Scp53 Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 I just decided to search bose on this forum and found alot of bose bashing. Im a KLIPSCH fan all the way around but has bose ever made a decent product for the money? scp53 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edwinr Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 The original Bose 901's. I think they still make them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djk Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 The 901 has never been a good deal for the money. The 301 at one time wasn't a horrible deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D-MAN Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 Now that you mention it, everything BOSE makes is seemingly overpriced for what it actually is... DM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cleve Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 Wow, they DO still make the 901's! http://www.bose.com/controller;jsessionid=Aap0gnDKrU11ptWsqj2eFjWVe88H5BmBNRq2MFshxXERqhjsMUfy!6313599?event=VIEW_PRODUCT_PAGE_EVENT&product=901_floorstanding_reviews&linksource=productnav_txt_reviews&pageName=/home_entertainment/stereo/floorstanding/901/accessories.jsp Interestingly, the price has increased surprisingly little - $1398 ($150 extra for the pedestals) I remember these speakers being about $1000 a pair back in the mid 70's when I used to thumb fervently thru Stereo Review's Buyers Guide - so many reviewers seemed to treat these speakers with worshipful reverence at that time too! Factor in nearly 3 decades of inflation, and the 901's have deflated...substantially! Of course, the most recent 'good' review was 1993, if you read the 'reviews' section at the web page above Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gcoker Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 There outdoor speakers are on par with others for the price. Oh and the wave radio is a steal at $500...great alarm clock (Ha!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndyKlipschFan Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 BOSE 101's outdoors for the pool were long "the standard" speakers till everyone else jumped on board. The fake rocks sucked at first, but have come a long way and Klipsch has some indoor outdoor speakers that will kick butt today. The key to outdoor speakers is actually taking the speakers down for those that live in the top 1/2 of the USA in the winter. They will last a lot longer and gives you a chance to clean them up and put em in say a plastic bag till next spring. (We do this every year and they last forever this way.) Remember to cap your speaker ends too. We wrap a little duct tape to seal out any moisture and put caps on the ends. I heard 901's (4 of them) in a record/ CD shop with say 15 ft ceilings in a very big rectangle store. They were about 2 feet from the ceiling firing towards the corners like they were supposed to, and in all 4 corners...there was also an added sub in the rafters facing up to the ceiling in the middle of the store adding the bass.. This was a BIG store and the only time I ever really liked the 901's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khorn Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 ---------------- On 6/24/2004 4:35:12 AM edwinr wrote: The original Bose 901's. I think they still make them. ---------------- They may still make 901's but they changed quite a bit after the first or second incarnation. The first few 901's were far less efficient and required heavy amplifiction to drive properly, A friend had them and used Crown Amps with them way back in the 70's. The later ones didn't even come close. In any case positioning was critical and, you had to like the type of sound. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Garrison Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 Their noise cancelling headphones are pretty neat. They are very comfortable, and do an excellent job of cancelling ambient noise using out of phase sounds. For long trips on airplanes, trains, car rides where you're not the driver and don't want to hear what's going on around you, or listening to music in a noisy office environment, they're great. They are *NOT* Sennheisers or Grados or AKGs or other "top end" audio phones, but for what they are (comfortable, light, noise reducing okay headphones) they're really, really good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TBrennan Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 It's all relative. If you like Bose speakers then they are a good value for the money. And there are people who like them and why not; speaker choice is subjective. It's ridiculous to tell someone that what they like is no good, it's like telling a person who is laughing at something that what they're laughing at isn't funny, an absurd position. And while Bose speakers are often critcized for being "too expensive" their cost pales in comparison to many "audiophile" speakers that are thrown together with cheap parts from the Madisound catalog. And which often may sound far worse than Bose products. I'll tell you guys a litle story. I stopped in a used CD shop I'd never been in before. While browsing I listened to the music being played in the store, I don't recall what the music was. Anyway the music sounded pretty good and I thought to myself that whatever the speakers were they were pretty damned decent. When I looked to see what the speakers were I was surprised to see small Bose 2-ways up along the ceiling. So before knowing the speakers were Bose I decided they were pretty good. So do I then decide that they really weren't, because Bose "can't" be good? because audiophiles don't think they're cool" Eh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dantfmly Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 bose are not bad speakers. They do havwe some very good speakers. I am a former owner. They are just over priced for what you get. Go with other speaker brands and get more for your money. and you are correct there are a lot worse speakers out there then bose. i used to own those too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
