getting all misty-eyed over Bose 901's

[Frzninvt]

I know the Klipschorn's did not stack up for you, but did you ever try a pair of Cornwalls in your room. I think the overall response of the Cornwall is the closest to the Khorn and you don't need perfect corners or a large room.

[ironwoods]

Hey Bob, is that a Whisper 1000 hooked up to your guitar speakers?[]

[Guest BobG]

My tale is similar, but I never went over to the "dark side". In about 1971 I had tired of my large Advents and went in search of something better. After auditioning every speaker at my local audio shop, I had them order a pair of 901s. Can't remember what series was available at the time. I do remember they were able to knock canned goods off the opposite side of the wall as they adjoined a grocery store. While I was waiting for the speakers to come in, the store received their first two pairs of ESS AMT-1s. I canceled the Bose order and bought the ESS. Had AMT-1D after that and then Dahlquist DQ-10s. The Dahlquist really got me going in a fun direction. When I became frustrated with their limited dynamic range, I contacted them and spoke with Saul Marantz who was a partner with John Dahlquist. Saul provided a schematic for a 3-way active crossover which I built and triamped the DQ-10s plus DQ-1W with three Phase LInear 400 amps. That was tons of fun.

Never owned a Bose product.

[rockbobmel]

Hey Bob, is that a Whisper 1000 hooked up to your guitar speakers?[]

Yeah.. You got me!! Actually, I like my Sharper Image Ionic Breeze better. It's quieter, goes deeper, and better cone control.

[J.4knee]

Dang, TWO offers to pop a cap in my arse! Am I having a great day or what?[]

I remember when I first got my 901 IV's. They were to replace my trusty old "New" Advents. Well, in just matter of months I mothballed the Bose and drug the Advents back into service. The 901's got sold.

So why am I waxing nostalgic over them now? Maybe I've come full circle, I dunno. Or maybe it's kinda like a 24-hour bug. I'll take a pill and see if I feel better in the morning.

Make it three[]

[Woodog]

This is what happens to one's mind when they get rid of a perfectly good pair of Klipschorns... []

Ouch. I knew somebody'd have to bring that up.[:$]

You got rid of Khorhs and now you are reminiscing about 901s????

Well, yeah. If you'll notice, there's a whole bunch of klipsch owners with a Bose daliance in their deep, dark past. And some who still have a pair around.

I think it has more to do with the search for quality and being sucked into an extremely effective marketing ploy on the way to nirvana. After hearing the Cornwall, I never listened to the Bose 901 again. At low volumes they absolutely sucked big time. At high volume they sorta shine, but they always have this phase induced haze that is kind of like an overdose of Nyquil. To me anyway.

Woo

[D-MAN]

WHAT?!

"Atticus, you're the best shot in the county -

you got to do it, I can't see too good anymore..."

DM

[Duke Spinner]

This is what happens to one's mind when they get rid

of a perfectly good pair of Klipschorns... []

Ouch. I knew somebody'd have to bring that

up.[:$]

You got rid of Khorhs and now you are reminiscing about

901s????

Well, yeah. If you'll notice,

there's a whole bunch of klipsch owners with a Bose daliance in their

deep, dark past. And some who still have a pair around.

I

think it has more to do with the search for quality and being sucked

into an extremely effective marketing ploy on the way to nirvana. After

hearing the Cornwall, I never listened to the Bose 901 again. At low

volumes they absolutely sucked big time. At high volume they sorta shine, but they always have this phase induced haze that is kind of like an overdose of Nyquil. To me anyway.

Woo

Mr. Woo .......

Why is there a PEAVEY speaker in yer Avatar ......

even to look make s me cringe ....[]

[KlipsDude]

I used to think I would never get rid of my Bose 901 speakers but the day I got my Klipsch speakers, was the day that I realized that the Bose 901 weren't all that. I used to have Cerwin Vega D-7 and D-9 speakers (one of the best that CV put out, when they were still CV) and they sounded far better than the Bose 901 too. Now I wish I would have never bought the Bose 901 speakers. Now, I'll only buy Klipsch over Bose any day!!! It's well know that the Bose 901's were also sort of a advertising/marketing scam that many fell far, me too. []

[jdm56]

