901 series 2 speakers

901 sounded terrible even back in the day. The Bose cube acoustimas which came much later was better but rather limited dynamically.

back in 1971 i was only 18  and did'nt know too much about stereo components. i only knew what i saw at the "pacific stereo" store in l.a. county and what i read in the "stereo review" magazine since they retired.

I had a pair of 901/2's way back when.  Drove them with a Marantz 2270 that when cranked, the dial lights would pulse with the bass line....

No, I didn't blow the Marantz. *L*  I would and did back off.  However...

Ran into a salesperson that opined that the 901's could withstand a kilowatt (like with the then current Phase Linear's 'big one') and not seem to be in distress.  I wouldn't have been surprised with a new pair...

Lived for awhile in a rent house, and was blasting away when the landlady walked in and waved to get my attention.  She was laughing that when I had it cranked, it would drown out her stereo indoors some 50' away.

What blew her mind was that when she'd walk to the mailbox, she could follow what I had on....100 yards away.....*L*

Yeah, they weren't accurate, and they weren't 'audiophile' with they way they radiated, but damn you could get LOUD with them.  Not surprised that Bose later offered them as PA drivers, pointing the back 8 at the audience and saying the front single could be used as a stage monitor.  Often thought if you stacked, say, a dozen of them per side that they'd be an insane line source.  Turn the first 5 rows into jelly....*L*

asvjerry wrote:

I had a pair of 901/2's way back when. Drove them with a Marantz 2270 that when cranked, the dial lights would pulse with the bass line....

When the 901s came out, people were pretty naive about how much power they really required. Quite often they were paired with a Marantz or Pioneer receiver making 40-50 wpc. What people didn't know is the effect of the "Active Equalizer" had something like a 20dB boost at 50 Hz to impart some credible bass. That was quite a strain on an a typical--even a good--receiver at that time. Those with more money might pair it with a Phase Linear 400 or an SAE powerhouse. You might say Bose "came out of the closet" regarding power requirements when they produced the Bose 1801 power amplifier, a behemoth putting out 250/400 wpc into 8/4 ohms. *That* really lit up the 901s and showed what they could do when fed some serious power and current.

Not surprised that Bose later offered them as PA drivers, pointing the back 8 at the audience and saying the front single could be used as a stage monitor. 

Actually, the Bose PA speakers were the 800 series, starting with the 801 and soon on to the 802. The configuration *did* turn the Bose enclosures around so the 8 drivers faced the audience, but there was no single driver on the back side. The 800 model had a pair of large ports in the back; the 802s moved those ports to the front and managed to fit all eight 4-1/2" drivers in the angled front as well.

... Often thought if you stacked, say, a dozen of them per side that they'd be an insane line source....

In the 1970s I saw a multimedia presentation that used some really powerful amps (I forget which--probably Crown DC300As or Bose 1801. They used 3 pairs of Bose 800 speakers stacked and facing the audience in a mid-size venue. Those things played loud and clean. They also had the advantage of 48 full-range drivers with no crossovers, facing the audience. The midrange was crystal clear (ideal for dialogue) with seemingly unlimited (for 1976) dynamic range.

g_nakamoto writes:

hi, anybody out there have any thoughts of the bose 901 series 2 speakers?

A few years ago, Jeff Dorgay, editor/publisher of ToneAudio, did a fresh review of the Bose 901 Series VI loudspeakers with the same methods that would be used to review speakers today. For example, he used top quality Sound Anchor stands, high quality speaker cable (that won't fit in the narrow columns of Bose's pedastals), and a range of amplifiers, from a vintage Pioneer SX-424 to a Unison Research S6 vacuum-tube amp to a pair of Pass Labs XA200.5 monoblocks.

Read the review; I think you'll find it enlightening. He considered it a competitive value at its $1400 (new, retail) price an a lot of fun for many applications.

Dorgay owns and frequently reviews some seriously high end gear. 

To put some things in perspective, the 1st gen 901s retailed at $476 in 1971. Adjusted for inflation that would be $2874 in today's money. But today the Bose 901 Series VI retails at $1400, which would only amount to $232 in 1971.