Bose 901s run done
Comments
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Those 901 ports look like Polk's "new" bass port design with the integral bullet/cone.
First thought I had too, saw a photo and noticed it looked like the X-port. -
The MIT link I posted earlier cites this review by Julian Hirsch as (perhaps) the wateshed for the 901.
https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Audio/Archive-HiFI-Stereo/60s/HiFi-Stereo-Review-1968-09.pdf
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Here is a link (somewhat murky) to the 1961 Popular Electronics magazine "Sweet Sixteen" speaker by Jim Kyle with the additional "sweetener" of adding a tweeter:
https://toidsdiyaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/bb_files/attachments/132013768/276-Sweet-16.pdf -
mhardy6647 wrote: »
I remember seeing these clear cabinets show up simi regularly on 3bay years ago when I was a kid. I always wanted one, I thought they were the coolest... Still kind of do, especially the clear subs.
Seems unattainable now?
2ch rig: Speakers: Magnepan LRS w/Magna Riser stands Preamplifier: Parasound P5 Amplifier: Parasound A23 CDP: Pioneer DV-563A Cables: Wireworld Equinox 7 XLR ICs, Wireworld Ultraviolet 7 USB, AudioQuest Q2s, AudioQuest NRG X(preamp)
Standby: LSi9s with VR3's Fortress mods -
SeleniumFalcon wrote: »Here is a link (somewhat murky) to the 1961 Popular Electronics magazine "Sweet Sixteen" speaker by Jim Kyle with the additional "sweetener" of adding a tweeter:
https://toidsdiyaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/bb_files/attachments/132013768/276-Sweet-16.pdf
Thanks to WRH, the Sweet Sixteen legacy is readily available again.
It will likely come as no surprise that I did a little Sweet Sixteen meta-analysis a while back over at AA:
https://db.audioasylum.com/mhtml/m.html?forum=hug&n=185613&highlight=sweet+sixteen+mhardy6647&r=&search_url=/default.mpl?searchtext=sweet+sixteen&b=AND&topic=&topics_only=N&author=mhardy6647&date1=&date2=&slowmessage=&ip=&sort=score&sortOrder=DESC&sortRank=Forum&forum=ALL
The original Sweet Sixteen article starts on pg. 55 of
https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Poptronics/60s/61/Pop-1961-01.pdf
Now -- just to tie this all into a Celtic knot
I noticed one of the articles in the link above is for the "Frisky Four" (by no less than David Weems!), which isn't p-R-0-n but rather a little loudspeaker that bears an uncanny resemblance to the aforementioned Baruch-Lang speaker!
What goes around comes around.
https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Poptronics/70s/1970/Poptronics-1970-04.pdf
starts on pg. 43
The cabinet design is much simpler than the B-L speaker, and the drivers are probably more capable. They look a lot like the already-mentioned CTS drivers (and perhaps they are -- I didn't check on the McGee catalog reference in the parts list of the article).
It probably goes without saying, but the multi-driver designs in this thread are a little more respectful towards physics than was the somewhat arbitrary array of the Sweet Sixteen. The Sweet Sixteen might've been a little better if configured as a Bessel Array (???).
https://www.angelfire.com/sd/paulkemble/soundf.html
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Or vice versamhardy6647 wrote: »
I remember seeing these clear cabinets show up simi regularly on 3bay years ago when I was a kid. I always wanted one, I thought they were the coolest... Still kind of do, especially the clear subs.
Seems unattainable now?
Pretty much collectors' items -- I am sure the collectors have snapped 'em all up by now.
If you're gonna go Lucite for your loudspeakers -- my suggestion: go big or go home.
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Wasn't the good Dr.B a bit of a litigious sort? Or at least his corporate lawyers were. I seem to remember him threatening legal actions against Stereo Review, Stereophile, Consumer Reports, Polk Audio and others? Maybe even Jim Kyle? Up there with Noel Lee.
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I found one on FB market place! $500. No affiliation. Someone snatch this up.
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/509931216147397/2ch rig: Speakers: Magnepan LRS w/Magna Riser stands Preamplifier: Parasound P5 Amplifier: Parasound A23 CDP: Pioneer DV-563A Cables: Wireworld Equinox 7 XLR ICs, Wireworld Ultraviolet 7 USB, AudioQuest Q2s, AudioQuest NRG X(preamp)
Standby: LSi9s with VR3's Fortress mods -
The company certainly has been (and perhaps still is).SeleniumFalcon wrote: »Wasn't the good Dr.B a bit of a litigious sort? Or at least his corporate lawyers were. I seem to remember him threatening legal actions against Stereo Review, Stereophile, Consumer Reports, Polk Audio and others? Maybe even Jim Kyle? Up there with Noel Lee.
