I believe this deal is only for Canadian residents, but, anyway I was talking on the phone with a man from BOSE about how I should go about getting my BOSE 901 Series IV fixed up. I could replace the 90% of bad drivers and pay $1,000+ or I could send out my BOSE along with the amplifier to a BOSE manufacturing location (Richmond Hill in my case), and for $1050 get the new BOSE 901 series VI with a brand new amp. I also would get the lifestyle amp because my Dad purchased the spatial receiver when he bought his 901.
Here is the number. just ask about sending your 901s, I'm not sure about earlier series though, you'll have to inquire about this.
Bose Corporation
1-800-465-2673 (1-800-465-BOSE)
1-35 East Beaver Creek Road
Richmond Hill, Ontario L4B 1B3
CANADA
Here is the number. just ask about sending your 901s, I'm not sure about earlier series though, you'll have to inquire about this.
Bose Corporation
1-800-465-2673 (1-800-465-BOSE)
1-35 East Beaver Creek Road
Richmond Hill, Ontario L4B 1B3
CANADA
If you like the 901s, go for it.
People here don't much care for Bose, but if you paid the big money, you should go as far as you can to keep that money working for you. If you like the sound of Bose (as I do), go for the new 901s. If you never really liked the sound of those old Bose speakers, then I'd say get a pair of 701s (which will give you much better lows and highs, while still employing Direct/Reflecting technology), or build your own audiophile speakers from scratch with the money.
The 901s were speakers for playing orchestra music and only orchestra music. The 701s should give you better sound for any kind of music. The 901s try to do too much with only one kind of driver, which is too much to do with only one kind of driver. As a result, you'll get heavy midrange with too little bass or highs. Even though the 901s come with an active EQ to extend the frequency response, it just doesn't do enough.
The 701s, on the other hand, have two tweeters, a midbass, and a powered woofer in a transmission line (Tapered Quarter-Wave Tube) enclosure that can be fed with an LFE output from a 5.1 reciever. Then you can get a VCS-30 home theater package. All this for $1400, the cost of new Bose 901s.
As anyone here will tell you, the best way to go would be with a nice set of DIY speakers. You could get so much in the way of drivers with that $1000 and wind up with speakers that you would pit against any Bose system, any day of the week.
People here don't much care for Bose, but if you paid the big money, you should go as far as you can to keep that money working for you. If you like the sound of Bose (as I do), go for the new 901s. If you never really liked the sound of those old Bose speakers, then I'd say get a pair of 701s (which will give you much better lows and highs, while still employing Direct/Reflecting technology), or build your own audiophile speakers from scratch with the money.
The 901s were speakers for playing orchestra music and only orchestra music. The 701s should give you better sound for any kind of music. The 901s try to do too much with only one kind of driver, which is too much to do with only one kind of driver. As a result, you'll get heavy midrange with too little bass or highs. Even though the 901s come with an active EQ to extend the frequency response, it just doesn't do enough.
The 701s, on the other hand, have two tweeters, a midbass, and a powered woofer in a transmission line (Tapered Quarter-Wave Tube) enclosure that can be fed with an LFE output from a 5.1 reciever. Then you can get a VCS-30 home theater package. All this for $1400, the cost of new Bose 901s.
As anyone here will tell you, the best way to go would be with a nice set of DIY speakers. You could get so much in the way of drivers with that $1000 and wind up with speakers that you would pit against any Bose system, any day of the week.
I hear you out
I agree somewhat to what you have said. Half is correct, yes the 901s do use an HVC (helical Voice Coil) full-range Driver that can withstand outdoor temperatures(used in most of their outdoor speakers). Classical music my *** (no offense here). Bose knew that Bass would be untouched so...he had the drivers employ the acousticmatrix enclosure. Wicked *** bass!! Dad used to have a Bob Carver pre-amp which turned 100W RMS to 5x100WRMS. Can you say "It feels like someone is punching me in the stomach, please turn it off, I cant' take the bass". Oh yeah, if you meant low-frequencies arent' low...I added a 502Bp module to the system last year. hehehe got a wicked deal...OK well that's enough about my BOSE and I. Oh yeah and trust me here, I know a lot about BOSE products. Now about some DIY action, I will when I'm making more dough, I'm going to engineer those babies more than any BOSE speaker in the world. Not really but, I'll have engineering somewhere in there. BTW no one can take me away from BOSE, remember this.
