BOSE 901's...Whats the proublem???

Well its like this to me. Most makers of large speakers use woofers, midranges, and tweeters because for low distortion sound you need speakers designed for a relatively narrow frequency range (unless you are talking about the various forms of planar speakers) Bose uses a bunch of midrange speakers and a lot of EQ to try to force the speakers to produce enough level out of their natural range. Because the have a lot of drivers they can absorb a lot of power and play very loud. Because they use midrange speakers as woofers and tweeters they have more than the normal amount of distortion and the frequency extremes. IF you like the way they sound, then use them and to heck with what audiophiles might think. A lot of the bashing occurs simply because of their marketing success. When one spends a lot of time and money putting together a particularly fine audio system and every time a non audiophile sees it they ask you why you didn't just "buy a Bose" one gets just as irritated as I do when the same people look at my finely crafted, fast, great handling, good looking, Honda sport touring motorcycle and ask me why I didn't buy a Harley.

p.s. The Bose "wave" stuff sounds pretty good for the size but for the price the sound is just unacceptably bad.
 
my series 2 901`s sound ok with big amplification but they will never come close to the AR9 lsi that i use for my front channel.The 901`s when i used them as front speakers were on the stands positioned properly and always i use their own active equalizer designed for them upraded it and the spare equalizer with better caps and internals. Before the upgrade they were not even close to the sound i finally got out of them. So others owning 901`s that haven`t upgraded their active equalizer please surprise your ears and do this.


+1

Much agreed, the standard Bose EQ is already dealing with age and probably average quality capacitors. I've done maybe close to 10 Bose 901 EQs with Nichicon capacitors, they truly wake the speakers up, this confirmed by others.

Have a friend who is an Audiogon type audiophile to listen to my Bose 901 setup. He said it sounded as close to a live performance as he'd heard, and that the 901s sounded better than his several thousand dollar speakers. The Marantz 2270 is rated at 70 watts and is plenty for this room, but under powering these speakers does lead to mediocre sound. So this former Bose skeptic said, "audiophile or not, these speakers do some impressive things."
 
i owned a pair of 901's in the 70's. kept them for less than 6 months thanks to "dark side of the moon."
after comparing 'pink flloyd's' classic between the 901's and a pair of mac ml-1's, i traded in the bose's for the mac's.
the mac's blew the bass-shy bose's out of the water.
strangely, both pair of speakers came with equalizers; but that's all they had in common.
 
Usually with the 901s, no bass means not enough power or improper placement. I have had so much bass coming from mine that it moves the suspended ceiling (you can hear the grid flex) in the room and they go lower than all the speakers I have been exposed to. At least you tried them. Interesting that Mc used an EQ also.
 
The acoustic suspension design of the series 1 and series 2 901`s do need more power. But get this folks, they are not ported. they rely on the air enclosed in the speaker box to move the speaker diaphrams. The dispersion of all speakers no matter what kind of speaker they are or who makes them are as much dependent on their room they are put in and its furnishings. If they room is concrete walls, then they gonna sound boomy or if in a carpeted room with panel walls they gonna sound spectacular. If placed right according to how the speaker manufacter says to place them. The manufacturers designed them placed in acoustic chambers folks. Henry Kloss who worked for AR then formed his own speaker company<ADVENT> used the same acoustic suspension that AR was famous for. He designed different drivers with different sound dispersion techniques for them. Inverted domes and such. If you take apart an old AR speaker like a AR5 you will see no magnet on the woofer. Because they were acoustic suspended and designed to be driven by an air cole method. When driven with a good clean halfway powerful amp they sounded fantastic though. It doesn`t matter to my ears if the sound is bounced offf the walls before my ears hear it as long as the sounds highs lows and mids are in the sound space as they naturally should seem to be. Anyone bashing 901`s needs to get truly educated or go bash electrostatic speakers for to much charging the air with bursts of electrons.
 
Imaging

My 901 IV's imaged beautifully, and, if you moved away from the sweet spot, you didn't lose all that much imaging. You could still hear all the music.
I had a friend with 901's. I thought they were amazing. The imaging two rooms down in the kitchen was just as good as in the room where they were placed! Man, the sound was all around you!
 
