Bose 901

Dang Scott, It's been 30 years since I heard these at the PX in Kadena. Flashbacks are scary

John

Dazzdax, Your question sent me down memory lane. 1972-74 and sitting in the barracks in Furth, Germany drinking "Rad" beer and rocking out on the Who, Golden Earring, Black Sabbath, Curtis Mayfield (and suffering thru the Chilites and the Jackson 5). Sitting in on weekend long hands of Spades, the music never stopped and the guys that had the 901's were top of the heap. My setup were 501's driven by a Pioneer SX 9000 with a Gerrard Zero 100 turntable, and an Akai R to R. 19 years old and Life was good. Dave

Most audiophiles are not familiar with the original Bose 901s. Every subsequent version of the 901 has been a step down. And other Bose speakers are, from the audiophile viewpoint, inferior from the get-go. (The tiny cubes do have some merit for inconspicuous background music). This is why Bose is the whipping boy of Audiogon.

In the right room, with something like a rough brick wall to bounce the sound off, and a very powerful amplifier to cope with the drastic low end boost, and the right kind of large soundstage music, they can sound great. But these are too many restrictions. Besides, the original version is long gone...only the shape remains.
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Eldartford, you are right about the brick wall come to think of it. I always heard these in the Barracks which were block walls. I was in Korea drinking Ginseng wine and popping Tilidons (morphine). What a freaking mess I was and at least half of my company. I was a helicopter mechanic. I was on flight status at fort Campbell KY. I got shipped to Korea and I am watching all of these helicopters flying around and going poof in the air and fall to the ground. I said to this guy, "what is going on here". He said," You don't want to be on flight status over here, everyone is all f-ed up". What a great army we had back then :-)

I'm not a bose adept either. I was rather curious if there is some positive aspect regarding the 901's sound. To me musicality is more important than let's say accuracy or a good pin point imaging (where is pin point imaging good for by the way: a grand piano doesn't sound as if it is coming from a point source. It sounds rather big and a bit diffuse). I'm sure the 901 also sounds diffuse and "not" pin point. But do you think the 901 sounds "musical"?