The funny thing about Bose is that they have been very (!) R&D/evidence-driven/engineering-intensive from day one. I know some pretty serious Bay State audio design talent that spent some time working for Bose. The audiophile marketplace gives 'em very little credit for that -- probably due to their bad reputation with "follow-ons" as @SeleniumFalcon mentions, and also their, umm, descent into "lifestyle" audio. They were at the forefront in the latter case.
I would also suggest that Bose, like Klipsch when Col. Paul W. Klipsch was running the show, focused on high-margin processes. Both companies, e.g., used very inexpensive drivers for most of their histories, believing (and claiming) that the value of their products lay in the enclosure designs and/or driver array technology they used -- not in the drivers. Klipsch, in early days, used nice Electrovoice and (if memory serves) University drivers, but by the 1970s had transitioned to very inexpensive commodity drivers (other than their long association with EV T35 diffraction horn tweeters, which the Col. apparently had some affinity for).
In fairness to both companies the Bose 901 and the Klipschorn have had long and successful production runs -- especially the K-horn, which debuted in the late 1940s and has been in more or less continuous production ever since! 
Of course, we owe the existence of Polk (Audio) as we know (knew) it to the impact of Bose's "cease and desist" letter on the aforementioned "Bozo" gambit!
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source: https://www.polkaudio.com/en-us/polklore/brand/polk-at-50-conversation-with-matthew-polk.html
I am pretty sure he's thinking: "I measured twice before I cut, but this hole is still a little too big for one of those 4-1/2 inch "Bozo" drivers..."
(just kidding, of course... in case Mr. Polk might be reading this!
)
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I can remember going into one of Bose's mall stores and seeing an interesting demonstration. They had taken one of their subwoofers made it from clear plastic filled it with very small pieces of some kind of white fine grain material. The sub was playing a low frequency sound and and the tiny pieces were forming standing waves inside the box. Really cool. I always thought that it would be a good idea to dump a whole batch of those particles in a room and be able to see where all the peaks and valleys were located. Then get out the vacuum cleaner before the wife gets home.
In the world of professional sound reproduction they have some very good products. My wife volunteers at a local museum and they use a Bose PA system, a narrow tower that perches on a subwoofer. And it isn't bad. -
Our church in MA had skinny Bose columns and Bose subwoofers installed at one point*.
They sounded quite good.
The pro version of the 901, called the 802 [edit] 800 was also a very good loudspeaker.
Speaking of the Bose 800... an erstwhile biotech colleague of mine in MA had a side-hustle as leader of a small a cappella group called aka Pelican Groove (say it and you'll hear the dad-joke-pun emerging from your lips!)
They used a pair of 'em when they gigged -- and they sounded great.
In fact, I have one of their CDs from those long-ago times (mid 1990s) and it is very good and it sounds very good, too... but I digress**.
https://youtu.be/gBPyaYYbdYw?t=234
(skip to 3' 54" if the link doesn't do it for you -- and then the last few minutes of the video is literal dead air)
It don't get no mo' Boston than this.
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* Perhaps not coincidentally, Bose's US Director of Sales was a member of our congregation at the time.🙄
** Imagine that?!
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There's a pair of these bad boys (Bose 601 Series II) near me for $200 and it's really tempting. They look super interesting.
I know this thread is on the 901s but hey they're still Bose. Anyone have any thoughts? -
No highs, no lows, must be Bose..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
“When once a Republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.”— Thomas Jefferson -
*Blose
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Really? Completely flat and dead? I just don't get it. I gotta hear this for myself. Their headphones are anything but.nooshinjohn wrote: »No highs, no lows, must be Bose..I disabled signatures. -
Curious to hear what people say on this question, but for $200 I'd probably try them.
https://www.reddit.com/r/vintageaudio/comments/mzxteu/bose_601_series_ii_pickup/
Or you could save that $200 for the LSi9s you want. That'd get you halfway there.
Seems like these are room-fill type speakers. I wouldn't be surprised if there's no imaging with the drivers arrayed as they are, but I have no idea and still curious to hear how they sound for myself.
There's a pair of these bad boys (Bose 601 Series II) near me for $200 and it's really tempting. They look super interesting.
I know this thread is on the 901s but hey they're still Bose. Anyone have any thoughts?I disabled signatures. -
There's a pair of these bad boys (Bose 601 Series II) near me for $200 and it's really tempting. They look super interesting.