I had a friend with 901's. I thought they were amazing. The imaging two rooms down in the kitchen was just as good as in the room where they were placed! Man, the sound was all around you!

I'm not disputing that the sound quality two rooms down might have been spectacular (that is my experience with most speakers since you are out of the primary room and all of its "room issues" are greatly reduced)

However.... you are suggesting that the speakers "imaged" (as in spatial cues of singer placement, instrument location) as good down the hall (where you have no real 'stereo' seperation) as they did while in the same room with them with stereo seperation???

Personally, if I'm following your comment correctly, I'd have to take that comment with a grain of salt.

Pleast note that I'm trying to differentiate between the sound quality and the imaging as two seperate traits. Are you, or did I miss something?
 
... you are suggesting that the speakers "imaged" (as in spatial cues of singer placement, instrument location) as good down the hall (where you have no real 'stereo' seperation) as they did while in the same room with them with stereo seperation???

Personally, if I'm following your comment correctly, I'd have to take that comment with a grain of salt.

If you believe that the Bose direct/reflecting designs don't image very well in the nearfield, as many people do, then DougMac may be right. The soundstage was probably just as good (or bad) in the kitchen as it was in the listening room.
 
I find that they start imaging around 12 feet from them, which is a bit more than most people have in their setup. Anything closer and you loose the image. This may be because of their huge imaging to begin with.

Disclaimer: Others may have different results.
 
Are Bose Bashers Audio Snobs?

My wife and I A/B’d a pair of Bose 901 VI and my Klipsch KG4. We took several hours. The KG4 suited my taste better, slightly more midrange and high frequency energy. The difference was very slight and the Bose were far from being set up as recommended. It really came down to preference. I sold the Bose shortly thereafter not because they sucked so badly, I just had no need for them. Are they made with cheap drivers, yes I’d agree with that. I think Bose bashers wouldn’t give the brand a fair shake no matter what. I feel that is part of that snobbery and elitism that’s rampant in our hobby. I can say from experience that the 901s I listened to were not as bad as the bashers would have you think.
 
My wife and I A/B’d a pair of Bose 901 VI and my Klipsch KG4. We took several hours. The KG4 suited my taste better, slightly more midrange and high frequency energy. The difference was very slight and the Bose were far from being set up as recommended. It really came down to preference. I sold the Bose shortly thereafter not because they sucked so badly, I just had no need for them. Are they made with cheap drivers, yes I’d agree with that. I think Bose bashers wouldn’t give the brand a fair shake no matter what. I feel that is part of that snobbery and elitism that’s rampant in our hobby. I can say from experience that the 901s I listened to were not as bad as the bashers would have you think.

Funny, I had the same experience and ended selling my Bose 901s IV and keeping a pair of Klipsch Cornwalls. I soon grew tired of the horny sound though since I listen to a lot or rock, thought the Cornwalls did acoustics the best and classical, but the Bose did just about everything right (not all), with proper setup and adjustments to the EQ for every CD and volume level. Eventually I sold the Cornwalls and got another series 4 901 set. Now these have the typical foam rot, but once you refoam them, you find out that they did not use cheap stuff in these. They might in the latter series, but the 4s are very nice with real wood veneer and hefty drivers (minus the foams). Another HUGE disadvantage is that the 901 equalizer must have its 10 or so electrolytic caps upgraded. Once you do and place them correctly...and adjust the EQ, you are in for an experience and will go and grab your favorite 10 CDs. But like you said, it is a matter of taste and what you are in the mood for.

One thing is for sure, to me the 901s produce very little ear fatigue when played loud as opposed to my horns.
 
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Another thing I found with the Bose 901 is that the stereo image is anchored no matter where you sit. It was uncanny at first. I was used to the stereo image moving a bit as you sat closer to one speaker than the other. Also, I tested my set with the tone controls set to flat. Due to the flexibility of the equalizer, the frequency response of the speaker is really a moot point. One has the ability to adjust the frequency response in an infinte number of ways. I could have easily emulated the response of the KG4 in my room by moving the 901’s tone controls a bit.
 
