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Vintage Asylum Classic gear from yesteryear; vintage audio standing the test of time. |
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Vintage Asylum Classic gear from yesteryear; vintage audio standing the test of time. |
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In Reply to: Re: Sideways Speaker? (poorman's bookshelf?) posted by BGone on March 17, 2007 at 22:41:19:
Lots of stuff here, so let me answer the easy one first. There are 5 versions of the 301. Only the original had the moveable vane. Series II & III had two tweeters one facing diagonally forward the other backward at the same end. Those would be my second choice, as they are not as flexible as the original and they pretty much have to stay horizontal. (the original, being the first, it was not called series I)The original had a two piece foam grill. one piece over the 8" woofer, and the second, an L shaped piece covered part of the front and one end. The cone tweeter was angled ouward from the end, away from the woofer and the moveable vane hung down in front of it. By adjusting the vane the highs could be aimed left, right, or forward. Thus it could be stood on end with the tweeter sound directed forward by the vane. They were sold in mirror imaged pairs with the tweeter vane control knob on top. they could be used with tweeters inboard, outboard or standing vertically with the tweeters at the top or inverted with the speaker mounted high up and the tweeter at the bottom. Two pair were awesome and were used with the tweeters at opposite ends.
Now the problems. The woofers have foam surrounds, so they will probably need replacement. second, the foam grills deteriorate over time and you'd need to fabricate some frames and cover them with acoustical grill cloth. (later versions had cloth covered grills)
They also used wire wrap terminations inside and the earliest ones probably could use new caps.
Last I knew Hawthorne Sound in Seattle had some.
Set up is at least as imporatant as the gear itself, maybe more. I had a near ideal room in my house and it was easy to set stuff up, but most of us aren't that lucky and you need to work to overcome the room. The original 301 gave me a very flexible tool to work with.
Amar Bose started doing acoustical research at MIT in the very early 60's. One of his major contributions at that time was to show that conventional paper cone speakers could be equalized to give virtually perfect reproduction. He developed the 2201 research speaker system for that (an eigth of a sphere with 22 drivers on it, that sat in a corner on the floor) and sold 36 of them to other researchers. He did a lot of other psyshoacoustic research and formed some strong opinions about the generation and perception of sound. This is nicely explained in two issues of the MIT magazine in 1973, and the work seems sound to me. The early Bose speakers came out in 1971 or 72 and the 901 was followed by the 501, the 301 came next, and then the 601. In many respects I think these were company's best.
There's nothing wrong with the concepts behind these first models, except that the 901 and the first two generations of the 501 are very dependent on the room and the placement in the room. The 301 as I mentioned is easy to work with, and the 601 is less demanding than the 901 and 501. Both the 901 and 501 need a lot of clear wall space on both sides of each speaker. A good 3 feet or so is needed and the wall has to be solid and reflective. No drapes, no openings, no large furniture between the speakers, and well away from the corners. That means a wall about 13 to 16 feet wide that's clear and solid. Not many real homes have that and not many shops did either. The 901 needs to be out from the wall aways, but the 501 is pushed tight up against it. 901's were often hung from the ceiling in slings to get them above the furniture, and that helps a lot.
If you had a good set up, the sound could be very good. I had 301's and 501's. Note that Bose recycled the numbering system, so that there are modern 501's, a totally different speaker. The old ones were a squatty 24" high floor stander that was 14.5" wide and deep with a 10" woofer. The new 501 is tall and slender with a 5 1/4" woofer.
My favorites were the 901 series I & II; 501 series I, II, and III (III had a tweeter and vane system like the original 301 and was easy to place); 301 series I (or II and III if you had the right room); 601 series I.
I currently have the AM-5 three piece system in the living room, mainly because of the high WAF. It works very well but was a b---h to set up in my large living room and impossible in my den (believe me, I tried) I've had it apart and measured it, and it's a very clever and deceptively simple looking design. Not as clever and deceptively simple looking as an Advent, but close.
If you decide to go with the AM-5 in your garage, let me know and I'll be glad to help you with set up issues.
Jerry
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Follow Ups
- Re: Bose lore (long) - Bold Eagle 08:24:10 03/18/07 (1)
- Re: Bose lore (long) - BGone 06:15:26 03/19/07 (0)
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