Bozak B-301

[tromba]

I've read the Speakers forum quite a bit and found many mention of Bozak speakers. I've never heard or seen any, but ran across a pair. I know my wife wouldn't be happy with another pair of speakers in the house!!

Where do these fall in the Bozak line? What would these usually sell for? Worth getting?

 

[janikphoto]

Judging from ebay sales, they are worth a hundred bucks a pair. I have the 302a's and love them! These would probably have similar tone, as it looks like they use similar drivers.

 

[Sam Cogley]

They're a great source of parts for properly-sized Bozaks.

The pair I had sounded pretty good, but it was easy to tell that the B199 woofer wasn't particularly happy in such a small box.

 

[Nat]

Perfectly nice speakers, but not as nice as the same drivers in the much larger original infinite baffle cabinets. Some of the small Bozaks have a coated higher mass/lower fs woofer to match with the smaller cabinet, but the increased low end comes with some dullness in the upper end. Those look like the original version woofer, though, and would be worth getting just to take the drivers and put them in a much bigger box.
Yes, I know that the big Bozaks use a larger midrange, but that midrange there is also a very fine driver.

 

[Sam Cogley]

They should have 16 ohm B200Y single tweeters, which when paired up are the same parts used on the B207 coaxial units.

 

[amante]

This is an old thread but thought I'd add my 2 cents…and I will add pics and sounds once the holidays start.

I bought a pair of 301 speakers where the previous owner had already done all the hard work…upgraded the caps and placed the components in an old University enclosure with 3.5 cu. ft. of space. That's still not the 5 cu.ft. Rudy wanted but it was a major improvement. Once I got them, I put a single aperiodic 4" Scan Speak directly behind the woofer…then made sure there was only 1" of the nice original filling stapled to the walls in the woofer area except for the slight tunnel toward the rear vent. (It was filled with foam just as I have seen/done with 99% of my other speakers.) BAM! These things kick serious butt and constantly compete for best speaker I have ever had in my house!! My best speakers are Realistic Optimus 7 (1974) which they are paired with. I have several other speakers too but boy was I not expecting Bozak (upper bass) punch, imaging, realism…I'm now a Bozak convert. I SO want to buy another pair of 301 speakers and place components in a 5' or 5' 1/2 cubic foot and tallish enclosure. Bozak did say 5 cubic feet--AT LEAST, ha, ha. I would probably do the same thing with the foam and try three 4" aperiodic vents. I don't have room or money for Symphonies or Concert Grands and want a smallish foot print. Bozaks rule!

 

[janikphoto]

This is an old thread but thought I'd add my 2 cents…and I will add pics and sounds once the holidays start.

I bought a pair of 301 speakers where the previous owner had already done all the hard work…upgraded the caps and placed the components in an old University enclosure with 3.5 cu. ft. of space. That's still not the 5 cu.ft. Rudy wanted but twas a major improvement. Once I got them, I put a single aperiodic 4" Scan Speak directly behind the woofer…then made sure there was only 1" of the nice original filling stapled to the walls in the woofer area except for the slight tunnel toward the read vent. (It was padded with foam just as I have seen/done with 99% of my other speakers.) BAM! These things kick serious butt and constantly compete for best speaker I have ever had in my house!! My best speakers are Realistic Optimus 7 (1974) which they are paired with. I have several others but…boy, was I not expecting punch, imaging, realism…I'm now a Bozak convert. I SO want to but another pair of 301 speakers and place parts in a 5' or 5' 1/2 tallish enclosure. Bozak did say 5 cubic feet, AT LEAST, ha, ha. I would probably do the same thing with the foam and try three 4 inch vents. I don't have room or money for Symphonies or Concert Grands and want a smallish foot print. Bozaks rule!

Do you have pics of these mods?

 

[amante]

3.5 cubic enclosures

Sorry for the slight delay but here are some pics. I'll try and video/audio up some time. BTW, they came with EPI tweeters with the "Bright" setting selected but the previous owner found the nice original tweeters and mailed them to me. I'll go original, eventually. I actually found the speaker a little too bright once I made my mods, if you can believe that! They actually make fairly good "rock" speakers as long as you don't go crazy.

They're my tied favs but I finally found their slight weakness...organ music (especially TelArc recorded), this after clocking lots of hours at home on a work project. Bozak 301 speakers bring the performer(s) INTO the room but these seem to lack the very bottom bass. What is strange is any other speaker would distort, compress or do something else when the bass is turned up past ability--these just don't play the deepest bass very loud. Which again, makes me think I need to try a bigger cabinet...I'm thinking 60" x 18" x 14"...when I get the time. This diminished low bass is only a slight weakness with organ music CDs. I heard things I hadn't heard before in my organ recordings such as the organist (Michael Murray) whispering to someone to change stops...that's crisp!

One more thing, I know the Scan Speak vents aren't made anymore but their width is 4" and I think one could make something out of porous decorative lamp base circles filled with fiberglass and then screwed together. Just a thought. Good luck!

 

[amante]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread and with me as the last poster...a year later...getting old but busy.

I mentioned having gotten a nice pair of custom speakers with Bozak Tempo 301 drivers, crossover and foam placed inside a larger cab. I had time to install one infinite baffle vent, a 4" circle Scanspeak much like something you'd find in the plumbing aisle of Home Depot minus the thin fiberglass circle. Well, according to the Scanspeak instructions it recommended the use of two circles for my size. I got around to it today.

The first vent brought about a major improvement in the bass presence. The second vent brought about almost the same sizeable improvement but not in the way I expected. Did the bass frequencies sound lower? Not really. But there was now absolutely no LF distortion when playing my TelArc CDs and a few James Horner movie soundtracks. I did witness an aggressive kick in the upper bass particularly where drums are concerned...that was fun. I ran my familiar Sting and Steely Dan CDs...I could not stop listening to most tracks because they sounded so realistic! And finally, as always, I forget that when you improve the low end you sometimes improve the upper registers/overtones too. I feel the higher frequencies have become a bit more clear and present. (FYI, I have these bookshelfs placed near/not in corners and situated very high off the floor to where the woofer is at seated ear level. They're in my basement office.)

I don't think I'll sqeeze anything more by adding additional vents in these 3.5' boxes but I've become even more a Bozak believer--especially of the Bozak aluminum midrange! I pass this info along in case someone else wants to try. I should be able to post an audio sample soon.