Not a Bose basher. However

oldrocker
oldrocker Posts: 2,590
edited December 2016 in Speakers
This time of year I have lots of down time. So after a visit with a relative of mine and his constant comments about bose, I decided to give my set of 901's another try.

In truth when I got them, I never really gave them a fair shot.

Although I'm a Polk sound fan, I thought what the heck, throw em in the mix and be openminded.

Moved all the furniture away from where they sat, placed em the best I could as per the manual, tried a SX 780 first, then a SX 950, then the 2385, to no avail, popped in a xls 1500. Couldn't try the 2250 as it's entertaining a friend of mine.

Just seemed like to these old ears, they had to be pushed to match the sounds I was used to, maybe they need more break in?? The whole mid bass sound did not work for me.

Probably didn't work for me as I'm just used to the sound of my old, tired yet faithful SDA's and along with that my ears are Polk biased to say the least. Oh well, to each their own...

Anywho, the SDA'S are back in the loop purring just fine. B)
Post edited by [Deleted User] on

Comments

  • WTS
    WTS Posts: 170
    Do you have the electronics box that comes with the 901s?

    If not, then you didn't hear them in proper condition.

    Just checking. Others can give you more detailed information.
  • westmassguy
    westmassguy Posts: 6,850
    Without the Equalizer, they'll sound like AM radio.
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  • oldrocker
    oldrocker Posts: 2,590
    Hope I did not offend anyone who's running bose as that was not my intention.
    I also have some 301's which my mom loves at her place.
    I do have the EQ for them.
  • tonyb
    tonyb Posts: 32,902
    Basher....you just sent many scurrying for their safe spaces. :)
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  • MrBuhl
    MrBuhl Posts: 2,419
    There's no doubt I prefer the sound of SDA's to 901's, the are more complete in just about every way, and that goes for modded and unmodded 1c's, unmodded 2a's and modded 2bTL's. To quote F1nut, "you know nothing beats SDA's" and I have found that to be true.

    OTOH It does look like you're running those 901's with older (but good quality in their day) receivers though, and they really reward you with a bit more clean power, I thinking that's where the "had to be pushed" feeling might come in. Just IMO of course, take it for what it's worth.

    Kudos to you for giving them a listen, a lot of folks don't because they get lumped in with a lot of the other Bose stuff (that I'd rather have a boom box for a stereo than run as a rig). I just never thought the 901's get the fair shake they deserved after having them in my listening room for a while.
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  • westmassguy
    westmassguy Posts: 6,850
    tonyb wrote: »
    Basher....you just sent many scurrying for their safe spaces. :)
    Bose is a trigger, we need puppies and Crayolas
    Home Theater/2 Channel:
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  • muncybob
    muncybob Posts: 2,962
    I recall hearing some 901's many moons ago. However, due to the condition my condition was in that night, I think just about anything other than an AM radio was going to sound good to me then. Haven't heard them since. Are you also driving the SDA's with a receiver?
    Yep, my name really is Bob.
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  • oldrocker
    oldrocker Posts: 2,590
    tonyb wrote: »
    Basher....you just sent many scurrying for their safe spaces. :)

    Man I hope not, just had a play day.... :o
  • oldrocker
    oldrocker Posts: 2,590
    muncybob wrote: »
    I recall hearing some 901's many moons ago. However, due to the condition my condition was in that night, I think just about anything other than an AM radio was going to sound good to me then. Haven't heard them since. Are you also driving the SDA's with a receiver?

    Tried various receivers and what not's, didn't use the 2250, it's on loan.

    Back in the day, a friend had a set with a sansui 22000. I remember my ears were ringing all the way home. This same person also had a breakin to his place, the only thing they took was the 901's, left that sansui sitting there......
  • K_M
    K_M Posts: 1,627
    edited December 2016
    Go to a Klipsch forum or a JBL forum or a B+W forum.... and just about every person, says Klipsch or JBL or B+W blows away most every other brand of speaker made.

