Wikipedia's Bose Description

nclh77

nclh77

Super Member
I have been following the Bose entry in Wikipedia for about a year. It seems to be slowly cleaning up up regarding inconsistencies and what I consider PR from someone with an interest in Bose.

The following is what I want to ask the members about. I believe I am about to do an edit.

"The new pentagonal design, named the Model 901, was a very unconventional design for speakers at the time (which were generally either full-size floorstanding units or bookshelf type speakers accompanied by a subwoofer that handled only the very lowest frequencies)."

For the life of me, and I was around in the late 60's, I never once recalled ever seeing a bookshelf speaker (AR's, Advents, KLH's, etc..) have a sub in the system to handle the low frequencies. Since most of them were sealed, I always thought they comported themselves quite nicely in the low end, particularly when you consider a bookshelf speaker then coupled itself with the wall behind it.

Do you feel I would be right in removing the "accompanied by a subwoofer that handled only the very lowest frequencies?"

Thanx
 
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"Some" might take care of it. My father's roomate in college, in the '50s, made a subwoofer out of a closet. They sealed the whole closet off and put a big speaker in the door, according to him. Counts as a sub, though.
 
When I was a kid, one of my friend's grandparents was using a Karlson cabinet with a 15" University driver as the woofer along with a pair of JBL satellite bookshelf speakers and a three channel Altec amp. This was from the early days of stereo (late 50's/early 60's).
 
There are several threads here pinpointing when the first subwoofers came on the market, and the first sub/satellite systems introduced. By my recollection, that would be later. Certainly, "generally" would not apply until at least a decade later.

I am pleased to see an early (1968) Bose AES paper referenced in the Wikipedia article. Toole subsequently (1986) published a two-part AES technology review in counterpoint:

http://www.aes.org/tmpFiles/elib/20100907/5276.pdf
 
The Fisher 400 does have a separate RCA jack for a third speaker so the idea of a third speaker had to have been around during the time period. You also have to remember that the past is frequently described in terms that did not exist during the period under discussion. I may be completely off base since I was too young but the term "reel to reel" may not have been in use before the advent of the 4 track, 8 track and cassette tape machines. At least Wikipedia suggests this if you look up "reel to reel."
 
I think your take on it is on the money. Generally speaking, there were big speakers. There were bookshelf speakers. The end.*


*Before you start arguing this, note the "Generally" part.
 
icenine said:
The Fisher 400 does have a separate RCA jack for a third speaker so the idea of a third speaker had to have been around during the time period. You also have to remember that the past is frequently described in terms that did not exist during the period under discussion. I may be completely off base since I was too young but the term "reel to reel" may not have been in use before the advent of the 4 track, 8 track and cassette tape machines. At least Wikipedia suggests this if you look up "reel to reel."
Click to expand...


That third speaker may well have been a center speaker. There were three-speaker systems (left, center, and right) long before people were using subwoofers (other than the occasional exception that proves the rule, like that closet sub!).

I don't remember subs becoming at all common until some years after the 901s came out. Using the word "some" would make the change safe (so to speak), by allowing for the rare exception, but it's probably almost as accurate to delete that part altogether, as proposed in the OP.
 
I agree with the OP. While subs existed before the 1980s, they didn't become common until home theatres became popular. They certainly weren't commonly used with bookshelf speakers in the late 1960s when the Bose 901 came out. The first sub/sat system I recall seeing was in the late 1970s.

The third channel output on some early stereo amps (there's one on my Scott 299 also) were intended for a center, "fill", speaker, to solve the "hole in the middle" problem with some early stereo recordings and systems. This was supposed to be a full range speaker, not a sub. Of course, if you're using that kind of amp today, the center output does come in very handy for hooking up a subwoofer.
 
seems odd to argue over this point when the distinguishing feature of that bose speaker was the 90% of drivers poking out the rear and so the reliance on refections and equaliser.

its a bit like concentrating on the wing mirror of a ferrari and ignoring the rest of the car

this is not to suggest i think Bose are on a par with anything cool or well made, i consider them utter trash. bin the lot.
 
JohnVF said:
"Some" might take care of it. My father's roomate in college, in the '50s, made a subwoofer out of a closet. They sealed the whole closet off and put a big speaker in the door, according to him. Counts as a sub, though.
Click to expand...

Your father...a closet...a speaker in the door...I'm beginning to understand.
 
The language of the article was written in such a manner which left the reader to believe most bookshelf speakers in the late 1960's were used with subs. Not true. I amended the language as follows:

The new pentagonal design, named the Model 901, was a very unconventional design for speakers at the time (which were generally either full-size floorstanding units or bookshelf type speakers).
 
The article's accuracy benefits from your edit.

Home speakers were not "generally" accompanied by a subwoofer at the time the Model 901 was introduced. Purpose-built or adapted stand-alone low/extended range units, such as AR-1W and Heathkit's SS-B1 as noted, were not really subwoofers and, at any rate, rare.

True Subwoofers were the realm of lunatic fringe hobbyists -- DIYers who built large volume enclosures into closets and under sub-floors in attempts to recreate window rattling pedal tones. Conversations I recall back then by the general public usually regarded such hobbyists as a bit nuts.

Much like many of us are probably regarded today.
 
While Weathers had come out with a sub/sat system in the very early 60s, and a (very) few wacky manufacturers made similar systems, my impression is that almost noone used subwoofers, and essentially no manufacturer produced such systems at the time that the 901 came into being. The first well known subwoofer was the Janis, and soon after the subwoofer for the Dahlquist DQ 10, and those were mid to late 70s.
 
In a way that proves my point -- the Servostatic was a real outlier -- large, expensive, and uncommon. Because Infinity was trying for a high volume full range speaker using electrostatic elements for the high end, they pretty much had to use a dynamic woofer, and the bigger the better, which argued for a common subwoofer. But this was a statement speaker, and being unusual was a virtue.
The idea that subwoofers were widely found in the sixties isn't really correct -- Miller Sound sold kits, but it seems to me that it wasn't until M&K that there was much market penetration, and that was mid 70s.
 
Ultra-Hog said:
:lmao: A closet sub! That's a great idea! :lmao:
Click to expand...

I used to be a closet sub, but my Dom made me come out..!!

:lmao::lmao::lmao::lmao::whip:


To be honest, I don't remember the term "Subwoofer" being used prior to the 70's I bought my first one in or around 75' from a company up in Jersey called Clark (Or Clarke depending on before or after a bankruptcy) Had, I think 2 12"s in it. That was the first time I heard the term used.
 
Before acoustic suspension speakers were common, driver suspensions were stiff enough to control the motion of the cone by themselves, without the action of the air in the enclosure, so practically any way of keeping the backwave from cancelling the front wave functioned pretty well (unless the amount of air was small, so that it was stiff and raised the resonant frequency of the driver). So drivers were mounted in doors, walls, closets, and even windows (which would create a literally infinite baffle, though one with a variety of problems, such as weather, insect life and so on.
But this was just for regular drivers -- most subwoofers need a more specific alignment (high compliance, small enclosure), so a closet or adjoining room wouldn't be remotely ideal.
 
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