Bose 601 "owner" opinions please

Copa1934

My ears are bleeding
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I've come across a pair that might be affordable. I've rarely seen comments on these and these are the only pair I've come across.

Most of the comments I've seen were fairly positive.

If you have "personal" experience with these speakers could you give me some idea of what to expect? For reference I own JBL L88, L3, Mach One's, Mach Two's, Allison Acoustics CD7, RTR G200, Advent/1, HPM-40 (late model).

I realize we're comparing apples and oranges in the "type" of speaker, but some comparisons might be drawn from these that will help me.
 
Series 1----quite good, nice bass and warm highs
Series 2----very good, very nice bass and clean sparkling highs
Series 3----good, nice bass but generally not as nice sounding as the first two series
Series 4----not very good at all, compressed bass and muddy mids and highs

All of this of course my personal opinion and experience.....:smoke:
 
I have a set of Series I that I picked up from a thrift store. I didnt know much about the 601s at all, and generally didnt have high opinion of Bose. These, however, looked unique and were quite heavy. All the foams were bad, but I refoamed them using a generic 8" size for very little money. Startlingly good bass, and nice highs like Aldo describes. There is a switch on this series, possibly others, that lets u set the tweeter phasing for your room boundaries. I like em!
 
Series 1----quite good, nice bass and warm highs
Series 2----very good, very nice bass and clean sparkling highs
Series 3----good, nice bass but generally not as nice sounding as the first two series
Series 4----not very good at all, compressed bass and muddy mids and highs

All of this of course my personal opinion and experience.....:smoke:
These ones I'm interested in are Series II and the seller says they need refoam, so at least they're upfront about that. Looks like a pretty impressive speaker. Have you compared to the 901? If so, what are the pro's and con's to you?
 
I've still got my Series 2 that I bought new in 1982. They were my only speakers until fairly recently. You really need a fairly symmetrical and acoustically clean room with them 6" off the back wall and 12" off the side walls in order to get a sweet spot at your chair.
They sound best with some power behind them, not so hot for low level "background" music, IMO.
If you're having a party in a warehouse and have a sizeable amp, they'll do the job, though not anything I would assign words like "clarity" or "soundstage" to.
 
I've still got my Series 2 that I bought new in 1982. They were my only speakers until fairly recently. You really need a fairly symmetrical and acoustically clean room with them 6" off the back wall and 12" off the side walls in order to get a sweet spot at your chair.
They sound best with some power behind them, not so hot for low level "background" music, IMO.
If you're having a party in a warehouse and have a sizeable amp, they'll do the job, though not anything I would assign words like "clarity" or "soundstage" to.
OK, that was another question. Have a 100wpc receiver and 170wpc receiver, will the 100 be sufficient or best to go 170? Roughly 15x20 room.
 
My "main" speakers are a pair of the gen. one Bose 601s that I inherited from my Wife's Uncle. He bought them new in '78. I refoamed and re-capped them a couple of years ago. I'm very happy with them. Plenty of bass and the highs are sweet. The caveat is that placement is important with these puppies. They also seem to like a decent amount of power to shine (I used to run a QSC RMX2450 into them from an old Onkyo receiver as the pre). They do sound nice with my Fisher 500B, though.
 
I always wanted a pair when I first saw them as a kid,they were different looking (series 2). well i picked up a pair at a garage sale $40.00 still the most i ever paid for used speakers. the foam actually lasted a couple of years,as stated above generic foam works fine.they can hold their own with some of the others i have. if you can get them at a decent price,go for it. resell is no problem if you don't like them.
 
Good for baby PA speakers

I picked up a pair that needed major cleanup and all four woofers refoamed. I did that and they work fine. I'm running them in my 40x30 classroom/lab at work and they do a good job there. The unusual (except for Bose) phalanx of tweeters and woofer pointed every which way make music travel all over that big room. They're not all that accurate and the bass is a little pronounced but they work well filling that space. I'm running them on either a Sansui G-6000 with 60 old school watts per channel or an early 90s Denon receiver with 100WPC.
 
I just sold a set of 601 Series III's for $695. My ad lasted less than 1 week on Craigslist and the buyer drove 150 miles to get them. They did sound amazingly good for Bose.
 