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My wife and I A/B’d a pair of Bose 901 VI and my Klipsch KG4. We took several hours. The KG4 suited my taste better, slightly more midrange and high frequency energy. The difference was very slight and the Bose were far from being set up as recommended. It really came down to preference. I sold the Bose shortly thereafter not because they sucked so badly, I just had no need for them. Are they made with cheap drivers, yes I’d agree with that. I think Bose bashers wouldn’t give the brand a fair shake no matter what. I feel that is part of that snobbery and elitism that’s rampant in our hobby. I can say from experience that the 901s I listened to were not as bad as the bashers would have you think.

While snobbery and elitism is rampant, that is no reason not to trash Bose. They one big marketing firm. There are other speakers available from companies short on hype, made with quality components, and do not require an EQ, to make them sound right. With that said, I see no reason to buy Bose, and I do not see that as snobbish or elitist.

As far ear fatigue and horns. I get no fatigue from my LaScalas. I have reuced the squawker output by running off of a different tap on the autoformer. From the factory the squawker was too loud, for the size of room I have them in.
 
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Marketing:scratch2: People hate the price and think the marketing is over blown. ( Can we say Bowflex):yes: I enjoy my 901' a lot. I have nice high ceilings and they are placed correctly. I do own other speakers that I like better, And I didn't pay full price for the Bose.
 
I own several pairs of Klipsch speakers and I consider myself a Klipsch fan. I think my Forte are especially wonderful. I've owned many brands of speakers over the last 40 years and I think the quality of Klipsch products up through the 1980's is unparalleled. However, there are those who turn their noses up at Klipsch only because they've been inundated with all the erroneous negative characteristics horn drivers are supposed to possess . If you own Klipsch you know none of those are true. All I’m saying is I think the same is true with Bose 901s to a great extent. To me they are not as bad some make them out to be. It’s really kind of a testament to their engineering department that they can make a rather good sounding speaker from such meager components. In audio as in anything else, there is more than one way to skin a cat.
 
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I swear the best sound I ever had was from the Bose system built into the Infinity J30 I drove for a while. That was not 901s, though....
 
I once picked up a pair of series one with an equalizer and the rubber surrounds off the curb. (guy in house upgraded to new ones). I tried them and didn't like the bass or the way they separated the sound stage so much that you seemed to be in the center of the music. I played the Beatles on them and my wife said it sounded like four guys playing four instruments. They were so spread out that it didn't sound good. I have other speakers I liked much better, so I didn't fight with the wife to get rid of them.
 
Series One had cloth surrounds. They would sound like crap without the equalizer and a decent high power amp.

My wife doesn't like anything else, and I have a number of alternatives.

The bad sound stage can have a lot of causes, but it isn't an inevitable thing with 901s.
 
It’s really kind of a testament to their engineering department that they can make a rather good sounding speaker from such meager components.

I'm not sure why Bose gets a bad rap for driver quality. When they brought out the series three, they made the drivers themselves, even the wire for the voice coils. The wire had a square cross section to improve efficiency by reducing the air gap.

Most early 901s, including mine, are still in use.
 
I might be new to the forum but I've been a fan of the 901's for 40 years. I lost my series III to a house fire in 1980. I'm running a set of series VI in the bedroom hooked to a Onkyo 1855 receiver with 100wpc. I'm currently setting up four 901 series V's with a Bose 1800 pro vintage amp,and Rotel Rtc 940AX preamp/tuner. Two of the 901's will be hung from the ceiling and one on each side of the room on floor stands. I'll tune them looking for the sweet spot with proper placement. I might even try the dual equalization just for kicks but I think properly placed one equalizer should be sweet.

For me it's not about the money or the brand I'm fufilling a dream I've had since a teenager of owning 4 with an 1801. Yea I've got a 1801 set aside on standby the 1800 is the same amp. Ebay has some good deals on 901's in good to mint condition of all series. I found the 1800 and 1801 on craigs list.Run the gear you enjoy boys!I'm glad to get away from the grandkids screaming to find some peace of mind with my 901's.
 
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