I know this thread is on the 901s but hey they're still Bose. Anyone have any thoughts?
FWIW, were I you, I'd hold out for a pair of Stig Carlsson's loudspeakers. The best known were those made and sold by Sonab, but similar designs were also sold under the Carlsson brand name, and perhaps carrying other brand names, too.
They used Peerless (and perhaps other good European) drivers and, weird, Bose-like arrays notwithstanding, sounded good.
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PS Stig's apparently listening to a Fisher 202R "AM-FM stereo" (simulcast) tuner in that photo.
although I initially thought it was an FM-1000... one of the finest tuners ever made.
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I think I'll pass on the 601s. The guy bumped the price to $600 and I just spent $250 on some mods for my M5JR+. Looks like I won't be expanding out of the Polkosphere for the time being lol.
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Do the Bose peeps have a forum?
Brian
One-owner Polk Audio RTA 15TL speakers refreshed w/ Sonicap, Vishay/Mills and Cardas components by "pitdogg2," "xschop" billet tweeter plates and BH5 | Stereo REL Acoustics T/5x subwoofers w/ Bassline Blue cables | Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum III integrated tube amp | Technics SL-1210G turntable w/ Ortofon 2M Black LVB 250 MM cart | Sony CDP-508ESD CD player (as a transport) | LampizatOr Baltic 4 tube DAC | Nordost & DH Labs cables/interconnects | APC H15 Power Conditioner | GIK Acoustics room treatments | Degritter RCM -
Do the Bose peeps have a forum?
That is a really good question!
I... I don't know.
Maybe not, or maybe they do, but it's on the Dark Web.
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Do the Bose peeps have a forum?
They did, then it closed down for God knows what reason. Probably because modern day Bose makes "alright" products for a luxury price. -
Naaa it was because they could hear it with their noise cancelling headphones... . -
Bahahaha. I'll tell ya, their noise cancelling isn't actually too bad. Not Sony level, but it's not the worst.
Bose is not the worst headphone company. Speakers, I could care less, but their headphones interest me. They get CRAZY sales sometimes and become amazing value. The sound quality is a little better than Sony but not quite Sennheiser (they make ANC headphones), and their noise cancelling is a little better than Sennheiser but not quite Sony.
Before I got into the whole speaker aspect of audiophilia, I was a massive headphone nerd. Ultimately I hated the cost and the limited return on the cost ($500 for a good pair of headphones, $1000 for a good pair that's only barely better) and I switched to the speaker side because a $100 pair of M5JR sounds better than a $500 pair of headphones and an extra $400 spent on upgrades makes it blow almost any headphones out of the water for the $500 cost of those "good headphones".
Anyways point is I was familiar with Bose's headphones and I knew them for that, they weren't bad at all. Then I got into speakers and Bose sucked.... -
Bahahaha. I'll tell ya, their noise cancelling isn't actually too bad. Not Sony level, but it's not the worst.
Bose is not the worst headphone company. Speakers, I could care less, but their headphones interest me. They get CRAZY sales sometimes and become amazing value. The sound quality is a little better than Sony but not quite Sennheiser (they make ANC headphones), and their noise cancelling is a little better than Sennheiser but not quite Sony.
Before I got into the whole speaker aspect of audiophilia, I was a massive headphone nerd. Ultimately I hated the cost and the limited return on the cost ($500 for a good pair of headphones, $1000 for a good pair that's only barely better) and I switched to the speaker side because a $100 pair of M5JR sounds better than a $500 pair of headphones and an extra $400 spent on upgrades makes it blow almost any headphones out of the water for the $500 cost of those "good headphones".
Anyways point is I was familiar with Bose's headphones and I knew them for that, they weren't bad at all. Then I got into speakers and Bose sucked....
Two different models of Bose headphones each beat out the Sony WH-1000XM4 for me. Both in audio performance and noise canceling, not to mention, overall comfort. These are the QC35ii and the NC700.I disabled signatures. -
Bahahaha. I'll tell ya, their noise cancelling isn't actually too bad. Not Sony level, but it's not the worst.
Bose is not the worst headphone company. Speakers, I could care less, but their headphones interest me. They get CRAZY sales sometimes and become amazing value. The sound quality is a little better than Sony but not quite Sennheiser (they make ANC headphones), and their noise cancelling is a little better than Sennheiser but not quite Sony.
Before I got into the whole speaker aspect of audiophilia, I was a massive headphone nerd. Ultimately I hated the cost and the limited return on the cost ($500 for a good pair of headphones, $1000 for a good pair that's only barely better) and I switched to the speaker side because a $100 pair of M5JR sounds better than a $500 pair of headphones and an extra $400 spent on upgrades makes it blow almost any headphones out of the water for the $500 cost of those "good headphones".
