Bose 901

The 901's certainly didn't need 350 watts to drive them. I always thought Bose is overpriced/mediocre equipment. Still do. Years ago, just being curious, I purchased a used pair of Series 3 with stands and EQ. I discovered that the foam surrounds were completely deteriorated and replaced them with new surrounds. I just wanted to see how good these speakers were since their retail price (new) was so high at the time.
For a short time I listened to the speakers with my 12 band EQ connected. I thought the dinky little Bose EQ couldn't come close to my much superior EQ. One day I connected the Bose EQ and the difference was night and day. The Bose EQ is a VERY important part of the 901 sound and using them without it is a waste of time. Of course, taking these speakers seriously is a waste of time. Equipment far superior to Bose at a fraction of their cost is plentiful.

In the early 80's while stationed in Germany, I purchased a pair of original 901's with the EQ and chrome stands.  At the time, my system consisted of a Pioneer SPEC-4 power amp, SoundCraftsman SP-4001 EQ/pre amp, Technics SL-1600MK2 TT, Pioneer PL-1000 TT, dbx3bx range expander, dbx224 noise reduction unit, Teac X-10R R2R, and Rodec mixer.  I thought the 901's sounded great, especially when playing my R2R.  

As a side note, I still have all of my 80's gear, except the 901's and Pioneer TT.  I gave the 901's, EQ, and stands; a modern receiver; and a Raspberry PI DAC to my goddaughter as a birthday present.  My current Tannoy speakers blow them away, but back in the 80's and 90's, I was in stereo heaven.

My dad had 901's for a while, connected to a Marantz receiver. This was before the days that sound-staging became such a critical issue for stereo nuts, and the spacious sound that emanated from them was revelatory for this teen-aged audiophile.  It didn't hurt that the rig could really blast.

Sure @tweak1, by selling them and putting the proceeds into a GR Research loudspeaker kit. ;-)

@millercarbon............

Were they successful?

I wonder whether Danny Richie could squeeze some life out of them

they could rattle windows with a 55 wpc realistic receiver driving them. properly set up bass was killer but probably didn’t get much above 7k on the top end. fun speakers when you consider the competition at the price was Cerwyn vega and other huge boxes, not true hi end speakers they had a place.

I agree it is a moronic review.How are they ever going to sound any good with that sort of placement?They need to be a placed against a long wall away from corners  with nothing in between them and distance out from the wall is critical.If you position them properly they actually image OK.In absolute terms they are not very good but they have their strengths and should be enjoyed for what they do well which is scale,dynamics and the ability to make quite poor recordings sound enjoyable.In that regard they are like the ultimate anti-audiophile speaker.

Bose 901: the first speaker so inefficient they had to invent a 350 watt amp to drive it.

I have installed many pairs of these ( the 901 came in series 1 thru 6 throughout it's time ) in my early days of audio, and owned a pair, connected to a modified GAS Ampzilla amplifier. I suspended them from the ceiling, in all cases ( inverted, as the connections faced upwards and the holes for the eye hooks were pre-drilled). Based on the listeners seating distance from them, and the room size, determined how far we hung them from the rear wall. I was invited to a BOSE presentation for members in the industry ( at a forgotten hotel in Manhattan ), and during this presentation, they took a pair of bare electrical wire ( similar to what you would find on a coffee maker ) with an ac plug on one end, connected and plugged the 901’s into the ac outlet. They left the 901’s plugged in for 1 minute, with a sound, I will never forget. Afterwards, they connected them back up to the Crown amp they had on hand, playing music, and they played fine. This was to demonstrate, the durability of the voice coils, the drivers, and, the use of no crossovers. Passed ! Anyway, as no speaker is perfect, I have to say, they did do some amazing things, particularly, their power output, and their huge stage presentation. With a flat, bare wall behind them, they were fun. Enjoy ! MrD.

Back in the 60/70's, my audiophile cousin had a pair of Bose 901s. We were both new to the hobby, but I did enjoy hearing how the speakers spread the sound to give the impression of much bigger speakers. The EQ box was obviously a contributing factor.

Kudos for attempting to EQ what would be extremely difficult speakers to EQ at all, given the nature of the deliberate time smear in them.