I recently purchased a second hand BOSE AV38 home theatre system and I couldn't be happier! Although being new to BOSE, when I bought it, I didn´t know that such system would require the setup DVDs and special headset to set everything up, which the seller didn´t have (he said he´ll try to find them for me, but I´m already aiming for plan B... :-/).
Could anyone suggest what would be the best way to try to get a hold of the DVDs and headset, or what other ways are there to setup the system correctly? The only setups that I found so far are to choose between 2, 3 and 5 speakers, and to lower or increase the volume of the surrounds or centre speakers. I counld´t find any volume for the base either or different settings for different types of sounds...
I just downloaded the manual and I´m going to have a read tonight, but if anyone has any tips, suggestions or ideas, I would be most grateful!
Thanks for posting and welcome to the Community! Congratulations on your purchase 😊.
The best way to obtain any parts that you may require for your system would be to reach out to us via this link here and head to the Contact Us page.
The AV38 console is featured with three different Lifestyle 38 systems. If you could please let us know exactly which version you have, this will allow us to provide you with a way to adjust the level of bass for your system if this is possible.
We look forward to hearing back from you with further information.
Thanks for your reply! I managed to find some other audio setups, but now, after receiving my Toslink optical audio cable and connecting my TV to the AV38, I encountered other issues...
My main issue now is that I don´t think the AV38, thorugh the Toslink cable, is recognising any 5.1 surround signals from the TV, even though in the AV38 green screen, it says: DOLBY DIGITAL 5.1. This happens specifically with Netflix: I am watching a series that´s on HD 5.1, the system reads in the green screen DOLBY DIGITAL 5.1, but only the 2 front speakers are sounding, no centre or surround ones. And I know they´re connected alright as they sound with other sources, but in saying that, I´m not too sure if the sound is true 5.1 when its coming out.
I searched for a 5.1 sound test on YouTube, but everything coming from YouTube, even though the signal might come out in 5.1, the AV38 green screen reads DOLBY DIGITAL 2.0. There´s a music HD video that I have streamed from YouTube, and it sounds perfectly in all speakers, but the green screen still says DOLBY DIGITAL 2.0.
Do you know if there´s anything that I´m doing wrong or anything that I haven´t setup correctly? My AV38 came with the 4 double cube speakers, the centre speaker plus the subwoofer which is a PS38 Powered Speaker System. I am not too sure about the year of manufacture though, but when I use the TV screen to setup bass and treble and other configurations, the screen image looks like it could very well be a pre 2000 model. :-0
It's really odd that it is showing Dolby Digital 5.1 but only playing out of the front 2 speakers. When watching Netflix are you doing this from an app on the TV, or is this being played from an external streaming device? It's possible that the audio format being used when on Netflix is not actually a supported 5.1 format like the console thinks. The console can support Dolby Digital, DTS, and PCM, so if your device running Netflix is trying to use a different audio format to these it would not work correctly. I'd definitely recommend checking the sound/audio settings on the device running Netflix to check this!
With the 5.1 tests on YouTube, not much content on YouTube actually uses a 5.1 format, and often the YouTube app will not output in 5.1 even if it does, so using this as a test is not always the best approach. I'd recommend testing with a DVD that has 5.1 audio, as this will be processed by the console only, and not rely on audio formats from the TV or other devices.
Thanks for your reply! After researching a bit more, I ended up finding out that TOSLINK optical cable actually doesn´t support or can´t carry Dolby ATMOS 5.1, which is what Netflix is using as audio format now! ;-( I think it has to do with the capacity or data that optical can carry, which I´m guessing its not enough to be able to carry the Dolby ATMOS 5.1 signal. Have you come across this issue before by any chance? I came across a HDMI to Optical audio converter, but I´m not too sure if this converter could do the trick of decomposing the Dolby ATMOS 5.1 signal and then feeding it through the optical cable. Have you ever used one of these converters? Otherwise, I am afraid I´m going to have to change the AV38 for another model or brand that supports HDMI, although I don´t want to do this as I just got it and I do want to keep everything BOSE.