For all you Bose 901 Haters!

My first adventure with Bose was before I became an audiophile. My wife and I heard a pair when we entered our now long gone local “Circuit City” back in the day. When anyone entered that particular CC store, they had the Bose + subwoofer playing so loud at the entrance that my wife made a quick exit and refused to ever enter that store again. It was apparently their tactic for attracting potential customers who liked music. Sadly it backfired on them and the store closed not long after that “Bose stunt”.

Not my cuppa cha.  Now give me the speakers right behind them...!

I guess I missed something here.

Am I supposed to be impressed? I’m not. I wasn’t.

I had a pair of 901 Series IV back in 1983-1986. Just ok speakers. I powered them to ear-blistering levels with my Sherwood S9600-CP receiver. Then my SAE Two A14 integrated. (I still both of those, but not the 901s. I sold those in 1986. Actually, traded for a pair of KEF 105.2s. Guy wanted them back after 2 months. Nope!!)

I find this more impressive, 1956 recording played back using a 1958 GE VRII mono cart. Recorded using my phone above and behind my speakers, so not ideal. But better than those 901s! 
 

https://youtu.be/3EE06d3e0r8

1973, 18 year old Marine stationed on Okinawa.  I had disposable income and determined to bring home a Kick Ass Stereo because components were cheap being in Japan and in the military.  Back then, speaker sound was correlated with speaker size; bigger was better, so I went in looking for BIG speakers.  Listened to a bunch and then I was pointed toward some speakers that just got in the store.  They were "small" [and heavy] but MAN could they push some sound!!!   I was in love and bought them immediately:  Bose 901 [before there was a "series"].  I paired them with a Sansui receiver, Akai cassette player, and Gerrard Zero One-Hundred turntable.  NOW I was playing with the stereo big boys :)  

1974, small college fraternity bedroom with my stereo gear set-up.  I was the crazy ex-Marine and KING of sound in my frat!  I LOVED my Bose's and so did everyone else [what else could they say :)] !!  I will say, one of my frat brothers bought some ESS Heil's and I did like them a lot [maybe better than my speakers, but I kept that to myself].  Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon, turned up to 25 at 1AM was  awesome.  Surprised not a lot of people complained.  

2022, my Bose are hanging from my great room ceiling as one part of a 9.2 home theater system.  This is probably their best use :)  

Back in the mid-80's, I had two pair of Bose 901 series IV's in my 10x12 college dorm room (one in each corner).  driven by 4 Carver M-500 amplifiers (bridged to mono).  no imaging, but gobs of sound!  the Drom parties were epic.  :)   great memories.  2022, B&W 802d in one room and Magnepan 1.7i's in another.  been through too many iterations to count.  it's been a wonderful journey through the years.  thanks for the post that brought it all back!  Cheers.