Anyways point is I was familiar with Bose's headphones and I knew them for that, they weren't bad at all. Then I got into speakers and Bose sucked....
Two different models of Bose headphones each beat out the Sony WH-1000XM4 for me. Both in audio performance and noise canceling, not to mention, overall comfort. These are the QC35ii and the NC700.
I found the QC35ii to be less consistent than the Sonys. I had the WH-1000XM4 and XM5, I found the QC35ii was better than the XM4 until you say, hopped on a lawn tractor, but the XM5 was better than it. The NC700 are crazy. I never understood how they managed to make sleek and slim headphones with that level of noise isolation.
Bose headphones are not to be messed with. If you get them on a really good sale then you'll love them forever. -
Interesting. I found all three to be consistent - the Bose consistently pleasing for all music types, and the Sonys consistently flat, veiled, overbearing bass, and zero dynamics. Essentially, I thought they were over-hyped
Also interesting, your note about use on a tractor, though. I couldn't compare NC performance in use cases like that or with screaming 2-cycle tools. I wear earplugs for yard work. Around here I'd overheat wearing over-ear headphones. But I can see where that'd be a different level of NC performance assessment.
One of the things I did really like about the Sonys was the on-ear detection, and how they'd stop the music if you took them off.
The main reason I ended up with both the 35s and the 700s was that they each have their strengths and functionality benefits.
The audio signature is close to identical between the two.
The 700s do have better NC and touch controls, for example, while the 35s initially felt more comfortable and have tactile buttons for volume.
There are some deals to be had out there, as you mention. I'm a fan of refurbs with headphones. In this case, the original 700s that I bought new had a strange screech that would occur intermittently in one cup with no rhyme or reason. They went back, of course, and I later missed them. Down the road, I happened across a deal on a refurb from Bose in addition to a free additional charging case. Those ones have worked great.
I disabled signatures. -
Interesting. I found all three to be consistent - the Bose consistently pleasing for all music types, and the Sonys consistently flat, veiled, overbearing bass, and zero dynamics. Essentially, I thought they were over-hyped
Also interesting, your note about use on a tractor, though. I couldn't compare NC performance in use cases like that or with screaming 2-cycle tools. I wear earplugs for yard work. Around here I'd overheat wearing over-ear headphones. But I can see where that'd be a different level of NC performance assessment.
One of the things I did really like about the Sonys was the on-ear detection, and how they'd stop the music if you took them off.
The main reason I ended up with both the 35s and the 700s was that they each have their strengths and functionality benefits.
The audio signature is close to identical between the two.
The 700s do have better NC and touch controls, for example, while the 35s initially felt more comfortable and have tactile buttons for volume.
There are some deals to be had out there, as you mention. I'm a fan of refurbs with headphones. In this case, the original 700s that I bought new had a strange screech that would occur intermittently in one cup with no rhyme or reason. They went back, of course, and I later missed them. Down the road, I happened across a deal on a refurb from Bose in addition to a free additional charging case. Those ones have worked great.
I found the Sony XM5s stayed pretty damn cool on my head but the XM4s got sweaty. I use my Nothing Ear (2) now and they work alright but the NC cuts out when I hit a rock. The Sony headphones all have a bass boost, the are EDM tuned from factory I find. I used AutoEQ on Github with the Crinacle results in Poweramp Equalizer along with buying some 0.96" thick Wicked Cushions for my XM4s, the result was a wider soundstage and very neutral dynamic music. I'm not even joking it made Time from Pink Floyd go from sounding like a muffled **** to a super nice piece.
From Factory, I'd pick the Sennheiser or Bose sound, but if you want to do tuning, find whatever has the best ANC and comfort for you and just AutoEQ them. I really like Bose headphones. Honestly I wish they made better speakers. One other thing I really appreciated about Bose was their mini Bluetooth speakers. I have never heard a better BT speaker which could fit in my pocket than ones from Bose.
The screech you mentioned happens on all ANC devices. It's a feedback loop, where the internal microphone detects sound from the speaker driver and it loops over and over again. -
Hmm. That's weird, I haven't experienced that. Out of five sets of NC headphones, I've only had the screech happen in the one earcup of the first pair of 700s I bought. Four other over-ear pair (700, 35ii, AT, one other) and a set of Bose earbuds, no issues whatsoever.
Which Bose speakers do you not like?
I disabled signatures.
