Bose 501 help

[Bonk1999]

Newbie here. Just picked up a used pair of Bose 501's. Can someone help me and tell me how to get the grills off to check the drivers inside? Is there a secret?

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Urizen]

They're stapled on, and are a chore to remove. I used flat needle-nosed pliers.

Lots of staples.

 

[Fletch]

Try a very thin flat tip screwdriver and wiggle it under the staple and pry upward. I'm just guessing as I have lifted out staples this way before although I have never had the those speakers. Good Luck.

 

[Oerets]

Use an old small tipped screwdriver that's been bent to have a hooked tip.
Don't force the grills , you don't want to tear anything.

 

[dshoaf]

Confirming that pulling the staples out first - on all 3 sides - are the most appropriate way to go. Depending on the series of 501s you have, you may well have a 3-sided grille.

Start with the front grill and remove all the staples. Then lay the cabinet down on its side and remove the staples from the one side facing up. Then roll the cabinet over to expose the other side upwards and remove the staples. Roll it over on its back and the grille should come off without too much protesting - if you got all the staples out.

Be prepared to swap out the foam surrounds. While you have the drivers out, go ahead and swap the crossover cap, resolder all those wire-wrapped connections, even on the tweeters.

Cheers,

David

 

[Bonk1999]

Thanks guys for the info. It helped me get them off.

Upon taking off the grills, I found the foam surrounds shot.

Question: Should I replace just the surrounds or the entire speaker? If I replace the entire speaker, can anyone recommend a woofer brand?

Thanks again.

 

[fropiler]

Thanks guys for the info. It helped me get them off.

Upon taking off the grills, I found the foam surrounds shot.

Question: Should I replace just the surrounds or the entire speaker? If I replace the entire speaker, can anyone recommend a woofer brand?

Thanks again.

Not suprised by this discovery. You won't find many Bose advocates here, but personally, I'd refoam. More work but better off in the long run IMO.

 

[RadShak1251]

Just out of curiosity because I see this speaker pop up a lot on here: anyone know WHY Bose stapled these grills on? Stapled?? Even just from a manufacturing perspective, it seems like it would be cheaper to just use some velcro or regular grill holder-on thingies (can't think of the proper name of those things right now ).

 

[andy]

I think Bose said it was the most secure method which would make sure nothing could come loose and vibrate. That may be true, but I'm sure it's also the fastest and cheapest way to hold the grills on. I personally reattach them with strips of velcro rather than stapling them again.

 

[Oerets]

Just last week I was were you are at, my brother's 501's needed to be refoamed. I was all set to refoam them for him, had the correct surrounds solvent and glue.
He didn't want to, told me to get something NEW ! Honest I tried to talk him out of this.
Traded them for a good pair of 10" drivers I have used before.
He very happy with them , have more thump ! ........... :scratch2:
Less then 24 hours later the Bose's had new surrounds and went into the box the others came out of.
Replace them if you fear the refoam, now this will be more expensive.
A good refoam ($30.00 part & suppliees)

Use some solvent to soften the glue under the gaskets, then pry carefully.
Working you way around the edge so you can reuse them.


The staples are cheaper and faster ..............

Barney

 

[dshoaf]

I think Bose said it was the most secure method which would make sure nothing could come loose and vibrate. That may be true, but I'm sure it's also the fastest and cheapest way to hold the grills on. I personally reattach them with strips of velcro rather than stapling them again.

I was a warranty station for Bose back in the mid-70s. Bose explained to me that this was to improve manufacturing flow. Bose was surprised, when they were introduced, by the demand and the store I worked for did sell quite a few pairs due to the price point. Despite salesmen's complaints that customers couldn't see the speakers, a common thing with most speakers of that day, they sold well.

As for velcro, the problem I ran into was that the grilles would stand away from the cabinet and you'd lose the flush look that directly mounting them to the cabinet afforded. The problem with flush mounting was that I had to reinstall the grilles with lots of brads. I used small brown-colored brads long enough to pass through the grille board and into the cabinet. Then I ran a sweep of the audio range with an oscillator and amp to see if there were any places where the grilles vibrated against the cabinet. More brads usually solved that problem.

Considering how many were sold, I didn't really do that much warranty work on them, too.

Cheers,

David

 

[RadShak1251]

Andy and dshoaf: thanks for the input.

I was also thinking that Bose stylists really wanted the grills to not stand off the enclosure because wow, the thought of having an employee standing there with a staple gun & taking all the time to shoot all those staples in there would make my work design professor wince (my B.S. degree is in manufacturing Industrial Technology - now 99% useless in this country - and much of it is concerned with workplace efficiency issues).

BTW: every time I see a 501 of this series I think of Bose's "Interaudio" series of conventional box speakers they used to sell. Just a regular enclosure with a 10" woofer and a cone tweeter with a plastic acoustic lens. They didn't look fancy but sounded good for their price point when I saw them at Pacific Stereo in the early 80s.

 

[dshoaf]

Yep, the Interaudio line was many of the same drivers in Bose speakers but mounted in conventional acoustic suspension cabinets. These were produced for their dealer network but not advertised in the trade so the cost was far lower for dealers. Since they weren't advertised, there were no reviews in magazines and no public list prices. Bose did market evaluations to establish a recommended dealer list price range, though. All this allowed Bose dealers a leg up with a speaker that sounded great (actually there were 4 different models), had excellent margins for the dealer, and allowed Bose to obtain a larger percentage of the dealer's total speaker sales.

Its funny that I never see them discussed here or on other forums, too.

Cheers,

David