good bargain if you can get them cheap and like to continuously adjust your system. very tinny when not amplified right.

pay through the nose for something that can be hammered together by anyone who has any cabinetry experience and speaker wiring experience in under a weekend.

Was a bose basher and now ive reformed somewhat. got my 901's about a year ago and after doing extensive research on this site put them in the basement against a solid wall. they sound pretty good, slightly toed in. i will say that it took alot of listening to different sources and different kinds of music to get it slightly right. by this i mean that when grampa bose designed these things he had it in mind that you would be tweeking everytime you listened to them. i still do but to no great degree. they sound good, but not great. last month i decided to experiment, someone said to hit them with some power so i monoblocked my carver m400t's,these little guys put out some serious power.anyway the 901's came alive. they sound about 50% better than from my old amp. setting up was a three day event as i had to retweek that crappy crossover that they supply with the speakers but it does sound alot better. well now i can say ive been there done that and will soon be putting these things up for sale. time to move onto bigger and better.

Similar Products Used:

paradigm,snell,maggies,klipst

sound stage. Very listenable. Good deal on ebay.

muddy. medocre transient response. sensitive to placement.

I auditioned the BOSE 901 three times. All comments are based on listening to classical music. #1 Back in 1968-69, a colleague bought the new and revolutionary Bose 901. One afternoon he brought the Bose to our place and we spent the afternoon doing an A-B comparison to my home built Altec-Lansing 12" Voice of The Theater system [back then, Altec was a high end USA brand]. Conclusion: No notable difference. The problem with the Bose: it cost $900-1000 and only tied a system costing less than $200 as a do it your self project. On the other hand, the Bose cost a little less than the list price of 12" Voice of the Theater in the factory cabinet, so the Bose was pretty good speaker to hold it's own with one of the best of the time, but not for me at 5 times the cost of my system. Over the years, I subsequently upgraded speakers three times, ending with Quad ESL-63 speakers in 1982. #2 2002, Bose store. The 901 was the best sounding speaker in the store, but it was not good. Very dead, lifeless sound with excessive boomy base. Terrible inner detail. #3 How could I pass up $18 for the 901-II at a thrift store? So I took it home and set it up beside the Quads. A world of difference compared to the experience of #2. The Bose fell short of the Quads [$6,000/pair, now $7,000 as ESL-980] in every respect, but it came close enough to be impressive. Most notable Bose deficiencies compared to Quad: Muddy sound stage. Boomy base. Poor transient response. Best feature: huge sound stage. One of the few speakers on the market that comes close to the Quads in this. An orchestra floats in the air across the room. They can put out impressive, muddy, boomy bass which many people who don't know any better think is a good trait in a speaker. As with most speakers, limit the base and use a sub-woofer. Unlike some commentators, I found the Bose quite good at imaging, and this is when compared to what may be the best speaker ever made . CONCLUSION: The 901 is a far cry from the best available sound. However, it is one of the few speakers I've heard in the last 20 years that I would use to fill in for or to replace failed Quads. Despite its flaws, it is a very listenable speaker, and that is really what matters in the final analysis. Considering the range of comments on the plusses and minuses of the Bose and my three experiences, I think the key to this speaker is proper placement in the listening room. Get it in the right place, it does a good job. Put it in a the wrong place, like the cavernous store show room, and it sucks. Look in the manual [available on the web] for set up, and start there. Putting it too close to the walls is the big danger. I have mine considerably further out in the room than the recommended 2 ft. [note the picture of the speakers on the Bose web site which violates at least three of Bose's own installation rules]. The manual says place them parallel to the rear wall. I prefer them slightly angled in toward the listening center. There must not be any opening in the walls behind the plane of the front of the speakers. I have a door in that location, and the sound changes if the door is open or closed. Before buying these, you must find a dealer who will let you take them home and try them in your room, and once there, you must experiment with their placement. Do that, and you should end up happy, either with or without the Bose 901. And to all the complainers in these reviews, check your speaker placement.

