Bose Acoustimass 6 + Onkyo 609 - Bass levels

[MajorTomG]

I recently bought an Onkyo 609 receiver and a Bose Acoustimass 6 iii 5.1 speaker package for my flat. My living room isn't the biggest but I've managed to get the satellites and bass unit set-up in good, even positions. I live in a large loft conversion in a tall Georgian house and I'm not sure how much if any proper noise insulation is in the floor between me and my neighbours downstairs. My problem is the bass.

The microphone based auto setup correctly detects all of my speakers and the bass unit, and when left on those settings the sound is excellent. It fills the room brilliantly and if I had no neighbours downstairs I'd leave it at that. The bass is strong and clear but out of courtesy, I need to turn it down. Unfortunately, the bass unit cannot be turned right off. The level controls on the unit (bass,lfe) only go a certain way but can never cut out completely. They don't go low enough.

The auto set up sets all speakers to a crossover of 40hz (obviously these little cubes can't handle that but the bass unit handles crossover before the signal is passed to the speakers). Would adjusting this setting give me more control over the bass? With a low crossover, turning the sub down a few decibels on the amp has little effect as anything over 40hz from the other 5 channels is still getting through with the same strength as the higher frequencies. Is this a good idea? If so, what would be a good frequency to go for?

TV shows are generally fine. Volume levels remain mostly the same throughout the show and I can manage that. Films vary a lot. The Onkyo's Dynamic EQ and Volume adjustments really help but the bass is often still a problem during action scenes.

Does anyone else have a similar set up? Any advice would be appreciated. I'm not experienced at setting up a custom EQ and haven't tried yet.

 

[PSM1]

Can you connect the Bose cubes direct to the amp and then set the crossover in the amp to a higher level so you send the correct frequencies to them. I assume you have all the speaker outputs from the amp going to the bass module of the Bose and then all the speakers attached to the Bose module. Do you also have the LFE preout from the amp connected to the bass module?
Although this is not particularly helpful I feel you may have bought the wrong speaker set if you can not do the above. A proper AV 5.1 speaker set would have given you far more control over the bass and allowed you to set your system up how you want it to sound.

 

[MajorTomG]

Thanks PSM1. I think I need to have a chat to the guys who sold me the gear. One of them mentioned he'd could help set it up the way I wanted it. I'll be disappointed if I've bought the wrong gear. It never occurred to me that I might not be able to turn the bass unit down as far as I'd like.