I was in college and as a sophomore, one of the guys in the dorm had 901's. Pink Floyd, of which we all listened to, sounded amazing. I also remember Super Tramp so loud and so clear. So clear -- that's my memory of the 901's. Thanks for the review.
Love ‘em or hate ‘em, if you’ve heard the 901’s you more than likely remember the experience. My uncle had a pair and they sounded great and the smile on his face while listening to them was even greater. ❤
Back in 1980 a friend of mine bought a pair of 901s...and that same year I bought a pair of Klipsch Heresys. We were friends, but we didn't hang out that much together, maybe twice a month. This was before cellphones, obviously, and I don't even think either of us had a landline. Back then we would just show up where someone was living and if they were home, they were home. One day I showed up and he wanted to show me his new speakers. So, I listened to them and told him they sounded pretty good. Then I told him what I bought and we should do a side by side. About a week later I took my Klipsch to his house, and after a couple of hours listening to different music through both speakers he starting having buyers remorse. The Klipsch blew those 901s away.
I think that the BOSE amp was model 1801. I serviced one of these in the 1970s. I remember two things. It is one of the heaviest amplifiers I had ever carried upstairs to my apartment. The other was how very well this amp was designed to be easily serviced. I don't remember what was wrong with it, but the ease of service somewhat made up for the pure agony of carrying it upstairs. Edit: I just looked it up. This model weighed 82 pounds!
back in the days, those magnetic equipments were heavy because of the anvil-size magnetic transformer powering the system. Unlike digital audio today taking the power from a much lighter main capacitor... nice story. thanks for sharing!
Got some 901 series 2 and I am hooking up with a nikko equalizer and yamaha ax 900 I always wanted a pair as I heard my friends 901 series 2 in 1975 in Cambridge ont so I got some because series two have cloth speakers surrounds not foam so they don't rot so I'm told I will let you know how I get the sound to go but my yamaha with my n h t sb3 speakers sound great
That's a simple but solid reference point. If it's loud and your ears hurt, that's called heavy distortion = bad. If it's loud but you can actually talk to someone at the same time and hear them clearly, that's called low distortion = good.
A girl in high school (early 80's) had a pair that hung from the ceiling in her mostly empty living room. We would crank them and party. I remember that they were kind of loud and harsh but something about their shape and placement in the room made them pretty special. More like a performance than your usual stereo.
I've heard of 901 speakers and I can say that the drivers are well built and of high quality. It all comes down to proper placement, equalizer tuning and application, just like any other speaker.
Bose speakers did sound their best playing classical music. I remember hearing a string quartet over a pair of Bose 301s in a Rizzoli bookstore in Atlanta GA many years ago, and it sounded excellent.
Yeah, I just couldn't resist being a smart-ass when I made my original comment but a lot of people purchased and lived happily with Bose speakers, and the direct reflecting thing did give them a unique and spacious sound. I don't think they would have sold as well as they did if they were truly as bad sounding as people make them out to be. I'm talking about the older original speakers. Probably most everything from the 1980's on deserves the disdain they get.
My first audio money spent was a pair of 301 series II. Hung them from the ceiling just like the instructions suggested, 30+ years later it was those speakers that opened the door to this tone chasing journey.
The best PA system I have heard used a pair of Bose speakers on stands, similar to the 901s. The equipment belonged to a gospel band that came to play in our high school auditorium. This was the first time I had seen a dedicated sound engineer doing his magic. He, with his gear, was positioned near the middle of the hall. The sound was natural and never fatiguing.
40 years ago i was using them in my kibbutz (which was demolished in October 7th) for PA. indeed a very good speakers which sounded almost the same volume from 1 meter to 20. they designed so u could put up to 8 i think on each other. they had a lid that u can close and carry it like a suitcase. back then this was very popular speakers and u could see them a lot on the TV all around the world. even saw them in a royal event in the UK
Paul - I was for many years a speaker designer / manufacturer in Sarnia, ON, Canada. We manufactured upper tier product such as studio monitors along with some audiophile consumer product. I met up with Dr. Bose in the later 1970's when we were at the Toronto High Fi Show. Their display featured a pair of their 901 speakers each of them hooked up to a 1000W amplifier, of course through the equaliser. We had already had a conversation with one of their salesmen, who said something to the effect of 'your stuff is shit, the only person who knows anything about speakers is Dr. Bose. Come to our display and hear what music is supposed to sound like'. So we took them up on their invitation. When we got there they challenged us to find a record that would 'really show off the 901's'. So my VP rummaged through the discs and found a copy of Tubular Bells. They put it on, turned it up, the quality was terrible, the phase distortion was noticeable, and the volume was ear piercing. When it came to the point where the record announced the tubular bells there was the original note of the 'bells, the meters of the amps went into the red - and then nothing - the amps shut down. The tech guys were hastily trying to find fuses. Amar was furious, I went over to him and said, "Come over to our display, we have speakers that produce flat response full room volume, with 1 watt RMS'. His response, 'f**k off!' This turned out to be a great story when prospective customers asked us about the 901's. BTW, although Bose originally loaded those cabinets with cheap CTS speakers, for a number of years the 4.5" drivers were manufactured in Kitchener Ontario by Marsland Speakers. I think that Bose paid something like $2.50 a copy. Later I remember that they were experimenting with injection molded plastic baskets - to cut down the price. So - I don't have a lot of positive regard for Bose product design, but Dr. Amar Bose was an absolute marketing genius.
I'm not an audiophile and never understood the hate Bose got from those guys. Didn't know if it was real or B.S. This is the best explanation I have found. Thanks.
Bose sound good to an untrained ear, because it plays to the frequencies the human ear is designed for, midrange. They fail when it comes to bass and treble. In a fair A/B comparison, the Bose sound constraint when trying to reproduce the sound of a bell, chime, or kick bass etc, which are the very things that add authenticity, and emotion to music
I have fond memories of Bose. My dad wotked there in the late 70's i was 10 or so and went to their employee open house. Was amazing. They gave me a broken meter from their Syncom? test computer(still have it). I still have my dads 1800 amp and 901s too. 1800 is a BEAST.
the first introduction to decent sound was at my friend Guenther's house where I heard the 901s playing Tres Hombres in 1974. They were the door openers that sent me on a bit of an audiophile journey and by 1979 I traded my kef 105.2's for the Model 19s that I still have, all thanks to Guenther and his bose.
Your opinion is very interesting, honest and objective, thank you. The Bose 901 speakers were the first I heard when I was young and I was shocked. Over time I learned more about the audio and I owned all kinds of speakers and brands. Bose 901 has always been a memory of my childhood.
Bose 901s. What a fun trip down memory lane. It was the early 80s and I was in college. Almost bought a pair of 901s when I looked at a used A700 Yamaha amp which was paired to a set of 901s. Got the amp but not the speakers, as the amp cost $500 and it sucked up all my beer money - probably for the better in hindsight. Used that amp for 38 years. A popular dance club back then had 901's mounted up by the ceiling with the "back" of the speaker with all it's drivers facing down at a 45 degree angle to the dance floor, which was ringed by large subs. They had several beefy Dynaco amps powering the system in the DJ booth. Out on the dance floor the sound, after more than a few shots and beers, was pretty awesome - haha... The thing I learned from those days of throwing parties at the fraternity house in the early 80's (I was the sound guy) - the speakers must be set up super "hot" on the top end, enough to sound horribly bright in an empty room, as all those dancing bodies absorb a lot of highs. The system "came in" when the room was full. My frat house's speakers were nice DCM "Time Windows" which often blew their tweeters under all of our beer stained party duress. My cheap quick and dirty solution was to replace the constantly blowing dome tweeters in with Radio Shack piezo tweeters. A terrible thing to do I suppose, but problem solved and in a full room full of dancing drunk chicks, the violated with Radio Shack piezo horn tweeter DCM speakers sounded great. I also don't think it is possible to blow a piezo tweeter, God knows we tried. Speaking of blown drivers, I spoke with the manager at the bar, he said they were constantly blowing individual drivers in the 901s as they ran that system hard. If I remember right, the manager said the 901s had a warranty and Bose sent them a box full of extra drivers.
Pacific Stereo....my dad bought 4 Infinity Column ll's from them, back in the late 70's. He still has them, and they sound incredible. Thanks for the great stories Paul.
1975 I was stationed in Puerto Rico while in the US Navy. The 901's were my first real HiFi speakers and I ordered them through Pacific Mail Order, an outfit in Guam of all places. When they arrived home from work (I stood watches at the Naval Communications Station) I come to find that the speakers had been spirited out of my housing quarters with my wife's permission and was the main source of the music that was blasting through the housing there at Fort Buchanan in suburban San Juan. Quite a block party. When they were in my home quite often after playing a song at substantial volume there would be polite applause for the surrounding homes. The 901's had 4 speakers mounted on each of the angled back sides of the enclosure and one mounted in the front. They were not efficient speakers and needed a lot of power to make them come alive. Bose later modified the speakers and wound the voice coils with square shaped wire replacing round. With square wire there were no air gaps in the coil windings as the coil was wound one layer on top of the other. The square wire allowed more wire in order to produce a stronger magnetic field for a given amount of space thus you didn't have to have a monster amp to drive them loud. After a few years I was transferred to San Diego and one day I was giving them a listen and I just wasn't satisfied. I guess what killed them for me was I had discovered Magnepans. I still have my set of speakers, they still work fine. I have overhauled the crossover too. They were a pretty big part of my HiFi life.
Justin Bieber sells a ton of records. Jerry Lewis movies are STILL very popular in France. Chrysler K cars flew off the lots in the 80s. None of which are convincing arguments defending their quality. Bose 901s can be considered a good choice if one has never had much experience with sound equipment or understanding of reproducing music. Explicitly, it is impossible for a 901 system to reproduce a phantom channel and for that reason alone the system is useless unless you want to vacuum the house listening to them. Let alone tonal response.
@@batvette I'm not crazy about Justin beiber or jerry lewis. But I liked France but spain was better I made a really good living as an auto tech and I don't like crysler in any letter and I've been messing with audio gear for 40 years I guess and owned many different rigs and I'll take 901s over any speaker I feel the same way about Bogen lenco turntables and Bogen amps and the old tube stuff from the Early 60s. Matter of taste I guess.
@@joelteague9446 for about 10 years until recently I had a pair of these: www.stereophile.com/content/infinity-composition-prelude-p-fr-loudspeaker Its a bit of a long read but the review is accurate. Picked up at goodwill for $175 like most infinitys all the foam surrounds were rotten took a weeks worth of spare time and $75 in parts to refoam all 12 mids and mid highs. Then another week damping the aluminum enclosures with sikaflex over thin rolls of modelling clay inside. (Old school car audio trick before dynamat) They really are everything the 901s arent. Perfect tonal balance very sensitive and incredible staging and imaging. I drove them with a 40wpc 70s yamaha natural sound receiver. 901s are impressive in their own way, they sound "big". But youll never close your eyes and utter those words, "at that moment, the system became transparent". The best equipment is that which can disappear and fool your mind that youre in the room with the source materials' artists. But then again thats not that hard for even cheap headphones, and if you achieve it in your living room you can only do it in one seat at a time!
You have brought back memories by mentioning Pacific Stereo. I lived about 1 mile from their Santa Clara store and they had such a nice setup with different rooms with cork panels on the walls. I bought my first cassette player there the Advent 101 and then the 201. I believe Pacific Stereo was a unit of CBS. It was sad when they closed.
I have a friend who used to mess with Bose at CES, he would walk up to the reps and turn his head away from them, bounce his voice off of his hand, and introduce himself lol.
I was a dealer for Bose in the 70s and made quite a few trips to the factory in Framingham. Dr. Bose was one of the great snake oil salesmen of our times, and claimed credit for many acoustic innovations that existed before he was born. For example, he claimed that the folded duct in his table radio was his unique design. Paul Klipsch and many others used the same principle years before- Paul didn't complain about it. When the 901 was first introduced, state- of- the- art amps were capable of a maximum of about 60 watts RMS. The power demands of the 901 easily forced these amps to clip and distortion levels were horrendous. This did not stop buyers from plunking down $496 for the chance to hear ear splitting reproduction. In about 1974, Bob Carver introduced the first high power amp at 350 watts/ channel and that made the 901 marginally more bearable. I used to refer to the Bose amp as the " boat anchor"- it didn't last long. The inherent fault in the design of the 901 is obvious- trying to force one driver to produce the entire spectrum of sound. So far there is no single driver that can do this accurately.
Stromberg/Carlson made a speaker enclosure called Acoustical Labyrinth for their upright radio consoles around the late 30's or early 40's. It was a form of transmission line enclosure. That is the idea Bose copied for their wave radio.
The Bose Wave Radio enclosure in no way resembles a folded horn except maybe visually to someone who knows nothing about engineering. The Bose Wave Radio speaker enclosure is an acoustic labyrinth, something like a cross between a bass reflex enclosure and a transmission line.
Agreed Paul. A 'proper' transmission line speaker usually has a line that is at least a 1/4 wavelength of the lowest frequency to be produced. The wave radio 'line' is far too short to be a serious transmission line. It also has no absorbent material which a transmission line is supposed to have. The wave radio bass is very uneven and marred by some horrible resonances. It doesn't sound anything like a transmission line.
IMF and TDL were using a reinforcing transmission line in the 1970s and 80s.. Even the later Bailey design in the 60s had an open line. It was Bailey who came up with the formula to calculate the parameters of a 1/4 wave transmission line. The idea of the line is to absorb most of the bass sound from the main driver but allow the lowest frequencies through, which in that region will be back in phase with the main driver. The ones I have use a line of over 2 metres in length.
