Re-foaming Bose 901's

[BCbud]

Good day!

I have a set of 901's that I am going to re-foam. My question is there are 2 or 3 companies that sell them and I was wondering if some one could recomend one?

Thanks

[BCbud]

Good day! I whent with Simply Speakers out of florida. I will let everyone know how it turns out.

[JohnMichael]

Please do let us know. Members continue to ask this question and your input will help the next person needing to refoam. Also let us know how they sound when you are finished with this project. I have a soft spot for 901's but do not tell the flamers.

[Rush2112]

I am also looking foreward to your updates.

Will this be your first attempt or something you've done before with other speakers?

[BCbud]

Glad to see some interest. I had planed on doing lots of pics and posting them with commets. As far as to how they sound, this is my 2nd set. I bought my first set that were already rebuilt with EQ and stands for $300 and the cabs are mint. Thy are series III the first Acoustic Matrix box.It took me a while to find a good spot in my living room to get a good sound out of them but once I found that spot, well I bought the 2nd set. I use too have a kick ass system in my 20's, 2-15" woofers, 2-2" mids and 2-3/4" tweeters per side wirered in parralel to give me a 4 ohm load whitch alloud my power amp to put out 470 watts a side.Now that I have a small house I whent with the 901's, bought a yamaha p2201 power amp off ebay for $280 and puled my SAE MKXXX pre amp out and a Panasonic DVD player. Works great for my needs.

[BCbud]

Rush2112

You must have posted while I was trying to type oul my last reply. I posted to you other post and know that you have a pair of 901's need the same thing. This will be my first try at this and as I said, I will post pics and comments to help out others like yourself.

[bfalls]

Back in the 70's the Bose 901 were all the rage. It sounded like a good concept being able to hear stereo anywhere in the room. I've seen many a coffee house with a pair or two hanging from the ceiling. Then I started to read and listen more seriously and their design make no sense.

Why have 8 - 4" drivers facing away from the "sweet spot" bouncing sound off rear and side walls and one 4" driver facing forward? The negative effect on imaging is undeniable. I can't imagine the effect of two pairs in a room or HT with 5 or 7 901s. It seems to undo what the sound engineer took time and effort create. If elevator/mall music, or vintage gear is your passion, more power to you. I think you'd do better purchasing a pair of vintage Advents or AR3s. I'd be interested in hearing the cost for your renovation. I've seriously heard new Bose 4" drivers are manufactured in China and can be had for $1.50/ea. You may want to investigate and save some money. I've also seen them on Overstock.com.

[Luvin Da Blues]

Ya, do keep us informed. If you can take some pics to post.

LDB

[BCbud]

First try didnt work, pictures where too big. I hope my camara has a low enough resolution to allow me to post more pictures of the rebuild.

[BCbud]

Good day!

I have not received my foam repair kit yet but decided to try and get the front grill off one of the speakers. This is not too hard to do once you find the info on how to do it ( took me half a day to find the info ) The grills are fastend with 8 small staples seen in one of the pics. You take a dinner knife and pry the grill from the top center and work it to one side or the other and the corner staple will come out of the box or out of the grill. It dosnt matter as you do not see anything from the front of thr grill. Once one corner becomes free, you work your way around the edges with your hands and finaly the center. The staples are placed in each corner, left and right side midway from top to bottom and 2 in the center. One above and one below the driver. I removed the 3 fasteners and lifted the driver out. The wires are quite short and are a solid core type of wire. I was a little surprised to see the light guage of the wire. I may try to upgrade to a heaver guage. The wires are attached to the driver by being wraped aroend 2 pins that are on the driver and no solder is used. I have read that soldering is recomended but must be done with care as the driver basket is plastic and can melt if too mutch heat is used or you take too long trying to solder.Also solder the wires to the speaker terminales. I have marked on the back of the driver what color wire was on whitch pin, the top of the driver as it was mounted and the box it was in. I plan on putting them back in the same holes they came out of.

[BCbud]

One more pic.

[BCbud]

Good day!
I have started the repair. I took some pics of the 2nd front grill removal. It was more stuborn than the first. I had to use a heavy duty putty knife in the end and I did break the wood.

[BCbud]

Once I got the 2nd grill off I removed all the drivers and marked on the back of them whitch box they came out of, what hole in that box and what color wires where conected to each post so I can put them back the same way they were when I started.

[f0rge]

i've always said when i finally settle into a house when a den i'd pick up a pair of 901's for some vintage coolness.

[s135443]

Good day!

I have a set of 901's that I am going to re-foam. My question is there are 2 or 3 companies that sell them and I was wondering if some one could recomend one?

Thanks

What did you think of the sound after you completed the project?

[Charlie04SiR]

Great Job on the refoams BCbud! I have refoamed many of my speakers in my collection myself and it is indeed no easy task as some people think. Very time consuming when done to the Nth degree.

[DV.65]

Hi Guys,
My own 901-III where most unglued on Basket Frames. Datestamp 14 June 1978.

The Inner Lipp was easy to remove the old Glue.

It has become a very Rubby-Touch, so You can peel-it-away.
Be care only in the Peel-Direction. To Outside is the right Way.
Do not Peel the the Glue in Center Direction. The upper Paper Layer will come away...

[troppo29]

I'm still hung up on the centering voice coil step. What's the secret here and how is it done?

Bose series IV