WB South

Last week we discussed the advantages and disadvantages of moving your Bose system to your new home. For those that decide to move your system to your new home, here are a couple of important points. For a home theater system, be sure you have the Bose console/receiver, bass module/woofer, and the 5 speakers. For the wall-mounted speakers, be sure to remove the speaker wall brackets. Note once you remove the brackets, there will be 4 small screw holes and a wire hole that wil

We are often asked, ”Can My Bose system be removed and moved to my new home”? The answer is yes but I always suggest the Bose system be sold with the home either as a sales incentive or at an additional cost. Homes will often sell quicker if advertised with the built in Bose Home entertainment system. There are 2 good reasons to sell the system with the home. First, leaving the system avoids the resulting repair to the walls where the speakers are located. Even with surface

Many of our clients are taking advantage of our trade up program and are replacing their old Bose Lifestyle system with one of the newer Bose Lifestyle systems. The 1stquestion we are often asked, “ Can I use my existing brackets and wiring”. The answer is simple, it depends on what system you are trading up to. If you are trading up to the Lifestyle 600 system, we can use your existing brackets and wiring. If you are upgrading to the Bose IN wall BIV Home Theater system, b

Clients often inquire if they need the most expensive HDMI cables. For the majority of people, the answer is no. Unless you have one of the new 8K TV’s, an expensive HDMI cable will not improve your picture quality. Standard 2.0 HDMI cables will transmit 4K HDR signals. If you do have a new 8K TV, a new 2.1 HDMI cable is needed. As with all audio video systems, the final result is equal to the weakest component. For example, if you have the best speakers and the best audio so

After the cable or satellite company installs a new box, there is a very common problem, great picture but no sound from your Bose Home Theater sound system. The conversation usually goes something like this, “the cable guy said it has a great picture, must be a sound problem, call your Bose guy”. The reason this happens is that the cable company most likely connected the new cable box directly to the TV, completely by passing the Bose system. To confirm this, depending on t

If you have recently changed your cable box and now your Bose Home Theater doesn’t sound as good as the old cable box, there is probably as quick fix. Cable boxes allow you to select the audio output format. The choices are usually mono, 2.1 stereo, and 5.1 surround sound. Be sure you cable box is set to 5.1 surround sound. To check your audio setting, using your cable remote, go to the settings menu and choose “Audio Options”. Next select “audio output”. Finally, select ”5

Many clients have purchased new electronics such as Apple TV, Roku, or 4K DVD players and can’t connect these new devices to their older Bose systems. The issue is most of these new components including new cable or satellite boxes, only have HDMI outputs and older Bose systems have no HDMI inputs. There is a possible work around to solve this problem. First check and see if your TV has enough HDMI inputs to connect your new components directly to your TV. Next, confirm that

Many homes are designed today with Great Rooms that open to the Kitchen. Because of this, many clients are using motion TV brackets, either swing or articulating arms, that allows the TV to be directed towards multiple viewing areas. Using motion TV brackets with Soundbars usually creates an audio problem; the TV is directed towards the viewer but the sound remains stationary. A British company, SoundXtra has solved this problem. They are now offering a bracket that fastens d

During a consultation, our client wanted to know if he needed to start with a Bose Home Theater system in order to add outdoor speakers. The answer is no. In the past, the answer would have been different. A Bose Lifestyle Home Theater system was required to add additional zones using Boselink to connect the various zones. With today’s Bose Wi-Fi streaming Soundtouch platform and SA-5 amplifiers, each zone operates independently and connects with other zones using the Bose

During In Home Consultations, the question that always comes up is what is the difference between the Bose Home Theater systems? Simply put, the only difference is the speakers and the resulting sound quality. To re-cap, Bose offers three 5.1 home theater surround systems, Lifestyle 600, Lifestyle BIV, and the Lifestyle 650. Please note, the Lifestyle BIV system is only available through Bose certified dealers. With all three systems, the Bose console and powered bass speak

Two clients with older Bose Lifestyle systems called this week with the error message “Bass Module Not Found”. Three things normally cause this error message, the bass module is defective, the Bose cable is disconnected, or there is no power to the bass module. To determine if your bass module is defective, confirm the bass module is properly connected to a working electrical outlet. To confirm the outlet is working, plug in a lamp or another device to the electrical outlet.

Due to unfortunate circumstances, there are times when our clients need to file an insurance claim for their A/V system. First, unless it’s a total loss, have a professional A/V company determine and write a report for what and what is not in good working order. Although some equipment may appear to be in good working order, unless tested, there is no way to know if your system is working properly. When selecting the A/V Company, confirm beforehand, the company is willing to

Everyone’s preferred sound is different, some like a natural sound; others want the bass to shake the house. After our installers run Adapt IQ, which adjusts the Bose Lifestyle system, based your room’s acoustic characteristics, clients often ask our installers how to increase the bass. This can be done in 2 ways. First for minor adjustments, you can increase the bass output though your remote control. First select the More button, AV settings, and then bass. From here, you c

Many people are upgrading their older Bose Lifestyle Home Theater systems to the new Lifestyle 600, 650, and BIV systems to take advantage of some of the new great features such as Soundtouch streaming music and 4K video capabilities. There are 3 important things everyone should know regarding installing the new system. First, the 5 speaker wires that are currently connected to the bass speaker will need to be relocated to the rear of the new system console. The home theater

With our current Super Bowl Home Theater Special taking place, clients are asking should I use a projector system or large screen TV display? With the advent of large TV displays, this is a real consideration. I believe the decision should be based on how the display is going to be used and what are you trying to create. If your goal is a larger display for everyday use, the large TV is the better choice for multiple reasons such as lighting and ease of use. If you are tryi

Clients have asked what is the difference between Bose Soundtouch speakers and Bose Smart speakers. There are a couple of significant differences to consider when selecting between the two product lines. The first is the Alexa control. With the Smart speaker products, Alexa control is built into the product. With the Soundtouch products, control is through an external Alexa device using the Bose Alexa skill set. The 2ndconsideration, a larger one, is the number of available S

Last week we reviewed how to connect your new smart TV to your newer Bose system. This week, we would like to review connecting your new smart TV to an older CD/DVD based Bose Home Theater system. With these older systems, your video components connected to the various inputs of your TV and the audio are connected directly to the Bose system. The simplest method to connect your new TV to the Bose system is to connect your various components directly to the HDMI inputs of you

During the holiday season, many of our clients will be purchasing new smart TV’s and will be asking is my new TV compatible with my Bose system and how do I connect it to my Bose system. The new smart TV’s are compatible with most Bose systems. How you connect the new TV depends on which Bose system you have. If you have one of the newer Bose Home Theater systems with Soundtouch streaming, your video components are connected directly to your Bose system’s console/receiver and

Having installed Bose systems for the past 30 years, we often get calls from past clients, asking if their older Bose systems can still be repaired. Bose still offers factory repair service on many of their older systems. However due to the availability of certain replacement parts, some older systems can no longer be repaired. Starting with the Bose V-20 system, originally released around 2007 and newer, these systems can still receive Bose factory service. Systems manufactu

Many of our clients have older Bose systems that had in-ceiling/in-floor bass speakers. These systems were known as Bose BIV systems and were often sold through homebuilders for new construction homes. These systems are now 20-25 years old and are starting to experience issues with the CD based Media Centers and amplifier, TA series. Since the TA amplifiers and CD based Media Centers are no longer manufactured and cannot be repaired due to lack of parts, clients are asking i