This reminds me of a time in the early 70's when I was working at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab in Columbia, Md. I was an audiophile then, and a co-worker of mine was as well, so we hung out a lot. He had a pair of 901's, and was a big fan. Me, not so much. Amar Bose came to the lab and gave a talk one lunchtime, so my friend and I went to listen. He gave a nice talk on acoustics and the science behind the design of the 901's. I dont remember a lot about it now, but my friend just loved it. Not long after that, I moved from Maryland to California, and lost touch with my friend, but he was a huge fan of the 901's, that was for sure.
To me, the interesting idea behind the 901 was that a large number of smallish speakers could both move fast enough for the highs and move enough air for the lows. It stood in opposition to the prevailing notion that you should split the frequency range into three or more segments and use dedicated speakers for each. What other speakers try this?
The main problem is that you still need a lot of cone area to get the air movement for low frequency, but something very light to react quickly enough for high frequency. They do pretty good with multiple smaller speakers, but could also be better with the different dedicated drivers for low, mid, and high. Which is why most high end speakers have multiple speakers so each can do what they’re best at.
@@byronmacdowell3732 says the founder and lead of facking Black Sabbath is “Bubble Gum” Metal. Like saying Pink Floyd is country because so many people listen to and love Pink Floyd, including country bumkins.
I heard two pair setup for quadraphonic sound along with 4 18" Altec subwoofers back in the late'70s and at a reasonable listening volume it was spectacular ! The owner of the system had spent many hours setting up adjusting levels and placement tho. I still recall that as an introduction to how hard it is to get good sound out of your existing equipment Learned that no system is " plug and play"
I loved your comments and the story. I bowled in this bowling league, where I was literally the worst bowler. The owner of the lanes, and the golf course next to it, must have chatted from time to time, and it turns out he had bought a Bose wave radio thing. He proudly took me into his office to play it for me. Now I am not a self professed golden eared audiophile, but I have loved audio my whole life, have strong opinions of audio, and had heard all kinds of systems. And when I listened to the wave radio, I felt like it was the audio equivalent of an aging guy trying to fool people into thinking he was a younger guy, and not quite managing it, leading to one feeling a bit bad/embarrased for the guy. That's how wave radio sound to me. So I just politely listened and made some non committal comments. Modern audio can perform some wonders, but people experienced in audio are not going to be fooled into thinking a wave radio is full range quality stereo setup :)
I never tire of hearing this story and also Paul's explanation and opinion of these oft lauded speakers. There was a time when I thought 901s were a great idea and I really wanted them. Now I have traditional, heavy, wooden box speakers with large drivers and I prefer that sound.
Hi Paul, In my opinion, you were very kind to Bose in your description of the 901s. I'll leave it at that. Unfortunately, my most indelible memory is of their amplifier. I worked in the Walnut Creek branch of Pacific Stereo. In our "high end" room, at one point, we were using their amp as our primary power amp. One day, while connected to a pair of JBL L200s (probably about mid 90 db efficiency) the amp failed in such a way that it just shrieked/roared/screamed at what I presume was full output. Even with the door to the room closed (the room was empty when it failed), it pretty much cleared the store. I was elected to try to shut it off. I covered one ear with my hand and did the best I could to cover the other with my shoulder and went in and pulled the plug. Couldn't really hear right for a while. Smoked the amp and one of the L200's. Always felt bad that it hadn't been connected to the 901's.
Great story Paul. I used to go to a bar years ago that had 901’s installed. At first I thought “wow, they really fill the space” but the novelty soon wore off
Greg - I remember some bars and auditoriums that used the 901's BUT they turned the 8 speaker side toward the audience! Not much different than old fashioned 6 and 9 speaker columns.
I salute Mr. Bill! Thank you for your Speaker Service! I have enjoyed these since 1989. My first part of my Army career. If Bose only knew how many (lil soldiers)(LoL) marched to their product, they would know how much these speakers were so supreme in our down time. I even had a Spanish Staff Sargent, while in Germany in the 90's find about 4 broken 901's and he took the drivers out and mounted them in his car. Front to back!!! Imagine the time spent? Anyway, It sounded awesome but, He couldn't bring the BMW 323 back to the states. and, the sound system was destroyed. I still Salute Bose for giving me a good time. Love Life.
I had a friend years ago who lived in the projects and with the small room he had and the solid concrete walls and ceiling the concept of reflected sound really worked.
Still have a pair. Still love them. Their are certain ways to set them up and enjoy the sound. A brick wall is not one of them to get good sound. I've had my pair for 30 years now, and the speakers have not yet failed or dry rotted. I have them running on a Denon front end with a Hafler amp at 150 watts a channel. You should watch the curtains fly around in back of them when I play some ol school like Planet Rock. I've known people that hate 901's, but I love them.
Finally, someone that is not simply repeating the same old crap they've heard others so often repeat! Anyone that's invested the time and money in these are aware of the strengths as well as the limitations that will be inherent in any product that assaults the bottom lines of the "audiophile" equipment manufacturers whose products made the 901s such a "bargain' by comparison. (and still so...!)
What a load of bull. This aint no bandwagon of hate. Its people knowing the difference between good and bad speakers. I could go on but im busy putting in new walls to make my bose sound good. Lol
"I've had my pair for 30 years now, and the speakers have not yet failed or dry rotted." Consider yourself extremely lucky. The 901 uses paper cones. That's usually the first thing that needs to be repaired on the 901. Few people get more than ten years without having to re-cone or replace the speakers in a 901. (Usually, replace since the cost of re-coning a four and a half inch paper speaker is higher than replacing them.)
I owned a pair of 901s. Dissatisfied with its high end, I added a couple of tweeters to each one; one on the front and one on the side facing away from the listener. They helped a little. Finally, the foam surrounds dry rotted and I replaced them with a pair of Martin Logan Aerius 1.
BOSE had their place thru the years of innovation. Lots of different toys came out from the 70's and 80's. It was a good time for music. And the combinations of equipment and speakers were endless, and ever changing. Even for the most modest of pocket books. (but money talked as always lol tear) But maybe I was just blessed to be living in the area of Carver, Speakerlab and Speaker Factory back then. And exposed to everything from Wharfedales, ESS, AR, and even Cerwin Vegas ability to Shake Your Seats watching EARTHQUAKE in the theatre from 18inch Strokers lol. (that was pretty cool back then : ) And of course, the Sonic Holograph ☺. I enjoyed them all. From reel-to-reel, to 8-Tracks and cassettes. Laserdisc to CD's. VHS to SVHS. PONG to Nintendo. Analog to digital. And Albums will never get old !!! And I Loved my 61inch MAGNETBOX (Simpsons: ) when it came out. Had a friend throwup on my couch from Motion Sickness. THAT WAS GREAT LOL. And I almost forgot the age of Car Stereos and Mobile Phones. 10-4 hehe. (sticklers probably prefer car Audio. Whatever. Wasn't what it was called then : ) But just because one thing may be better to one person than another. Doesn't mean it's bad. Especially if you Enjoy It. Like the many (older : ) people I know that have, And Love, their BOSE Radios. Just simple nice sounding music for them. So WELL worth their money. Their Happy. And you can't put a price on that. As the old saying goes. RELAX,.. It's All Good ☺
Nice job describing the Bose 901. Fun hearing the name Pacific Stereo for the first time in years. I worked at the store in Bellevue, WA. for a couple years as the service tech.
There was a saying in the audio industry - "There are two kinds of people who like Bose speakers; those who never heard them and those who already own them."
I person I knew had a nice Bose setup...it was in his basement, where he had a listening room set up with *8* Bose 901 speakers. It was....ok for some types of music, but this person was a real pipe organ fan. And for that time (back in the early 1980s), it was probably the closest you could get to feeling like you were listening to a pipe organ without being *in* a pipe organ hall! But yes, a specialized speaker good for specific types of music.
I have a pair of Bose 901 series iv speakers with their active equalizer. My question, which amplifier would you recommend for these speakers? I have to choose between the Rotel ra-1312, or the Bose 1801. What is your opinion for these two amplifiers? Do you know something that I should be worried about?
In 1968, I was in college and stereo crazy along with quite a few peers. I'm building Dynaco kits for my friends and self, running KLH 6s with a Dyna 120. Along comes the Bose 901. We all fell in love at first. Of course, the stereo store had them set up very carefully to best demonstrated their best points, and they had a sound stage that seized the room. Remember that there were few other high-end speakers at that time - Altec Lansing and JBL being foremost. Only my roommate in a dorm room could afford the $550 to buy and he did so. Also bought some high-powered receiver to run them. The dorm room was eight-sided, painted concrete walls, so the reflected sound was very interesting if not a focused sound stage. Both I and my roommate worked evenings, so one of the premium date nights was borrowing our room. Then and now, I wish I could have afforded a nice pair of JBLs. I moved on, but not to 901s.
I had a friend that did work at Bose back in the late '90s. He was in the marketing department. He said Bose had two to three times the staff in marketing than in engineering. He also said that Bose does not publish the technical details like frequency response of their speakers or allow their speakers to be displayed with other brands of speakers in stores like Best Buy. Bose wanted stores to place their speakers to be as far away from other brands of speakers so they could not be tested head to head with other brands. Bose also had install teams that went out to stores and set up all the Bose speaker displays and made sure where the display was located was in accordance to their contract with the store. He also said that in the "outlet mall" Bose stores were specially constructed so they would be acoustically optimized for their speakers only. Each speaker system displayed in the stores had their own special amplification and equalization done in a back "amp room". This special amplification and equalization was different than what was in the Bose "master unit" that the customer bought. Bose even used their own specially equalized CDs and musical tracks for demo purposes. Customers were not encouraged to demo Bose speakers with their own CDs and music. The lawyer for the company I work for asked me to come over to his house and set up a Bose "surround sound" system his wife bought him for Christmas one year. I get there and the system consists of two 3"x5" "mid and high" modules to go on either side of his TV and a small "bass unit" has held the amplifier and a (maybe) 5" woofer. There were no rear or center speakers, no HDMI inputs or outputs, and no designation of any Dolby, DTS, or any type of surround sound processing. Just two 3"x5" speakers in a cheap plastic enclosure, a bass module (also cheap plastic), a stereo RCA input, and a Bose universal remote was all he got. He said his wife paid $2100 for it. It sounded horrible, but he acted happy and gracious to show his appreciation to his wife for her present. I remember his wife saying "People say Bose is the best and I wanted the best for my husband". I felt sorry for them. On the contrary, another friend of mine has a pro sound installation company. He actually installed a few professional grade Bose speakers in a few churches in our area and they sounded fairly good. Although he used equipment from other brands in the rest of the system (such as the amplification, equalization, and mixer boards), he said he was surprised as how good the Bose pro stuff sounded as compared to Bose home stuff.
When I told my mom I was going to Rocky Mountain Audio Fest where many of the worlds finest audio equipment can be seen and auditioned she said...you mean like Bose? Their marketing department sure did their job.
Chuck Music Bose professional equipment like their F1 speakers are pretty good. But the home audio stuff isn't worth your money. The brand Bose is mostly a marketing campaign it seems.
Way to go. If some one is willing to give you something, accept it with gratitude even if you wanted something different. You can always upgrade later and get the system you really want.
Back in 1995 i received an invitation in the mail to hear the hidden sound behind the curtain. The surprise was the big bold sound coming from a Bose acoustic wave unit. It worked, it made me purchase one.
My dad bought a 901 setup in the late 80's when he started to be financially successful, as a kid, I remember admiring them in the basement. He still has them somewhere in storage after he bought a proper surround system for his then state of the art 50 inch projection HDTV. Still has the tv even though it's so old it only has component inputs. Ah I'm just feeling nostalgic watching this.
I sometimes do funny audio projects with a few of my buddies and I always wanted to build a huge pair of Bose 901 speakers using 12 inch drivers instead of the little blue drivers bose uses.
I had a pair of 901's a few years back and while they had decent sound I never could get the low frequencies where they sounded strong and articulate. Was very careful where I placed them measuring distances from walls etc as their manual said. Another thing I didn't like was every time I changed the input on my Carver amp the Bose active equalizer would disengage and I would have to physically re-engage the EQ again as there was no remote to accomplish this. I sold them after a few years and now use Klipsch which sound wonderful.
No real disrespect ,,,but WTF are you talking about?? Crossover pre--amp within those control boxes could only be shut-down by manual//phisical//hardware god-damn switch...There's NO FCKING way that they would turn themselves off,,back in those pure analog times..You are proving the point of old saying garbage-in results in garbage out.....AKA operators head-space misalignment. SMH in disbelief.
I belonged to the Boston Audio Society decades ago and I remember us taking a field trip up to Bose for a listen and my impression mirrored yours. Truth be told my own system back in the 70's was a pair of AR3a's with a pair of 80wpc Tiger amps (SWTP kits). Those speakers have been gone for decades now but I also had the AR XA turntable that I nought at the PX and the AR tuner. The turntable for it's time and price was the deal of the decade and I still use the AR Tuner to listen to the Boston Symphony almost 50 years later.
We had a pair in our house growing up and I would invite my buddies over when mom was gone, and we would crank it up! Sounded great to us back then. Had a huge kenwood amp, pioneer turntable and receiver cant remember what model...someone stole them of course.
Hi-fi Choice in the UK did technical tests on speakers as well as blind listening tests with 6 people where the speakers could not be seen (behind a very thin veil). I still have the review of the 901 and it did terribly in both tests. High distortion, very spiky frequency response even with the EQ and aggressive sounding. The 301 in the same edition did rather better at a fraction of the price!
