Anyone Using Bose 901 speakers In A Home Theater?

As always, the end result has to do with system setup. I am fortunate to have a variety of amplifers, preamps and CD players to experiment with. To simply throw a speaker or component into a given system and think you have evaluated that speaker or component is not how it works. All that tells you is how it sounds in that system. I have spent several months with a variety of electronics and cables evaluating the Bose 301. I can tell you they are sensitive to every little change in the system. They produce a big soundstage and image as well as any electrostatic or planar speaker I have ever heard. Midrange timbre is natural and toward the warm side of neutral making them idea with solid state amplifiers. If you want to listen to the equipment look elsewhere because all these speakers are good for is listening to music.

....and you have no experience with the 901's.

I just questioned if you can get good sound level from such small speaker in very large room, even if you use four of them for the front.

MofiMadness- Thanks for posting the link to the review of the 901. I thought it was very informative, aligns with what I heard from mine and answers the question originally posted that they deserve a listen for his big room home theater.
The review listing the price at $1,400 stuck a cord. I remember the fear and trembling I had at such an expensive purchase when I bought mine. Now I find myself reading articles about $1,400 power cords and wondering if they may be worth it. YIKES - it appears that I have descended the slippery slope into equipment madness, all the more dangerous because it feels like audio nirvana.

Mitch,

Without comment (one way or the other) on the sound quality of Bose products:

It would seem that very wide dispersion speakers would make a ton of sense for that room - particularly for the sides, back, height, & rear positions. The 901 fits that bill, as do modestly priced omnidirectional speakers from Mirage (among others). While many (maybe most) side/surrounds are also designed for wide dispersion, few of the affordable models - that I know of, anyway - are both high sensitivity and suited to high SPL like the Bose.

Some time ago, there was a local gym/yoga place that I'd attend from time to time that had an array of six 901s in a space a bit larger than yours, and they worked very well in that high SPL application. He had a CD player into a modest distribution amp powering the set-up, but I don't recall the specifics. Not a theater set-up, per se, but similar requirements were involved, IMO. Uniform coverage of a large space at "get the blood pumping" levels.

If this is a dual purpose system for movies and music, you can always stick with more traditional high end speakers for the front L & R & CC, and go with the 901 for the other channels. In your case, I suspect that any "voicing" mismatch between the brands will be much less trouble than getting appropriate coverage without investing more $.

Note: I'm assuming that, even though these channels are typically well down in level from the mains, your space would require lots of power/power handling from lower sensitivity side/surrounds. Depending on your preferred listening levels, that could be wrong, so you might want to test that assumption before purchase. End of the day, my guess is that the Bose are one of a limited # of options out there that tick all of your boxes. I'm sure that there are other wide dispersion, high sensitivity, high output options available at modest cost, but I couldn't name any off the top of my head.

No first hand experience (beyond the commercial application, per above), but that's the way I'd think about it, were I in your shoes.

Marty

Mitch, You seem well informed and you may already know Bose 901s will play very loud with the right amplifier.