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Is this the Bose 1801 that will burn down my house?

lattiboy

lattiboy

Well-Known Member
Hey all,

In an incredibly spontaneous and stupid act of self-sabotage I picked up Bose 1801 that isn't producing sound. As I understand it, there are three versions. The later ones do not produce fires as often. How can I tell which is which? This one appears to have LEDs, which I believe is the "pro" version? I got a bit confused on versioning while reading the different threads.

1XbFI7s.jpg


MWCoReS.jpg
 
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My neighbor is a master electrician and owes me a favor, so this will be me cashing in on that. Just don't want to go to a lot of trouble if this thing is basically a bomb waiting to go off without parts you cannot get anymore.
 
Unless the electrician is also trained in electronic circuit troubleshootjng, I'd suggest you find a vintage tech who knows the unique quirks of the Bose amp.

There are some excellent reatoration threads here at AK on that topic.

Lastly, these amps are _not_ known for flaming in any sense of the word. Early versions did have a service bulletin issued for a rather nasty failure of the first stage voltage amp.

Cheers,

David
 
dshoaf said:
Unless the electrician is also trained in electronic circuit troubleshootjng, I'd suggest you find a vintage tech who knows the unique quirks of the Bose amp.
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Agreed. I have a good friend who is a Master Electrician. Very knowledgeable in that sort of stuff but he's not an electronics guy. Maybe the OP's neighbor is both, to your point.
 
nice find they keep on popping up on this forum! I have 2 1800's and love them both, though I do need to put more time in them I know it's time well spent. Easy to work on for a beginner. It's about 30 dollar in part to get a transformer and 2 speaker protection boards, I would do this anyhow to protect my speakers. Did this with 1 of my 1800's and it was really easy. Good luck!
 
belgiansound said:
nice find they keep on popping up on this forum! I have 2 1800's and love them both, though I do need to put more time in them I know it's time well spent. Easy to work on for a beginner. It's about 30 dollar in part to get a transformer and 2 speaker protection boards, I would do this anyhow to protect my speakers. Did this with 1 of my 1800's and it was really easy. Good luck!
Click to expand...

Agreed, and if I were the op, I would do all the safety mods. Definitely do the speaker protection circuitry. I have one with such a setup, and the other has fuses mounted under the cover. Whenever I have left the speaker select on for main, if I leave the system on and we get a power hit, my fuses get blown. If I switch to no output, no problem. Those fuses saved my speakers, so I am thankful, but if I ever bring it in for servicing, I'm going to ask they build in speaker protection circuits. Always power up the preamp and input devices first , make sure volume is low, then turn on the amp. Do reverse to turn it off.

These are beasts when they are running well. And I think they sound great with my 4 ohm speakers! :thumbsup:
 
Thank you everybody, I'm gonna have my neighbor take a look, but I'm sure I'll end up taking it into a repair specialist. Who knows, maybe it's something very simple and the unit works fine.... although that is never the case.

Good to know about the fuse situation, as I'll probably be putting my Dhalquist DQ 20s on the thing and would be very sad if they exploded.

PS can anybody recommend a vintage repair specialist in the Seattle area? I go to the loudspeaker store for my speaker needs, but I've never needed an amp of this magnitude fixed before. And as it weighs over 100 pounds, shipping would probably not be a great option.
 
lattiboy said:
Hey all,

In an incredibly spontaneous and stupid act of self-sabotage I picked up Bose 1801 that isn't producing sound. As I understand it, there are three versions. The later ones do not produce fires as often. How can I tell which is which? This one appears to have LEDs, which I believe is the "pro" version? I got a bit confused on versioning while reading the different threads.

1XbFI7s.jpg


MWCoReS.jpg
Click to expand...
A few years has passed, would like to know the outcome. There is one unit on sale about 2 hours away from me, would love to hear your review on this monster...
 
mozcho said:
A few years has passed, would like to know the outcome. There is one unit on sale about 2 hours away from me, would love to hear your review on this monster...
Click to expand...

I made the backbreaking decision to purchase one of these in 2010. It was not working when I purchased it and took it to a cheap repair shop (in college and broke) and got it running. It was awesome for being able to play loud, but I never hooked it up to my "nice" speakers at the time (B&W 802 Series 80) due to all the feedback I'd read about them eating speakers. If you can get it looked by someone familiar with the issues you'll have a monster on your hands.

Probably a sonic no-no, but a friend of mine recommended adding in-line quick trip fuses to the speaker wires just in case. Someone else will probably confirm that is a bad idea, but until you can 100% confirm that the amp is good to go it might be a decent fail safe.

Also, where are you? If you're in FL and don't want them let me know.
 
TallyTech said:
I made the backbreaking decision to purchase one of these in 2010. It was not working when I purchased it and took it to a cheap repair shop (in college and broke) and got it running. It was awesome for being able to play loud, but I never hooked it up to my "nice" speakers at the time (B&W 802 Series 80) due to all the feedback I'd read about them eating speakers. If you can get it looked by someone familiar with the issues you'll have a monster on your hands.

Probably a sonic no-no, but a friend of mine recommended adding in-line quick trip fuses to the speaker wires just in case. Someone else will probably confirm that is a bad idea, but until you can 100% confirm that the amp is good to go it might be a decent fail safe.

Also, where are you? If you're in FL and don't want them let me know.
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Not in US, but in South East Asia.
 
lattiboy said:
Thank you everybody, I'm gonna have my neighbor take a look, but I'm sure I'll end up taking it into a repair specialist. Who knows, maybe it's something very simple and the unit works fine.... although that is never the case.

Good to know about the fuse situation, as I'll probably be putting my Dhalquist DQ 20s on the thing and would be very sad if they exploded.

PS can anybody recommend a vintage repair specialist in the Seattle area? I go to the loudspeaker store for my speaker needs, but I've never needed an amp of this magnitude fixed before. And as it weighs over 100 pounds, shipping would probably not be a great option.
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I live in Seattle. Hawthorne Stereo might be willing and able to help you. Roger Hug is a fine repairman, but his health has not been good. My advice would be to look for another amp and cut your losses.
 
I own two of them, and I really like them. One was fully restored with all the safety mods and speaker protection. The other one has the safety mods and fused speaker protection. I don’t think these are going to go down in value.
 
D
lattiboy said:
Thank you everybody, I'm gonna have my neighbor take a look, but I'm sure I'll end up taking it into a repair specialist. Who knows, maybe it's something very simple and the unit works fine.... although that is never the case.

Good to know about the fuse situation, as I'll probably be putting my Dhalquist DQ 20s on the thing and would be very sad if they exploded.

PS can anybody recommend a vintage repair specialist in the Seattle area? I go to the loudspeaker store for my speaker needs, but I've never needed an amp of this magnitude fixed before. And as it weighs over 100 pounds, shipping would probably not be a great option.
Click to expand...
Do you still have this
 
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