Bose 901 lousy speaker would not recommend it to any user. I rather go for Paul W Klipsh Cornwall or Bob Crites Corn scala and Bob helped me Design my Paragon Scala he did all the calculations for my Cabinets . I gave him the info on the Drivers. And he designed My Paragon Scala for me. They are still under Construction with a British Violin Maker.
I've got Bose 591 ceiling speakers throughout my house, unobtrusive and sound pretty good to me. But sound reproduction is a very personal thing for many people. As a guitarist nothing reproduces the sound as good as my laney vc2 Class A Amp with 2 celestion speaker's. No Transistorised amp can create the sound I want to hear with my own ears. As for listening in a car, I dont care as long as the radio works, I prefer to concentrate on exactly what I'm doing not get lost in some tonal navarna and end up smashing into the back of a truck lol
Its one thing to worry about your guitar tone, even after being mic'ed up, its another to hear it on playback. Especially with the rest of the band. Your comment is invalid.
I've had some Gen6-901's for a while now on an Adcom GFA-555ii setup that i got as a gift. At first i thought they were ok sounding but after adding satalite tweeters, tweeking settings / placement its surprising the bass that these produce for such a small cabinet. They don't do well overdriven and complain but low to mid levels sound great to me...for free.
Say what you want about Bose but while restoring my 1975 Marantz quad receiver I ran across some old Bose 601s and some 901s (with working equalizer), all refoamed, with cabinets and grills all in very good to excellent condition, and all for $500 picked up locally. It’s not entirely all in the sound when setting up a ‘70s replication but with the 601s in the front and the 901s on the sides hung from the ceiling, these speakers are perfect. The cabinet veneer matches the cabinet on the Marantz. With 50 Watts of true Clean restored and properly dialed in amp boards rom the Marantz 4400 they sound amazing, and recreate a true ‘70s era experience. These were the speakers I thought I wanted, but could not afford, in 1975. Yes, I love Klipse and use a newer Klipse surround system with TV and general listening. Still can’t afford the good new or good used that I would want in this setup. For me, I feel 30 years younger with the Bose system up to proper levels, and I like that a lot!
The direct/reflect technology was based on the principle that live sound is both direct from the instruments (or PA system) and reflected off the walls, ceiling, and floor. But Bose chose to base their design on only one test in a highly reverberant hall. So the test itself produced very biased results. On top of that, when sound is recorded, microphones record both direct and reflective sound. So Bose 901 speakers are compounding the reverberation heard in the original performance. Bose is essentially a marketing company and a very good one at that. But to be fair, Bose is low-hanging fruit for the peanut gallery. There are plenty of very expensive high status brand name speakers that sound like crap or at best, mediocre. And for whatever reason, I don’t see anywhere close to the same degree of negative comments directed towards them. Unfortunately, this has led me to conclude that most people (including so called "audiophiles") have no clue as to what good sound even is.
The design of the Bose 901 is exactly why there is such controvery around them: they are specifically designed to do one thing, reproduce a live concert as realistically as possible. And they kind of do that, whether you either like it or hate it. Thing is, they are just mediocre in reproducing every other kind of music. While partially creating that sense of immersion in the music the direct/reflecting technology treis to bring, they just about take away all sense of instrument positioning, which is what stereo speakers try to reproduce. It all comes down to what you, as the listener prefer: do you like the instrument placement stereo gives you, or do you like the "sitting in the middle of a concert hall" feeling the 901's give you? Then there's the cheap drivers Bose used in almost all of their speakers, except the professional lines. A lot of audiophiles are simply offended that Bose charges premium prices for what in their eyes is a cheap to build speaker with cheap drivers. Another thing audiophiles hate is that Bose Equaliser or Sound Processor or whatever you may call it. Audiophiles believe in "pure" sound: as soon as you'll have to mandatory "equalise" or "process" the sound, to them it means that speaker basically is s***.
So called audiophiles are just that. And a lot of what they say sounds good, Alison sounds like junk. This review is nonsense. He’s re-hashing what the review that Bose sued over. A lot of Audiophiles sell a lot of snake oil also. And trash products they never heard. It’s also misleading what he’s saying here about the power hungry 901’s. The early versions required required a lot more power. They are pretty efficient in later versions that have been produced for decades. And I would probably never own or like what this guy who posted this so called review likes. There are “Audiophile” popular speakers produced to this day that are very inefficient. But that’s not a problem with the reviewers. But when i5 comes to the early 901 it’s sounds like a crisis. No matter what Bose would produce even if it was the best sounding speaker these “ Audiophiles” would cry fowl.
"Audiophiles" are the same as the "experts" or "geeks" in any hobby....audio, comic books, movies, cars, computers, gubs, etc. In the end it's all a dick measuring contest for these people. It truly is a personality disorder. People like what they like. Period. We just need to hear fucking music. 99% of people just want decent sounding music as background at home. They're not building an audio lab. Some people build billion dollar corporations and businesses selling people something they like while others sit on TH-cam telling you why it sucks. Go do it "better" yourself so that someone else on TH-cam can tell YOU how much it sucks. 😄
The original Bose 901 used $5 CTS midrange drivers made in Paducah Kentucky. The hype of the original launch in Boston was such B.S. And Amar offered free trips to Hawaii for Tech Hi-Fi salespeople who could sell a certain number of pairs. Of course "gentlemen" in audio like Ed Villchur and and Henry Kloss didn't try to buy off/bribe audio salespeople. When I exposed this on the radio (WBCN) Bose tried to get me fired.
They also sued Consumer Reports for saying that the sound seemed to be bouncing along the wall. What they probably meant was that as you walked along the wall, the sound seemed to be bouncing. Normally, an "absence of malice" defense would exonerate them, but the judge in this case sided with Bose.
a friend remarked on mine that he heard "echoes" - perhaps my low level hearing is too poor to observe - also I'm used to Karlson cabinets where the sound rattles around a bit before exiting ;^) (Karlson called it "Controlled Ringing"
@@Assimilator702 The systems I have heard from Bose have had ALOT of bass from the bass modules (atleast the dual 6,5"). But the sound quality is something that's missing😅
Øystein They can have a good quantity of midbass. Especially when corner loaded which lets the room do much of the work. However there’s no deep tight authoritive and textured sub bass that will turn your insides to mush when the track calls for it.. That isn’t possible without a quality subwoofer system with an abundance of power.
So, Paul W. Klipsch (the creator of the Klipschorn and founder of Klipsch) was walking down the street one day, and he saw Dr. Amar Bose on the other side of the street. Paul stops, faces Amar, cups his hands around his mouth, and clearly yells, "Hello Amar!" Amar hears Pauls loud voice and stops. He immediately turns 180-degrees from Paul, puts his hands over his mouth, and mutters, "Hello Paul." Paul shrugs his shoulders and walks away."
I'm planning to place my 901s with stands on my back wall, a couch 6 ft in front of that and in front of the couch I have a pair of Normans. Do you think this mix is ok? I'm using a pioneer vsx1124K receiver.
Gotta say I'm skeptical of some of the ideas on this channel but I see they come from a place of genuine excitement for your craft. More stories like this, please!
Funny this would come up. I used to have a set of 901's which I liked a lot of some reasons and hated for others. The thing that was great about them was at a party I could have a house full of people and play music and it sounded alright no matter where anyone was. However like you said it definitely lacked focus for persona listening. Now I have gone to the complete opposite end of the spectrum with some Martin Logan's haha. They have a sweet spot the size of a golf ball but when you are in there it's magic!I despite their faults I do occasionally miss the old 901's...
There is no real sweet spot to the 901's their intent is to fill the room so that it sounds ok no matter where you are. I mean of course it's better in certain spots but you get it...
I love my Martin Logens but the sweet spot is the size of a pea not a golf ball. I get back and neck pain holding my head in the best position to listen in. As you leave the sweat spot the sound degrades rapidly.
Lol so true. But within that pea... one thing I would to add asap us a sub. I feel like the Logan's focus so much on clarity that they lise a little bit of feel. Could just by mine. Though as they are somewhat entry level.
Steve Huk I have a pair of Ascents and their descent sub. Sub doesn't help. The speakers are great for jazz piano trios. If the recording is bad , it sounds much worse through the logans. I still have the Logans but now I use triton 1's as my all around speakers. I use the old Logan sub with a pair of focal beryllium tweeter 2 ways. Sounds really nice together.
This is why I love this vlog Paul: your opinions are always nuanced and considered. Even when you don't really like a product, it comes out very nicely! For some reason a lot of people in audio-land always think they are right and are willing to defend their opinions with fire and sword ( not sure if this is correct English!). And why? Being an audiophile is supposed to be something nice; the ( personal) experience of enjoying music at its best. That's all.
Paul P. I think Paul was being kind. They were okay for early 70s but Bose kept making them for something like 45 years. They just recently discontinued them. They just didn't have the sound quality to compete with speakers far less expensive. They weren't audiophile oriented and audiophiles are a demanding bunch.
Paul is being very diplomatic, but he also doesn't curse much when describing stuff. :) "What do you think?" is the worst situation to be in. The correct answer is "I've never heard anything like it."
I've got a pair of 901's that I purchased in 1987? I think series IV? I'm driving them with an Adcom preamp and an Adcom GFA-555.....They need to be re-foamed. Should I bother to spend the money? I can do it myself. Any suggestions?
bought my 901's overseas in early seventies with a marantz 2270. the marantz just died recently, but those bose are still sounding great to me after almost fifty years. of course they are running with almost 50 other speakers and nine separate receivers when i listen to our wonderful kmfa classical station . color me happy!
I used to have some Bose speakers, the 301's sounded MUCH smoother if you pulled the stock woofers out and replaced them with the radio shack 8" replacement. I also had the 501's and was never really satisfied with them.
Bullshit. You can't detune a tuned enclosure by arbitrarily replacing the woofer and expect better sound, unless you don't know what better sound really sounds like.
Knew a guy in the service had 301s on top of 501s they sounded great compared to my 901 series 4. Yea Bose is not quality they use reflection but the components are not as good as many other makers use. Smoke and Mirrors. Me a one time Bose fan. Got some Infinity SM 150s blew Bose away. Had some muddy JBL LX 55 too. Infinity made some good speakers. I did like the combo of 301 and 501 played together.
@@johnoberle9750 there seems to be a little subculture of 301 people who like them and apparently can get decent sound out of them. Don't think I've heard them in 20 years or so.
I own 901Vs along with many other speakers. Having had my 901s in several homes over the years I can say their sound quality is highly dependent upon the acoustics of the room in which they are placed and most importantly where in the room they are placed especially with respect to the reflective wall. Everybody knows proper placement is important for any speaker to sound good. With 901s it is especially so and more challenging due to the reflective wall playing such a critical role. It is easy to make them sound bad. Real easy. However, when the room and placement are dialed in they sound excellent with an immersive sound stage unlike any other. Sound quality far better than all the bashing would lead one to believe. They do require amplifiers with serious muscle. Not so much for volume, more for headroom. There are 18 drivers which is quite a lot of cone/coil/suspension mass to control. Weak amplification can't be expected to control that much mass with accuracy and authority. If you haven't spent considerable time positioning them in the room or your reflective wall is wrong or you don't have at least several hundred watts per channel of clean power then you haven't really heard 901s.
Lol. There is a guy on TH-cam who was on the Audiophiliac channel proclaiming his Bose 901s were amazing and better than any other 901. A few months later he purchased Klipsch Forte IV and declared they were so much better than his beloved 901s. The 901s are garbage and even former 901 owners say so once they actually own decent speakers.
@@carlosoliveira-rc2xt LOL. So you based your expert opinion based on hearsay. Opinion of a guy who knows somebody who says something about something. LOL.
@@jayjay9932 He was a 901 owner. You saw him in his living room with his beloved 901s proclaiming how great they were. Months later on his own channel he realized they weren't so great and said as much. I spoke with him. Are you claiming I watched CGI and I spoke to a bot? I guess you can't talk sensibly to a Bose fanboy. I couldn't convince him that Bose sucked but he eventually found out on his own. Read what I wrote very very slowly as it may help your comprehension. If you can't believe a former Bose owner, who can you believe?
@@jayjay9932 I own a system more expensive than your home and have owned at least 200 pairs of speakers over the years. I auditioned 901s when I was 16 years old and rejected them then. My expert opinion is based on over 40 years in the hobby, 29 years in acoustics and designing and building Home Theaters. I figured you would accept a former Bose owner's authority over mine. Cheers!
I’ve been using 901’s since 1976 for various purposes from my band to the home stereo....! I still have a set of 901s downstairs in my studio .....🎶❤️🎵 I’m 65 years old and I’ve been a audiophile for years..... I also use a Bose L1 system with one of my bands right now....!
I can appreciate your opinion on the 901s - I recall a friend with a pair and he loved Scottish bagpipes. Talk about 'bleeding ears!' LMAO - but I also recall hearing a Concerto with deep bass and melodic strings that sounded quite amazing - especially not 'cranked,' but at 'reasonable' db. That said (besides being overpriced in my opinion) what is your take on the Bose 301s? I had a pair of those and they had, I believe an 8" single speaker with a 3-1/2" tweeter at an angle with a vane-deflector that was kind of cool. No extra eq needed and they sounded very clean on a moderate-power amp source, like your typical Pioneer SX series amp/tuners. Just curious your thoughts on these, what I feel were adequately priced and nice sounding! Thanks!
