Beaver Marquis Bose Replacement

There is no question but that technology advancement has given you options I didn't have 3 years ago with Bluetooth rear speakers, etc. One thing I noticed, however, is that the Vizio doesn't appear to have an HDMI input. To me that would be a serious limitation since that's the principle output mode for Roku's and the newer DirecTV DVRs, just to name a few.

As for the subwoofer, look carefully at the drawer under your sofa. Does it appear to be smaller than it could have been? That would be your first clue that there is a subwoofer under there. I honestly had never seen the sub until we had removed the sofa when we were replacing it.

I did remove the old Bose dashboard radio (it actually had a cassette deck!) but rather than route it through the sound system, I installed speakers in the dash near the windshield. They sound fine when we're driving which is the only time we ever use the radio, anyway.

As for mounting the bar itself, I have mine hanging below those front overhead cabinets so there was no need to remove the doors. The screws that hold the bar go into the cloth strip below the finished wood of the cabinet. That way the cabinets can be used for the Roku, DVR, dish controller, etc. Personally, I'm not going to worry about the possible likes and dislikes of a future owner; I make modifications for my own enjoyment. IMHO the resale value of a coach this old is unlikely to be seriously impacted by how my sound system is hung.

Docj, I think I saw your posting on the Beaver forum, and yours is the idea I "stole". I get one speaker's sound out of the Bose system with the LifeStyle radio playing, and I just agree with you about fixing the older tech. I think you went with the Sony Soundbar and Sub, and now Vizio has the 5.1 sound bar with sub and 2 speakers. I didn't pull the drawer totally out of the couch but only where it stopped and then shown my light back in there and it appeared to be carpeted flooring but I guess maybe if possible I can pull the drawer entirely out, unless of course I find it under the sink. I also want to pull the bose radio so I hope I can run the pre-amp outputs up to the Vizio as well. I haven't removed the windshield corner posts but hope that if I do, then I can run cables up there and then over to the Vizio. In my 1999 I am going to carefully remove the nice walnut cabinet doors, store them, then get a nice piece of lumber (maybe zebra wood) about 5' by 7-8 inches and mount it across all 3 cabinets allowing it to flip up by fitting the existing hardware to it, then mount the Vizio wall mounts and Vizio unit to that. I am trying not to burn any bridges décor-wise in case I ever do sell it, the next owner can put the doors back and never know that the décor was changed. I'll screw the new wood to the inner cabinet construction Beaver did rather than the walnut fascia. And, like you I may place the Sub in the cabinet above the driver. However, I also need to put at least my dish sat receiver in there, so the sub may be on its side. The idea is to use the rear speaker wire runs to connect the rear speakers to the Vizio sub-woofer in the cabinet. If the Bose Speakers work, then fine, but otherwise I'll replace them with the 2 Vizio speakers in the identical kitchen/dining room locations.

In my 2000 Beaver Patriot Thunder the subwoofer (I assume that is what you are looking for) was under the sofa. The sofa had been specially built to provide room for the speaker enclosure and you would only find it if you knew it was there.

We removed our Bose system a few years ago and went with a soundbar installed under the front overhead cabinets. The subwoofer for the new system is housed in the old TV cabinet. The new system gave us HDMI-connected digital sound which the Bose was not capable of handling.

I looked in there quickly, but thinking who would put electronics under a water source. I'll have to look again. It's being stored about 45 minutes away so I'll collect any other ideas then go back and search again. Thanks for the input!

In my 98 Patriot it was under the kitchen sink. I liked the Bose once I got everything grounded to get the hum out of the system. No reason to not use the speakers.