Bose 901's with "highend ancillaries"??

Bose 901s were my first speaker purchase back in 1973. Thought they were pretty good and enjoyed them for many years. I kept these until 1996 which by then were stored away making room for higher end speakers as my system evolved. Since I was not using them I sold them. My current systems have speakers from MBL, Ascendo and Kharma but one day got the bug to find another pair of 901s just to mess around with. You have to go with either the series 1 or 2 as the surrounds are cloth and don't fall apart. Found a decent pair of series 1s and match them some vintage McIntosh electronics and once again enjoyed their sound. Are they as good as my other speakers. Of course not. But they are still very enjoyable to listen to and at only $120 quite a bargain. I had our audio group listen to them when we did a shoot out between JbL Lancer 66s, RTR 240 towers and bose 901s and they tied with the RTR for the best sound and everyone was amazed on hiw good they sounded. Yes they get a bad wrap, they are not nearly as bad as people say, match them vintage electronics and good stands, I use 4 pilar Sylan and Place them somewhat properly and enjoy the sound.

HAve never owned Bose nor been strongly inclined.

Had friends with them in their dorm rooms in college. They never impressed me there, but as mentioned I have heard some nice sounding 901 pro/commercial installs. The right room and some installation know how would seem to go a long way with those. Granted these are not venues for "critical" listening typically, so can't say how they might compare 1:1 with others for that.

Thanks for the responses!

I always felt they could not be as bad as many say - hype only goes so far and they are not inexpensive. In fact you could buy a pair of "highend" approved speakers like the Vandersteen 2C for what these cost new and not need the EQ device with the Vandies.

I MAY have to try a pair just to satisfy my curiosity ... though I am not sure I can drive them with 6w of tube power. Might have to break out my old Yamaha 2020 receiver!

You might want to check for any independent measurements that might be published for 901s showing impedance and phase angle curves, also efficiency, ie the measurements that typically determine whether a speaker will be an easy load to drive (for a low watt tube amp) or not. That will help determine how well the two might perform and sound and modest volume at least and how loud one might expect things to go before straining/clipping kicks in.

Off the cuff, I would expect decent but far from optimal results with just a few watts of tube power. Dynamics and volumes achievable will likely be limited and you might not hear the best the speakers are capable of, if that is a goal.

Is that the Yamaha cr2020? I love teh old yamaha receivers and thats one of the bigger ones. That should do quite nicely.

I'd be interested to know how the tube amp does as well in comparison. I'd expect some big differences between the two.

I MAY have to try a pair just to satisfy my curiosity ... though I am not sure I can drive them with 6w of tube power. Might have to break out my old Yamaha 2020 receiver!

Keep in mind that the deep bass boost provided by the 901's external equalizer will eat up a lot of your amplifier's power capability, if the music being listened to has significant content at low frequencies.

Based on a quick Google search, it appears that frequencies in the 30 to 40 Hz region are boosted by amounts between 12 db and 20 db or so, depending on the setting of the bass contour control, and perhaps also on the version of the 901. With lesser but still significant boosts being applied up to well over 100 Hz at the control's center position.

A boost of 12 db would in effect reduce your 6 watt amplifier to a 0.375 watt amplifier on notes in the corresponding frequency range, while a 20 db boost would in effect reduce it to a 0.06 watt amplifier on notes in the corresponding frequency range.

Regards,
-- Al