Mike .R. , the 301 Bose speakers are ok, but over priced, I have a pair of Polk bookshelf speakers that are much better and cheaper. Bose speakers do not have good bass. the best speakers for music playback on analog tube or digital amps are CERWIN VEGA Speakers
I remember in college, we had a "Physics of Sound" course, which all music majors had to take. Each student had to do a presentation on a subject of their choice, and several students did presentations on high fidelity speakers. One of the students had a pair of Bose 901 speakers and did a comparison of the Bose-built speakers with a pair he had put together with the CTS raw speakers for about $100 for the pair. The two sets of speakers sounded very similar, but neither sounded at all like conventional speakers that another person in the class had made and presented on the same day as the Bose speakers. Being a musician as well as a recording enthusiast, I could tell that the Bose speakers and the handmade copy sounded nothing like real music. Bose speakers have been basically high priced gimmicks.
you neglected to mention the equalizer which your student could probably not have produced. Perhaps he used the factory equalizer with the home built pair. But your story is not complete without that info.
@@hitty9 The student did use an equalizer with the homebuilt speakers - it was an inexpensive octave graphic and he tried the homebuilt speakers both with and without the equalizers. They sounded a lot more like the commercial Bose speakers with the equalizers but recordings with either speaker didn't sound very realistic.
@@robertm2000 Interesting to know, but the Bose eq was matched to the 901's. Any other unit would not have had the custom curve designed to mate with only the Bose speakers. Test not valid.
@@hitty9 This wasn't a test - just a demonstration to a class. The Bose 901s and their homebuilt copies didn't sound very good. I have never seen Bose 901s in a situation where precise and accurate listening - professional monitoring in other words - is required. PA systems, where simple volume and lots of it is required, the 901s actually could do a passable job.
Back in the day. There were Stereo shows, with a very small section for TV's. I remember going to the Statler Hotel NYC, across the street from MSG. We went in the late 70's or early 80. This particular night they were introducing the BOSE 901's. When you first walk into the room. They had a pair Cerwin Vegas 18" When the demo started, it was a disco song and sounded great. We were bobbing our heads to the music. Then the presenter stopped and switched the music to the BOSE. We were turning our heads, cause the sounds came from all over the room. Totally impressed. Purchased them for around $1200 I believe back them. Two Thumbs Up! Unfortunately, I lost all my equipment and 11 crates of records in the divorce. : ) I'm 58 and would love to DJ again one day.
I was in the military and there was always a Bose representative on location to demonstrate the sound of the Bose speakers. The focus was always on the founders PHD and stating pseudo technical jargon as their advertising hype. Having understood acoustics to a comfortable level, I had never thought the speakers would sound as good as a comparably priced set of speakers with quality components and construction. I had asked the representative to play some music that I brought myself and they refused. The music that they played was always from the Bose prescribed collection. A week later I brought my own music and demoed every speaker, except Bose, and left with a Cerwin-Vega subwoofer and pair of Polk 10b's. In the end, the speakers must speak for themselves. When it comes to speakers, just because it might sound good on paper doesn't mean it will "sound good".
Nothing beats a subwoofer, especially nowadays when we use them viewing (and listening) to movies. Nothing beats an explosion coming out of a subwoofer.
Paul I have a pair of Klipsch KLF-30 floor standing loud speakers 15 yrs old and I am happy with them. What is one of the best speakers that you have ever heard (non-professional) series speaking ?
Yes, classical program material was my striking memory of 901's powered by Macintosh amp and pre amp, CD source and a cathedral ceiling, drywall/carpet 12x15 room. It was the most detailed and concert like sound I had ever heard. As a musician then, and later also a recording engineer I would like to hear this rig again, (you know how young memories can be :) . I think you nailed it with amplification and program material. It could be today with subwoofer and a sonic maximizer, along with switchable speaker drivers for direct and reflective it could be interesting. For the last 20 years referencing with Roland RS90's and soon to be added Presonus, I have not had the same thrill I had in that 901 room.....my trained ears be damned???? :) ha ha.
Hi, Mr. McGowan, I have enjoyed your videos with thanks. Since 1996 I have been using Bose 901 type 6. I am very positive. If I didn’t have this model I must have bought two or three more speaker system additionally to satisfy my needs. This has ‘ muscle’ in sound and doesn’t produce any ‘scratch’ at the crossover area of the three or four way system. I think surely Bose has knowledge which sound makes human ear happy. As some say no highs or no lows may have been a merit for our enjoyment. But I had to pay a special attention to install properly. New Zealand
Paul McGowan, PS Audio sir,how good is the EQ that comes with the bose 90`s? my buddy sold me bose 901s series 5,he said they would sound better with a aftermarket 30 band EQ
901 is a very interesting and controversial speaker in audio history. The drivers were advertised to be matched to +/- 0.1dB with each other, which is unusually tight tolerance. It doesn't use $1 clock radio drivers as some online bose bashers claim. 901 VI Series 2 (the last version before discontinuation) connected to a 110W @ 8Ohm British hi-fi amp sounded good to me. Of course, the owner was an audiophile who takes care of speaker set up. While it is musically pleasant, it was also quite revealing or sensitive (perhaps due to crossoverless design - a design that some purists love -) to the quality of source component or recording. There was no lack of bass or high - well there was lack of bottom end, but it is common to most speakers except very large ones such as Paul's IRS that goes down to amazing 16Hz (901 VI has no output at 16Hz, really no) -. Though the high had some pleasant character, it was not as refined as some system with good dome-tweeter speakers. Note, however, that I did not do direct comparison in the same room with same amp. I guess the less-refined high was related to the easily measurable (controlled but existing) cone break-ups of the full range driver. Another serious problem that makes 901s unpopular is that it requires too much space laterally to sound good: the 55cm speaker width and 45cm or more on each of the left and right. Most wives would hate to lose so much space to speakers. There is about 20dB or more boost in high ("mid treble"(a misnomer, I think) slider at max. In the system I listened to, the treble slider was left from the center position. So the boost was less than 12 dB. I guess that only very absorbent room will require 20dB boost.). At low, the boost is approx. 10 dB at Bass 1 among 1 and 2 (1 means more 40Hz than 2) and almost independent of the mid bass slider position. Depending on the way of connection and the connected gears (max input voltage issue), there can be hard clipping somewhere in the audio path. Hard clipping sounds horrible. For an audiophile who understands all these issues, I think 901VI was a worthwhile crossoverless full-range loudspeaker to consider at $1400. I am an audiophile who does not work for any audio company. P. S.: In that audiophile's set up, adjusting the EQ for flat pink noise RTA response resulted in unnaturally bright high. I guess it is related to the larger amount of reflected sound than other speakers. It is known to PA sound engineers that in large room (large in PA sense, not home audio sense), where there are more reflected sound energy due to larger size of the room, the pink noise RTA response curve should slope down at high. Otherwise, the PA system will sound too bright. Again, 901 is not a system for a beginner such as some people who blindly aims at flat pink noise RTA response.
Would be interesting if someone made a dome tweeter add on that had the same dispersion pattern as the 901 or made a coaxial driver for the 901 that is as powerful as the stock driver.
@@ikonix360 Yes, that would be interesting. Avoiding crossover is a design concept of 901, and thus it would be very interesting to see what we get by braking that concept while preserving others. By the way, dome drivers do not have good dispersion to 20kHz.
@@azzinny Another option would be compression drivers on round lenses made the same size as the 901 drivers for the same dispersion. A powered sub or two would take care of the low bass. A DSP would be used for the crossover.
I still use my original 70's era OHM G's and their equalizer. Over the years the original foam surrounds expired. Have replaced the surrounds now on the Walsh drivers and later on the passive radiator cones. Still the most transparent speakers I have heard - except the OHM F's.
In the mid 80's I borrowed a pair of 901's for a barn dance, running off my Marantz amp/pre amp, about 150 watts rms per channel, they took the power but sounded terrible, well, it was a barn, so I went home and got my Audio Sphere Research living room speakers (250 watt 5 or 6 ways, 15" woofers) and rocked the place for several days. I later hooked up the 901's in my living room (18'x40), they still sounded loud and crappy, so not much love for that model. Over the years Ive had several smaller Bose, 301's were probably my favorites in a tight space, and still use a set of 201 gen II's as a second set on my chitty stereo, for mids/highs, on top of better base cabs, and for what I need for sound my old Harmon 50w amp makes them sing and the house is happy :)
I owned Bose 901, many decades ago. There placement had to be exact to get that presence and you are right, you had to have the equalizer. I did have a brick wall and the Bose clipped my amplifier more than once. They could play loud though. Overall, I was so glad to get rid of them, very limited use, but like you at a dealer I heard a set, set up correctly in a dealer's show room and it was pretty good. I remember seeing these in a club one night playing loud music and thought they were horrible hanging from the ceiling.
Hi Paul, just want to say how much I appreciate your videos. You manage to cover some sophisticated topics without the "attitude." I recently had an accident and was bedridden for a number of months and enjoyed your videos so much. it really helped to plug in a part of the day to listen to Paul. Thank you.
Youll never appreciate music as it was recorded with the reflections inherent to its design. Theres a saying, usually said after a listener closes their eyes. "At that moment, the system became transparent." When imaging and staging are perfect and you think you are in the room with the original musicians.
bonjour pourriez vous m aider pour installer des haut-parleur bose 901 sil vous plait quels sont les materiaux a utilser.les cables de connections faut il un pre amplificateur obligatoirement entre les hp et l amplificateur? merci pour vos reponses
I have never been a fan of Bose speakers but I have fond memories of listening to my friends Bose 601's on many occasions. Those speakers were paired with Yamaha equipment and they sounded pretty darn good. I lost touch with him a long time ago so I don't know if he ever followed through on his plans to someday upgrade to the 901's.
I place my 901s face down in my large waste receptacle. I've tried it with the lid up and the lid down. My professional opinion is they are better with the lid down and walking away with my back to the receptacle...
this episode is special to me. i was smiling from ear to ear while watching it. about 30 years ago . i had a pair of 901 speakers . didn't last long . sold'em a couple of years later. yes they were awful. but what the hell did i know back when. i was in my 20ies. my only good memories with them was i had some great parties. neighbors called the cops on us a few times... thank you great episode.
Just got a set of these yesterday from my Uncle along with a Bose amp. Giving them to my 14 y.o. son who wants to listen to all my albums along with a real nice Technics turntable. Should be fine for his bedroom & fill it nicely with sound; a good introduction to higher-end systems he can play around with to get a sound he likes out of them. I'll never hear it over my Definitive Technology setup anyway, so... 😎
Thanks for the interesting story. I noticed many high end systems (Wilson Audio WAMM, SF Aida, etc.) do incorporate rear firing speakers. It would be interesting to hear your comments on that.
I was in college and as a sophomore, one of the guys in the dorm had 901's. Pink Floyd, of which we all listened to, sounded amazing. I also remember Super Tramp so loud and so clear. So clear -- that's my memory of the 901's. Thanks for the review.
Pink Floyd is out of this world and out of this universe whilst trippin on a really high dose of psychedelic mushrooms 🍄
Did we go to college together?
Love ‘em or hate ‘em, if you’ve heard the 901’s you more than likely remember the experience. My uncle had a pair and they sounded great and the smile on his face while listening to them was even greater. ❤
Back in 1980 a friend of mine bought a pair of 901s...and that same year I bought a pair of Klipsch Heresys. We were friends, but we didn't hang out that much together, maybe twice a month. This was before cellphones, obviously, and I don't even think either of us had a landline. Back then we would just show up where someone was living and if they were home, they were home. One day I showed up and he wanted to show me his new speakers. So, I listened to them and told him they sounded pretty good. Then I told him what I bought and we should do a side by side. About a week later I took my Klipsch to his house, and after a couple of hours listening to different music through both speakers he starting having buyers remorse. The Klipsch blew those 901s away.
I think that the BOSE amp was model 1801. I serviced one of these in the 1970s. I remember two things. It is one of the heaviest amplifiers I had ever carried upstairs to my apartment. The other was how very well this amp was designed to be easily serviced. I don't remember what was wrong with it, but the ease of service somewhat made up for the pure agony of carrying it upstairs. Edit: I just looked it up. This model weighed 82 pounds!
back in the days, those magnetic equipments were heavy because of the anvil-size magnetic transformer powering the system. Unlike digital audio today taking the power from a much lighter main capacitor... nice story. thanks for sharing!
I got myself some 901 Series II yesterday. You’re right. They don’t sound accurate. But they sound fun. Incredibly fun. If placed correctly.
Got some 901 series 2 and I am hooking up with a nikko equalizer and yamaha ax 900 I always wanted a pair as I heard my friends 901 series 2 in 1975 in Cambridge ont so I got some because series two have cloth speakers surrounds not foam so they don't rot so I'm told I will let you know how I get the sound to go but my yamaha with my n h t sb3 speakers sound great
They have to be paired with the core Bose receiver to sound correct
That's a simple but solid reference point. If it's loud and your ears hurt, that's called heavy distortion = bad. If it's loud but you can actually talk to someone at the same time and hear them clearly, that's called low distortion = good.
A girl in high school (early 80's) had a pair that hung from the ceiling in her mostly empty living room. We would crank them and party. I remember that they were kind of loud and harsh but something about their shape and placement in the room made them pretty special. More like a performance than your usual stereo.
...and that was the intention!
I've heard of 901 speakers and I can say that the drivers are well built and of high quality. It all comes down to proper placement, equalizer tuning and application, just like any other speaker.
Lol
You're right!
Bose speakers did sound their best playing classical music. I remember hearing a string quartet over a pair of Bose 301s in a Rizzoli bookstore in Atlanta GA many years ago, and it sounded excellent.
I love how you pick different parts of the company to do your videos , kind of gives us a feel for the company
All Bose speakers could be made to sound better by simply replacing the drivers, crossovers and cabinets.