I have had a set of series 1 601's for a couple of years. After a reform, they are nice. They are not in my main system now but they did the job very well when they were. As said before, placement is key. The original owner's manual came with mine. It lays out how to set them up quite well. PM me if you need the info.

Dave
 
601 fr

Here, from two different magazines, are frequency response curves for the Bose 601 Series II and the Series III. Observe that off-axis, the sound is almost the same as on-axis, indicating excellent dispersion.

The bass is said to be even stronger than the top-of-the-line 901.

Spikiness in the FR of the Series III does indicate coloration in the upper midrange and treble. The extended dip in the upper midrange probably indicates a warm, perhaps heavy balance, not bright.

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=398389
 
So the last hashing on this subject was less than two weeks ago?
I've been an RF tech for 30 years, and while I make no claims to be an audiophile of any sort, I can attest to a couple things-

1. A proper anechoic chamber, designed for the audible spectrum is difficult to even talk in, much less try to listen to music. Our audio perceptions are VERY dependent on reflections.

2. Comments regarding the "smoothing" of response graphs are completely valid. Depending on the selected relative and video bandwidth, as well as the sweep time setting, one can make any sweep look either ragged or smooth.

I had read early on that Bose bashing was a sport for the "audiophiles", and I see now that's true. As others have said, the 601's can hang with their peers of that time. In fact, when it was party time, they were often invited.
 
So the last hashing on this subject was less than two weeks ago?
I've been an RF tech for 30 years, and while I make no claims to be an audiophile of any sort, I can attest to a couple things-

1. A proper anechoic chamber, designed for the audible spectrum is difficult to even talk in, much less try to listen to music. Our audio perceptions are VERY dependent on reflections.

2. Comments regarding the "smoothing" of response graphs are completely valid. Depending on the selected relative and video bandwidth, as well as the sweep time setting, one can make any sweep look either ragged or smooth.

I had read early on that Bose bashing was a sport for the "audiophiles", and I see now that's true. As others have said, the 601's can hang with their peers of that time. In fact, when it was party time, they were often invited.
One of my comments, looking back on the aforementioned thread, was anechoic measurements are meaningless with Bose for the simple reason Bose speaker *rely* on reflected sound, something the anechoic chamber is designed to eliminate.

Using mikes to measure off axis makes some sense, especially if it confirms little or no fall off in sound.

Listening tests, however, have proven time and again that 501, 601, 801 and 901 speakers have some of the best off axis listening characteristics of most speakers, regardless of price range.

Are they audiophile? I can't say honestly since I've only auditioned a couple 901 systems in different homes and in different arrangements. Both cases the volumes were at volumes that permitted casual conversation. However, I would like to point out that my visits had absolutely nothing to do with audio, and in fact it was during the course of the conversation that I noticed classical music playing, but not immediately apparent where it was coming from. It was in the same room, and after a couple head turns I spotted them. The sound was quite exceptional and it wasn't the least bit directional. That impressed me a lot.

If the 601's exhibit a similar characteristic to the 901's, but with better bass response then I think they would make for nice speakers.

Appreciate the feedback thus far.
 
My first pair of real speakers were 501-lls given to me from my dad and I enjoyed them for many years in my audio formative years. I remember when 601-llls came out in the mid-80s and I wanted them but couldn`t afford them at the time. I finally found a pair at a thrift store in great shape and had them for about a year before selling them. Recently, I bought a pair of series 1 601s with original boxes only because I wanted the guy`s Yamaha YP-D71 TT and he wouldn`t seperate the system. I thought they sounded pretty good setup in his garage on the CR-640, so I took the whole system, including 140 lps that sweetened the deal.

I`ve heard, but never owned 901s and have thought the 601s had a sound more to my liking. I think they hold their own against many speakers from that era, though they are no Vandy or ADS IMO. Also, most of the Bose-bashing seems to be against their latest BPC/system in a box plastic Asian-made stuff that`s heavily marketed, not the older, better quality Bose products. I have been surprised what 601-llls go for on the bay and think Fortes are a great deal in comparison.
 
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