Bose 901

I have owned a pair of Bose 901 series 6 speakers for 14 years. They are truly excellent! This speaker is probably the easiest speaker in the world to make sound really bad, if you want to. Proper placement in your room is critical, so is properly connecting the 901 equalizer, and I have found that an extremely high quality amplifier will make them absolutely "come-alive". Many so-called "audiophiles" hate Bose 901's. But, as I said earlier, it's easy to make them sound bad, so I strongly suspect that there's something they're doing or not doing during set-up that they never tell you about. I believe if you install them right, and hook them up to the highest quality Amplifier you can afford, I think you'll love them just as much as I do.

I got these speakers at a very good price. I do give them 4 starts if you put into consideration the packaging, price, look and sound. But the sound quality itself deserves 3 stars.

Bought a pair really really cheap at an auction in Durban and expected a lot of them,however after connecting them to my amps (krell) i was very disappointed with the sound.

They sound like the speaker in your telephone but i guess that's no surprise since the 901,s don't have woofers nor tweeters and need an equalizer to work.

They don't even come close to hifi.

The BOSE 901s are probably generate more polarised reviews than any other hifi speaker ever made. They don't work like most other speakers, few, if any of their competitors need the mandatory active equaliser either. Few 'audiophile' reviewers have the experience to evaluate such a design objectively.

Unlike most competitive speakers the placement and spacing of the units on their stands is critical - each cabinet has 9 drivers, 8 face the wall and 1 is facing the listener. It follows that the rear wall needs to be fairly solid because most of the sound that you hear is reflected - curtains and soft furnishings don't work at all well.

Correctly set up and with an amplifier of around 100w per channel and these speakers have almost no equal at any price - music of all genres and movie soundtracks are despatched with all consuming ease. Effortless bass - even at low volumes they make the doors in my house resonate.

Highly recommended - especially if you enjoy a sound that doesn't feel like it's eminating from a box. Buy!

Bose 901 series loudspeakers:

I'd first heard these at an exhibition as a teenager in the UK in the mid 1970's. At that time, I was bowled over by the spacious sound and salesman- hype' as the specifications for power handling, frequency response, max spl etc. were seemingly 'to die for'.

Much later I had the chance of owning these and on a whim purchased from an auction on ebay.

If you seek honesty from your recorded music, these speakers are not for you. Virtually any real hifi loudspeaker at this level of pricing (new) will outperform them and these are unikely to impress and may fatigue you during extended lstening.

That's not to say they are bad speakers, but very different and ones that should not be confused with high fidelity sound reproduction in the real sense.

If you are not bothered about imaging, timing, timbre, colouration etc, and are more into dynamics and thrills, then these may be for you - but only with the right partnering gear.

More than ANY other speaker, they are critical of the room in which placed. Buy them without auditioning in your own home at some considerable risk.

The Bose 901s are a strange loudspeaker indeed. They were first introduced in 1968, changing very little since then. They need to be hung from chains on the ceiling in order to sound best. It takes quite a bit of work to get them to sound right, but anything worth doing is worth the work. You need large amps to dive these speakers, as they are still very inefficient (not much has changed since 1968), and 200+ watts RMS is about the minimum for best results. The sound can be described as ' everywhere all at once ', which on some program material is a bonus. However forget traditional stereo imaging with the 901s, as it is more about the sound bouncing off the walls, then directly radiating towards you.

The average listener will be impressed at how spacious they sound when properly set up, but the picky audiophile types with whine about the missing realism with the 901s. There is a trade off with the 901s, you can have no sweet spot and enjoy music all through the room, or you can go the traditional route with direct radiating mono-polar type loudspeakers and forget the 901s.

These would not be my first choice if I were buying loudspeakers. I would not recommend them to anyone unless they first heard them properly set up in a show room, or home. If then and only then can you get an idea of how they sound, as it takes a while to get used to them. I would say that if you are a big fan of Strings or female opera, the 901s might be your speaker, if not, look elsewhere.

Excellent sound, paired up with a power amp >300 WTS RMS, you will have the sound you are looking for...

Excellent stereo speakers worth every rupee spent... well recommend the Bose 901 stereo speakers. Needs good placement.. but then if you pay the bucks fer good music you should go the extra mile understanding concepts.