7.1 Receiver with Bose 5.1 Speakers

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By: Bill (Kearny, NJ)

Can I hook up my Bose 5.1 channel speaker system to a 7.1 channel receiver and still have the same quality?

Thanks for taking the time to help me out here.


Hi

I’m not completely clear what you are asking here, but I’ll give you an answer anyway!

I’m assuming you are talking about something like the Acoustimass 16 Series 5.1 speaker system, which allows a connection from an AV receiver to the subwoofer module – and this then connects to the surround speakers.

Well yes, a 7.1 AV receiver will be fine to use with this type of speaker system. You will just connect the center, front left/right, surround left/right and subwoofer speakers as normal, and you will leave the two extra rear left/right speaker outputs disconnected.

When you set up your receiver, it will detect you only have 5.1 speakers connected and will operate as a 5.1 receiver.

You could always buy two extra satellite speakers similar to the Bose ones, and have 7.1 surround sound – you just connect these speakers directly to the receiver rather than via the Bose module.

Hope that has answered your question.

All the best.

Paul (Site Editor)

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Bose 5.1 to 7.1
by: alex

hi, I was asking myself the same question. I have a bose 5.1 system and I would like to make it into a 7.1.

You said you had to connect the extra speakers to the 7.1 receiver, but on the Bose subwoofer you have inputs for all the speakers too, what about that??

thanks

Bose and 7.1 sound
by: Paul (Site Editor)

Hi

Yes, if your Bose module has connections for 7.1 speakers, then you can connect everything to the Bose from the AV receiver.

The model I looked at only had connections for a 6.1 system, so it would have been better to leave this at 5.1 and use the AV receiver for the other two.

All the best.

Paul

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About The Author

Paul started the Home Cinema Guide to help less-experienced users get the most out of today's audio-visual technology. He has been a sound, lighting and audio-visual engineer for around 20 years. At home, he has spent more time than is probably healthy installing, configuring, testing, de-rigging, fixing, tweaking, re-installing again (and sometimes using) various pieces of hi-fi and home cinema equipment. You can find out more here.

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