Haha. Did you just tell us to buy something else?
Yeah, I just couldn't resist being a smart-ass when I made my original comment but a lot of people purchased and lived happily with Bose speakers, and the direct reflecting thing did give them a unique and spacious sound. I don't think they would have sold as well as they did if they were truly as bad sounding as people make them out to be. I'm talking about the older original speakers. Probably most everything from the 1980's on deserves the disdain they get.
JB a backwards way of saying all Bose speakers would be better if they weren't Bose
Absolutely, just keep the Bose logo intact
You are entitled to your wrong opinion.
My first audio money spent was a pair of 301 series II. Hung them from the ceiling just like the instructions suggested, 30+ years later it was those speakers that opened the door to this tone chasing journey.
I'm sure. After those, there's no way to go, but up. lol
The best PA system I have heard used a pair of Bose speakers on stands, similar to the 901s. The equipment belonged to a gospel band that came to play in our high school auditorium. This was the first time I had seen a dedicated sound engineer doing his magic. He, with his gear, was positioned near the middle of the hall. The sound was natural and never fatiguing.
I think the co.mdrcial sound reinforcement version was called the 801 and 802 models.
I think these also came pole mounted on a woofer enclosure
40 years ago i was using them in my kibbutz (which was demolished in October 7th) for PA. indeed a very good speakers which sounded almost the same volume from 1 meter to 20. they designed so u could put up to 8 i think on each other.
they had a lid that u can close and carry it like a suitcase. back then this was very popular speakers and u could see them a lot on the TV all around the world. even saw them in a royal event in the UK
Paul - I was for many years a speaker designer / manufacturer in Sarnia, ON, Canada. We manufactured upper tier product such as studio monitors along with some audiophile consumer product. I met up with Dr. Bose in the later 1970's when we were at the Toronto High Fi Show. Their display featured a pair of their 901 speakers each of them hooked up to a 1000W amplifier, of course through the equaliser. We had already had a conversation with one of their salesmen, who said something to the effect of 'your stuff is shit, the only person who knows anything about speakers is Dr. Bose. Come to our display and hear what music is supposed to sound like'. So we took them up on their invitation. When we got there they challenged us to find a record that would 'really show off the 901's'. So my VP rummaged through the discs and found a copy of Tubular Bells. They put it on, turned it up, the quality was terrible, the phase distortion was noticeable, and the volume was ear piercing. When it came to the point where the record announced the tubular bells there was the original note of the 'bells, the meters of the amps went into the red - and then nothing - the amps shut down. The tech guys were hastily trying to find fuses. Amar was furious, I went over to him and said, "Come over to our display, we have speakers that produce flat response full room volume, with 1 watt RMS'. His response, 'f**k off!' This turned out to be a great story when prospective customers asked us about the 901's. BTW, although Bose originally loaded those cabinets with cheap CTS speakers, for a number of years the 4.5" drivers were manufactured in Kitchener Ontario by Marsland Speakers. I think that Bose paid something like $2.50 a copy. Later I remember that they were experimenting with injection molded plastic baskets - to cut down the price. So - I don't have a lot of positive regard for Bose product design, but Dr. Amar Bose was an absolute marketing genius.
I'm not an audiophile and never understood the hate Bose got from those guys. Didn't know if it was real or B.S. This is the best explanation I have found. Thanks.
Bose sound good to an untrained ear, because it plays to the frequencies the human ear is designed for, midrange. They fail when it comes to bass and treble. In a fair A/B comparison, the Bose sound constraint when trying to reproduce the sound of a bell, chime, or kick bass etc, which are the very things that add authenticity, and emotion to music
I have fond memories of Bose. My dad wotked there in the late 70's i was 10 or so and went to their employee open house. Was amazing. They gave me a broken meter from their Syncom? test computer(still have it). I still have my dads 1800 amp and 901s too. 1800 is a BEAST.
the first introduction to decent sound was at my friend Guenther's house where I heard the 901s playing Tres Hombres in 1974. They were the door openers that sent me on a bit of an audiophile journey and by 1979 I traded my kef 105.2's for the Model 19s that I still have, all thanks to Guenther and his bose.
Your opinion is very interesting, honest and objective, thank you. The Bose 901 speakers were the first I heard when I was young and I was shocked. Over time I learned more about the audio and I owned all kinds of speakers and brands. Bose 901 has always been a memory of my childhood.
Bose 901s. What a fun trip down memory lane. It was the early 80s and I was in college. Almost bought a pair of 901s when I looked at a used A700 Yamaha amp which was paired to a set of 901s. Got the amp but not the speakers, as the amp cost $500 and it sucked up all my beer money - probably for the better in hindsight. Used that amp for 38 years.
A popular dance club back then had 901's mounted up by the ceiling with the "back" of the speaker with all it's drivers facing down at a 45 degree angle to the dance floor, which was ringed by large subs. They had several beefy Dynaco amps powering the system in the DJ booth. Out on the dance floor the sound, after more than a few shots and beers, was pretty awesome - haha...
The thing I learned from those days of throwing parties at the fraternity house in the early 80's (I was the sound guy) - the speakers must be set up super "hot" on the top end, enough to sound horribly bright in an empty room, as all those dancing bodies absorb a lot of highs. The system "came in" when the room was full.
My frat house's speakers were nice DCM "Time Windows" which often blew their tweeters under all of our beer stained party duress. My cheap quick and dirty solution was to replace the constantly blowing dome tweeters in with Radio Shack piezo tweeters. A terrible thing to do I suppose, but problem solved and in a full room full of dancing drunk chicks, the violated with Radio Shack piezo horn tweeter DCM speakers sounded great. I also don't think it is possible to blow a piezo tweeter, God knows we tried.
Speaking of blown drivers, I spoke with the manager at the bar, he said they were constantly blowing individual drivers in the 901s as they ran that system hard. If I remember right, the manager said the 901s had a warranty and Bose sent them a box full of extra drivers.
You explained in detail how I felt about the 901 speakers up to this very moment. Unfortunately I was the guy with the brick wall and beer.
Pacific Stereo....my dad bought 4 Infinity Column ll's from them, back in the late 70's. He still has them, and they sound incredible. Thanks for the great stories Paul.
Never refoamed? Love infinity products but those surrounds....
1975 I was stationed in Puerto Rico while in the US Navy. The 901's were my first real HiFi speakers and I ordered them through Pacific Mail Order, an outfit in Guam of all places. When they arrived home from work (I stood watches at the Naval Communications Station) I come to find that the speakers had been spirited out of my housing quarters with my wife's permission and was the main source of the music that was blasting through the housing there at Fort Buchanan in suburban San Juan. Quite a block party. When they were in my home quite often after playing a song at substantial volume there would be polite applause for the surrounding homes. The 901's had 4 speakers mounted on each of the angled back sides of the enclosure and one mounted in the front. They were not efficient speakers and needed a lot of power to make them come alive. Bose later modified the speakers and wound the voice coils with square shaped wire replacing round. With square wire there were no air gaps in the coil windings as the coil was wound one layer on top of the other. The square wire allowed more wire in order to produce a stronger magnetic field for a given amount of space thus you didn't have to have a monster amp to drive them loud. After a few years I was transferred to San Diego and one day I was giving them a listen and I just wasn't satisfied. I guess what killed them for me was I had discovered Magnepans. I still have my set of speakers, they still work fine. I have overhauled the crossover too. They were a pretty big part of my HiFi life.
I have 2 sets of series ones and I love em. Was in production from 1968 to 2016 someone must like them.
Justin Bieber sells a ton of records. Jerry Lewis movies are STILL very popular in France. Chrysler K cars flew off the lots in the 80s.
None of which are convincing arguments defending their quality.
Bose 901s can be considered a good choice if one has never had much experience with sound equipment or understanding of reproducing music. Explicitly, it is impossible for a 901 system to reproduce a phantom channel and for that reason alone the system is useless unless you want to vacuum the house listening to them. Let alone tonal response.
@@batvette I'm not crazy about Justin beiber or jerry lewis. But I liked France but spain was better I made a really good living as an auto tech and I don't like crysler in any letter and I've been messing with audio gear for 40 years I guess and owned many different rigs and I'll take 901s over any speaker I feel the same way about Bogen lenco turntables and Bogen amps and the old tube stuff from the Early 60s. Matter of taste I guess.
@@joelteague9446 for about 10 years until recently I had a pair of these:
www.stereophile.com/content/infinity-composition-prelude-p-fr-loudspeaker
Its a bit of a long read but the review is accurate. Picked up at goodwill for $175 like most infinitys all the foam surrounds were rotten took a weeks worth of spare time and $75 in parts to refoam all 12 mids and mid highs. Then another week damping the aluminum enclosures with sikaflex over thin rolls of modelling clay inside. (Old school car audio trick before dynamat) They really are everything the 901s arent. Perfect tonal balance very sensitive and incredible staging and imaging. I drove them with a 40wpc 70s yamaha natural sound receiver.
901s are impressive in their own way, they sound "big". But youll never close your eyes and utter those words, "at that moment, the system became transparent". The best equipment is that which can disappear and fool your mind that youre in the room with the source materials' artists.
But then again thats not that hard for even cheap headphones, and if you achieve it in your living room you can only do it in one seat at a time!
Read this in a review somewhere:“Tonality: The Bose 901's are passable tonally if you are not in the room with them.”
You have brought back memories by mentioning Pacific Stereo. I lived about 1 mile from their Santa Clara store and they had such a nice setup with different rooms with cork panels on the walls. I bought my first cassette player there the Advent 101 and then the 201. I believe Pacific Stereo was a unit of CBS. It was sad when they closed.
I have a friend who used to mess with Bose at CES, he would walk up to the reps and turn his head away from them, bounce his voice off of his hand, and introduce himself lol.
I was a dealer for Bose in the 70s and made quite a few trips to the factory in Framingham. Dr. Bose was one of the great snake oil salesmen of our times, and claimed credit for many acoustic innovations that existed before he was born. For example, he claimed that the folded duct in his table radio was his unique design. Paul Klipsch and many others used the same principle years before- Paul didn't complain about it. When the 901 was first introduced, state- of- the- art amps were capable of a maximum of about 60 watts RMS. The power demands of the 901 easily forced these amps to clip and distortion levels were horrendous. This did not stop buyers from plunking down $496 for the chance to hear ear splitting reproduction. In about 1974, Bob Carver introduced the first high power amp at 350 watts/ channel and that made the 901 marginally more bearable. I used to refer to the Bose amp as the " boat anchor"- it didn't last long.
The inherent fault in the design of the 901 is obvious- trying to force one driver to produce the entire spectrum of sound. So far there is no single driver that can do this accurately.
Stromberg/Carlson made a speaker enclosure called Acoustical Labyrinth for their upright radio consoles around the late 30's or early 40's. It was a form of transmission line enclosure. That is the idea Bose copied for their wave radio.
As I recall, the original list price was $476
The Bose Wave Radio enclosure in no way resembles a folded horn except maybe visually to someone who knows nothing about engineering. The Bose Wave Radio speaker enclosure is an acoustic labyrinth, something like a cross between a bass reflex enclosure and a transmission line.
Agreed Paul. A 'proper' transmission line speaker usually has a line that is at least a 1/4 wavelength of the lowest frequency to be produced. The wave radio 'line' is far too short to be a serious transmission line. It also has no absorbent material which a transmission line is supposed to have. The wave radio bass is very uneven and marred by some horrible resonances. It doesn't sound anything like a transmission line.
IMF and TDL were using a reinforcing transmission line in the 1970s and 80s.. Even the later Bailey design in the 60s had an open line. It was Bailey who came up with the formula to calculate the parameters of a 1/4 wave transmission line. The idea of the line is to absorb most of the bass sound from the main driver but allow the lowest frequencies through, which in that region will be back in phase with the main driver. The ones I have use a line of over 2 metres in length.
This reminds me of a time in the early 70's when I was working at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab in Columbia, Md. I was an audiophile then, and a co-worker of mine was as well, so we hung out a lot. He had a pair of 901's, and was a big fan. Me, not so much. Amar Bose came to the lab and gave a talk one lunchtime, so my friend and I went to listen. He gave a nice talk on acoustics and the science behind the design of the 901's. I dont remember a lot about it now, but my friend just loved it. Not long after that, I moved from Maryland to California, and lost touch with my friend, but he was a huge fan of the 901's, that was for sure.
To me, the interesting idea behind the 901 was that a large number of smallish speakers could both move fast enough for the highs and move enough air for the lows. It stood in opposition to the prevailing notion that you should split the frequency range into three or more segments and use dedicated speakers for each. What other speakers try this?
The main problem is that you still need a lot of cone area to get the air movement for low frequency, but something very light to react quickly enough for high frequency. They do pretty good with multiple smaller speakers, but could also be better with the different dedicated drivers for low, mid, and high.
Which is why most high end speakers have multiple speakers so each can do what they’re best at.
My first exposure to the 901. Dorm room in Japan in 1982 playing Ozzy's "Crazy Train" at full volume. It was amazing.
Bubble Gum Metal played through garbage speakers by a college student. That pretty much says it all.
@@byronmacdowell3732 stop being a useless troll.
@@byronmacdowell3732 says the founder and lead of facking Black Sabbath is “Bubble Gum” Metal.
Like saying Pink Floyd is country because so many people listen to and love Pink Floyd, including country bumkins.
In 1974 I heard them in my local stereo shop. They produced the most bass I've ever heard from a non-subwoofer.
Ever heard of gale speakers, they kill the bose!
The bass in those days is the mid bass of today.