formica Posted June 25, 2004 Share Posted June 25, 2004 Last hifi show i went too, i auditioned many different speakers at different price points. Given that the rooms and placement are all unfamiliar, it's very difficult to have a definite opinion on the equipment's sound quality.... but you get more of a general idea. BTW, I brought some familiar CDs with me. In one particular room, there was a beautifully designed imported tube amp (known for it's "bang for the buck" with speakers retailing for just under 10K$. After talking a couple of minutes with the sales person... we popped in my CD... and anxiously awaited the song to start. Those first couple of notes finally came out of those pretty lacquered speakers... and I quickly realised that they were............ overpriced ghettoblaster rejects!! The CD had never sounded so dead, with no sign of any dynamics. When it comes to sales, marketing / pricing / buzz in the audio world is as important as the actual product. Clients often use retail prices to give them an indication of the underlying quality. Bose, most cable manufacturers, esoteric audio accessory manufacturers, etc.... all realised this long ago. We are lucky Klipsch didn't... Rob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdm56 Posted June 25, 2004 Share Posted June 25, 2004 I owned 901 Series IV's for awhile back in the late seventies. And like has been said, considering how the price has stayed not much more than it was twenty years ago, they are a good value. They just aren't a very accurate loudspeaker, imo. Of course, most audiophiles would say the same thing about klipsch. The 901 does have a very pleasing (to me) frequency balance, killer dynamics, and a very impressive soundstage presentation, that fits some music well. On the downside, that soundstage does not fit some music at all well. Also, they are not really very flat, tonally, octave to octave, and they are more picky than a k-horn about room set-up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shock-Late Posted June 25, 2004 Share Posted June 25, 2004 Those 901's could make fantastic surround speakers in a big room. I like the design, I actually like the fact they're "different". But i never heard them. In fact the whole story about bose is that their products are designed for another kind of people. for example, my best friend's father has a huge modern villa, with a B&O system driving Bose cubes and subs in every room. Not hi-fi, not audiophile, but fills the house with music nonetheless. I couldn't live with them, tho! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artto Posted June 25, 2004 Share Posted June 25, 2004 The fact of the matter is Bose 901s have extremely high frequency and amplitude modulation distortion (see Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, Modulation Distortion in Loudspeakers: Part II Feb. 1970, Vol.18, No. 1) You will see Test of a Full-Range Loudspeaker, of which its unnamed description is obviously a Bose 901. The spectrogram shows F1 of 50Hz and F2 of 750Hz at a level of 95SPL at 2 feet. The total modulation is approximately 14%. The second order sideband distortion products of the 750Hz tone are actually higher than the first order distortion products! If any one thinks that this type of thing sounds good I suggest you get your hearing tested. If it turns out ok, I suggest you re-familiarize yourself with live, preferably unamplified music, or possibly get a brain scan, if anything, just to make sure you still have one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toomanyspeakers Posted June 25, 2004 Share Posted June 25, 2004 One of my first and best audio trades was a pair of 901's for a pair of Cornwalls. Oh and the guy gave me 150.00 to boot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.4knee Posted June 25, 2004 Share Posted June 25, 2004 No! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted June 25, 2004 Share Posted June 25, 2004 I think the Bose 802 speakers work very well for portable PA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted June 26, 2004 Share Posted June 26, 2004 We have used the 101 models for classrooms where I work, and then 251s. The last two setups I convinced them to use some Klipsch, so we got some CA-8 models. The diffeence is stunning, although a little higher priced. What amazes me, is that the Bose website has no specs of their equipment, and hardly any pictures of what the sell. Marvel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay481985 Posted June 26, 2004 Share Posted June 26, 2004 ---------------- On 6/26/2004 4:08:30 PM Marvel wrote: What amazes me, is that the Bose website has no specs of their equipment, and hardly any pictures of what the sell. Marvel ---------------- That all BOSE marketing scheme making it sound like the specs are more then adequet or superior because they don't need to post them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.