Bose 901 Review Well Done.

In 1976 I had just moved to a new place. My new buddy upstairs had a pair of 901's.  I was running a Dynaco SCA-80 I had built into a pair of the omni-popular Dynaco A-25's so I was eager to listen to these hyped-up speakers. On site, I couldn't figure what the big deal was. They were supposed to send sound all over the place and I had to hold my tongue about what I heard. Imagine, now, I was a neophyte.  He and I took a trip then down to a hi-fi joint in Jacksonville. The were running a pair of Dahlquist DQ-10's they had mounted up in the corners of the ceiling.  That was the end of the story for me, finis. They were playing "Dreamboat Annie".  After my next move, the DQ-10's were in my house along with a Threshold 400A.  Congrats to Bose for still being able to make those things. Why, I don't know.

last time I heard them was in 1985 at a club in San Antonio. I remember they were playing The Honeydrippers album, it sounded mellow with a tizzy edge, the imaging was amorphous, the bass extension decent, but the overall sound was intriguing at the least. I would have loved to have put on some of my own test tunes to evaluate them more properly. I've never lived in any construction that had the proper dimensions or wall material for them to sound their best. 

Once upon a theme....
My first 'real speakers' was a pair of 901s'....

Being young and mobile in terms of where I was living shifted like it could, there was only one space I really got to place them properly on the long wall...and stomp the accelerator Down; volume to max in a space 14 x 24 x 8.  All feet, and all subject to the mind set of the '70's....
Ruralish town of Fieldbrook, not far from Arcata, a bit more to Eureka....

Not a lot you could do that would piss or freak the neighbors....'damn college kids from CSU Humboldt'....short of a late-night punctuation with a slide shotgun, which we did have the sense NOT to do....

Marantz 2270 with the eq in the tape loop, 12 g. speaker lines, 'decent' for the era IC...AR TT with a Stanton 681EE cart...

I don't remember What I was playing, but my landlady ( a young woman who lived inn the small house behind 'ours' (2 housemates, not present at the time) walked in.....

Now, Vikki was our ages at the time and not given to just cruising in without the knock...which she correctly figured wouldn't have been heard, anyway.  But she had an observation of the moment to share....

"I know you don't know this....but before I left my house, walked pass and to the mailboxes and back (ea. way +/- 50+ yards) to your door...
...and I didn't miss a beat."  Also informed that, on occasion, she couldn't hear her stereo if I had mine 'up' beyond... 'x'.

The panel lights on the 2270 dimmed with the bass line....

YES, 901s' at the time could handle power...a sales dude once told me 'we threw a kilowatt a side at a pair once...they acted like it wanted More.'

Yup, not SOTA, then or now.

They need to be experienced, like Jimmy said... 

I am curious if anyone remembers the 901 demos back in "the day."  One very impressive demo to prove the durability of 901s was to take pure AC right from the wall outlet to the inputs of the 901s.  Flip the switch and "BRRRRRRR" for a half a second.  Then, the sales rep would exclaim: "270 watts!!"

We've heard the "popular" comments from the competitors: "No highs, no lows ...".  Here's another, when prompted: "They sound great.  As long as you don't try to play music through them."

Quick 901 story:

We have a second home on a lake.  Across the cove, about 50 years away is a nice(r) home with the beautiful boat house.  My neighbor (we'll call him "Tim") knows he has the most expensive and elegant home in the cove -- and, the most awesome stereo.  "Tim" often blurs the definition of a "subdivision" and inserts "resort" and "party central" into the classification.  "Tim's" stereo is made up of a big boy Pioneer SX1280, and 901s.  So far, so good.  Except .... the Bose 901s are hanging in the corners with the faces pointed towards "Tim" and his guests.  In theory, this seems viable.  In reality, not so much.  The 901s hang UNDER the soffits of the boathouse.  So, when it's party time at the "Tim Resort" he cranks up the music loud enough to satisfy his "louder ... LOUDER" guests, totally numb to the fact that 89% of the sound is being "shared" with the rest of us.  Anyone who has spent time on a lake knows how sound reflective water is.  This is the ultimate execution of Bose Noise-Cancelling principle.  It cancels ALL sounds in my vicinity and replaces them with "Tim's" playlist for the evening.  This would be somewhat tolerable if I were a strong advocate of "Tim's" choice of music genre.  I'd scratch my fingernails on a chalkboard, but no one would hear.

They came out just as my HiFi journey began, in 1968.  I was initiated in the AR/KLH/Dynaco sector of the audiosphere, and went to the Grand Central listening room to hear the 32Hz organ pipe (overtones) of Also Sprach Zarathustra played in a room far too small to support such a wavelength. Later, I heard a pair of Series IIs reproduce a live recording of the West Point marching band through a pair of MC-2300s, and THAT sure was cool.  But as I learned more about audio I came to dismiss them as High Fidelity…especially after the Series III were introduced.  Truthfully, I haven’t tried any of them in a long while.  I credit Bose with several positive contributions to the audio field…popularizing the concept of subwoofers, noise cancelling headphone technology, and the Lifestyle Jewel Cube w/AdaptIQ.  But his genius was always the marketing of a fundamentally fraudulent notion, using the prestige of his MIT position to make bank. Not a fan of that.