I heard two pair setup for quadraphonic sound along with 4 18" Altec subwoofers back in the late'70s and at a reasonable listening volume it was spectacular ! The owner of the system had spent many hours setting up adjusting levels and placement tho. I still recall that as an introduction to how hard it is to get good sound out of your existing equipment Learned that no system is " plug and play"
Wow, Quadraphonics and Altec Lansing goes back a long time ago, just like Harmon-Kardon
I loved your comments and the story. I bowled in this bowling league, where I was literally the worst bowler. The owner of the lanes, and the golf course next to it, must have chatted from time to time, and it turns out he had bought a Bose wave radio thing. He proudly took me into his office to play it for me. Now I am not a self professed golden eared audiophile, but I have loved audio my whole life, have strong opinions of audio, and had heard all kinds of systems. And when I listened to the wave radio, I felt like it was the audio equivalent of an aging guy trying to fool people into thinking he was a younger guy, and not quite managing it, leading to one feeling a bit bad/embarrased for the guy. That's how wave radio sound to me. So I just politely listened and made some non committal comments. Modern audio can perform some wonders, but people experienced in audio are not going to be fooled into thinking a wave radio is full range quality stereo setup :)
bose should use that as an advertising slogan......"After a couple of beers they sound Great!"
Same goes for women you meet in a bar😎
. . and after a couple, or few, or twenty, even Yoko Ono sounds good (then again, that may be jumping the audio shark).
for the speakers aint that the truth
She looked better and better...
Dr. Boseinstein is more like it. Basically they make a racket. If thats what you like, have at it.
Bose 901 Series 6 does very well playing Reggae , Soca and R&B music as well. Sound stage is amazing.
My worst experience too!
Finally i sold them!.. Lucky for me!
I never tire of hearing this story and also Paul's explanation and opinion of these oft lauded speakers.
There was a time when I thought 901s were a great idea and I really wanted them. Now I have traditional, heavy, wooden box speakers with large drivers and I prefer that sound.
Hi Paul,
In my opinion, you were very kind to Bose in your description of the 901s. I'll leave it at that. Unfortunately, my most indelible memory is of their amplifier. I worked in the Walnut Creek branch of Pacific Stereo. In our "high end" room, at one point, we were using their amp as our primary power amp. One day, while connected to a pair of JBL L200s (probably about mid 90 db efficiency) the amp failed in such a way that it just shrieked/roared/screamed at what I presume was full output. Even with the door to the room closed (the room was empty when it failed), it pretty much cleared the store. I was elected to try to shut it off. I covered one ear with my hand and did the best I could to cover the other with my shoulder and went in and pulled the plug. Couldn't really hear right for a while. Smoked the amp and one of the L200's. Always felt bad that it hadn't been connected to the 901's.
What was the amp?? What series??
Great story Paul. I used to go to a bar years ago that had 901’s installed. At first I thought “wow, they really fill the space” but the novelty soon wore off
Greg - I remember some bars and auditoriums that used the 901's BUT they turned the 8 speaker side toward the audience! Not much different than old fashioned 6 and 9 speaker columns.
@@paulthetubew thats the only way to get the 901s to image. Turn them around and put a pillow over the single one now facing the wall. Silly.
I salute Mr. Bill! Thank you for your Speaker Service! I have enjoyed these since 1989. My first part of my Army career. If Bose only knew how many (lil soldiers)(LoL) marched to their product, they would know how much these speakers were so supreme in our down time. I even had a Spanish Staff Sargent, while in Germany in the 90's find about 4 broken 901's and he took the drivers out and mounted them in his car. Front to back!!! Imagine the time spent? Anyway, It sounded awesome but, He couldn't bring the BMW 323 back to the states. and, the sound system was destroyed. I still Salute Bose for giving me a good time. Love Life.
I had a friend years ago who lived in the projects and with the small room he had and the solid concrete walls and ceiling the concept of reflected sound really worked.
Still have a pair. Still love them. Their are certain ways to set them up and enjoy the sound. A brick wall is not one of them to get good sound. I've had my pair for 30 years now, and the speakers have not yet failed or dry rotted. I have them running on a Denon front end with a Hafler amp at 150 watts a channel. You should watch the curtains fly around in back of them when I play some ol school like Planet Rock. I've known people that hate 901's, but I love them.
Finally, someone that is not simply repeating the same old crap they've heard others so often repeat! Anyone that's invested the time and money in these are aware of the strengths as well as the limitations that will be inherent in any product that assaults the bottom lines of the "audiophile" equipment manufacturers whose products made the 901s such a "bargain' by comparison. (and still so...!)
Kevin McWilliams they terrible speakers man!
What a load of bull. This aint no bandwagon of hate. Its people knowing the difference between good and bad speakers. I could go on but im busy putting in new walls to make my bose sound good. Lol
"I've had my pair for 30 years now, and the speakers have not yet failed or dry rotted."
Consider yourself extremely lucky. The 901 uses paper cones. That's usually the first thing that needs to be repaired on the 901. Few people get more than ten years without having to re-cone or replace the speakers in a 901. (Usually, replace since the cost of re-coning a four and a half inch paper speaker is higher than replacing them.)
I owned a pair of 901s. Dissatisfied with its high end, I added a couple of tweeters to each one; one on the front and one on the side facing away from the listener. They helped a little. Finally, the foam surrounds dry rotted and I replaced them with a pair of Martin Logan Aerius 1.
BOSE had their place thru the years of innovation.
Lots of different toys came out from the 70's and 80's. It was a good time for music. And the combinations of equipment and speakers were endless, and ever changing. Even for the most modest of pocket books.
(but money talked as always lol tear)
But maybe I was just blessed to be living in the area of Carver, Speakerlab and Speaker Factory back then.
And exposed to everything from Wharfedales, ESS, AR, and even Cerwin Vegas ability to Shake Your Seats watching EARTHQUAKE in the theatre from 18inch Strokers lol. (that was pretty cool back then : )
And of course, the Sonic Holograph ☺.
I enjoyed them all.
From reel-to-reel, to 8-Tracks and cassettes. Laserdisc to CD's. VHS to SVHS. PONG to Nintendo. Analog to digital. And Albums will never get old !!!
And I Loved my 61inch MAGNETBOX (Simpsons: ) when it came out.
Had a friend throwup on my couch from Motion Sickness. THAT WAS GREAT LOL.
And I almost forgot the age of Car Stereos and Mobile Phones. 10-4 hehe.
(sticklers probably prefer car Audio. Whatever. Wasn't what it was called then : )
But just because one thing may be better to one person than another. Doesn't mean it's bad. Especially if you Enjoy It.
Like the many (older : ) people I know that have, And Love, their BOSE Radios. Just simple nice sounding music for them. So WELL worth their money.
Their Happy. And you can't put a price on that.
As the old saying goes. RELAX,.. It's All Good ☺
Nice job describing the Bose 901. Fun hearing the name Pacific Stereo for the first time in years. I worked at the store in Bellevue, WA. for a couple years as the service tech.
Love your style,it's like listening to an old friend tell a great/hilarious story 😁,thank you for your honest take on the 901s.
There was a saying in the audio industry - "There are two kinds of people who like Bose speakers; those who never heard them and those who already own them."
I person I knew had a nice Bose setup...it was in his basement, where he had a listening room set up with *8* Bose 901 speakers. It was....ok for some types of music, but this person was a real pipe organ fan. And for that time (back in the early 1980s), it was probably the closest you could get to feeling like you were listening to a pipe organ without being *in* a pipe organ hall! But yes, a specialized speaker good for specific types of music.
I have a pair of Bose 901 series iv speakers with their active equalizer.
My question, which amplifier would you recommend for these speakers?
I have to choose between the Rotel ra-1312, or the Bose 1801.
What is your opinion for these two amplifiers?
Do you know something that I should be worried about?
In 1968, I was in college and stereo crazy along with quite a few peers. I'm building Dynaco kits for my friends and self, running KLH 6s with a Dyna 120. Along comes the Bose 901. We all fell in love at first. Of course, the stereo store had them set up very carefully to best demonstrated their best points, and they had a sound stage that seized the room. Remember that there were few other high-end speakers at that time - Altec Lansing and JBL being foremost. Only my roommate in a dorm room could afford the $550 to buy and he did so. Also bought some high-powered receiver to run them. The dorm room was eight-sided, painted concrete walls, so the reflected sound was very interesting if not a focused sound stage. Both I and my roommate worked evenings, so one of the premium date nights was borrowing our room. Then and now, I wish I could have afforded a nice pair of JBLs. I moved on, but not to 901s.
My 901's sound fantastic. My Pioneer SX 1280 receiver provides the power. Also connected to a SVS SB 1000 Pro subwoofer.
I had a friend that did work at Bose back in the late '90s. He was in the marketing department. He said Bose had two to three times the staff in marketing than in engineering. He also said that Bose does not publish the technical details like frequency response of their speakers or allow their speakers to be displayed with other brands of speakers in stores like Best Buy. Bose wanted stores to place their speakers to be as far away from other brands of speakers so they could not be tested head to head with other brands. Bose also had install teams that went out to stores and set up all the Bose speaker displays and made sure where the display was located was in accordance to their contract with the store.
He also said that in the "outlet mall" Bose stores were specially constructed so they would be acoustically optimized for their speakers only. Each speaker system displayed in the stores had their own special amplification and equalization done in a back "amp room". This special amplification and equalization was different than what was in the Bose "master unit" that the customer bought. Bose even used their own specially equalized CDs and musical tracks for demo purposes. Customers were not encouraged to demo Bose speakers with their own CDs and music.
The lawyer for the company I work for asked me to come over to his house and set up a Bose "surround sound" system his wife bought him for Christmas one year. I get there and the system consists of two 3"x5" "mid and high" modules to go on either side of his TV and a small "bass unit" has held the amplifier and a (maybe) 5" woofer. There were no rear or center speakers, no HDMI inputs or outputs, and no designation of any Dolby, DTS, or any type of surround sound processing. Just two 3"x5" speakers in a cheap plastic enclosure, a bass module (also cheap plastic), a stereo RCA input, and a Bose universal remote was all he got. He said his wife paid $2100 for it. It sounded horrible, but he acted happy and gracious to show his appreciation to his wife for her present. I remember his wife saying "People say Bose is the best and I wanted the best for my husband". I felt sorry for them.
On the contrary, another friend of mine has a pro sound installation company. He actually installed a few professional grade Bose speakers in a few churches in our area and they sounded fairly good. Although he used equipment from other brands in the rest of the system (such as the amplification, equalization, and mixer boards), he said he was surprised as how good the Bose pro stuff sounded as compared to Bose home stuff.
When I told my mom I was going to Rocky Mountain Audio Fest where many of the worlds finest audio equipment can be seen and auditioned she said...you mean like Bose?
Their marketing department sure did their job.
Chuck Music Bose professional equipment like their F1 speakers are pretty good. But the home audio stuff isn't worth your money. The brand Bose is mostly a marketing campaign it seems.
Way to go. If some one is willing to give you something, accept it with gratitude even if you wanted something different. You can always upgrade later and get the system you really want.
Back in 1995 i received an invitation in the mail to hear the hidden sound behind the curtain. The surprise was the big bold sound coming from a Bose acoustic wave unit. It worked, it made me purchase one.
My dad bought a 901 setup in the late 80's when he started to be financially successful, as a kid, I remember admiring them in the basement. He still has them somewhere in storage after he bought a proper surround system for his then state of the art 50 inch projection HDTV. Still has the tv even though it's so old it only has component inputs. Ah I'm just feeling nostalgic watching this.
i watched lots of video from your channel ,this one is my favourite -)))))
I sometimes do funny audio projects with a few of my buddies and I always wanted to build a huge pair of Bose 901 speakers using 12 inch drivers instead of the little blue drivers bose uses.
I had a pair of 901's a few years back and while they had decent sound I never could get the low frequencies where they sounded strong and articulate. Was very careful where I placed them measuring distances from walls etc as their manual said. Another thing I didn't like was every time I changed the input on my Carver amp the Bose active equalizer would disengage and I would have to physically re-engage the EQ again as there was no remote to accomplish this. I sold them after a few years and now use Klipsch which sound wonderful.
No real disrespect ,,,but WTF are you talking about?? Crossover pre--amp within those control boxes could only be shut-down by manual//phisical//hardware god-damn switch...There's NO FCKING way that they would turn themselves off,,back in those pure analog times..You are proving the point of old saying garbage-in results in garbage out.....AKA operators head-space misalignment. SMH in disbelief.
I belonged to the Boston Audio Society decades ago and I remember us taking a field trip up to Bose for a listen and my impression mirrored yours.
Truth be told my own system back in the 70's was a pair of AR3a's with a pair of 80wpc Tiger amps (SWTP kits). Those speakers have been gone for decades now but I also had the AR XA turntable that I nought at the PX and the AR tuner. The turntable for it's time and price was the deal of the decade and I still use the AR Tuner to listen to the Boston Symphony almost 50 years later.
We had a pair in our house growing up and I would invite my buddies over when mom was gone, and we would crank it up! Sounded great to us back then. Had a huge kenwood amp, pioneer turntable and receiver cant remember what model...someone stole them of course.
Paul Klipsch looked at the intermodulation distortion of the 901 with a spectrum analyzer. Like a picket fence.
Hi-fi Choice in the UK did technical tests on speakers as well as blind listening tests with 6 people where the speakers could not be seen (behind a very thin veil). I still have the review of the 901 and it did terribly in both tests. High distortion, very spiky frequency response even with the EQ and aggressive sounding. The 301 in the same edition did rather better at a fraction of the price!
