Bose 901 Review Well Done.
Apparently, they are re-releasing the 901's, they look so good! Grew up in Boston, Bose speakers were everywhere. As a kid, the 901's were amazing. But at that time, all I cared about was loud, party speakers were my main speakers. In fact had speaker from floor to ceiling in my bedroom, that would only be played at concert volume. Still think they look cool, have been thinking about getting a used pair, as they show up on Craigslist all the time for $400-800 |
I am among the few that think the 901 is a very good speaker for the right room and electronics. My introduction to King Crimson was Lark's Tongues in Aspic through a very good setup cranked up very loud. I was completely unaware what lay in store for the first track. With sufficient room and with proper walls and spacing, they are still excellent for medium to loud volumes. For moderate to low volume listening, I prefer other speakers. Bose made some excellent, groundbreaking designs. Other manufacturers since caught on and have been re-defining what we consider good designs, but Bose deserves its spot in the pantheon of engineering excellence. |
I really like the review and agree mostly with it. I've posted my Bose story here before but here's a quick recap: I bought a pair of Bose 901 II's and a Bose 500W amp from the Rhein-Main Audio/Photo Club in May 1973 for $1176.00...I still have them. Pink Floyd DSOTM tour came to the Hampton Roads Coliseum that spring. Most impressive concert to this day. The Bose at home in a carpeted, mostly bare,12x20 living room at clipping levels (amp LEDs) came very close to recreating the concert sound (minus rear channels) when the album was released shortly after. One of my roomies had some L100's that were clipping way before the amp and 901's. Walls of sound! In Mar 1990 I had the amp repaired for the first time with the right channel out (diode and resistor, loose solder on a transistor). That fall it failed again, this time taking out all speakers on the right channel too. Auditioned several dealer setups...Wilson Audio, B&W 801, 705, Apogee, Magnepan, Vandersteen...most way beyond budget! The Mag had a similar larger than life sound stage as the 901's, more detail, less bass. I bought the Vandy 2ci and they remain the front mains today. Bose 201 II's for surrounds and the remaining 901 as rear surround. It's too far to run the equalizer cabling so I tune it with my Pioneer SC LX801 DSP...works well as an "extended speaker" also, to give the house open floor plan full sound. Reference stereo system today is a standalone Susvara setup.
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Hey old_ears I visited the RM Audio/photo club in 1974/75 when I was stationed in Darmstadt at Ernst Ludwig Kaserne. Bought my Nikkormat camera there, heard 901's and the Linear Design Lab copies. LDL went out of business when Bose sued them. They were pretty much a direct copy of the 901. I didn't get my 901's until I got out in fall of 75. Bought them and Crown DC300A in early 1976. Many loud parties for many years. I had buddies with the planars, also DQ10.s. All had their attributes. |
It's a fair review of a classic 70's speaker. For those that look down their nose at the Bose (see what I did there), HiFi is about what makes you happy, and since speakers in particular are very personal in terms of expectations, 901s had (I believe) 4 iterations and every one sold well. So they did something right. Heck, I still have fond memories of a pair of Sansui speakers (LM 330's?) I bought in high school along with a Marantz 2235B receiver. |
In 1974 I lived in an apartment building in Somerville, MA. This was long before it became gentrified and housed artists and hipsters. My next door neighbor was an architectural photographer, a few years older than me.* I learned a lot from Bob. He had a pair of whatever the big Bose speakers were at that time (901s?). I was young and 100% ignorant about audio, but had loved music my whole life. He knew I liked classical but wasn’t in touch with 20th century modernism. So one day he put the Bartok Violin concerto on those Bose speakers and proceeded to utterly blow my mind. I’ve been a huge of fan of Bartok and modernism ever since. I thought those must be the best speakers in the world. 10 years later when I was putting together my own high end system, I was kind of surprised to learn that Bose speakers were detested by many in the high end. It wasn’t the last time I was surprised by the intersection of music, audio technology, and social perception. *Bob moved to Hollywood to pursue work in film making. He probably started out as an assistant cinematographer or something like that (he was a superb photographer with his big 4" x 5" view camera), then later became a director. Among the films he directed is the cult classic, HITCHER; and a bunch of very entertaining JESSE STONE films starring Tom Selleck. Most recently he directed 23 episodes of BLUE BLOODS for TV. A very talented man. |
This peaked my interest because I noticed a pair of Bose 901s lurking behind Steve Martin, Marty Short and Selina Gomez on the set of SM’s supposed NY apartment in the latest series of “Only Murders in the Building”. I wondered if this was part of Steve Martin’s sense of humor for his nerdy character to be proudly displaying 50 year old speakers. Who knew they are still in production? A friend’s dad had a pair when I was in high school, and I was never all that impressed. The dad was a doctor that was into nice things so he was probably driving them with a Tandberg receiver or something like that. It was probably related to set up, or at the time I just didn’t “get” the sound. On the other hand, the system I took to college consisted of an AR turntable, Kenwood KA3500 and Bose 301 speakers. It sounded good enough that when playing some acoustic guitar music with my dorm room door open once, someone came down the hall to see who was playing. kn |
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. |
@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.
