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are the bose 901 and audi speakers the same?

aidynphoenix

aidynphoenix

Super Member
i know the bose 910 and other similar bose speakers have the little blue woofers, foam surround, and are 2ohms ea.. and have 3 screwholes.

now the bose audi door speakers look identical other than some minor differences.. the cone is a orange color and the surround is cloth instead of foam.. they are 2ohms ea and are prettymuch identical in every way..

does anybody know the specs on a individual 901 woofer?

i have 4 of the audi bose speakers and am wondering if they are worthy of useing together to make a bose duplicate.

pic 1 is the real bose speaker

pic 2,3,4 are the bose car speakers that look identical
 

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Those audi speakers are pretty good actually. I can bet they are not exactly like the bose 901 speakers, they probably have ceramic magnets to begin with. I am pretty sure they are bose and in that case they are probably derived from the 901.

Even though Bose isn't AKs favourite speaker manufacturer, many of their drivers are good. There is no magic behind what makes a good speaker, so I say go for it. There is a good chance these drivers will make very good speakers. Try and put two or three of them in a bass reflex enclosure together with a tweeter and see what happens. They are each in approx. 1 litre bass reflex boxes in the Audis I have seen them in, and that shouldn't be far from what the bose 901s are in terms of drivers per volume.
 
Also refoaming them with the surrounds from Bose 901 drivers might make them more suitable for home use, if you think they act weird because of the cloth surround. Mind you, Fostex fullrange drivers use cloth surrounds and they sound brilliant, so it doesn't have to be a bad thing.

About making Bose replicas... If you do so, you could make it easy on yourself and just make a sealed enclosure with drivers on the front and make it look just like the Bose 901s. They are pretty to look at but as musical performance goes, they're only so-so. I bet you can make them better by making them simpler.
 
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i was hoping to pick up 4 more of these little guys when i can, and have 4 per cab, that should give me a 8ohm load per speaker
do you think it would be better to have all 4 drivers in a box about 4litre's and ported. or to have each driver in its own chamber with its own port?
i was trying to read info about them and (please correct me if im wrong) the audi speakers go as low as 150hz so what do you think would be a good freq to tune the port/s to"?

i wired 2 of these up in series to make a 4ohm load (safe) and i played them through several different types of music while they werent in a box..
i think they have exellent highs and mids.. bass was non existant though. a very crisp and detailed sound to them however..
im wondering how that sound will change once i make a box for them
 
btw i dont think these will require a tweeter.. them being full range, and the speakers that produced the highs in the audi and other cars.
 
Bear in mind that the Bose 901s require the matching equalizer for proper function/sound. Based on the eq curve I've seen, most standard EQs don't have enough range of adjustment at some frequencies...as I recall, there is like 15 or 18dB boost at some parts of the curve.
 
The Bose 901 drivers are 1 ohm. The Audi drivers can be either 1 ohm or 2 ohms. Other than that, and the difference in suspension stiffness (foam surround soft, fabric surround stiff), they're about the same driver in every way.

You should be able to make a 901 clone with the Audi drivers- but the caveat about DEFINITELY NEEDING the 901 EQ (or something to stand in for it, in both low-frequency and high-frequency boost) is definitely going to apply. Worst case, if you have 9 2-ohm drivers... you can make a 16-18 ohm speaker (as opposed to the 8-9 ohm impedance of the 901). It's still going to be relatively efficient, so even at 18 ohms, it won't be too hard to find an amp that will drive it...

One note- with the fabric surround drivers, you will likely wind up with something MORE like the 802 pro audio speaker in sound, rather than the 901. The 802 used fabric-surround drivers... two groups of four of them, with NO driver on the other side (they're used in opposite orientation to the 901- the eight drivers face FORWARD on the 802, and REARWARD on the 901). If you built them like 802s with the 2-ohm drivers, you could easily make a 4 ohm load... wire the drivers into four paralleled groups of two drivers, then wire the four groups of two in series...

EDIT: Picture of the Bose 802:

281_bose-panaray-802-professional-loudspeaker.jpg


Regards,
Gordon.
 
I would tune the box to somewhere in the 60-90hz range. I'm not too sure about the volume though, it sounds a bit small with just 4 litres for a four driver speaker. I would probably test them in a normal sized (10-15l) sealed box and see how they respond. Then you won't have to fiddle with tuning any port either.

In most Audis I have seen these drivers in there has been a tweeter higher up on the door panel, but they should work fine in full range operation aswell. It might just be a way to compensate for the bad placement of these drivers in the cars. Way down by your feet isn't good for high frequencies.
 
thanks gordon, so the audi drivers are sometimes 1 ohms and 2 depending on what car they came from??
i will have to doubblecheck all mine to be sure they are the same..
the ones i have checked with the ohm meter have all measured at 2ohms.. idk if that means anything or not as far as the real impendence..

this is good news! i will have to start collecting more of these little puppy's and make something neat!

so basically that 18db drop off is at the highs and lows? nothing nasty waiting for me right in the middle??
i guess a subwoofer and adding a tweeter would possibly fix that instead of making a special eq??
 
aidynphoenix said:
thanks gordon, so the audi drivers are sometimes 1 ohms and 2 depending on what car they came from??
i will have to doubblecheck all mine to be sure they are the same..
the ones i have checked with the ohm meter have all measured at 2ohms.. idk if that means anything or not as far as the real impendence..

this is good news! i will have to start collecting more of these little puppy's and make something neat!

so basically that 18db drop off is at the highs and lows? nothing nasty waiting for me right in the middle??
i guess a subwoofer and adding a tweeter would possibly fix that instead of making a special eq??
Click to expand...



Found this to give you somewhat of a starting point.
 
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