Bose 901 Review Well Done.

Hey billpete,

Lucky you, being stationed in Germany.  I flew C-130's out of Langley and only got to "rotate" for 2 months out of Mildenhall, 3 times...mostly one nighters all over Europe.  Was lucky to get to the AV club.  Miss those days!   AR turntable, Revox dolby B, and Pentax Spotmatic from there too. 

Series one and two were interesting pieces. After that, not very good. I had series one for a good while but quicky progressed.  I tried series 5 for about 15 minutes, there was no hope for them. 

@billpete Thank you. You still have Julian Hirsch's review of the 901s from (I think it was) August of 1968? I admired his style as I read his reviews month after month. I was just a 15-year old kid, but I have wondered all these years about how to achieve some real high fidelity while also achieving the "no sweet spot required" sound of a concert hall or live rock concert because to me, that is one of the biggest problems of conventional systems. (there are preferential seats in a concert hall, but relatively, there is much larger area that's sweet.)

To me, loudspeakers should be sold with a warning label disclosure: "Caution. These speakers do not function well except in a very small spot within a room." Not the frequencies, not stereo sound. But audiophiles, who ordinarily would not accept such glaring deficiencies in a system, seem to accept this problem as a given. As I was thinking on this the other day something occurred to me and maybe I'll have to try it.

Anyway, I may not comment often, but I enjoy the dialogue here. 

Hey old ears

Yes, I was fortunate to spend a year in Germany. I enjoyed my time there even though I was homesick and missed my fiance. She did come over after a few months and we got married in Darmstadt. We are about to celebrate our 50th anniversary. 

Lots of the guys had stereo gear from the RM store. Those big PX's were amazing. A lot of RTR decks, one guy had a quad set up with 2 pair of Bose 501's. It was OK, I wasn't a huge fan of the 501's. He had the biggest quad receiver you could get, can't remember but seems like maybe a Sansui, again, no big deal but the system sounded OK and certainly better than some. I spent my free cash on the camera and lenses. When I got out in Oct 75, went to work and took out a loan to buy a stereo system. Pioneer PL12D turntable, Shure V15III cartridge, Crown IC150 preamp, Crown DC300A amp and a pair of series two Bose 901's. It was around $1600. I still have the original receipt. The banker thought I was nuts but he had no reason to say no to the loan. My son still has the old Crown gear (needs repairs) and my nephew is still using the old Pioneer TT. I recently bought another V15III and it cost twice as much today, used, as it did new in 1976. Lots of people still using them today. 

Russ69

I think the series 3 was the worst. Never hear a good word about them. Series 4 sounded good but foam surrounds went bad fast. Bose did a buyback program and put you into a pair of series 6 for I think $400. I bought a pair of junk 4's just to do the trade. I still have a pair of series I, 2 pair of series 2 and a pair of series 6. My favorites were always the 2's but 6's are pretty good and can sound good with less than 100 wpc as well as handle loads of power. These were the ones that they'd plug into a wall outlet, claiming they could handle 1200 watts. I have not tried this. :) The series 1's and 2's are power hungry and sound best with a minimum of 150wpc. Most who complained about the first two series were driving them with small receivers and they would not sound good at all this way. I had a 90wpc Yamaha integrated amp as a loaner before my Crown gear came in. It was not enough and I did not enjoy them until I got the Crown separates. They came to life with the added power.

I find the same thing with my AR9's. I only had one Parasound (HCA2200II) amp when I first got them and ran them with the single 250wpc. They didn't sound bad, they even sounded good but they truly came to life when I added the second Parasound amp and bi-amped them, the way they are designed. I can't imagine using them any other way. Just like I can't imagine listening to Bose 901's with not enough power and or not placed in perfect corners. They will absolutely not sound right if they are not used correctly and supplied with enough power. I first heard them driven by a large McIntosh amp and preamp. The clerk at the store said they had to have the power and he was right. 

I had a buddy who had DQ10's and he drove them was an Accuphase integrated amp, 110wpc. It sounded pretty good but I said he needed more power. I bought my Crown amp and preamp to his place and he could not believe the difference. He bought a Denon 200wpc amp after that and they came to life. His preamp was a CJ PV2, likely better than my Crown or at least different being tube vs SS. 

I know a lot of Maggie users have found the same. If they need power, give it to them or you will be very disappointed.