sprins' vintage 70s Bose PA system

sprins

Active Member
I've been working some time to get this set properly assembled and I think I have finally done so. And I though this might be an appropriate place to show it off.

After having, by accident, come across the Bose 800 series loudspeakers (without eq. or other info) I've been educating myself a bit on where these speakers come from. Fairly soon I leaned these speakers from the 70s are properly built into decent wood cabinets with drivers that (if only mildly decently preserved) last forever (unless a lot of other Bose speakers).

However (of course), these speakers need their own Bose 800 equalizer (you know Bose) to make the best of them. After some time I found the right equalizer together with another near mint set of speakers to compliment the speakers I already had.

In the meantime I had educated myself about this set and set the challenge to find the appropriate Bose 1800 series 1 amp to power them. Bose 1800 series 1 amps are often available, yet a lot of them are worn out or just a mess. It's the sport to find a decent one. Luckily I came across one that was scarcly used and probably kept as a spare unit in its own flight case so I could complete my set.

Unfortunately I haven't found the proper speaker stands (Bose SS-1) but the Bose ones I'm using now work out fine.

The amp was reviewed and all internals (including the capacitors) checked out just fine within specs.

The sound is amazing. One 1800 amp powering 4 Bose 800 speakers works out nicely, just the way the Bose prospectus from then promised I suspect.

I have a couple of other sets to enjoy music to. But this set is the only one that's assembled all out of parts from the same brochure. I power it with internet radio music, but I guess the music source falls outside the equation.

I have a spare Bose 302 bass unit and Bose 1800 laying around, and I intend to add it to this set (with the proper controller) to take this set to another level (albeit in doing so giving up the original setup). I might need a crossover to properly assign frequencies to the different Bose controller (to avoid frequency interference), but thats something I'll figure out during the experiment.


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Nice Bose gear! Luv that amp!

Thanks. It's a great amp. The nice thing about is that it's a PA amp without an annoying fan. The case itself is just one bit cooling fin.

I had initially planned to use one or two of them in my living room setup, but I passed on that idea.
 
Nice set up:thmbsp:That's gotta be the cleanest 1800 I've ever seen. They really are awesome amps. I had one and really liked the sound and cool display as well. I can imagine it drives those 2 pair of 800's with authority and then some.
 
Nice set up:thmbsp:That's gotta be the cleanest 1800 I've ever seen.

Thanks. It's basically new. There are a few scuffs on the fin from being put in and taken out of the flight case. That and the fingerprint marks on the front are only sign this amp isn't new. I guess you could say it's in true mint condition. I've been very lucky to find it.

The sound is great and non-intrusive. However it doesn't seem to go very low in the bass region.
 
Might not be the 1800. I drove a variety of speakers with mine and never thought of it as bass shy. The one and only thing I didn't like about my 1800 was moving it. Heavy as hell and those torture devices; woops I mean those sharp cooling fins:D
 
Might not be the 1800. I drove a variety of speakers with mine and never thought of it as bass shy. The one and only thing I didn't like about my 1800 was moving it. Heavy as hell and those torture devices; woops I mean those sharp cooling fins:D

No, you're right, it's the 800s that are "bass shy". I find that a very apt description since they may be shy, but if tickled enough it's definitely there :thmbsp:
 
The info from that time speak of 400 watt RMS @ 4 Ohm per channel.

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I've been tweaking my Bose system a bit. I had a spare 1800 and a Bose 302 Acoustimass base module (and controller) laying around (all not so pretty but functional). The 302 is the bass module from the 802II generation. To tie it al together I bought a contemporary 223s crossover from DBX so that I could split the audio signal into high/low to feed it to the appropriate controller (gotta keep the right Bose components together). Bass-sum on and to my surprise things sound pretty good :banana:

It's not entirely true to history anymore, but it's all reversible so I think I'll get away with it.

I only use one 1800 channel (cause bass sum) and I tried using the 'bridge' modus of the 1800 but that doesn't really work as advertised (weird clipping around 0db). Probably because the 1800 isn't 100% anymore. But one channel provides enough bass-power.


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