Bose ACOUSTIMASS 16 II, ACOUSTIMASS 15 SERIES III User Manual
The Bose® Acoustimass® 15 Series II and Acoustimass 16
Home Entertainment Speaker Systems
Owner’s Guide
Safety Information
WARNING: To reduce the risk of fire or electric shock, do not expose the powered
Acoustimass
®
module to rain or moisture.
CAUTION: To prevent electric shock, match wide blade of plug to wide slot, insert fully.
CAUTION
RISK OF ELECTRICAL SHOCK
DO NOT OPEN
CAUTION: TO REDUCE THE RISK OF ELECTRIC SHOCK,
DO NOT REMOVE COVER (OR BACK).
NO USER-SERVICABLE PARTS INSIDE.
REFER SERVICING TO QUALIFIED PERSONNEL.
RISQUE DE CHOC ÉLECTRIQUE
ATTENTION : AFIN DE RÉDUIRE LE RISQUE DE CHOC ÉLECTRIQUE,
NE PAS RETIRER LE CAPOT DE L’APPAREIL (ou son panneau arrière).
IL N’EXISTE À L’INTERIEUR DE CET ÉQUIPEMENT AUCUN ÉLÉMENT
OU SOUS-ENSEMBLE POUVANT ÊTRE DEP ANNÉ PAR L’UTILISATEUR.
LA MAINTENANCE DOIT ÊTRE RÉALISÉE PAR UN PERSONNEL QUALIFIÉ.
AVIS
NE PAS OUVRIR
These CAUTION marks may be located on the Acoustimass module:
The lightning flash with arrowhead symbol, within an equilateral triangle, is intended
to alert the user to the presence of uninsulated dangerous voltage within the system
enclosure that may be of sufficient magnitude to constitute a risk of electric shock.
The exclamation point within an equilateral triangle, a s marked on the system, is
intended to alert the user to the presence of important operating and maintenance
instructions in thi s owner’s guide.
Additional safety information
See the additional safe ty informat ion on the Imp ortant Safety Instructio ns page encl osed with
your speaker system.
Please read this owner’s guide
Please take the time to follow this owner’s guide carefully. It will help you set up and operate
your system properly, and enjoy all of its advanced features. Please save your owner’s guide
for future reference.
CAUTION: No naked flame sources, such as lighted candles, should be placed on the
apparatus.
For your records
The system serial number is located on the bottom of the Acoustimass module.
Serial number: ________________________________________________________
Dealer name: ____________________________ _____________________________
Dealer phone: ____________________ Purchase date ____________________
Please keep your sales receipt and warranty card together with this owner’s guide.
©2002 Bose Corporation. No part of this work may be reproduced, modified, distributed or otherwise used without
prior written permission.
Manufactured under license from Dolby Laboratories. “Dolby” and the double-D symbol are trademarks of Dolby
Laboratories. Confidential Unpublished Works. ©1992-1997 Dolby Laboratories. All rights reserved.
2
Where to find…
Setting Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Using your system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Contents
Before you begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Unpacking the carton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Placing your speakers to achieve realistic home theater sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Front center cube speaker array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Front left and right cube speaker arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Rear cube speaker arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Powered Acoustimass® module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Connecting the speakers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Connecting front cube speaker arrays to the Acoustimass module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Connecting rear cube speaker arrays to the Acoustimass module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Connecting the Acoustimass module to the receiver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Checking the connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Connecting the Acoustimass module to power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Upgrading your Acoustimass 15 Series II speaker system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
For realistic home theater sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Adjusting the LFE level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Adjusting the bass/room compensation level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Setting your digital surround sound receiver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Be sure to get the digital audio signal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Setting your analog surround sound receiver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Customer service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Cleaning the speakers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Technical information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Warranty period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Accessories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3
Setting Up
Before you begin
We appreciate your choice of the Bose® Acoustimass® 15 series II or Acoustimass 16 home
entertainment speaker system.
Bose Virtually Invisible® speaker technology allows you to enjoy lifelike home performances
from the very latest surround-sound encoded movies, CDs, and television shows, without a
room full of speakers. The cube speaker arrays, along with the powered Acoustimass mod
ule, repro duce t he full- spectrum of sou nd fr om mult i-cha nnel dig ital pr ogrammi ng. Int egrated
Signal Processing assures full bass performance from all channels at all listening levels,
regardless of your receiver settings.
