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April 1, 2009 - 11:58am
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Older Bose system with all 1.2 ohm speakers gone bad
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You've discovered one of the biggest reasons to avoid Bose AT ALL COSTS. Nearly everything that they make is proprietary (or at the very least ass backwards) and when it gets old they don't bother support it any longer. Try finding a Bose "Built Invisible" dealer. That's their name for there current whole home audio systems. Maybe there is enough over lap between you older system and the current one where they can "rig" something up that will kind of work. Sorry you learned the lesson the hard way.
A 1.2 Ohms Speaker and its a Bose not an Apogee? That can't be right.
Well a Krell or a Mark Livingson would be able to drive a 1.2 Ohm speaker.
Bose in the company of Krell and Mark Livingson? That can't be right.
That stuff was trash when it was new, and you are well rid of it. Bose sucks.
Check the KEF website; they have some great stuff for the kind of installation you have (click on "Custom Install/In-wall/ceiling). Get some KEF speakers installed and get some Bryson amplification, and you will be sooooo much better off you won't believe it, and have great long-term support (Bryston has a 20-year warranty on all amplification products, and they have great support people)!!!
What everyone else said.
Just about any place on the web that you ask your question will get you the same response you're getting here.
Bose products are cheaply made and constructed, overpriced and non standard in every way Bose can contrive to be "unique". Don't buy their products and warn others about them. There are lots of other products that are less expensive, use better construction and materials and, sound a lot better.
One further thought...for what it is worth; is 1.2 ohms the impedance of ONE speaker, or is it several speakers hooked in parallel that give that impedance?
For example, six 8 ohm speakers hooked in parallel would be an amplifier load impedance of around 1.2 to 1.4 ohms....
Or, conversely, if each speaker IS 1.2 ohms, then if six of them were hooked in series, this would add up to a 7.2 ohm load for the amplifier.
I think you need to investigate how these puppies are connected relative to the amplifier....
Each Speaker is 1.2 ohms. There are 2 Bose amps model number AM SPBPA and the main front two speakers are hooked to one amp and the back two speakers are hooked to another amp. The center channel is hooked to the back of a Lexicon Model CP-2. They are plugged in and on at all times. I have to unplug them now though because the hum is so bad every time they kick on. I think it is a switch or something internally. Bose does not support them any longer so I am looking for something that will drive 1.2 ohm speakers each without frying the amp. This has all been a huge learning process for me.
Certain amps, if you look carefully at their specifications, have an 8 ohm power rating, then double that power rating for 4 ohms, and then double the 4 ohm power rating at 2 ohms.
Any amp that has that kind of power rating structure will almost certainly drive your load without problems.
The other thing I would do if I were you, however, is wire both left speakers in series to give a 2.4 ohm load, and of course the same for the right speakers. To make sure you have them wired in phase with each other, apply a 1.5 volt C-cell to the speaker leads (after disconnecting from the amp), and observe that both cones either move inward or outward simultaneously when the cell is connected.
Better still would be to get rid of those speakers and replace them, but that does not seem to be on your agenda.