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Bose Spatial Controller?

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dbart27

New Member
I picked up a pair of series IV Bose 901's at a garage sale for $75...the cabinets are in great shape and I noticed there's a service sticker on the bottom so they were probably refoamed at some point.

Unfortunately the owner said his daughter "gave the equalizer away" to the local Goodwill store! OMG!.... so Im in the market for one along with a good powerful receiver with a tape/ monitor switch.

Does anyone have any information on the Bose Spatial Controller unit? Ive seen them on eBay and was wondering how good the quality of sound they put out are compared to say a Marantz or Sansui?

It has an equalizer built into it which would be a lot easier than buying separate equalizer and receiver.
 
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The bose receivers are pretty decent, in build quality and sound. You will have to do a search and find out if the particular receiver you are considering, supports the IV series 901s as they all equalize a little different. If you aren't using the 901s because of the missing eq, you can find out what the eq settings are and buy a decent 12 band eq to use till you find the right eq for your 901s
 
Discussed many time here before.

Bose Spatial Control: Built into their receiver and matches up with the Series III, IV speakers. This feature provided a way, with a 3rd wire connected to the middle terminal on the speaker, to control the fill between the speakers. It worked but never really caught on. Current model 901s, I believe, do not have that 3rd terminal anymore.

Bose Equalizer: This device was inserted into the audio chain, usually in a Tape In/Out on a receiver, and boosted the highs and lows to bring the speaker system into more 'flat' response. As discussed here before, the equalizer settings have changed across the various series of 901s so matching the proper EQ to the proper series is prudent. Also discussed is the fact that, at some points in the audio spectrum, those equalizers will hit almost +18db of boost. Typical consumer equalizers only get to +12db.

Short Answer: It is important to get the proper equalizer with the 901s. They'll sound flat and lifeless without it. They come up on eBay from time to time.

Cheers,

David
 
thanks! My 901-IV's do have the third terminal--- so thats for the spatial controller hook up...Ah ha! Id try another brand EQ in the interim but Ive heard some folks say that its not a good idea to use an off brand with the 901's and that only Bose EQ's make them really perform 100%.
 
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You can try to use a larger graphic or parametric equalizer but you'll likely not get much good out of them unless you can cascade them (hook 2 equalizers into each other). Even then you'll need to see the curves of the proper equalizer version to know if you're getting close. All this would really need some test gear to attempt.

Don't misunderstand: You _can_ use external equalizers - there's no problem with that - but they're not going to get you close enough to result in satisfactory performance.

I speak from experience as I tried it back in the 70s myself.

Cheers,

David
 
yeah it sounds like it might be easier to just get a Bose EQ and have it tuned up as close to the original specs as possible to make those hunky 901's come to life.

Cant wait!

Now I need to read a bunch of posts to find a good receiver that would fit my 901 dream landscape!
 
if you study the bose 901 EQ manual you will see that the eq in default settings has the speakers flat.
I've owned a set of 901 series II's for over 20 years and never have had the EQ.
I use the tone controls and/or the loudness switch for low volume. If I crank them I have not needed any EQ settings.

They do need a good quality power amp. Mine have been hooked up to a Rotel 80 watt reciever and now a Yamaha 992 (which is 80 wats).

The most important thing for the 901's is speaker placement. Moving them 1 inch can make a huge difference. When you can hear the cymbals everywhere you have them properly set up.

I feel they need to be above your ears for the best sound. Mine are lined up with the bottom of the cabinents at my ear level. If you can hang them from the ceiling they really sound great.
The stands that came with 901's are in my opinion too low unless you have them in an empty room. Remember there are 8 speakers on the back and those are where the openness or wall of sound comes from. Many people will set their 901's up and 1/2 of one speaker is reflecting into a chair or other piece of furniture or picture.

What I enjoy most about the 901's is while they don't have the best imaging they have the widest imaging. Even sitting next to 1 speaker I can always hear the other one. They also sound like a Live concert. The people that claim 901's sound like crap are people who prefer "studio sound".
 
dshoaf said:
Discussed many time here before.

Bose Spatial Control: Built into their receiver and matches up with the Series III, IV speakers. This feature provided a way, with a 3rd wire connected to the middle terminal on the speaker, to control the fill between the speakers. It worked but never really caught on. Current model 901s, I believe, do not have that 3rd terminal anymore.

Bose Equalizer: This device was inserted into the audio chain, usually in a Tape In/Out on a receiver, and boosted the highs and lows to bring the speaker system into more 'flat' response. As discussed here before, the equalizer settings have changed across the various series of 901s so matching the proper EQ to the proper series is prudent. Also discussed is the fact that, at some points in the audio spectrum, those equalizers will hit almost +18db of boost. Typical consumer equalizers only get to +12db.

Short Answer: It is important to get the proper equalizer with the 901s. They'll sound flat and lifeless without it. They come up on eBay from time to time.

Cheers,

David
Click to expand...

Thanks David for the invaluable info. Im new to the forums and I find them to be not only extremely interesting and informative, but they save me a lot of coin too.... Awesome!
 
jsixis said:
if you study the bose 901 EQ manual you will see that the eq in default settings has the speakers flat.
I've owned a set of 901 series II's for over 20 years and never have had the EQ.
I use the tone controls and/or the loudness switch for low volume. If I crank them I have not needed any EQ settings.

They do need a good quality power amp. Mine have been hooked up to a Rotel 80 watt reciever and now a Yamaha 992 (which is 80 wats).

The most important thing for the 901's is speaker placement. Moving them 1 inch can make a huge difference. When you can hear the cymbals everywhere you have them properly set up.

I feel they need to be above your ears for the best sound. Mine are lined up with the bottom of the cabinents at my ear level. If you can hang them from the ceiling they really sound great.
The stands that came with 901's are in my opinion too low unless you have them in an empty room. Remember there are 8 speakers on the back and those are where the openness or wall of sound comes from. Many people will set their 901's up and 1/2 of one speaker is reflecting into a chair or other piece of furniture or picture.

What I enjoy most about the 901's is while they don't have the best imaging they have the widest imaging. Even sitting next to 1 speaker I can always hear the other one. They also sound like a Live concert. The people that claim 901's sound like crap are people who prefer "studio sound".
Click to expand...


Great info, Thanks!
 
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