Part 1: The Bose Phenomenon
Love them. Or hate them. Bose 901s were (and remain) a phenomenon. Whether they are more impactful as a cultural phenomenon, or an audio phenomenon is a good topic for debate, but 901s were and are a phenomenon.
The timing was just right. Swarms of music lovers were coming into their own with a little disposable income left at the end of their paychecks. What better way to dispose of it than on HiFi gear? They’d graduated from mundane, single branded systems and chomping at the bit to invest in some serious HiFi component hardware. There was already a presence of highly credible, high value rectangular boxes out there at the time that had earned the right to become part of the local audio dealer’s “real speaker” inventory. But were we ready for something different? Really different?
Different was not new to HiFi industry. We were shown decades ago that you can put a speaker in a corner and use the sidewalls of the room to extend the size of the bass horns. We learned you can stretch a piece of plastic over a frame and when you applied an ample supply of very high voltage it will respond quite nicely to musical signals. You can squeeze pleats together to make “good noises”. A year later we discovered that you can take a dynamic speaker and mount it vertically on top of a cabinet. It may take on the appearance of an ice cream cone but produce high fidelity omni-directional sound. So, here’s this brand-new concept from a completely unknown entity. Small cabinet, packed with lots of 4 ½” full range drivers that bounced 89% of the sound off the back and side walls after an aggressive application of equalization from a custom outboard eq. What could possibly go wrong? We didn’t have Internet (or, forums) back then, so our quest to discover hidden gems was nurtured only when we visited the HiFi stores or talked to our buddies (after they visited the Hifi stores). So, most likely, we were introduced to 901s when we crossed the threshold of a HiFi store and were approached by an enthusiast audio sales guy (or, proprietor) anxious for us to hear the latest and greatest thing in speaker technology.
My first Bose 901 experience was during a normal visit to the local HiFi store that “carried all the good stuff.” I walked in, took a sharp left, entered Listening Room #4, and there they were!!! No, not the 901s. A pair of Bozak Concert Grands. THESE were the speakers I wanted to own when I grew up. Massive. Intimidating. With the grills removed I just couldn’t take my eyeballs off the arsenal of impressive hardware that had one purpose in life; to project massive quantities of sound waves of various frequencies into the room. I was awarded the privilege of a formal demonstration. To my young ears (and, brain) the sonics were every bit as impactful as the visual I had received moments earlier. But then the dealer diverted my attention to some little speakers sitting on pedestals. Yes, Dr. Bose’s creation. After a very brief introduction to what made the speakers unique, the music started. When you set low expectations, it’s not difficult to exceed them. What I suspected would be the musical equivalent of a listening to a pair of Clarion coaxial car speakers compared to the Concert Grands was, to the contrary, room filling … surprising … impressive. It was the little speaker that could. Could, in fact, not embarrass itself when played in the same room as the formidable Concert Grands. Dr. Bose had, no doubt, created “something.” It just took a few years to my sensitivities to evolve to a degree where I knew what that “something” actually was.
In dealer showrooms, budding audiophiles were treated to a demo unlike anything they’d heard before. They were invited to set in the preferred listening position and take in the enormity of the size of the performance. Then, the dealer had the audacity to invite them to stand up and walk around the room. What!? Amazing!!! They were awestruck with this new audio revelation. They were usually accompanied by their best HiFi buddy who quickly came to the realization: “My new <rectangular box direct radiating> speakers can’t do that! ^&#(@*!!!” The battle for one-up-man-ship was just won. MY new speakers can beat up YOUR new speakers.
Budding audiophiles are quick learners. And, they have a network of friends. This combination resulted in new owners providing flawless Bose 901 presentations in homes around America with attentive audiences eager to learn what’s cool, and what’s not in the world of audio. So, those visiting friends would assign a large chunk of their remaining disposable income to procuring a new set of 901s, and a real amp with “the boys under the hood” to drive them. These Bose owners were having parties. Having fun. Genuinely enjoying the musical experience. As the wise philosopher Clark Griswold once noted: “It’s going to take plastic surgery to take the smiles off your faces.”
Meanwhile, back at the ranch of the Hifi inquisitive, we (we call ourselves the REAL audiophiles) were noting that things were trending in the direction of LESS reflection/refraction. Our sacred cows/speaker manufacturers were recessing mounting screws, cutting back or smoothing cabinet edge details, putting sound absorption materials around drivers, cutting back the size (or, eliminating) speaker baffles, and redesigning (or completely removing) speaker grilles. And, of course, filtering out the range of a speaker when it reached its useful point and handing it off to a driver specifically designed to handle the range – NOT eq’ing it and tossing the highly modified signal back into the room. This created a direct (no pun intended) conflict with the direct/reflecting 901 concepts, which was quite upsetting to us (REAL audiophiles). And we were making more noise than a firecracker in a chicken coop about it.
Well, the HiFi gods must have been listening to us. The low reflection/refraction camp eventually won out, and Bose 901 sales tapered down to a laser point. So, we don’t have to be bothered by budding audiophiles throwing their hard-earned money at new Bose 901s anymore.
Okay, but what do we do about those wildly enthusiastic existing 901 owners who still think their 901s are the greatest thing to ever have a speaker cable attached to them?
Here’s my take:
Bose 901 owners probably had more fun with their systems than we had with ours. And probably still do. They were cooler than us back then. And, probably cooler than us now. Way back when, we celebrated when we got FINALLY got Joni Mitchell’s voice positioned neatly in the phantom space between our (audiophile) speakers where we wanted it. The 901 owner celebrated when he FINALLY got Joann’s torso positioned on the Lazy Boy where he wanted it. It ruins our evening when we’re listening to Vivaldi and the guy next door pulls his Tesla into the driveway and opens the (noisy) garage door. The 901 owner listens to the Stones while working out on his Total Gym and/or wresting a dog toy away from his Great Daneadoodle. We lose our freakin’ minds when we realize we missed the sleeve when reinserting the naked LP into the album cover. The 901 guy notices that his record player is starting to sound like a cat just coughed up a fur ball on the end of his stylus tip, takes a deep breath, blows it off, flicks the stylus with his finger for good measure and flips his Moody Blues album over to Side B. When we discover someone actually attended Woodstock, we’ll asked questions like: “How were the acoustics of the venue?” Or: “Did the sound engineer overdrive the board?” And probably: “Was the catered food healthy?” Or: “Were the bathrooms clean?” The 901 owner would ask them if he could take a sample of their hair, frame it and display it above their album collection. Our “sweet spot” (for one person), where things are perfectly articulated, extends 17 cm on either side of the “optimal” location. The 901 owner’s “semi-sweet acre”, where things sound “almost perfect”, engulfs the entire listening space (and, maybe into the next room?) -- equally enjoyed by ALL participants.
Music, hardware and experiences are intertwined. There is no separating how people felt when they were listening, what they were listening to, who was there, and the stuff that made it happen. Those strange little speakers that toss sound at the walls and around the room do more than present musical information into the space. They reconnect the past experiences that rank pretty high on their list of “best of the best” experiences that ever happened to them. When we invalidate and mock someone’s equipment as “not really HiFi”, we’re just not invalidating their choice of HiFi gear. We’re invalidating their experiences as well. Some of those 901s being listened to today were “dad’s”. Or big “brother’s”. And the aggregate those experiences may explain why the push back we receive when we trounce on them is “highly energetic” at times. How about we cut the 901 guys a little slack?
Let’s validate and celebrate this thing I refer to as “shared indulgences”. Something special happened. Somewhere. Sometime. And we can resurrect those experiences for a brief moment. These are “good problems” to have.
