Bose 901

Back in the 60/70's, my audiophile cousin had a pair of Bose 901s. We were both new to the hobby, but I did enjoy hearing how the speakers spread the sound to give the impression of much bigger speakers. The EQ box was obviously a contributing factor.

I have installed many pairs of these ( the 901 came in series 1 thru 6 throughout it's time ) in my early days of audio, and owned a pair, connected to a modified GAS Ampzilla amplifier. I suspended them from the ceiling, in all cases ( inverted, as the connections faced upwards and the holes for the eye hooks were pre-drilled). Based on the listeners seating distance from them, and the room size, determined how far we hung them from the rear wall. I was invited to a BOSE presentation for members in the industry ( at a forgotten hotel in Manhattan ), and during this presentation, they took a pair of bare electrical wire ( similar to what you would find on a coffee maker ) with an ac plug on one end, connected and plugged the 901’s into the ac outlet. They left the 901’s plugged in for 1 minute, with a sound, I will never forget. Afterwards, they connected them back up to the Crown amp they had on hand, playing music, and they played fine. This was to demonstrate, the durability of the voice coils, the drivers, and, the use of no crossovers. Passed ! Anyway, as no speaker is perfect, I have to say, they did do some amazing things, particularly, their power output, and their huge stage presentation. With a flat, bare wall behind them, they were fun. Enjoy ! MrD.

Bose 901: the first speaker so inefficient they had to invent a 350 watt amp to drive it.

I agree it is a moronic review.How are they ever going to sound any good with that sort of placement?They need to be a placed against a long wall away from corners  with nothing in between them and distance out from the wall is critical.If you position them properly they actually image OK.In absolute terms they are not very good but they have their strengths and should be enjoyed for what they do well which is scale,dynamics and the ability to make quite poor recordings sound enjoyable.In that regard they are like the ultimate anti-audiophile speaker.

they could rattle windows with a 55 wpc realistic receiver driving them. properly set up bass was killer but probably didn’t get much above 7k on the top end. fun speakers when you consider the competition at the price was Cerwyn vega and other huge boxes, not true hi end speakers they had a place.