    I thinks when we decide to get something, its normal to consider what we are used to as "the best", and a good decision.

    Common to bash on the Bose name. Heard them years ago (with the eq) and they were neither great nor bad. Just not to my tastes.

    At the time more on an Infinity person, then B+W, and then Polk after hearing them at a friends house.

    They can all co-exist, and all have some merits, and none are perfect.
  • nooshinjohn
    nooshinjohn Posts: 25,034
    oldrocker wrote: »
    muncybob wrote: »
    I recall hearing some 901's many moons ago. However, due to the condition my condition was in that night, I think just about anything other than an AM radio was going to sound good to me then. Haven't heard them since. Are you also driving the SDA's with a receiver?

    Tried various receivers and what not's, didn't use the 2250, it's on loan.

    Back in the day, a friend had a set with a sansui 22000. I remember my ears were ringing all the way home. This same person also had a breakin to his place, the only thing they took was the 901's, left that sansui sitting there......
    if I didn't need the money back in the day, that AU22000 would still be in my stack of stuff, and the tube amps would never been built.
    The Gear... Carver "Statement" Mono-blocks, Mcintosh C2300 Arcam AVR20, Oppo UDP-203 4K Blu-ray player, Sony XBR70x850B 4k, Polk Audio Legend L800 with height modules, L400 Center Channel Polk audio AB800 "in-wall" surrounds. Marantz MM7025 stereo amp. Simaudio Moon 680d DSD

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  • if I didn't need the money back in the day

    {sigh} Yep, been in that boat before, which is why my AU11000a and {sob} TU-9900 went the way of the buffalo.
    In retrospect, I should have just shot the buffalo.

    ..... I mean that in a good way.

    Bose isn't "bad", what gets me a little wound up is when Bose is presented as the best thing since the invention of the motor driven snowblower.
    Sal Palooza
  • lightman1
    lightman1 Posts: 10,776
    What's a snow blower?
  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 32,926
    lightman1 wrote: »
    What's a snow blower?

    heh, heh, heh -- minus 7 freeeeeeaking degrees Fahrenheit here as I type this.
  • tonyb
    tonyb Posts: 32,902
    The Bose bashing really came about when they introduced those cubes, and promptly proclaimed you could replace your whole stereo system with these little cubes that supposedly sounded better. Thus the old saying, " No highs, no lows, must be Bose." Which pretty much sums up the sound of those cubes. I still have one, 5 sats and a sub that has been boxed up for like 10 years now. Anyone want to trade for something ? lol
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  • rooftop59
    rooftop59 Posts: 7,952
    It's not a sub tony, it's a bass module or pos for short.
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  • westmassguy
    westmassguy Posts: 6,850
    tonyb wrote: »
    The Bose bashing really came about when they introduced those cubes, and promptly proclaimed you could replace your whole stereo system with these little cubes that supposedly sounded better. Thus the old saying, " No highs, no lows, must be Bose." Which pretty much sums up the sound of those cubes. I still have one, 5 sats and a sub that has been boxed up for like 10 years now. Anyone want to trade for something ? lol

    Actually, it started earlier than that, with the infamous J. Gordon Holt review in Stereophile. Julian Hirsch had given the original 901s a glowing review. Holt gave them a mixed review, which is used quite often when bashing Bose. Holt made some assertions about the Equalizer, which are laughable from my perspective.

    The cubes are another matter. Not sure how they measure up now, but the original systems had a gaping hole in the frequency response. The "Bass Module" cutoff well below the bottom end of the cubes.
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  • K_M
    K_M Posts: 1,627
    tonyb wrote: »
    The Bose bashing really came about when they introduced those cubes, and promptly proclaimed you could replace your whole stereo system with these little cubes that supposedly sounded better. Thus the old saying, " No highs, no lows, must be Bose." Which pretty much sums up the sound of those cubes. I still have one, 5 sats and a sub that has been boxed up for like 10 years now. Anyone want to trade for something ? lol


    Honestly thought, it was a great idea at the right time,looked great, and was living room "Friendly"..
    Sadly.... simply not worth even close to what they asked for them though.