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Associated equipment MacIntosh, Quad, Adcom, Tandberg, Berning, Crown, and Marantz amps. Magnavox, Sony, JVC, CEC cd players and Ariston 400 turntable/Ortofon OM-40 mm cartridge. Subwoofer: Quads roll off from 40 Hz, so a little low base boost makes sense, but running the Quads through a crossover is not a good idea, it only makes things worse. So I built my own subwoofer with its own amp that rolls off -6db between 30 and 40 Hz, and the signal is terminated at 40 H

(Series I and II... II wasn't that much different from I) Smooth sound if somewhat lacking in highs. Near audiophile grade for the time.

(All) Placement sensitivity borders on the rediculous. That wonky EQ box puts the kibosh on any HT uses. (Series III onward) Cheaper and cheaper construction as they went on. Sound ranges from mediocre to unlistenable depending on placement. Overpriced and overrated. Better designs (and sound) can be had for a fraction of it's price.

I've listened three different versions of this old timer. I first heard the series IV 901's and was not impressed to say the least. A severe lack of bass harsh mids and shreiky highs. Totally unlistenable. But to be fair the guy who owned them was was using them in a DJ setup with a Hitachi reciever (200 watts a side), so the listening environment was less than optimal. The second time was when my sister moved in with her boyfriend (now husband). He had a pair of the original series I's hooked up to a Marantz 2270 pushing a Phase Linear 700. The difference was like night and day. The sound was smooth and delicate. Fantastic (if slightly diffuse) and very musical sound. The third time was at a stereo shop about an hour away. These were series VI's in an optimal setting (can't remember the gear but it was pretty high tech). The sound was ok. Bass was not very present. Mids were kind of hollow. Highs were still very harsh. Incredibly diffuse and not accurate at all. All in all not a very musical speaker in the least. To be fair if I had them in my house and played with them I might be able to get an acceptable sound but therin lies the designs inherent flaw. You have to play with them constantly until they are satisfactory. Granted all speakers are placement sensitive but even bi-polar designs aren't this finicky. The mark of a good speaker is still sounding good in less than optimal conditions and sounding great when everything is dialed in. If Dr. Bose spent as much time working on the actual sound quality as he does on advertising he just might have something. Sadly he seems more interested in building transmission line design clock radios.

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Paradigm Atoms, PDR 10 sub Advent Sub-sat setup

Nice enveloping sound regardless of your position in the room ONCE YOU HAVE THEM PROPERLY POSITIONED!

Will not sound good AT ALL if poorly positioned or without some tonal tweaking either with the complimentary eq or on your receiver or preamp.

I found these used for $50, the cabinets and grilles were very rough but the speakers worked perfectly. For the price I grabbed them and had a woodworking friend refinish them for me. I had read the reviews on the 901's before, and I myself am a pretty avid Bose basher but for the price I paid I figured what the heck, maybe I'll resell them and make a little $$. When I first hooked these up they sounded like absolute junk. Since they did not come with the active eq, I tweaked the receiver a bit and it did help, but not enough. Having used MANY different brands of speakers over the years, and being somewhat of an audio purist (no tone adjustments), I was disappointed that I had to work with them. They had a glaring upper midrange, and not much else. I moved them from the table I had them on to a pair of stands, better but still not good. Then I swiveled them just a bit so that they were pointing out at diagonals into the room and the inside front angled panels were pointing at my listening position. Holy cow! That was exactly what they needed. Suddenly they came alive, noticably more bass and the overpowering upper mids were tamed. I couldn't believe the difference but it was leagues better, obviously the "direct-reflecting" system does what it is supposed to do, however without proper positioning this seems to be more of a liability. Once I had them positioned this way the system worked absolutely perfectly, walking around the room I found they had opened up nicely regardless of my position and sounded very good and solid--the "stereo everywhere" effect was definitely there. Now, not having the eq and the regular stands for these obviously account for some of the problems I had, but positioning is EVERYTHING with these speakers as previous reviews have noted. I do not think it is absolutely necessary to have a certain room configuration or certain damping material, but placement (I'll say it again) is ABSOLUTELY CRUCIAL. I still do not like current Bose products but these were a pleasant surprise once they were positioned right. Were they worth $1299 or whatever back in the 70's and early 80's? Probably not--thus my low value rating. Were they worth the 50 bucks I paid? Definitely.

