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We will soon see how good these latest 901's really are...
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I'm just surprised to even see an open-minded review of Bose's 40-year-old flagship speaker. The audiophile community made up their minds on this company decades ago and have been bagging on it ever since.
And yet, the public keeps buying their speakers. Why could that be? Maybe they actually sound pretty decent, as the review concludes. Maybe Bose is making a speaker real people like to listen to.
=K
I am breathless with anticipation and find that I have to keep my hands in my pockets to keep from clapping. I hope the review is positive and validates your thoughts on them.
........I was a vegetarian for 15 minutes... until the main course.
I don't think we will find out how some modified 901's sound like I'm been raving about on these forums.I told Jeff about these mods I did to my 901's and he thinks these mods will not improve anything to these speakers and he is not going to try any of these mods so the review is only on "stock" 901's only and they sound nothing like my modified 901's, so maybe someone on these forums will try these mods and let us all know what they think about them.
These 901's have grilles that are made out of fiberglass and these 901's have a much more direct sound to them and they are way less colored after you remove all four grilles.
On the backside of these 901's they are a lot plastic parts sticking out, the ports and other plastic parts and these plastic parts colors the sound and after you covering all these plastic parts with teflon tape you don't hear this anymore.
Another thing I tried was using some RCA to XLR Adapters so I could use my CD Balance inputs on my Yamaha a-s2000 integrated amp. I have my Bose equalizer between my CD player and my Yamaha integrated amp's CD Balance inputs. After adding these adapters my modified 901's really opened up big time and they really SING now !
Edits: 03/21/12
Bose-bashing is the one constant in the audiophile world. While I can't get into the direct-reflected concept, I think it's viable for people who aren't into imaging. By spreading the sound around at least you get a fuller off axis sound. I used to go to a rather large bar that had four 901s hanging from the ceiling, one in each corner, powered by a Dyna 400, and they pumped out Fleetwood Mac and the Allman Brothers quite nicely, with all the volume you could want. Not Quad ELS or LS3/5a or what have you when it comes to fine definition, but quite serviceable. I agree that the Bose corporation has a tendency to bully reviewers, which I deplore.
It's never too late to turn back the clock.
BOSE does give frequency specs on its speakers to customers outside the US.
formed many years ago. Huge, smooth soundstage, decent bass, rolled off highs, smooth presentation yet lacking the finest details. And yes, great party speakers.
A good value? Depends on what you value. For non-audiophiles $1400 is a lot of money for speakers, but used they might be just the ticket (assuming room placement can pass muster- often a deal breaker). For audiophiles, they are not expensive, but for 'philes the things the Bose misses are just the things 'philes are looking for.
In 1969 I was deciding between 901s and Rectilinear IIIs (similarly priced in those days), and after auditioning both, to this budding 'phile it seemed the IIIs had more of what I was looking for- extension on both ends and focus in the middle. I bought the IIIs and was glad I did- until I heard Infinity 'stats, which sent me down the rabbit hole further.
From what the review says, I'm sure I would come to the same conclusion today: Not bad, but not what I'm looking for.
Now if I had a beach house, they might just be the ticket....
Jeff is only doing a review on the "stock 901's" and they are a big difference between the modified 901's and some stock 901's !!
These grilles on these 901's are made out THICK fiberglass and I don't see how the sound gets through this thick fiberglass. And what sound that does get through is very very colored !! Bose is make removable grilles for these LATEST 901's like they use to do with past 901 speakers.
Here's part three of this review below...
Great post, couldn't have said it better.
A lot of the push back to the 901s on these types of forums is to people who claim the 901s are the best, which of course they are not.
Not mentioning any names...
Edits: 03/18/12
It all comes down to what sounds BEST to YOU ! Because that's all that matters...right ?
Jeff is seriously considering keeping these 901's !.....
Interesting that most of the review period was spent with either an old 15 watt per channel, low-end Pioneer receiver or a 35 watt per channel, tube integrated amp. Sounds like they work well with modest power. Of course, from what the salesman at the mall said, the Acoustic Wave music system II might be a better choice. Actually, I'm quite happy with just the smaller Wave music system, but I expect to be moving sometime this summer, and maybe I'll find room to properly place some 901's.
In part three of this review Jeff is going to hook up these 901's to his reference tube gear and reference interconnects and speaker cables...this should be a real ear opener !!Jeff is NOT even using the Bose equalizer in this review and these speakers do sound MUCH better when you use the equalizer too !....
If Jeff does keep these 901's he should remove all these "FiberGlass" grilles because they do sound much more DIRECT this way and way less colored after you cover all those plastic parts sticking way out from those speaker drivers with teflon tape, on the back side of these speaker !
Jeff should do a update review with these tweaks done on them so people can find out about the full potential of these latest 901's !!
Part three of this review will be coming out in a few days !
Edits: 03/18/12
"Jeff is NOT even using the Bose equalizer in this review and these speakers do sound MUCH better when you use the equalizer too !...."
Why do you think the reviewer is not using the equalizer? The review includes a picture of it plus some detail on the sonic effect of the various controls. Interestingly, the reviewer says the bass button acts like a loudness button, but the Bose manual specifically states that it is not a bass enhancement switch and is not intended to boost the bass response of the speaker; from the specifications (-6 dB at 35 Hz), it seems to serve more as a bass attenuation switch. The Stereophile review of an older version mentions this same switch, and that it can be useful in alleviating bass resonances that are a function of the room dimensions.
If you look down this page your find out that Jeff did NOT use the equalizer...
"If you look down this page your find out that Jeff did NOT use the equalizer..."
From the context, that appears to apply only to one of the "variations on a theme" that he'll explore more in part three. HiFiGuy528's question was specific to when the 901's were hooked up to the Pass XA200.5 mono blocks and ARC REF 5SE; even then, some equalization would seem to be required--it will be interesting to read the details when they are available.
Yesterday, TONEPUB posted this message in the Stevehoffman thread that was referenced previously:
"Actually, this is a typo, I read the post incorrectly. All listening was done with the Bose EQ in place. Sorry about that..."
I wonder how much of an improvement could be achieved through the use of a more sophisticated equalizer like the ones in AVRs for room correction. \
Might be an interesting experiment.
"If you look down this page your find out that Jeff did NOT use the equalizer..."
Then how did he equalize them? Because they must be EQed, the EQ is an inherant part of the system.
You can use them without the bose equalizer But they sure don't sound any good that way !.....
I wonder why Jeff did this for ???..... @@ + ## = %%
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