    At half the price or something, I doubt they would have gotten ridiculed.

    I live in a cough cough..."upscale neighborhood", and wince when going to neighbors houses for the first time and seeing a media or home theatre room, that has "Cubes" or some silly similar stuff.

    They have a lexus, a very expensive house, yet **** for speakers!
  • befuddle
    befuddle Posts: 126
    I too fell victim to a set of AM3's and was completely disillusioned by their hype.I only paid 30 used but it led me to consider if its more commendable or contemptible that thru the use of proper extensive marketing its capable to sell crap in a box at a highly profitable price point!
  • tonyb
    tonyb Posts: 32,902
    edited December 2016
    K_M wrote: »
    tonyb wrote: »
    The Bose bashing really came about when they introduced those cubes, and promptly proclaimed you could replace your whole stereo system with these little cubes that supposedly sounded better. Thus the old saying, " No highs, no lows, must be Bose." Which pretty much sums up the sound of those cubes. I still have one, 5 sats and a sub that has been boxed up for like 10 years now. Anyone want to trade for something ? lol


    Honestly thought, it was a great idea at the right time,looked great, and was living room "Friendly"..
    Sadly.... simply not worth even close to what they asked for them though.

    At half the price or something, I doubt they would have gotten ridiculed.

    I live in a cough cough..."upscale neighborhood", and wince when going to neighbors houses for the first time and seeing a media or home theatre room, that has "Cubes" or some silly similar stuff.

    They have a lexus, a very expensive house, yet **** for speakers!
    K_M wrote: »
    tonyb wrote: »
    The Bose bashing really came about when they introduced those cubes, and promptly proclaimed you could replace your whole stereo system with these little cubes that supposedly sounded better. Thus the old saying, " No highs, no lows, must be Bose." Which pretty much sums up the sound of those cubes. I still have one, 5 sats and a sub that has been boxed up for like 10 years now. Anyone want to trade for something ? lol


    Honestly thought, it was a great idea at the right time,looked great, and was living room "Friendly"..
    Sadly.... simply not worth even close to what they asked for them though.

    At half the price or something, I doubt they would have gotten ridiculed.

    I live in a cough cough..."upscale neighborhood", and wince when going to neighbors houses for the first time and seeing a media or home theatre room, that has "Cubes" or some silly similar stuff.

    They have a lexus, a very expensive house, yet **** for speakers!

    I know many like that also. They look at me like I have 2 heads when I suggest better audio. The thing for these types however isn't good sound, it's aesthetics, no wires, they don't want them noticeable.

    I always suggest in-ceiling speakers to these types, out of the way, unnoticeable, yet they are always concerned about the electronics. They don't like numerous big black boxes of electronics either. I used to see a ton of the Bose lifestyle systems in million dollar homes....and cringe. They buy the smallest unobtrusive electronics so they can hide them in a cabinet somewhere. Nothing wrong with cabinets either, but darn it, put something in there that at least sounds good. Their idea of what sounds good is whats available at BestBuy. They have no idea of the audio world that exists....and they flat out refuse to pay anything above chump change for it too.
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  • Moose68Bash
    Moose68Bash Posts: 3,842
    tonyb wrote: »
    Basher....you just sent many scurrying for their safe spaces. :)
    Bose is a trigger, we need puppies and Crayolas

    I need a shot of a good single malt and a couple of hours of Yo-Yo Ma on my main rig!

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  • mrloren
    mrloren Posts: 2,454
    I had a part time job at DOW stereo in 89-90 (yeah I'm old). I didn't make much money there but had a blast testing stuff. This is where Polk came in as my #1 speaker. Yes there were and are better speakers but for the bang for the buck Polk has always been hard to beat.

