hear you got it working fine.

I wonder how many people here just repeat what they have read on the internet over the years without every actually experiencing ?
My favorite so far was the guy here a few years back who hated W8, bashed it over and over and inadvertently mentioned in response to a discussion about how he never used it. Cracks me up.

I think people do the same things in regards to discussions of Bose. Sorry but those open store demo's aren't going to do any audio system justice nor does that 10yr old improperly placed, never tuned system your friend of a friend's g/f has in their awkwardly sized living room either.
Either you bought one and have a system to compare it to or you don't but everyone's tastes in audio will differ.

Sorry but that is BS. Bose's stuff just plain measure poorly. Even their headphones often do. Their headphones are great at noise cancelling but sound subpar otherwise (not even just subpar for the price either). Their in ears fair a bit better IIRC.

Their speakers are a joke. Maybe they finally updated them, but their little cube speakers were a total ripoff. Little paper drivers and a crappy sub (that didn't hit particularly low, probably because it had to be outputting voices and serve as a center channel as well) for like $1000. A not spectacular computer system like the Logitech Z-5500s had better sound, I believe more processing capabilities, and wasn't much if any larger, for far less money.

Bose is almost entirely gimmicks. Even their "good" speaker, the 901 was largely a gimmick (just put as many drivers in the housing and face most of them towards the wall so the sound gets reflected, and then they've essentially based most of their other audio equipment on that). Their noise cancelling is good, basically the best in consumer gear, so if you have a need for that then they'd be worth it. Personally I'd prefer spending that money on a noise isolation and better sound like on custom IEMs.

Their headphones are comfortable but kinda cheaply made. The one model was very prone to breaking because they just used a single thin plastic piece for the headband that would snap in half from normal use. To be fair they did give free replacements, but I'm guessing their prices reflected the fact that they expected they'd be replacing headphones for just about everyone with that model.

Personally the times I heard Bose headphones I thought they sound just wrong. And they pretty much do, noise cancelling (which inherently makes things sound off) or not. See InnerFidelity. You aren't buying Bose headphones for good audio fidelity, you're buying them because they're either the only premium brand you know (or you don't want something as gaudy as Beats), or you actually need the noise cancellation (which is fine, they excel for use when traveling, especially on planes).