I used to think I would never get rid of my Bose 901 speakers but the day I got my Klipsch speakers, was the day that I realized that the Bose 901 weren't all that. I used to have Cerwin Vega D-7 and D-9 speakers (one of the best that CV put out, when they were still CV) and they sounded far better than the Bose 901 too. Now I wish I would have never bought the Bose 901 speakers. Now, I'll only buy Klipsch over Bose any day!!! It's well know that the Bose 901's were also sort of a advertising/marketing scam that many fell far, me too. []

I wouldn't call the Bose 901 a "marketing scam". That's a little harsh, don't ya think?[] After all, there is sound engineering behind them. When we hear live music, there generally is much more reflected and reverberant sound in the mix than what we hear at home with conventional speakers. I guess it depends on whether or not you think simulating that reflected sound at home is a good thing or not. In fact, if you listen to music through DPL-II processing (as I often do), with a conventional five or seven speaker set-up, you are basically trying to do the same thing uncle Amar was trying to do with the 901- recreate a more lifelike music experience.

[pauln]

Somebody talk me down before I hurt myself.[:'(]

Less chat, more splat!

[jdm56]

That's really cold!

[jacksonbart]

When I listen to the 901s I get misty too, but not the way you do, its more like smelling fresh cut onions.[:'(]

[texxas guy]

A little "windowpane" went a long way in making speakers sound better back in the day................then you came down. [],,,,,,,,J/K

[KungFuNat]

i work for bose currently, and ive heard everything they make with just about every peice of electronics you can think of...

901s like every other bose speaker is crap, and every single audio engineer at bose ive talked to agrees with me.

no crossover, small size, shrieky output with tons of distortion, inefficient, and made with the cheapest parts you can imagine. what is there to like?

they dont even use bose speakers in the recording studios at headquarters.....

just one question: what do you use to drive your speakers?

by all means, if you like it, go with it.... personally im not impressed with the B&W 700 series either, but i would put them head and shoulders above 901s...

to each thier own i guess....

[jdm56]

Maybe all you say is true. I'm not in any position to comment on the quality of the drivers, really, or what Bose engineers think. All I know is what I hear. And to my ears, the Bose 901 Series VI is one of the most impressive sounding speakers I've heard. And I've heard a lot. Of course, that opinion is based on a very limited audition. And too, "impressive" does not necessarily mean anything beyond just that -impressive. Accurate? I dunno. For some music I would think so; for others maybe not. Kinda like every other speaker on the planet in that regard. One thing the current 901's are NOT is inefficient! I can guarantee they will put out all you can stand, and not need monster amps to do it. "Tons of distortion" - What kind of measurements have you seen? As for the "no crossover" and "small size", I would consider those both to be good things, all else being equal.

You asked about amplification. I drive the mids and tweeters of my 703's with a Pioneer Elite A/V receiver (VSX-55TXi), and the woofers with a Sony ES power amp (TA-N55ES). It works out to about 100W available to the mid/tweeter of each speaker at their 8 ohm impedance, and about 150W available to the twin woofers of each speaker at their 4 ohm rating.

I don't really have any complaints with my 703's at all. They are a superbly well-made speaker that sounds fantastic with classical and jazz, and all "acoustic" music. They are perhaps not the hot set-up if your idea of fun is Mettalica cranked up to 11. They are not a "front-row, center" kind of speaker, either. More of a mid-hall perspective as the audio scribes might say. Still, they sound good with well recorded rock and pop; just not as good as they do with bluegrass, jazz, classical, etc.

As you say: To each his own.

[KungFuNat]

bose does not publish measurements and from what ive gathered from the other R&D folks around here, efficiency is somewhere around 85 db/w/m.... which wouldnt make them outrageously inefficient, but still below norm.. just because they play loud, does not make them efficient. as for distortion, ive seen figures anywhere up to and including 15% although i cant really get a straight answer on this one... really im not sure if anyone at the company knows, but someone has to be measuring something somewhere.

the fact that they dont use bose speakers in the recording studios at headquarters out here in mass speaks volumes to me about how good the company thinks its own speakers are... at one time they used another name-brand speaker but people started to ask questions why they werent bose.. so they now outsource to an independant company which builds them with no-names so no one will know they arent bose products... if the company doesnt have confidence in its own speakers, that should tell you something about the quality......

i have to say that your speakers could probably benefit from better amplification. a pioneer elite a/v reciever and sony pro gear are hardly what i would call a good match for your speakers... i find that with B&W at least 200w per channel is required to make them come alive.. ever auditioned Rotel? great stuff for the price and matches extremely well with B&W.

anyways, i will say it again, go with what you like, thats what counts, but you were the one who asked to be talked out of going back to bose...