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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. |
hsbrock Yes, I still have the article in one of my stereo file folders. I was 16 at the time, myself. I did not hear them for another couple years but the article interested me. As stated above, I also have my original receipt from 1976, when I bought my second stereo set up. I have a photo of my first stereo, which I bought right before getting drafted. I had a Pilot 65wpc receiver (considered powerful at the time), Realistic TT and Nova 8 speakers from Radio Shack. It wasn't terrible for a teenage kid and first stereo. Best in the barracks until I went to Germany. |
Yeah my first big buy...901s series 2 bought them used for $315 back in 1973 .I ran them with a Sony Str 7065.They were great ,I was just married 21 into Led Zeppelin and they could handle them,no problem. Had a Technics 1300 TT Shure V15 cart and my set up was great .I used them until 1995..had them stored and the speakers rings,all deteriorated..16 speakers are alot to redo...whan I move I thrashed them,sadly to say...I had no room for them in my new place. |
Such a lively thread! My contribution has to do with not “what’s best”, but with what I like and find most interesting- which involves owning a bunch of very different systems, each with very different vintage speakers: -Quad ESL 57’s -Monitor Audio MA2’s -Altec 604’s in 620 cabinets -ADS 801’s -Linn Kan’s -Yamaha NS10’s -Bose 901 series IV with equalizer They all have their “place”. I don’t listen to the Yamahas for fun- they’re great tools for mixing and sound design, as befits their rep. The Quads get the best upstream gear I can afford, and have pride of place in my home living room- solo, couch-based listening at its best. The Monitor Audios are great in my art studio- well-balanced, forgiving, good off-axis in a large live space. Linn Kans are fine for film sound when projecting movies (w. sub). The ADS 810’s are comfy in a social/game playing space in my vacation home for mostly non-critical rock, r&b and jazz listening with family and friends. Finally, and most recently I bought a used pair of 901’s for my new screen porch, positioning them against a solid wall, hooked up an old Creek integrated I had lying around, and finally heard them in all their good, bad and ugly glory. Everything written above is true- except that the EQ is at best optional. No- it’s necessary. Unless you take the eq out of the signal chain as a “special effect” applied to stripped-down dub- the sort of trick-in-the-mix Lee Perry might have come up with . . . And yes, they still sound great heard from an annoyed neighbor’s house across the lake! |
When I was a kid, I would dream about 901's from all the ads in Stereo review. Thru the years I thought about building a vintage 2nd system and finding a pair. One thing, never dismiss vintage components (assume everything is working). People and reviewers back then knew what sounded good too. I went vintage with my speaker cables and found a mint pair of MONSTER M 2.2 series. I love how they fit in with my system. Good cabling is good cabling |
I remember a friend bought a pair and back then was under the impression that they were fantastic speakers and didn't know any better. That is until I listened to them. Was NOT impressed in the least so maybe he didn't have them set up right? Some of the other Bose speakers I had heard sounded decent. |