Your stereo VCR, st er eo televi sion, or DVD player s ends the en coded pr og ram materi al to the
surround-sound receiver, which interprets and distributes the information to the powered
Acoustimass module. The module delivers the bass for all channels and sends appropriate
sounds to each cube speaker array. The sound mix varies with different program types: dia
logue is usually sent to the center cube speaker array, a visual soundstage is created by the
left and right front cube speaker arrays, and you feel as if you are in the center of the action
because sounds and s pecial ef fects a re di rect ed to the r ear cu be speaker arrays. At an y point
in a surround-sound performance, you may hear sound from one, a few, or all of the cube
speaker arrays.
To select surround-encoded program material, look for the terms Surround, Dolby Surround,
the double-D symbol
ing a TV broadcast. Your system is compatible with home theater receivers. You can also
enjoy a wide variety of stereo programming that is not su rround-encoded.
3, Dolby Digital 1, other digital formats, or the wor d “surround” preced-
-
-
Unpacking the carton
WARNING: The powered Acoustimass module weighs 33 pounds (15 kg). Use good lifting
practice to avoid injury.
WARNING: To avoid danger of suffocation, keep the plastic bags that wrap these speakers
out of the reach of children.
Note: This product is not to be powered by any DC-to-AC inverters that may be found in auto-
mobiles, recreational vehicles, boats, ships, or other similar situat ions.
Carefully unpack the carton contents (Figure 1):
1. Remove the brown inner carton containing the cube speaker arrays.
2. Gently roll the carton over onto its side.
3. Slowly pull the Acoustimass module from the carton .
4. Stand the module up.
If the cube speaker arrays or the module appear damaged, do not use them. Repack every-
thing in the original carton and contact your authorized Bose dealer immediately. Or, to con-
tact Bose direct ly, see th e list of offices and phone numbers enclosed with your system.
Note: Now is a good time to record the serial number of these speakers on page 2 of this
guide and on your warranty card. Please save all packing materials for possible future use.
4
Figure 1
Carton contents
Setting Up
20-ft (6.1m) system input cable
Three 20-ft (6.1m) front speaker cables
Powered Acoustimass®
module
With Acoustimass 15 Series II system With Acoustimass 16 system
Five cube speaker arrays
Two 50-ft (15.2m) rear speaker cables
USA/Canada Europe UK/Singapore Australia
Rubber feet for front center
cube speaker array
Six cube speaker arrays
Three 50-ft (15.2m) rear speaker cables
Power cord (1)
Placing your speakers to achieve realistic home th eater sound
A suggested home theater layout is shown in Figure 2. You may want to place the speakers
differently to take advantage of the sound characteristics of different rooms. Here are some
suggested guidelines for placing your speaker system:
• The cube speaker arrays are identical and can be used for any channel.
• All cube speaker arrays are magnetically shielded to prevent interference with a TV picture.
• The top and bottom sections of the cube speaker arrays can be rotated to create
room-filling sound patterns (Figure 3).
•Bose® wall brackets and floo r stands can extend your placement options. See “Accessories” on page 17. Please follow wall bracket instructions carefully. Proper mounting will
ensure optimum performance and safety from your system.
Note: The Acoustimass 15 Series II may be upgraded by adding a center rear cube speaker
array. See “Upgrading your Acoustimass 15 Series II speaker system” on page 12.
5
Setting Up
Figure 2
Suggested home theater layouts
Figure 3
Sound patterns
For Acoustimass® 15 Series II For Acoustimass 16
2 - 5 m
L
0.6 m+
C
R
LR
RR
2 - 5 m
L
0.6 m+
C
R
LR
CR
RR
CAUTION: To prevent interference, keep the Acoustimass module at least 2þfeetþ(.6m) from
your TV set.
For Acoustimass 15 Series II For Acoustimass 16
Front center cube speaker array
The front center cube speaker array localizes action and dialogue on your screen. Sound
should seem to come from within the picture.
• Place the front center cube speaker array above, below, or on top of your television. If
below, be sure that it is not supporting the weight of the television in any way .
• Keep the front cube speaker array as close to the vertical center of the screen as possible,
for the most accurate dialogue reproduction.
CAUTION: Choose a stable and level surface for your cube speaker arrays. Vibration can
cause them to move, particularly on smooth surfaces like marble, glass, or highly polished
wood. If you are placing the center cube speaker array on top of your television, use the set of
four rubber feet provided. You may obtain additional rubber feet (part number 178321-04), free
of charge, by contacting Bose
your system.
®
Customer Service. See the list of phone numbers included with
6
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