[dragonfyr]

Personally I have never been a fan of the Bose direct reflecting series...even back when we sourced some of the 901 drivers for $3 apiece in the late '70s!

And if someone likes a particular speaker it doesn't threaten me! No more then if someone likes to eat beef liver that has served as the cow's oil filter processing all of the steroids, antibiotics and other crap they are routinely fed in the agri-mill of modern society. Hey, it's their choice!...So long as I am free to make my choice!

But that being said, we are back at the tar baby of Bose.

And the primary problem is not that they were willing to experiment with a new concept in the 'direct-reflecting' model. I applaud genuine attempts at innovation! And at the time of its inception it was fine.

The problem Bose has is that they place marketing prowess over actual scientific advancement.

With the advent of TEF and time based measurement came the increased understanding of the relationship between the direct and reflected signals upon intelligibility. Fundamental to this increased understanding was the critical detrimental effect caused by the early arrival reflected signals upon intelligibility. And the Bose direct-reflecting models were specifically designed to intentionally add to the early reflected signals! Sure they made the sound bigger, but they did so by destroying the distinct imaging and intelligibility of the signal. They in effect created exactly that which acousticians would be paid lots of money to later remove!

And once they understood this, rather then modify their designs to reflect (hey, lots of puns here!) their increased understanding of acoustics and to progress in the realm of applied engineering, they chose to ignore the advances and instead chose to press forward with their marketing investment and to leverage 'brand recognition' over sound engineering (pun intended)!

I have no issue with companies pursuing new ideas. But I do have an issue when, with increased knowledge, they choose to ignore new pertinent information and in fact, knowingly choose to misrepresent the facts!

And this same situation recurred with the fiasco at the Indiana University Field house in 1990 when Altec, JBL and Bose each had their own engineers set up their large scale systems for the purpose of being measured with TEF by Don Davis. While JBL and Altec each utilized controlled dispersion systems using mid to high Q devices featuring minimal overlap of adjacent sound fields, Bose and Amar Bose in particular maintained that Q and superposition were meaningless to intelligibility - thus the use of Bose's essentially 'no-Q' approach!

Well, when the measurements were taken, and the obvious became quantified, Amar threw his usually fit demanding that the results not be published. At which time Don refused to bury any accurate and objectively determined results. Thereupon Amar Bose brought up the fact that Bose had donated money to the efforts of the SynAudCon educational efforts in an attempt to gain leverage and squelch the results only to have Don promptly produce a checkbook and promptly write Dr. Bose a refund check.

So, Bose has quite a history of questionable business practices which obscure whatever scientific advances accidentally escape Dr. Boses watchful eye!!<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

And that IS a problem!

But there is more!

And to disagree with some previously mentioned information...

Amazingly enough, and UNLIKE the exclusion of the same by some other firms whose interests would be better served if they did comply!!!, Bose DOES publish and make available high quality detailed specs for importation into EASE and some of the other HIGH end acoustical modeling programs.

Now personally, I am amazed at this as it does not seem in their interests, but the real story is the absence of data from the manufacturers of some quality systems who, for one reason or another, refuse to make available their own measurements which are ALREADY IN EXISTENCE!

And without this data, few acousticians are going to spec those systems for use in the commercial arena without being able to quantify/qualify performance standards!

[edwinr]

Regardless of the fact that the 901 uses inexpensive drivers and many other low cost components, I still think they sound okay. Not in comparison with the La Scala of course... But that's another story.

[tillmbil]

Allright, you guys got me going now. I inherited a pair of original Series 1 Bose 901's. Proble is I have a had time understanding how to get the EQ to work. It is a hook up thing. Could someone give me very simple instructions (very simple) on how to properly hook up the EQ? Then I will attach a high powered amp and give them a whirl.

Also, were the originals considered better or worse than later models? They really look cool.