Similar Products Used:

Bose 10.2 Series II, probably the all around best sounding Bose product I ever tried; various other speaker brands including M&K, Paradigm, Phase Technology, Monitor Audio, and Klipsch.

it is possible to get very good sound in right situation this is the reason for some of the positive reveiws, the room must have had the ideal acoustics and size..note no amount of correct placement can make up for the poor room, they will sound horrible no matter where or how you place them in room with thin walls,the room is 90% of the sound of 901's

in most cases and rooms good sound is not possible causing many owners to be in denial about the sound quality

Summary: TO ALL 901 OWNERS AND 901 HATERS first of all let me state I am a 901 owner and have 3 friends who own 901s one who owns 2 sets (double bose) I have heard every direct/reflecting speaker bose ever made from the original 901 to 901V,801,701,601,501,301,201,10.2 series THE BAD NEWS: contrary to what all the bose owners have posted here the speakers do sound like crap 90% of the time you hear them in most rooms most 901 owners don't have a clue as to what good sound is or how to achieve it with their speakers (good sound is possible as you see later on) I can tell by their post that they have no idea what effects the sound quality of 901 more than anything else and its not just distance from wall what makes 901 owners seem so deaf when it comes to good sound and why does anyone buy this speaker in the first place? is what most sane people want to know well deny this if you want to but it's the hype "compare these speakers to any other speaker regardless of size or price" they think hey I only wanted good speakers but for only $1299 I could have the best so in other words I could buy a speaker the size of a refrigerator or costing $30,000 and these would still sound better because of the technology? yep you can buy these mid-fi speakers or supersize to the 901 and have the best but where can they compare these to the larger or exotic speakers? certainly not any store that sells 901 thats for sure well they have the 701 I'll compare with them no they are a step down and I want the best (note:dealers don't carry 901s cause the sound good they carry them cause they sell good,even if they can't figure out why people buy them,hey as long as they sell we don't need to carry speakers that sound better) NOW ALL YOU 901 OWNERS WHO SAY THEY SOUND GOOD did you really ever compare them to any thing but the junk they sell at stores that sold you the 901 Hell no you didn't if you had you wouldn't be the proud owner of 901s and post all that dumb stuff about your great sound that you really don't have if you only knew how stupid you sound to others who have heard them and gagged (over the years I have taken my 901's to compare them to other high end speakers one dealer was nice enough to let me bring them to a high end store and compare them to his best speakers,this is what bose says to do, I guess they never really expected anyone to actually do it. the experience was an embarassing one to say the least as this was a golden ear dealer. well I also compared my 901s to a guy I met there speakers, klipsch cornwalls, he worked at the high end store i took my 901s over to his house and even though his were not the greatest speakers I could tell mine had problems with over all tonal balance, imaging, detail and they didn't sound rich and musical but more like comparing a loud fm radio source to a cd source in his extremely small room DAMN 901s DUSTED BY SOME KLIPSCH er...CORNBALLS rather than concede they were junk I began an obsession into trying to get my 901s to sound like the best, new electronics,new cd player, weeks then months of trying every possible placement in various rooms moving inches closer to the rear wall listening further from wall listening closer to side walls further then closer together whew!!! I even called bose and talked to techs as to why I could not get my 901s to sound like the best speakers one tech who must must have got a kick out of bewildered bose callers with the same problem. he just sort of chuckled and said he never ever thought they were the best. he though they were good but...then I knew I had been screwed YEARS LATER after moving to a house with brick exterior walls the strangest thing happen I hooked my 901s and they sounded good no great what!!! these junk speakers that I had tried in every position in other houses what happened? What happened is the only way to get great sound from 901s is the rooms you use them in has to not let any sound pass through I'm not talking about a reflective surface since 901s don't have a speaker box your room is like a speaker box it has the rear drivers facing the wall and if that wall is just drywall it allows to much of the sound to pass through and reflects the wrong portions back into the room resulting in the washed out sound the 901 is famous for with the walls outside the dry wall being brick you have a tighter seal and all sound and frequencies are directed back into the room in equal portions something that was never achieved in all my other setups the resulting sound was very smooth highs ,rich midrange,extended non boomy bass,good imaging gone was all the harsh sound usually associated with 901s you 901 owners if you don't have yours in a home with brick walls or in a basement with

