BOSE 901's...Whats the proublem???

[mulester7]

Originally Posted by kconnor

One Sunday morning I A/B'd a pair of Bose 901V against my set of Klipsch KG4 speakers, (which most owners seem to love). Got my wife involved in it too. At this point I had become a long time Klipsch fan starting with a pair of Tangent 30 I got cheap from a pawn shop. Basically, I bought the Bose out of curiosity after reading Bose's hype and the Bose bashers’ impassioned criticisms. Anyway, the test took us several hours. I was expecting the KG4s to trounce all over the 901s. They didn’t. The differences to me were more subtle than I would have expected. The Klipsch had a more forward midrange presence and slightly more high frequency energy way up top. Came down to what sound I preferred not Klipsch good, Bose bad. I chose to use the Klipsch for that setup. I would venture to say that most of the criticism of the 901s is due to backlash from their advertising, (how dare they say those are better than mine?) and that a good percentage of the critics have never heard them much less heard them setup properly.

.....a very fair and objective post, KConnor, Thank You....two Bose 901 eqs affecting all 901s involved is the ticket, or I'll say it was for me at the time I had them...."everyone" who heard the system agreed.....

[mulester7]

Originally Posted by analog addict

I suppose I'll have to try and oblige you when have have a chance. I recently picked up a 4401, a 2nd 1801, and an orphan Series II eq, to give me 2 eq's and one set of 901 II's...

.....(drumming fingers).........

[Edriz]

I still don't get what 2 901 EQ's in the system will do. If you have a 901 EQ between the amp and pre amp, whatever you are doing is running through that EQ. Even if you have another in the tape monitor loop it still would not matter. The EQ between the amp and pre is the main EQ and everything goes through that to all speakers in the system

2 eqs aren't doing anymore for ya. Maybe adding more noise in the the path is all. If you have 4 901's hooked up and 1 EQ between the amp and pre amp, that 1 EQ will do the job just fine.

[mulester7]

Originally Posted by Edriz

I still don't get what 2 901 EQ's in the system will do. If you have a 901 EQ between the amp and pre amp, whatever you are doing is running through that EQ. Even if you have another in the tape monitor loop it still would not matter. The EQ between the amp and pre is the main EQ and everything goes through that to all speakers in the system

2 eqs aren't doing anymore for ya. Maybe adding more noise in the the path is all. If you have 4 901's hooked up and 1 EQ between the amp and pre amp, that 1 EQ will do the job just fine.

.....Ed, you're telling me what won't work concerning what I did for 8 years....I'm actually tired of defending the use of two Bose 901 eq's....if a pre-amp has no push-button tape monitors, I guess two 901 eq's would have to be chained between the pre and the amp....Analog Addict will try this, or he won't....am approaching the point of not caring either way.....

[analog addict]

Originally Posted by mulester7

.....Ed, you're telling me what won't work concerning what I did for 8 years....I'm actually tired of defending the use of two Bose 901 eq's....if a pre-amp has no push-button tape monitors, I guess two 901 eq's would have to be chained between the pre and the amp....Analog Addict will try this, or he won't....am approaching the point of not caring either way.....

I've got the gear. It's a matter of finding some space to set the speakers up properly. I don't know if I can find a wall that's empty enough for the proper set up. I could do it in my garage, but I have shelves and tools and stuff lining the wall. Will that effect the reflectivity?....

Now that I think about it, maybe I'll do it when Bakes is around in two weekends, and do it outside using my garage doors as reflection surfaces. Should be interesting to compare the sound to the Simplex W's.....

[whoaru99]

Two EQs applied in series will provide huge boost in the areas affected by the response curve.

If that sounds good to anyone, so be it, but you better have some really strong amps if you want any type of volume without clipping.

Do some Googling and see what you come up with.
3dB = 2x power
10dB = 10x power
20dB = 100x power
30dB = 1000x power
40dB = 10,000x power

With two "stacked" 901 eqs, you're in the neighborhood of 30 - 36dB gain (afaik) on some frequencies.

[mulester7]

Originally Posted by whoaru99

Two EQs applied in series will provide huge boost in the areas affected by the response curve.

If that sounds good to anyone, so be it, but you better have some really strong amps if you want any type of volume without clipping.

Do some Googling and see what you come up with.
3dB = 2x power
10dB = 10x power
20dB = 100x power
30dB = 1000x power
40dB = 10,000x power

With two "stacked" 901 eqs, you're in the neighborhood of 30 - 36dB gain (afaik) on some frequencies.

.....that's what makes sense, Todd, but let me assure you, it's nothing like two conventional slide eqs with big smiles on them....I tried that one time, and the response quickly got squirrelly obtuse....two Bose eqs' response is nothing like that....it was mentioned earlier in the thread about their possibly being parametric....that could have something to do with it, I don't know.....

.....and, as to the power, I used the Bose 1801 amp with two 901s paralleled on each side for a claimed max of 400 watts at 4 to each side....it would get "LOUD!!"....one time early in the 1801's life with me, something went wrong with a couple of power transistors....while I was getting the amp repaired, I used the amp sections of a Sansui receiver that had 30 watts a side at 8....the music would also get LOUD, but not "LOUD!!"....I promise, I'm shooting square on this.....

[mulester7]

Originally Posted by analog addict

I've got the gear. It's a matter of finding some space to set the speakers up properly. I don't know if I can find a wall that's empty enough for the proper set up. I could do it in my garage, but I have shelves and tools and stuff lining the wall. Will that effect the reflectivity?....

Now that I think about it, maybe I'll do it when Bakes is around in two weekends, and do it outside using my garage doors as reflection surfaces. Should be interesting to compare the sound to the Simplex W's.....

.....Analog, you need side walls about 18-24 inches from the 901s to bring a lot of the reflected sound around to you....and the 901's need to be about 8 inches away from the back wall....whatever you can do would be great, and maybe we can lay this issue to rest....thanks for the response.....

[Dr FET]

901's EH ;
First puzzle coat the cones (all of them)
Next
get rid of the so-called tuned port (doesn't work worth s__t)
Use an aperiodic damper instead .
Next use a super tweeter above 8 to 10K and filter the top of the 4" drivers
Next use a sub for eveything below 100 -120 HZ
next direct fire them forwards , all those 4's on the back where set up as woofers and
don't really work. (IE 2mm linear throw is all Bose could come up with at the time)
Next use a 2k band limit filter ( say around 6 db down and roughly 1 octave wide)
Now you've got something worth listening too .
Cheers..Rich