Good deal on bose?

[bonzo4ever!]

Got a pair of 901 series 1 for 30 bucks last weekend, hooked them up and I think they sound GREAT, no stands or e-q... but I hooked up a old fischer e-q, and viola.. anywho wondering what a old pair is worth..I've seen different variations of them mine, has the old green and orange tweed covers... thanks

[markw]

Since they were made to be run in conjunction with a specially designed eq with about 18 db of bass boost and a treble cut as part of the system, your statement about their sound quality surprises me.

From my experience the 901 series sound like warmed over crap without the equalizer. Even with the eq they require gobs of power (particularly the early ones) and careful placement and, even then, their sound is debatable.

As for their worth, their lack of an eq will limit you to brain-dead morons that will be so impressed with the Bose name that the sound won't matter and merely tellng them "It's a Bose" will pretty much let you write your own check..

[RoadRunner6]

Sorry, but I have to agree with Markw. I was one of the brain dead people back in 1970 who bought the original Bose 901. I was a raw newbie and didn't notice when I auditioned them that the dealer was driving them with an enormous Mac Amp. Also I had no idea of power versus efficiency and EQ relationships. As Mark said that EQ boosted the low end of the 901's up to 18dB's. That can require up to 64 times the power for bass frequencies as compared to the mid's.

When I got them home and hooked them up to my 35 watt per channel Pioneer receiver I wondered where the bass went? I also realized the direct/reflecting design was lousy unless you had a completely empty wall (which I didn't) to bounce the sound off the 8 drivers facing the rear wall. I hung them from the ceiling, upside down, with chain. They sounded OK with orchestrial music but now a soloist sounded 8 feet wide and like she or he was suspended from the ceiling. I finally found that if you turned them around so that the 8 drivers were facing forward and only one facing to the rear then they sounded much better.

The original cover color was brown and orange tweed. The one you have is probably sun faded.

You absolutely need the EQ box and a big amp, and I mean big like this one, with one bridged for each channel:

http://www.emotiva.com/xpa2.html

If I owned them now and was stuck with them, then I would get a sub that went very high in frequency response, put it up front and crossover the Bose as high as possible.

RR6

[markw]

You just ran into a unscruplous (sp?) dealer who set them up perfectly and chose the source material specifically to show off their best points didn't tell you all you needed to know when demoing them. Actually, if you go into a modern Bose store, you'll find that their modus operndi hasn't changed all that much.

The 901 DO sound pretty nice as long as you play by their rules, which you only later found out. The rules being careful placement away from back and side walls, no furniture in the reflecting areas, lots of available power and stick to symphonic music. If you do that, they sound durn nice. Symphonic music depends on room reflections, and as such the direct/reflecting soundstage smear thingie works great for them. ...but Zep or anything that has any real directionality suffers greatly.

You may have noticed that "in the day" when DJ's used Bose pro speakers, they had the eight drivers pointed towards the dance floor. You were ahead of the curve ;)

[Rich-n-Texas]

Id say, if you paid $30 for them then that's probably what they're worth. But I'm a simpleton so...

Nevertheless Mr. bonzo, you're probably not going to see a very positive outcome to your topic, as is evidenced above.

[bfalls]

I'm surprised the Series 1 play at all. They must have been reconed or had the drivers replaced. That may explain the good sound. Maybe someone replaced the drivers with something other than Bose replacements. For $30, it's not a bad deal, especially since you didn't have to replace the 18 drivers.