I agree somewhat to what you have said. Half is correct, yes the 901s do use an HVC (helical Voice Coil) full-range Driver that can withstand outdoor temperatures(used in most of their outdoor speakers). Classical music my *** (no offense here). Bose knew that Bass would be untouched so...he had the drivers employ the acousticmatrix enclosure. Wicked *** bass!! Dad used to have a Bob Carver pre-amp which turned 100W RMS to 5x100WRMS. Can you say "It feels like someone is punching me in the stomach, please turn it off, I cant' take the bass". Oh yeah, if you meant low-frequencies arent' low...I added a 502Bp module to the system last year. hehehe got a wicked deal...OK well that's enough about my BOSE and I. Oh yeah and trust me here, I know a lot about BOSE products. Now about some DIY action, I will when I'm making more dough, I'm going to engineer those babies more than any BOSE speaker in the world. Not really but, I'll have engineering somewhere in there. BTW no one can take me away from BOSE, remember this.
Let me think, why is it worth it??? hmm....Unlimited power input as long as you resist the anode. Yeah, what??? Your sonys can't do that. Yeah I know. Oh yeah BOSE is everywhere BTW, Olympics, NASA, Military, yup! BOSE in Afghanistan right now as we speak (or type)., BOSE at the sistine chapel, Bose invented the auditioner system. OK, I'm all BOSED out for t'day. nvm me.
Methinks we have a True Believer on our hands.
My response is thus: Get thee to a concert hall, lad. Not just once, but as a regular thing. (We're talking unamplified music here, not rock concerts & the like. Your choice, jazz, bluegrass, classical...whatever floats your boat.) Then listen to Bose vs. other mid-fi speakers.
Once you've taken that step, consider listening to high end speakers.
There's a vast difference between being in the Sistine Chapel and being true to the music.
Grey
My response is thus: Get thee to a concert hall, lad. Not just once, but as a regular thing. (We're talking unamplified music here, not rock concerts & the like. Your choice, jazz, bluegrass, classical...whatever floats your boat.) Then listen to Bose vs. other mid-fi speakers.
Once you've taken that step, consider listening to high end speakers.
There's a vast difference between being in the Sistine Chapel and being true to the music.
Grey
When I didn't know anything about speaker I used to think that Bose 901 is my dream speaker but while gathering info/ reading audiophile websites a different story comes up
I'd be honest with u....Bose 901's aren't good speakers
How can a full-range driver cover the whole frequency spectrum (bass/mid/treble)? The cone is too heavy to do the treble and the drivers are so much pressured into doing the whole freq spectrum at once that the sound is bad. Those little drivers can't produce enough bass at 20Hz - 80Hz either.
According to someone the enclosure is made out of plastic. Bose probably put a lot of EQ to boost the bass at 80 - 100Hz to produce that powerful and 'punchy' bass you guys described.
I'd be honest with u....Bose 901's aren't good speakers
How can a full-range driver cover the whole frequency spectrum (bass/mid/treble)? The cone is too heavy to do the treble and the drivers are so much pressured into doing the whole freq spectrum at once that the sound is bad. Those little drivers can't produce enough bass at 20Hz - 80Hz either.
According to someone the enclosure is made out of plastic. Bose probably put a lot of EQ to boost the bass at 80 - 100Hz to produce that powerful and 'punchy' bass you guys described.
Unamplified music
I more than an audiophile, yet, I'm a musician (we all are, it's how far we go into music that is different). I play the Clarinet and have heard the sound of almost every instrument. I play at concerts, I go to concerts. I know about unamplified music. I also have heard the Direct/Reflecting theory work in full wonder. My Dad's PC uses Altec Lansing's ACS 54 system and thought about the screechiness produced in the high frequencis due to the MP3 compression. I changed the direction of sound to bounce off the wall, cabinet, and then to me. The sound was richer, warmer, and I heard sounds never heard before. I'm still going to purchase the 901s as I don't have time to research and engineer speakers myself. Well, I g2g study for exams...this is how I become an electrical engineer or something. I believe in engineering is better than second guessing any day. And, research and info to back up my theories on psychoacoustics, and more efficient use of drivers. Dr.Amar G., BOSE said that "a ratio of 8 or 9 reflecting drivers to 1 direct driver is sufficient to bring out the screechiness of the strings (violins, etc.) on conventional speakers." I intend to prove him wrong one day, with a more efficient use of drivers than the acoustic matrix enclosure. Including a subwoofer, and HVC full-range drivers. Wait until you see that baby posted on this site, until then I'm envying or will be disgusted at DIY speakers. BTW, you should research what BOSE did to make the sound, sound live in the Sistine chapel. Placed the dual Jewel cube speakers where the Alters would be, hid an Acousticmass Bass enclosure, and I believe they used a 4402 Pan Array speaker.
