Bose 901's in an acoustically treated room?

Decades ago when J Gordon Holt was chief cook and bottle washer at Stereophile he reviewed the then-new Bose 901.  Bose claimed their research showed that 89% of the sounds in a concert hall were reflected, with only 11% direct to the listener.  That was the basis for their design with 8 speakers reflecting off the front wall and only one firing directly at the listener, each channel.

In Holt's review he said this was redundant since nearly all recordings were made including reflected sounds to begin with.  He did not rate them highly.

Personally I feel qualified to offer an opinion since I actually owned a pair for a short time, unlike some who criticize them.  The first couple of days they seemed impressive with their open, spacious sound field.  But I quickly tired of them.  Every recording, from solo performer to full symphony orchestra was presented the same way.  Somehow it didn't sound natural for say Joan Baez and guitar to be spread across the front of the room.

artemus mentioned Advents, that's what I returned to, eventually having Double Advents.  So much better to me.

cleeds, thanks for digging out that review.  Anyone with interest in the 901s should find it worthwhile reading.

And while it may be more complementary than my memory recalled, Holt did express several reservations.  But first I would note that review was from 1971.  Perspectives on speaker spacious sound have certainly evolved since then.  Particularly with influence by HP in TAS for specific soundstaging.

Regarding Holt's opinions, here are a few quotes:

"But we were less impressed by some other qualities of the 901"

"Thus, some 901 installations will have deep, tight, and quite well-defined bass, while others (in the majority) will exhibit uncontrolled bass resonances"

"It is our feeling, though, that Dr. Bose is either oversimplifying his explanation of what the 901 does or has drawn some dubious conclusions from his basic premise"

"This tremendous gain in spatial effect is not, however, achieved without some sacrifices.   .   .   .   to create such monstrosities as 2'-wide singers and 8' guitars."

"What is, we feel, a more serious shortcoming of the 901 principle is that it subjects the direct sounds in a recording to the same reflective process that enhances the recorded spatial material."

" .   .   .   but we would characterize it as unexceptional in all other respects."

And that is why I remembered the review overall as not rating the 901s highly.

Thanks for the link to Holt’s review.  I read that years ago and had pretty much forgotten about it.

How nice that he actually took the time to give it an in-depth review rather than just dismissing it outright as many do nowadays.  In the end what I got out of it is it does some things well and others not so well.  Pretty much like any other speaker out there.

Years ago I had a pair of the Series VI in a small apartment living room driven by the Aleph 3 and the Rogue 66 preamp.  Listening to George Winston’s solo piano record was an awesome experience.  I have not heard a solo piano sound as good as that rig did in that room since.

 

Sounds like a fun experiment. Please post some pictures if you have time....