Bose 901 lousy speaker would not recommend it to any user. I rather go for Paul W Klipsh Cornwall or Bob Crites Corn scala and Bob helped me Design my Paragon Scala he did all the calculations for my Cabinets . I gave him the info on the Drivers. And he designed My Paragon Scala for me. They are still under Construction with a British Violin Maker.
I've owned Klipsch for over 30 years..always a good speaker..
@@frankjansz8176 BFD.
I think the Klipsch speakers dont sound good as well. But 10 times better than any bose I have heard.
I've got Bose 591 ceiling speakers throughout my house, unobtrusive and sound pretty good to me.
But sound reproduction is a very personal thing for many people.
As a guitarist nothing reproduces the sound as good as my laney vc2 Class A Amp with 2 celestion speaker's.
No Transistorised amp can create the sound I want to hear with my own ears.
As for listening in a car, I dont care as long as the radio works, I prefer to concentrate on exactly what I'm doing not get lost in some tonal navarna and end up smashing into the back of a truck lol
Its one thing to worry about your guitar tone, even after being mic'ed up, its another to hear it on playback. Especially with the rest of the band. Your comment is invalid.
Not all Bose is shit
I've had some Gen6-901's for a while now on an Adcom GFA-555ii setup that i got as a gift. At first i thought they were ok sounding but after adding satalite tweeters, tweeking settings / placement its surprising the bass that these produce for such a small cabinet. They don't do well overdriven and complain but low to mid levels sound great to me...for free.
Say what you want about Bose but while restoring my 1975 Marantz quad receiver I ran across some old Bose 601s and some 901s (with working equalizer), all refoamed, with cabinets and grills all in very good to excellent condition, and all for $500 picked up locally. It’s not entirely all in the sound when setting up a ‘70s replication but with the 601s in the front and the 901s on the sides hung from the ceiling, these speakers are perfect. The cabinet veneer matches the cabinet on the Marantz. With 50 Watts of true Clean restored and properly dialed in amp boards rom the Marantz 4400 they sound amazing, and recreate a true ‘70s era experience. These were the speakers I thought I wanted, but could not afford, in 1975. Yes, I love Klipse and use a newer Klipse surround system with TV and general listening. Still can’t afford the good new or good used that I would want in this setup.
For me, I feel 30 years younger with the Bose system up to proper levels, and I like that a lot!
The direct/reflect technology was based on the principle that live sound is both direct from the instruments (or PA system) and reflected off the walls, ceiling, and floor. But Bose chose to base their design on only one test in a highly reverberant hall. So the test itself produced very biased results. On top of that, when sound is recorded, microphones record both direct and reflective sound. So Bose 901 speakers are compounding the reverberation heard in the original performance.
Bose is essentially a marketing company and a very good one at that. But to be fair, Bose is low-hanging fruit for the peanut gallery. There are plenty of very expensive high status brand name speakers that sound like crap or at best, mediocre. And for whatever reason, I don’t see anywhere close to the same degree of negative comments directed towards them. Unfortunately, this has led me to conclude that most people (including so called "audiophiles") have no clue as to what good sound even is.
The design of the Bose 901 is exactly why there is such controvery around them: they are specifically designed to do one thing, reproduce a live concert as realistically as possible. And they kind of do that, whether you either like it or hate it.
Thing is, they are just mediocre in reproducing every other kind of music. While partially creating that sense of immersion in the music the direct/reflecting technology treis to bring, they just about take away all sense of instrument positioning, which is what stereo speakers try to reproduce. It all comes down to what you, as the listener prefer: do you like the instrument placement stereo gives you, or do you like the "sitting in the middle of a concert hall" feeling the 901's give you?
Then there's the cheap drivers Bose used in almost all of their speakers, except the professional lines. A lot of audiophiles are simply offended that Bose charges premium prices for what in their eyes is a cheap to build speaker with cheap drivers. Another thing audiophiles hate is that Bose Equaliser or Sound Processor or whatever you may call it. Audiophiles believe in "pure" sound: as soon as you'll have to mandatory "equalise" or "process" the sound, to them it means that speaker basically is s***.
So called audiophiles are just that. And a lot of what they say sounds good, Alison sounds like junk.
This review is nonsense. He’s re-hashing what the review that Bose sued over. A lot of Audiophiles sell a lot of snake oil also. And trash products they never heard. It’s also misleading what he’s saying here about the power hungry 901’s. The early versions required required a lot more power. They are pretty efficient in later versions that have been produced for decades. And I would probably never own or like what this guy who posted this so called review likes. There are “Audiophile” popular speakers produced to this day that are very inefficient. But that’s not a problem with the reviewers. But when i5 comes to the early 901 it’s sounds like a crisis. No matter what Bose would produce even if it was the best sounding speaker these “ Audiophiles” would cry fowl.
Isn't it just common sense that the room acoustics of a concert hall is important? :)
Ok.
Sounds like some people throw darts at the Bose sound and not others because Bose is bold enough to say " i sound better".
"Audiophiles" are the same as the "experts" or "geeks" in any hobby....audio, comic books, movies, cars, computers, gubs, etc. In the end it's all a dick measuring contest for these people. It truly is a personality disorder. People like what they like. Period. We just need to hear fucking music. 99% of people just want decent sounding music as background at home. They're not building an audio lab. Some people build billion dollar corporations and businesses selling people something they like while others sit on TH-cam telling you why it sucks. Go do it "better" yourself so that someone else on TH-cam can tell YOU how much it sucks. 😄
I’ve heard the 901in a club. It was loud and that was it. The pops and clicks from the record even sounded muffled.
901s were not built for in a club
I was playin' with that kind of cabinets in Nuuk Greenland..was a great experience..both of them!
Paul that is a great story. I enjoy watching your videos. They are informative intertaining and full of years of audio passion.
The original Bose 901 used $5 CTS midrange drivers made in Paducah Kentucky. The hype of the original launch in Boston was such B.S. And Amar offered free trips to Hawaii for Tech Hi-Fi salespeople who could sell a certain number of pairs. Of course "gentlemen" in audio like Ed Villchur and and Henry Kloss didn't try to buy off/bribe audio salespeople. When I exposed this on the radio (WBCN) Bose tried to get me fired.
They also sued Consumer Reports for saying that the sound seemed to be bouncing along the wall. What they probably meant was that as you walked along the wall, the sound seemed to be bouncing. Normally, an "absence of malice" defense would exonerate them, but the judge in this case sided with Bose.
Yes and Bose sued Thiel speakers for having a model 2.2 speaker. Thiel changed the model to 2 2. Totally ridiculous.
a friend remarked on mine that he heard "echoes" - perhaps my low level hearing is too poor to observe - also I'm used to Karlson cabinets where the sound rattles around a bit before exiting ;^) (Karlson called it "Controlled Ringing"
Analog Planet and
Bose v. Consumers Union. Bose lost the case 6-3. One judge doesn't get to decide. Check your facts.
Back in the day - the slogan was:
No highs, No lows, must be Bose.
It's the same slogan today.
lie. back in the day they were one of the top rated speakers. read the reviews "of the day" rewriting history is not a pretty thing to watch..
@@Assimilator702 The systems I have heard from Bose have had ALOT of bass from the bass modules (atleast the dual 6,5"). But the sound quality is something that's missing😅
Øystein They can have a good quantity of midbass. Especially when corner loaded which lets the room do much of the work. However there’s no deep tight authoritive and textured sub bass that will turn your insides to mush when the track calls for it.. That isn’t possible without a quality subwoofer system with an abundance of power.
So, Paul W. Klipsch (the creator of the Klipschorn and founder of Klipsch) was walking down the street one day, and he saw Dr. Amar Bose on the other side of the street. Paul stops, faces Amar, cups his hands around his mouth, and clearly yells, "Hello Amar!" Amar hears Pauls loud voice and stops. He immediately turns 180-degrees from Paul, puts his hands over his mouth, and mutters, "Hello Paul." Paul shrugs his shoulders and walks away."
I'm planning to place my 901s with stands on my back wall, a couch 6 ft in front of that and in front of the couch I have a pair of Normans. Do you think this mix is ok? I'm using a pioneer vsx1124K receiver.
Gotta say I'm skeptical of some of the ideas on this channel but I see they come from a place of genuine excitement for your craft. More stories like this, please!
Funny this would come up. I used to have a set of 901's which I liked a lot of some reasons and hated for others. The thing that was great about them was at a party I could have a house full of people and play music and it sounded alright no matter where anyone was. However like you said it definitely lacked focus for persona listening. Now I have gone to the complete opposite end of the spectrum with some Martin Logan's haha. They have a sweet spot the size of a golf ball but when you are in there it's magic!I despite their faults I do occasionally miss the old 901's...
There is no real sweet spot to the 901's their intent is to fill the room so that it sounds ok no matter where you are. I mean of course it's better in certain spots but you get it...
901 are surround sound anywhere in the room.
I love my Martin Logens but the sweet spot is the size of a pea not a golf ball. I get back and neck pain holding my head in the best position to listen in. As you leave the sweat spot the sound degrades rapidly.
Lol so true. But within that pea... one thing I would to add asap us a sub. I feel like the Logan's focus so much on clarity that they lise a little bit of feel. Could just by mine. Though as they are somewhat entry level.
Steve Huk I have a pair of Ascents and their descent sub. Sub doesn't help. The speakers are great for jazz piano trios. If the recording is bad , it sounds much worse through the logans. I still have the Logans but now I use triton 1's as my all around speakers. I use the old Logan sub with a pair of focal beryllium tweeter 2 ways. Sounds really nice together.
This is why I love this vlog Paul: your opinions are always nuanced and considered. Even when you don't really like a product, it comes out very nicely! For some reason a lot of people in audio-land always think they are right and are willing to defend their opinions with fire and sword ( not sure if this is correct English!).
And why? Being an audiophile is supposed to be something nice; the ( personal) experience of enjoying music at its best. That's all.
Paul P. Well put.
Paul P. I think Paul was being kind. They were okay for early 70s but Bose kept making them for something like 45 years. They just recently discontinued them. They just didn't have the sound quality to compete with speakers far less expensive. They weren't audiophile oriented and audiophiles are a demanding bunch.
True. Where I live ( The Netherlands) Bose was never a serious option.
And yes, audiophiles are demanding, which is OK; it increases soundquality :-)
Paul is being very diplomatic, but he also doesn't curse much when describing stuff. :) "What do you think?" is the worst situation to be in. The correct answer is "I've never heard anything like it."
Paul is a gentleman; civilized and gentle, but he surely does have his opinions.
I've got a pair of 901's that I purchased in 1987? I think series IV? I'm driving them with an Adcom preamp and an Adcom GFA-555.....They need to be re-foamed. Should I bother to spend the money? I can do it myself. Any suggestions?
bought my 901's overseas in early seventies with a marantz 2270. the marantz just died recently, but those bose are still sounding great to me after almost fifty years. of course they are running with almost 50 other speakers and nine separate receivers when i listen to our wonderful kmfa classical station . color me happy!
I used to have some Bose speakers, the 301's sounded MUCH smoother if you pulled the stock woofers out and replaced them with the radio shack 8" replacement. I also had the 501's and was never really satisfied with them.
Bullshit. You can't detune a tuned enclosure by arbitrarily replacing the woofer and expect better sound, unless you don't know what better sound really sounds like.
Knew a guy in the service had 301s on top of 501s they sounded great compared to my 901 series 4. Yea Bose is not quality they use reflection but the components are not as good as many other makers use. Smoke and Mirrors.
Me a one time Bose fan. Got some Infinity SM 150s blew Bose away. Had some muddy JBL LX 55 too. Infinity made some good speakers.
I did like the combo of 301 and 501 played together.
@@johnoberle9750 there seems to be a little subculture of 301 people who like them and apparently can get decent sound out of them. Don't think I've heard them in 20 years or so.
@@timothysullysullivan2571 I must be part of the sub culture. I love their sound. Marantz cd52 & pm-54 amp.
I own 901Vs along with many other speakers. Having had my 901s in several homes over the years I can say their sound quality is highly dependent upon the acoustics of the room in which they are placed and most importantly where in the room they are placed especially with respect to the reflective wall. Everybody knows proper placement is important for any speaker to sound good. With 901s it is especially so and more challenging due to the reflective wall playing such a critical role. It is easy to make them sound bad. Real easy. However, when the room and placement are dialed in they sound excellent with an immersive sound stage unlike any other. Sound quality far better than all the bashing would lead one to believe. They do require amplifiers with serious muscle. Not so much for volume, more for headroom. There are 18 drivers which is quite a lot of cone/coil/suspension mass to control. Weak amplification can't be expected to control that much mass with accuracy and authority. If you haven't spent considerable time positioning them in the room or your reflective wall is wrong or you don't have at least several hundred watts per channel of clean power then you haven't really heard 901s.
How true
Lol. There is a guy on TH-cam who was on the Audiophiliac channel proclaiming his Bose 901s were amazing and better than any other 901. A few months later he purchased Klipsch Forte IV and declared they were so much better than his beloved 901s. The 901s are garbage and even former 901 owners say so once they actually own decent speakers.
@@carlosoliveira-rc2xt LOL. So you based your expert opinion based on hearsay. Opinion of a guy who knows somebody who says something about something. LOL.
@@jayjay9932 He was a 901 owner. You saw him in his living room with his beloved 901s proclaiming how great they were. Months later on his own channel he realized they weren't so great and said as much. I spoke with him. Are you claiming I watched CGI and I spoke to a bot? I guess you can't talk sensibly to a Bose fanboy. I couldn't convince him that Bose sucked but he eventually found out on his own. Read what I wrote very very slowly as it may help your comprehension. If you can't believe a former Bose owner, who can you believe?