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all bose 901 series I thru V bose 501 current speakers dbx soundfields 1a,infinity,carver,

Clear and clean treble response, solid and articulated bass, nice warm overall sound character.Great you are there sound stage, solid imaging.On the Bose outboard EQ, the unit does a great job. Most speakers today have some form of EQ built into the cabinets, such as crossover's, etc. Having a user adjustable EQ is a great way to ensure the speakers integrate with your room and surroundings.

Only drawback is they are not really designed to be used in a full blown surround system. I would like to see Bose develope an integrated 901 surround system. The only potential drawback is that the 901's require a lot of power. My Krell amp is rated at 150 watts per channel, and I would like a total of 300 watts. However, they sound great and I feel like after many years and many high quality speaker systems I've had the pleasure of owning, I feel that with the 901's I'm truly listening to the music, and not the speakers for the first time in my life. Bravo BOSE!

As a life long audiophile with a bad addiction, I suffered a tremendous loss several weeks ago when my 8 month old lab knocked over one of my B&W Nautilaus 803 speakers, breaking the microphone style tweeter off the top of the speaker. I'm having it repaired, but I realized that a tall speaker would not work any longer in my living room. After much thought and negoiation with my wife, I turned my upstairs bedroom into loft style arrangement, which opened a sizable spave for speakers. I decided to go shopping. After hearing dozens of premium speakers, I decided to check out the Bose 901. I have owned several Bose products over the years, and did not suffer from any phobias or biasis based on brand names. I purchasd the 901 on the basis of the company's 30 day, full refund policy. I hooked them up tp my Krell 300iL integrated amp, and a high end Sony SACD player, and set about giving the speakers a 24 hour break-in before seriously listening to them. Man, it was worth the wait. I tried various classical, jazz, country, and rock records, and I was blown away by the tremendous soundstaging, depth, warmth and resolution I heard. In fact, they sound every bit the equal to my B&w's, and on many recordings, clearly better. Bas was deep and cleanly defined, and the treble was clear and highly detailed, without the exageration heard in far to many modern designs. I have posistiones the 901's 8 feet apart, exactly 1 foot from the back wall, and 2 feet from the side walls. These speakers are truly superb.

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B@W Nautilis 803, Carver Amazing Loudspeakers, AR9, stacked Advents, Infinity Kappa and more.

Wonderful & expansive sound stage on regular audio sources. Good overall Frequency Range (Albeit with Equalization).

Poor imaging Poor Low Frequency Tolerance at more than medium volumes(Driver Size Limitation)

Well, these babies are probably one of the most debates speakers of the past few decades. Anyone who has been around music whether as a performer or an audio enthusiast has heard of, seen pr listened to a pair of 901's. Put simply, Bose set out to achieve several things with this design. Namely, to re-create the characteristics of a live performance (through a specific ratio of direct and reflected sounds) and to create precise frequency response. I have enjoyed the listening experience of the 901's for some time; However, when reviewing a product of this nature, you must first start out comparing apples with apples. To that end, anyone attempting to utilize the 901's for anything other than traditional stereo reproduction will have a hard time. The greatest difficulty will come in attempting to utilize 901's in a home theater environment. There are 3 major pitfalls in this configuration. First, because of the need for this "active Equalizer" (which merely over-corrects certain parameters of high and low frequencies)it is very difficult to set up with most A/V amplifiers, except only the newest and most expensive possessing Pre-Amp Ins and Outs. Second, You will need to have a traditional (Square or Rectangular room)in order to make this even feasible due to the reflective properties of the speaker. Third(and to me, possibly the most critical element,Surround sound processors when coupled with the 901's reflective sound characteristics, have a tendency to make the sound seem wider and more omnidirectional than would appear normal. This gives the listener a sort of "lost in the source" feeling. This lack of focus, imaging and presence, make this product unsuitable for this application. On the other hand, if you can tolerate the "active Equalizer" (I have for some time)you may enjoy the stereo sound stage created by the 901's from standard recording. If nothing else, it's an interesting experience to hear previously heard recordings in this format.

