Bose 901 Review Well Done.

I have had a pair since 1987. it is tempting to hook them back up for the fun of it

but i cannot figure out how to hook up the active equilizer without a tape 2

input. It used to be run through a old Onkyo reciever which i still have too.

but now i am using a parasound amp and preamp. 

M-'da

It might be interesting to hear them driven by todays refined solid state or hybrid amplification.

You hit it!

I remember an old buddy of mine using a pair in his band. I think they were used with the horn mikes. I think 802's were more often used that way, since they had 8 drivers, all front side. My wife and I sold T shirts at the Chicago fest in 1980 and they had a stage full of them. It was a big Bose push at the time, some ridiculous number of the Bose amps (1801's I think) and pairs of 802's. 32 pairs or so, might have even been double that. It was a helluva lot of speakers. Can't remember. It was kind of impressive but it did lack bass, compared to the other stages that used normal PA stacks and such. Still, it was kind of fun to see and hear.

ericreyn

Per the series II manual, you can hook from preamp output to EQ input and EQ output to amplifier input. This avoids the tape loop. On series II EQ, you have both options but with separate amp and pre, it says not to use the tape loop. I don't think I ever tried it that way and could be why I hated the EQ. I'll have to look at my series VI EQ but I'm sure the same applies there. Interesting thought that I may have used them the wrong way for so many years. I know there are tons of people out there who will say that there is no right way to listen to them but most of these guys never heard them correctly. I'm sure they will disagree but...........whatever.

Don't know what series you have but foam surrounds tend to go bad on series 4 the worst. They had a buy back program and put people into series 6 for a huge discount. I bought a pair of junk 4's just to trade in and got my 6's that way. It was $400 for the trade with Bose. I think the retail was around $1500 at the time. 

The real problem is they don't do what Amar says they should do because on a good recording the room ambience is already there and besides adding in the sound bouncing around the room is merely adding a new distortions. Ad to that the frequency response is a comb filter as Gordon Holt showed half a century ago in his review.

It's OK to like them so long as the term fidelity is not used to describe them.