I more than an audiophile, yet, I'm a musician (we all are, it's how far we go into music that is different). I play the Clarinet and have heard the sound of almost every instrument. I play at concerts, I go to concerts. I know about unamplified music. I also have heard the Direct/Reflecting theory work in full wonder. My Dad's PC uses Altec Lansing's ACS 54 system and thought about the screechiness produced in the high frequencis due to the MP3 compression. I changed the direction of sound to bounce off the wall, cabinet, and then to me. The sound was richer, warmer, and I heard sounds never heard before. I'm still going to purchase the 901s as I don't have time to research and engineer speakers myself. Well, I g2g study for exams...this is how I become an electrical engineer or something. I believe in engineering is better than second guessing any day. And, research and info to back up my theories on psychoacoustics, and more efficient use of drivers. Dr.Amar G., BOSE said that "a ratio of 8 or 9 reflecting drivers to 1 direct driver is sufficient to bring out the screechiness of the strings (violins, etc.) on conventional speakers." I intend to prove him wrong one day, with a more efficient use of drivers than the acoustic matrix enclosure. Including a subwoofer, and HVC full-range drivers. Wait until you see that baby posted on this site, until then I'm envying or will be disgusted at DIY speakers. BTW, you should research what BOSE did to make the sound, sound live in the Sistine chapel. Placed the dual Jewel cube speakers where the Alters would be, hid an Acousticmass Bass enclosure, and I believe they used a 4402 Pan Array speaker.
Yep...a <i>True</i> Believer...
Turning a tiny lo-fi PC speaker to the wall to cure a bad spectral balance does not constitute 'proof' of direct/reflecting marketing hooey. Consider this:
You are in, say, a church. The light coming through the stained glass windows imparts a beauty to the scene that moves you. You take a picture. Once home, you wish to view the picture to relive the moment as best you can through the visual recording you made. You either:
A) View the photograph in white light. The idea here is to reveal the true color balance as recorded by the dyes in the film.
B) View the photograph in pink light. The idea here is to 'warm up' the colors in the photograph.
A recording of live music is made with a certain amount of inherent reverberation. Is the recording perfect? No. No more than the dyes in the film emulsion are perfect, but in either case, the recordings are actually quite good. Adding unpredictable reverberation/delay/phase shifts (no two rooms are the same, and if you don't think phase shift is important, you will flunk out of engineering school) to the sound recording is analogous to viewing the photograph in pink light. It skews the balance of the recording. Badly.
You have a long, long journey ahead of you. It will be painful, I think, given the tone of your posts.
I wish you luck.
Grey
Turning a tiny lo-fi PC speaker to the wall to cure a bad spectral balance does not constitute 'proof' of direct/reflecting marketing hooey. Consider this:
You are in, say, a church. The light coming through the stained glass windows imparts a beauty to the scene that moves you. You take a picture. Once home, you wish to view the picture to relive the moment as best you can through the visual recording you made. You either:
A) View the photograph in white light. The idea here is to reveal the true color balance as recorded by the dyes in the film.
B) View the photograph in pink light. The idea here is to 'warm up' the colors in the photograph.
A recording of live music is made with a certain amount of inherent reverberation. Is the recording perfect? No. No more than the dyes in the film emulsion are perfect, but in either case, the recordings are actually quite good. Adding unpredictable reverberation/delay/phase shifts (no two rooms are the same, and if you don't think phase shift is important, you will flunk out of engineering school) to the sound recording is analogous to viewing the photograph in pink light. It skews the balance of the recording. Badly.
You have a long, long journey ahead of you. It will be painful, I think, given the tone of your posts.
I wish you luck.