Similar Products Used:

numerous

Wonderful & expansive sound stage on regular audio sources. Good overall Frequency Range (Albeit with Equalization).

Poor imaging Poor Low Frequency Tolerance at more than medium volumes(Driver Size Limitation)

Well, these babies are probably one of the most debates speakers of the past few decades. Anyone who has been around music whether as a performer or an audio enthusiast has heard of, seen pr listened to a pair of 901's. Put simply, Bose set out to achieve several things with this design. Namely, to re-create the characteristics of a live performance (through a specific ratio of direct and reflected sounds) and to create precise frequency response. I have enjoyed the listening experience of the 901's for some time; However, when reviewing a product of this nature, you must first start out comparing apples with apples. To that end, anyone attempting to utilize the 901's for anything other than traditional stereo reproduction will have a hard time. The greatest difficulty will come in attempting to utilize 901's in a home theater environment. There are 3 major pitfalls in this configuration. First, because of the need for this "active Equalizer" (which merely over-corrects certain parameters of high and low frequencies)it is very difficult to set up with most A/V amplifiers, except only the newest and most expensive possessing Pre-Amp Ins and Outs. Second, You will need to have a traditional (Square or Rectangular room)in order to make this even feasible due to the reflective properties of the speaker. Third(and to me, possibly the most critical element,Surround sound processors when coupled with the 901's reflective sound characteristics, have a tendency to make the sound seem wider and more omnidirectional than would appear normal. This gives the listener a sort of "lost in the source" feeling. This lack of focus, imaging and presence, make this product unsuitable for this application. On the other hand, if you can tolerate the "active Equalizer" (I have for some time)you may enjoy the stereo sound stage created by the 901's from standard recording. If nothing else, it's an interesting experience to hear previously heard recordings in this format.

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numerous

Unique look, huge presence. The sound probably suits some people.

Overpriced, overhyped. Have to use a ridiculous equalizer to get them to sound half way decent -- usage of equalizer precludes home theater use. Everything that plays through them sounds like a Bose recording - diffuse and vague.

I first got these speakers when I was around 13 years old as hand me downs along with a Carver amp. For the next several years I used them to good effect -- I must say these speakers were MADE for teenage kids. Loud and dramatic, definitely filling up the room with sound. Oddly enough, however, I would always notice a vast improvement in sound when I was in the bathroom next door. Years later, my father got a proper high end system and I began to see where the 901s came up short. A major complaint is the lack of range. These speakers are essentially 9 (cheap) mid-ranges and, despite the kludgy neccesity of a Bose equalizer, never sound like a properly balanced speaker. The biggest problem with the 901s, however, is the poor imaging. Take a listen to a proper hifi setup and the image of the performance is almost palpable -- you can literally point out where each performer stands. This is something I was never able to achieve properly with the 901s. This is not surprising -- the speakers are designed to radiate sound all around the room. It's hard to be precise that way. I'm sure people will say I didn't set them up properly. I can tell you the equalizer was manipulated to hell without satisfaction. Room placement never achieved the sound I was looking for. Frankly, these speakers are really only good for teenage boys and for parties. They are LOUD and they fill up the room. They are not hifi. As my tastes evolved a bit, I grew out of the 901s, but I would be lying if I said I didn't have fun with them when I was a kid.

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Have listened to B&W Nautilus 801, JMLab Grand Utopia, Sonus Faber Amati Homage, Joseph Audio, etc. Have also inherited the Bose Acoustimass and 301s

Size,unique design.

MSRP

I traded a set of golf clubs for the series VI.It took a little bit of time to get them placed properly in several different rooms.But when i finally got it right they sounded tremendous.Although they fill the room with beautiful sound I'm not getting rid of my Klipsch La Scalla's.If you can find a used pair,have the EQ and a wall you can donate for them you won't be dissapointed.