    The Bose 601, 301 and 201 were very good speakers. The 601 needed lots of clean power but did sound great. We tried after closing to get the 901 to sound good for the entire time I was there, we could never get them right. When the Bose rep came and setup the cube wall we had him set up the 901 the best he could. After he left we set up a $500 set of Polk's next to them and nope the 901 was a waste of money. The 601 if I remember were 1/2 the cost and sounded 3X better.

    Now for the cubes,,,,that is how me and two others lost our job there. One night after closing we had our after work refreshment and were doing some listening. We set every bookshelf speaker next to the cube wall and did the A/B test. Just junk. For the grand they asked for the cubes a $150 set of bookies sounded better. Some how the Bose rep found out about our test and we got canned. We were told not to test/compare the cubes to other speakers not even others Bose like 301 which sounded better.

    Bose does have a great marketing team that can push junk well. I sold a lot of speakers. I refused to sell the cube junk even though it cost me money.
    When I was a kid my parents told me to turn it down. Now I'm an adult and my kids tell me to turn it down.
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  • I had 601s and they were a good speaker and nowhere near as finicky in their placement as 901s. My friend back in the day had a set of 901s and hung them from the ceiling due to room constraints also powered by a Marantz 2200 something series and sounded just ok and there was no comparison between them and what my other friend had which were Dahlquist D-10s. I've always said there were more do not place here than quality spots and looked great for corners and of course that was on the do not place list. One could argue that SDAs have a finicky placement issue but if placed right, the reward far exceeds the detriment.
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  • I had four of the original Series one 901s stacked using the factory stands. I powered them with a Phase Linear 700 running at 4 ohms. To me a flawed speaker but with certain material it was quite a sound. Joni Mitchell's "For the Roses" on vinyl was memorable.
  • K_M
    K_M Posts: 1,627
    Just had a listen to these also..http://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/175507/just-heard-some-bose-901s#latest

    Came to a fairly different conclusion about them. (normal for speakers)
    Was quite impressed in many ways, although I would never really own them.

    I think one has to compare them to something that takes up a similar amount of space or volume.

    I had not heard them in years, and the amount of sound coming out of that small box is impressive compared to any speaker of a similar size.
    Compared to our SDA's, I found them, at the same time, Better, worse, and Different, if that is possible.
    They were simply a very unique sound that nothing else has.

    We own some vintage speakers (really vintage) and in some regards the 901 reminded me more of their sound. Very listenable, smooth and coherent.
    Lacking in detail and things we take for granted today, but just so easy to listen to, and at loud volumes, they are not annoying at all.

    Gonna go back to neighbors and listen again in a few days!
  • mrloren
    mrloren Posts: 2,454
    I do miss my advent maestros, they were a nice warm speaker.

    most people I knew that had 901 could not get the tuned in right so they sold them and got either the 601 or Advents
    When I was a kid my parents told me to turn it down. Now I'm an adult and my kids tell me to turn it down.
    Family Room:LG QNED80 75", Onkyo RZ50 Emotiva XPA3 GEN3 Oppo BDP-93,Sony UBP-X800BM. Main: Polk LsiM 705Center: Polk LSiM 704CFront High/Rear High In-Ceiling Polk 80F/X RT Surrounds: Polk S15 Sub: HSU VTF3-MK5
    Bed Room; Marantz SR5010, BDP-S270Main: Polk Signature S20Center: Polk Signature S35Rear: Polk R15 Sub: SVS SB2000
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  • K_M
    K_M Posts: 1,627
    mrloren wrote: »
    I do miss my advent maestros, they were a nice warm speaker.

    most people I knew that had 901 could not get the tuned in right so they sold them and got either the 601 or Advents

    We own some of the older Advent speakers from the Mid 80's and one from the 70's.
    Haven't used any of them in several years, semi-put away in our basement for now.

    Was Extremely impressed with the Legacy model, which I think is quite similar to the maestro, but with just a woofer and tweeter and no mid speaker.

    The bass and power handling of those were amazing.
    Almost nothing fazed them, even when turned up to unreal levels!