I really should know better but....(Bose 901 musings)

nucleus76

Member
First off I'm a little apprehensive about even asking because I know these are truly a love/hate speaker (mostly hate it seems).
None the less, I have a set of these.
Before everyone jumps in to tell me how much they suck, or how much I suck for having them or how I should replace them with this or that, first know that I found these in great shape with all 18 drivers in absolutely perfect condition for the hefty sum of ......wait for it....90 bucks EQ included.
So in my opinion.... for a $90.00 set of speakers, they aren't bad and that's good to me because I simply don't have a lot of money. :no:
This particular pair are series V, circa mid eighties and came with the later series VI EQ which is compatible with the series V speakers.
I picked them up about 4 or so years ago after having a set of 301 III's
that I bought way back in the day.
At first I paired them up with my old NAD 7100 receiver, threw each one on the end tables beside my couch and was sorely disappointed. Actually that would be an understatement. Man... they really sounded like sh*t.
The Bose 301 III bookshelf's I was limping along with were walking all over these "flagships". :screwy:

Then I started reading about how finicky they tend to be regarding proper placement. I have a pretty large and very solidly damped living room so I started moving them around. Then I figured what the hell, I'll call Bose USA directly...give them my room dimensions and see what they have to say.
I talked to a real friendly and knowledgeable (at least about his product) fellow.
He asked about room size, how much furniture I had, where it was, what the walls were like, was I also going to continue to use the 301's etc. As far as customer service goes, this guy was wonderful and worth mentioning. :thmbsp:

After hanging up the phone, I spent the afternoon hanging the 901s 18 inches from the ceiling, about 9-10 inches out from the wall/large glass windows, and maybe 4 or so feet from each side wall. I hung the 301's on the opposite wall about 8 inches from the ceiling for use as "rear" speakers.
By themselves, the 901's sounded vastly different in their new placement. I also ditched the receiver about the same time and went separates, throwing a 150wpc dual mono-block amp at the 901's.
With the new placement and clean amplification, the bass that was non existent before, is now very tight, solid and almost feels like I have a hidden sub somewhere in the room. The highs are much more detailed also, probably because half of each speaker now reflects off of a huge thick window. All in all I have been satisfied enough as I have been slowly upgrading other things. I have a tonearm re-wire/RCA interconnect project that is next on the to do list, but after that... I thought about looking at my speakers as the next tweak. :scratch2:

Sooooo, I am hoping for some opinions and thoughts from others who have been in similar position with these speakers. I like the wide soundstage. I like the feeling that the music is wrapping around me without that "surround sound AV feeling" if you know what I mean. I feel the 901s accomplish this nicely, but...to be honest, I really have no other reference aside from my 301 III's and some old BIC Venturi speakers I had back in the late '80s when I was 14-15 years old.
I have read a few posts here and there of people upgrading the caps in the Bose EQ and being rewarded with a significant improvement in the sound of the 901s. Anyone with experience upgrading internals in their EQ care to share their thoughts?
I figure this might be the best experiment with the least cash output.
OR...lets say I was to begin to consider saving for replacement speakers. Where do most Ex-Bose people .....and I mean the ones who set them up correctly, gave them plenty of clean power and enjoyed them for the most part.....tend to go speakerwise after moving on from 901's without spending thousands? :headscrat

Other background: I listen to 85% vinyl, 10% radio and 5% CD/Mp3. I enjoy a wide variety of music but probably lean most toward blues, indie rock, alt-country, new-grass and folk-rock stuff the most with the occasional hip-hop/electronica every once in a blue moon. My equipment is listed below in my signature. Aside from purchasing a second used amp at some point in the next couple months to power the rear speakers, this gear won't change any time soon unless I win the lottery.
Thanks all for your input and hope everyone is having a fine weekend!! :music:
-Ray
 
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Good deal. I liked my pair a lot....a very fun speaker I thought. The only real reason I got rid of them is that I didn't really have enough room for them. You could have done much worse for $90!
 
Don't hate me for this but sell them for a profit and get some vintage EPI speakers. the Bose IMHO will never sound as good as the EZ to drive, EZ to place and great sounding EPI/Genesis stuff.
 
I have no doubt that the increase in power to 150 Watts per channel is a significant part of your current satisfaction with the speakers. I am also glad you had a good customer support experience, so many times that does not happen.

Enjoy them.

Shelly_D
 
901's need power. With the right amplification and positioning they can be very impressive. But it isn't easy to get it set-up right. They will fill a large room. When I was in college (late 1970's) one of the "other" fraternities had 901's (series II) as their house system (with a Marantz 250). Their party room was their kitchen/dining area... rectangular... probably 30-40 feet wide and about twice that long. High roof (maybe 20 feet) with floor to ceiling storefront windows on one side. Each 901 was hung from the ceiling in front of a white painted sheet of plywood (plywood also hung from the ceiling about 4-5 feet behind the speakers). There would be 150+ (maybe 200) people in the room for dance parties and I'm telling you... the place ROCKED!
 
Hmmm these seem cheap enough, might be worth checking out. What differences did you hear?

The most dramatic affect I heard with these EVS ground enhancers was the effect of cleaning up the presentation. Vocals seen more inteligible and clear with a sense of a bit more space and air around them. The bass seemed to get cleaned up a bit and maybe a slight bit more fleshed out. Really dynamic and dense musical segments seemed to reproduced with more effortless quality that rendered things a bit clearer without bleaching or thinning things out. The midrange action was also cleaned up and both side to side soundstaging and front to back depth were improved. Its easier to hear more info/detail through the midrange .....better separation of instruments, vocals. The high frequencies were really 'cleaned up' in my system. I was quite surprised about this and with most recordings high frequency info was cleaner/clearer while at the same time being a bit more 'delicate' for lack of a better description....:thmbsp:
 
My older brother had some 901's he hung from the ceiling like your set up that sounded pretty good. He eventually grew tired of all the reflected everywhere sound and went with something else more conventional. He had a powerful amp which is needed because of the EQ's large bass boost. That EQ would make a pocket radio speaker sound good, so you're wanting to keep it in good operating condition.
 