@@jayjay9932 I own a system more expensive than your home and have owned at least 200 pairs of speakers over the years. I auditioned 901s when I was 16 years old and rejected them then. My expert opinion is based on over 40 years in the hobby, 29 years in acoustics and designing and building Home Theaters. I figured you would accept a former Bose owner's authority over mine. Cheers!
Another great story. I laughed so hard I almost fell out of my chair.
I’ve been using 901’s since 1976 for various purposes from my band to the home stereo....!
I still have a set of 901s downstairs in my studio .....🎶❤️🎵 I’m 65 years old and I’ve been a audiophile for years.....
I also use a Bose L1 system with one of my bands right now....!
Jeff Galey audiophile using BOSE? Find the error
I can appreciate your opinion on the 901s - I recall a friend with a pair and he loved Scottish bagpipes. Talk about 'bleeding ears!' LMAO - but I also recall hearing a Concerto with deep bass and melodic strings that sounded quite amazing - especially not 'cranked,' but at 'reasonable' db. That said (besides being overpriced in my opinion) what is your take on the Bose 301s? I had a pair of those and they had, I believe an 8" single speaker with a 3-1/2" tweeter at an angle with a vane-deflector that was kind of cool. No extra eq needed and they sounded very clean on a moderate-power amp source, like your typical Pioneer SX series amp/tuners. Just curious your thoughts on these, what I feel were adequately priced and nice sounding! Thanks!
Mike .R. , the 301 Bose speakers are ok, but over priced, I have a pair of Polk bookshelf speakers that are much better and cheaper. Bose speakers do not have good bass.
the best speakers for music playback on analog tube or digital amps are
CERWIN VEGA Speakers
I remember in college, we had a "Physics of Sound" course, which all music majors had to take. Each student had to do a presentation on a subject of their choice, and several students did presentations on high fidelity speakers. One of the students had a pair of Bose 901 speakers and did a comparison of the Bose-built speakers with a pair he had put together with the CTS raw speakers for about $100 for the pair. The two sets of speakers sounded very similar, but neither sounded at all like conventional speakers that another person in the class had made and presented on the same day as the Bose speakers. Being a musician as well as a recording enthusiast, I could tell that the Bose speakers and the handmade copy sounded nothing like real music. Bose speakers have been basically high priced gimmicks.
you neglected to mention the equalizer which your student could probably not have produced. Perhaps he used the factory equalizer with the home built pair. But your story is not complete without that info.
@@hitty9 The student did use an equalizer with the homebuilt speakers - it was an inexpensive octave graphic and he tried the homebuilt speakers both with and without the equalizers. They sounded a lot more like the commercial Bose speakers with the equalizers but recordings with either speaker didn't sound very realistic.
@@robertm2000 Interesting to know, but the Bose eq was matched to the 901's. Any other unit would not have had the custom curve designed to mate with only the Bose speakers. Test not valid.
@@hitty9 This wasn't a test - just a demonstration to a class. The Bose 901s and their homebuilt copies didn't sound very good. I have never seen Bose 901s in a situation where precise and accurate listening - professional monitoring in other words - is required. PA systems, where simple volume and lots of it is required, the 901s actually could do a passable job.
Back in the day. There were Stereo shows, with a very small section for TV's. I remember going to the Statler Hotel NYC, across the street from MSG. We went in the late 70's or early 80. This particular night they were introducing the BOSE 901's. When you first walk into the room. They had a pair Cerwin Vegas 18" When the demo started, it was a disco song and sounded great. We were bobbing our heads to the music. Then the presenter stopped and switched the music to the BOSE. We were turning our heads, cause the sounds came from all over the room. Totally impressed. Purchased them for around $1200 I believe back them. Two Thumbs Up!
Unfortunately, I lost all my equipment and 11 crates of records in the divorce. : ) I'm 58 and would love to DJ again one day.
Hello, which Elacs are behind you?
I was in the military and there was always a Bose representative on location to demonstrate the sound of the Bose speakers. The focus was always on the founders PHD and stating pseudo technical jargon as their advertising hype. Having understood acoustics to a comfortable level, I had never thought the speakers would sound as good as a comparably priced set of speakers with quality components and construction. I had asked the representative to play some music that I brought myself and they refused. The music that they played was always from the Bose prescribed collection. A week later I brought my own music and demoed every speaker, except Bose, and left with a Cerwin-Vega subwoofer and pair of Polk 10b's.
In the end, the speakers must speak for themselves. When it comes to speakers, just because it might sound good on paper doesn't mean it will "sound good".
Polk 10bs were my first decent speakers, loved them.
Late 80s while I was in the military I heard the Bose 901 and thought they were terrible. Everyone thought I was nuts. I wound up buying JBL L80T’s.
Bose had a full time employee looking for music to make Bose speakers sound good.
Nothing beats a subwoofer, especially nowadays when we use them viewing (and listening) to movies. Nothing beats an explosion coming out of a subwoofer.
yes it does, a decent pair of floorstanders will never need any sub, subs are a horrible compromise, bass is stereo not mono
Paul I have a pair of Klipsch KLF-30 floor standing loud speakers 15 yrs old and I am happy with them. What is one of the best speakers that you have ever heard (non-professional) series speaking ?
I bought a Concept 12.0D receiver from Pacific Stereo. I wish I still had it, that was an amazing receiver.
Yes, classical program material was my striking memory of 901's powered by Macintosh amp and pre amp, CD source and a cathedral ceiling, drywall/carpet 12x15 room. It was the most detailed and concert like sound I had ever heard. As a musician then, and later also a recording engineer I would like to hear this rig again, (you know how young memories can be :) . I think you nailed it with amplification and program material. It could be today with subwoofer and a sonic maximizer, along with switchable speaker drivers for direct and reflective it could be interesting. For the last 20 years referencing with Roland RS90's and soon to be added Presonus, I have not had the same thrill I had in that 901 room.....my trained ears be damned???? :) ha ha.
Thats it! Have the Bose 901's for your classical music with a lot of reflected sound and ill bet it sounds fantastic.
that is where the synergy of equipment, room and musical material all comes into play.
Hi, Mr. McGowan, I have enjoyed your videos with thanks. Since 1996 I have been using Bose 901 type 6. I am very positive. If I didn’t have this model I must have bought two or three more speaker system additionally to satisfy my needs. This has ‘ muscle’ in sound and doesn’t produce any ‘scratch’ at the crossover area of the three or four way system. I think surely Bose has knowledge which sound makes human ear happy. As some say no highs or no lows may have been a merit for our enjoyment. But I had to pay a special attention to install properly. New Zealand
Most of the audible range over 10 speakers 1 tenth of the demand spread across them helped to reduce distortion and create a large sound field.
I’ll never forget listening to these speakers as a kid i think we had a kenwood stereo and amp
Paul McGowan, PS Audio sir,how good is the EQ that comes with the bose 90`s? my buddy sold me bose 901s series 5,he said they would sound better with a aftermarket 30 band EQ
901 is a very interesting and controversial speaker in audio history. The drivers were advertised to be matched to +/- 0.1dB with each other, which is unusually tight tolerance. It doesn't use $1 clock radio drivers as some online bose bashers claim.
901 VI Series 2 (the last version before discontinuation) connected to a 110W @ 8Ohm British hi-fi amp sounded good to me. Of course, the owner was an audiophile who takes care of speaker set up. While it is musically pleasant, it was also quite revealing or sensitive (perhaps due to crossoverless design - a design that some purists love -) to the quality of source component or recording. There was no lack of bass or high - well there was lack of bottom end, but it is common to most speakers except very large ones such as Paul's IRS that goes down to amazing 16Hz (901 VI has no output at 16Hz, really no) -.
Though the high had some pleasant character, it was not as refined as some system with good dome-tweeter speakers. Note, however, that I did not do direct comparison in the same room with same amp. I guess the less-refined high was related to the easily measurable (controlled but existing) cone break-ups of the full range driver.
Another serious problem that makes 901s unpopular is that it requires too much space laterally to sound good: the 55cm speaker width and 45cm or more on each of the left and right. Most wives would hate to lose so much space to speakers.
There is about 20dB or more boost in high ("mid treble"(a misnomer, I think) slider at max. In the system I listened to, the treble slider was left from the center position. So the boost was less than 12 dB. I guess that only very absorbent room will require 20dB boost.). At low, the boost is approx. 10 dB at Bass 1 among 1 and 2 (1 means more 40Hz than 2) and almost independent of the mid bass slider position. Depending on the way of connection and the connected gears (max input voltage issue), there can be hard clipping somewhere in the audio path. Hard clipping sounds horrible.
For an audiophile who understands all these issues, I think 901VI was a worthwhile crossoverless full-range loudspeaker to consider at $1400.
I am an audiophile who does not work for any audio company.
P. S.: In that audiophile's set up, adjusting the EQ for flat pink noise RTA response resulted in unnaturally bright high. I guess it is related to the larger amount of reflected sound than other speakers. It is known to PA sound engineers that in large room (large in PA sense, not home audio sense), where there are more reflected sound energy due to larger size of the room, the pink noise RTA response curve should slope down at high. Otherwise, the PA system will sound too bright. Again, 901 is not a system for a beginner such as some people who blindly aims at flat pink noise RTA response.
Would be interesting if someone made a dome tweeter add on that had the same dispersion pattern as the 901 or made a coaxial driver for the 901 that is as powerful as the stock driver.
@@ikonix360 Yes, that would be interesting. Avoiding crossover is a design concept of 901, and thus it would be very interesting to see what we get by braking that concept while preserving others. By the way, dome drivers do not have good dispersion to 20kHz.
@@azzinny Another option would be compression drivers on round lenses made the same size as the 901 drivers for the same dispersion.
A powered sub or two would take care of the low bass.
A DSP would be used for the crossover.
@@ikonix360 Great idea. Bose made (or makes) pro audio speakers with compression drivers, and Bose once made 901 with DSP EQ for pro audio market.
@@azzinny Cool
Ohm made the Bose idea actually work with the Walsh driver. Still selling, still made in Brooklyn, still a great product.
I still use my original 70's era OHM G's and their equalizer. Over the years the original foam surrounds expired. Have replaced the surrounds now on the Walsh drivers and later on the passive radiator cones. Still the most transparent speakers I have heard - except the OHM F's.
Roy Allison did a similar things and made some great speakers too. Ohm's are cool.
@@patb5266 Yep, I remember Allison "wall speakers". They were quite good.
In the mid 80's I borrowed a pair of 901's for a barn dance, running off my Marantz amp/pre amp, about 150 watts rms per channel, they took the power but sounded terrible, well, it was a barn, so I went home and got my Audio Sphere Research living room speakers (250 watt 5 or 6 ways, 15" woofers) and rocked the place for several days. I later hooked up the 901's in my living room (18'x40), they still sounded loud and crappy, so not much love for that model.
Over the years Ive had several smaller Bose, 301's were probably my favorites in a tight space, and still use a set of 201 gen II's as a second set on my chitty stereo, for mids/highs, on top of better base cabs, and for what I need for sound my old Harmon 50w amp makes them sing and the house is happy :)
I owned Bose 901, many decades ago. There placement had to be exact to get that presence and you are right, you had to have the equalizer. I did have a brick wall and the Bose clipped my amplifier more than once. They could play loud though. Overall, I was so glad to get rid of them, very limited use, but like you at a dealer I heard a set, set up correctly in a dealer's show room and it was pretty good. I remember seeing these in a club one night playing loud music and thought they were horrible hanging from the ceiling.
Hi Paul,
just want to say how much I appreciate your videos. You manage to cover some sophisticated topics without the "attitude." I recently had an accident and was bedridden for a number of months and enjoyed your videos so much. it really helped to plug in a part of the day to listen to Paul. Thank you.
I get very go low end on my 901's. If it setup right.
Youll never appreciate music as it was recorded with the reflections inherent to its design. Theres a saying, usually said after a listener closes their eyes. "At that moment, the system became transparent." When imaging and staging are perfect and you think you are in the room with the original musicians.
bonjour pourriez vous m aider pour installer des haut-parleur bose 901 sil vous plait
quels sont les materiaux a utilser.les cables de connections faut il un pre amplificateur obligatoirement entre les hp et l amplificateur? merci pour vos reponses
I have never been a fan of Bose speakers but I have fond memories of listening to my friends Bose 601's on many occasions. Those speakers were paired with Yamaha equipment and they sounded pretty darn good. I lost touch with him a long time ago so I don't know if he ever followed through on his plans to someday upgrade to the 901's.
I place my 901s face down in my large waste receptacle. I've tried it with the lid up and the lid down. My professional opinion is they are better with the lid down and walking away with my back to the receptacle...
more likely you could never afford them , but find some relevance in jumping on the bandwagon and finally "belonging" .
this episode is special to me. i was smiling from ear to ear while watching it.
about 30 years ago . i had a pair of 901 speakers . didn't last long . sold'em a couple of years later. yes they were awful. but what the hell did i know back when. i was in my 20ies. my only good memories with them was i had some great parties. neighbors called the cops on us a few times... thank you great episode.
Just got a set of these yesterday from my Uncle along with a Bose amp. Giving them to my 14 y.o. son who wants to listen to all my albums along with a real nice Technics turntable. Should be fine for his bedroom & fill it nicely with sound; a good introduction to higher-end systems he can play around with to get a sound he likes out of them.
I'll never hear it over my Definitive Technology setup anyway, so... 😎
Thanks for the interesting story. I noticed many high end systems (Wilson Audio WAMM, SF Aida, etc.) do incorporate rear firing speakers. It would be interesting to hear your comments on that.