901 series 2 speakers

g_yakamoto:

Back in the 70's, i read that you should have at least 100 watts per chanel for these speakers.

Yep. I would say 100 wpc in a high current amp would be the minimum, and 200 wpc is better. It's telling that Bose's own amp was 250 wpc into 8 ohms, 400 into 4.

The reason 901s were often underpowered is because in 1971 a pair of 901s plus a Phase Linear 400 plus a separate preamp would cost the equivalent of over $8900 in today's money, a bit steep for a college kid, or even a young professional. Just the Bose 901s plus a good receiver would be a lot of money by today's standards (about $5300).

*L*  And easy to DIY for not much bucks today, either, if one cares to duplicate them.  And the active eq is a snap, too.

If one wants to blast the daylights out of the neighborhood with 'whatever', or just have some sheer audio 'freak fun', you could do so for grins.  Decent drivers would make it edge into 'audiophile turf', but that's just heresy on my part. ;)

But those running 'line source' styled speakers know what that's about.  Making a bunch of small drivers 'go Big' is a well-beaten path by now...

I've taken 6 cheapie Pioneers and turned them into 'lines' hanging from the beams in my shop, 3 per side.  The guys were complaining that they couldn't hear their tunes over the equipment.  That stopped. *evil G*L*

I can't imagine the surrounds on Series II being any good.  I was replacing series II surrounds back in the mid 80's... With that,  I know many who really like 901's for listening around the house, but I don't know of any audiophile that would sit in front of them with real intent of trying to create live music.  

I've always had the 901's so I don't know what I'm missing. and since I'm retired I don't have funds to buy any other speakers. I can say that my phase linear amp did damage 3 of my speakers and I had them repaired. only 1 is still original. also the 1 and 2 series had cloth surrounds. 3 and up had foam which will need replacing after so many years.