Thanks guys for all your opinions and advice. Please keep them coming. I'm definitely interested in Any EQ Recaps/upgrades that anyone has done, as well as other speaker suggestions that might sound good for the money!
Cheers all!!
-Ray
 
Hello nucleus76, Bose are Bose, enjoy them while you have them, sounds like you took care of placement, you may find interesting the Bose E.Q. curve specs. Find my post (on the fence with my Bose) concerning my Bose spatial receiver, anyway check the E.Q. stuff some of the guys posted, you may find the charts interesting.
 
Aside from purchasing a second used amp at some point in the next couple months to power the rear speakers, this gear won't change any time soon unless I win the lottery.
You should consider using your Onkyo for rear channel and get a more powerfull amp for the 901`s , something like 200->300 watts .
I use my four 901 `s with 280 w. per channel and they love the power and sound a lot better then when i powered them with something like 125 watts.

Bose 1801 is really nice, not to expensive if you`re lucky...
 
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Thanks Iznogood, I was considering that actually. I like the Onkyo M-series Integra amps with the beautiful meters! I'm dreaming of a cheap M-508 200 watt version of what I have now!
 
I had a pair of the 901 Series IV's and for the $40 I gave for them plus the expense (maybe $35) and time of refoaming 18 surrounds (which wasn't bad...assembly line) and I also recapped the EQ with all the major caps (maybe $12), they came out sounding quite nice and listenable. I had no qualms with them and gave them plenty of power ranging anywhere from 200wpc, 250wpc and 380wpc. They weren't starving for power, I assure you. :D Here's my thread on the pair I redid a couple years back plus it shows the recapping process on the EQ....nothing major and it did make a difference, too.

Enjoy them for what they are....and if you don't like them, you can always sell them and get something else. But for those who flame them, well, tough ^@#(*. I'd rather own Bose 901 IV's, V's, or VI's than I would Altec Valencia's...and I've had 2 pairs of those. I could care less about what others think about my preferences of speakers. They have theirs, I have mine.

Enjoy the music and what sounds good to your ears. That's what counts.
 
Are the series 6 MKIIs that much better than the series 6?
What is the trade up program?

I have never compared series 6 to my series 6 MK2's but I did compare my series 6 MK2's to the series 1's that is said to be by some the best series they ever made. The series 6 MK2's was much better than the series 1's that a friend of mine use to have. Call this number 1-800-367-4008 and a bose tech will tell you about the trade up program.
 
I had a pair of the 901 Series IV's and for the $40 I gave for them plus the expense (maybe $35) and time of refoaming 18 surrounds (which wasn't bad...assembly line) and I also recapped the EQ with all the major caps (maybe $12), they came out sounding quite nice and listenable. I had no qualms with them and gave them plenty of power ranging anywhere from 200wpc, 250wpc and 380wpc. They weren't starving for power, I assure you. :D Here's my thread on the pair I redid a couple years back plus it shows the recapping process on the EQ....nothing major and it did make a difference, too.

Enjoy them for what they are....and if you don't like them, you can always sell them and get something else. But for those who flame them, well, tough ^@#(*. I'd rather own Bose 901 IV's, V's, or VI's than I would Altec Valencia's...and I've had 2 pairs of those. I could care less about what others think about my preferences of speakers. They have theirs, I have mine.

Enjoy the music and what sounds good to your ears. That's what counts.
Amen. Some owners of particular brands are biggots, pure and simple. They can't stand it when someone simply "likes", let alone "loves" a speaker they don't own or simply don't care for. And they're never subtle about their opinions either. And worse they'll jump in on a thread and be the first to say "what negative comments?" or "we don't do that around here" and on and on.

Thankfully there are some very excellent members, my favorite being Videolady201. This is a person with amazing talent and some modesty to go with it. AK overall is a great place to learn about Audio, but it certainly has room for improvement.

Passion is a great thing, I can certainly appreciate that. Cutting other peoples stuff down isn't passion, that's biggotry, pure and simple.

Nucleus76, glad you're enjoying your 901's. I'm still in the market for a pair and I believe I have just the right room and sufficient power to enjoy them. I may not listen to everything on them, but I know of a bunch of stuff that I believe will excell with them.

Thanks for the post!
 
I do believe the original Bose 901's came with pedestals roughly 24'' off the ground. I was suprised by the Bose Tech telling you where to place them. I was never a Bose fan and they will never tell you any frequency responses of their speaker lines. I do believe they make excellent compact sound products.
 
I'm kinda curious about the 301's and where you liked them.

I picked up a pair of 301 series IV. I thought I'd see how they sounded in place of my mirage 460's, plugged them in put them on the stands... They were pretty bad. Highs were shrill (sounded like the tweeter came from an 80's boombox.) I was really disappointed, and they ended up sitting on a shelf for months.

Somehow I got the idea to try them again, this time in the bedroom. I put them on the bottom shelf of the bedside table. In this arrangement the tweeters are low enough to remain off axis. To their credit, the reflected sound is pretty good, the "stereo everywhere" thing works well for casual/background music.

Try getting those Bose tweeters above or below ear level, and you might be surprised.
(I still ain't trading off the Mirage though).
 
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