Grey
A DIY speaker
I have thought about what everyone has said and will incorporate as best as possible a solution. I thought of classical and instrumental music (Reflecting the sound off of walls), then of rock music or hip-hop. This is where Direct/Reflecting includes a fault. At Rock concerts, sound is harsh and thrown out directly at the crowd. I thought of a switch to flick when listening to rock music (Blast the sound towards the audience) and when listening to classical music (Give the sound time to mature, reflect it). Or an easier way to do this is to change the ratio of Directed sound and Reflected sound. I will place two drivers in front raising the directed ration and thus, lowering the reflected sound ratio. Which solution do you prefer?? I haven't really figured how to actually employ my "music switch". Another problem posted was that the 901s just don't hit the low frequencies as a system should. Due to the lack of a subwoofer. I have found the best bass is produced by seperate enclosures. My solution: Include two sections of the speaker, the bottom housing my subwoofer, and the top housing my mid-high end frequencies {Thanks to tweeters and the mid or full range drivers}. Now putting it together I want to know about internal cross overs, and should I put BOSE full range drivers for the mid punch that I want or what do you guys recommend? I need something that's got punch provides mids and costs less than the BOSE drivers ($80 Canadian). Hmm...Tweeters also?? Oh and, can't forget the subwoofer, anything that's 6" and up unless I'm using a dual Driver setup.... suggestions??
P.S. Too bad pkgum lives in Sydney, I'd show him the punchy bass.
I have thought about what everyone has said and will incorporate as best as possible a solution. I thought of classical and instrumental music (Reflecting the sound off of walls), then of rock music or hip-hop. This is where Direct/Reflecting includes a fault. At Rock concerts, sound is harsh and thrown out directly at the crowd. I thought of a switch to flick when listening to rock music (Blast the sound towards the audience) and when listening to classical music (Give the sound time to mature, reflect it). Or an easier way to do this is to change the ratio of Directed sound and Reflected sound. I will place two drivers in front raising the directed ration and thus, lowering the reflected sound ratio. Which solution do you prefer?? I haven't really figured how to actually employ my "music switch". Another problem posted was that the 901s just don't hit the low frequencies as a system should. Due to the lack of a subwoofer. I have found the best bass is produced by seperate enclosures. My solution: Include two sections of the speaker, the bottom housing my subwoofer, and the top housing my mid-high end frequencies {Thanks to tweeters and the mid or full range drivers}. Now putting it together I want to know about internal cross overs, and should I put BOSE full range drivers for the mid punch that I want or what do you guys recommend? I need something that's got punch provides mids and costs less than the BOSE drivers ($80 Canadian). Hmm...Tweeters also?? Oh and, can't forget the subwoofer, anything that's 6" and up unless I'm using a dual Driver setup.... suggestions??
P.S. Too bad pkgum lives in Sydney, I'd show him the punchy bass.
Check out Vifa, Peerless and Dayton Audio drivers.....even the cheapest of the formentioned will be of higher quality in every aspect than the Bose raw drivers IF implemented correctly. You will need give more information in order for you to recieve specific model driver recommendations. What range do the drivers need to cover(is this going to be a 2 way, 3 way, etc?)? What SPL levels do you need? Efficiency important? Budget?
However, before you decide on anything check out the following links and get an idea of what you want, and what will be needed to execute your ideas.
www.go2audio.com/links/diyaudio.html
www.speakerbuilder.com
www.speakerbuilder.net
www.audua.com
-Chris
However, before you decide on anything check out the following links and get an idea of what you want, and what will be needed to execute your ideas.
www.go2audio.com/links/diyaudio.html
www.speakerbuilder.com
www.speakerbuilder.net
www.audua.com
-Chris
I've begun to design a speaker system for Bose(o) that uses Peerless midwoofers and Audax tweeters. It is designed to have big 200-watt RMS, or 280-watt max power handling, and it is designed to work in tandem with the big Velodyne 15" 750-watt subwoofer. Those who know Velodyne know that they have accelerometers on their cone that provide motion feedback to the amplifier, making sure that the cone is where it should be at the exact moment it is supposed to be there. As a result, Velodyne is renowned for their subwoofers' power and accuracy. The entire system is going to come out to about $1040, which is still substantially less than a pair of Bose 901s.
BAM said:
Servos are good but due to real world time delays etc. they will never be quite that good. The feedback is always compared to a signal that is slightly ahead of it ... ie. the feedback is compared to a signal that hasnt yet reached the speakers. It is hardly worth worrying about but it is there.
BAM said:
I'll need to buy tools to build this system too. And, the $1050 price tag including an amp, with 450watts RMS rating is impressive. Also, I've just started practising with a solering iron. I guarantee you guys that when I move outta' my parent's house I will still be here and will build my own system. My DIY system for music and my home theatre system including my 901s that I'll probably buy. Remember guys I'm young, strongheaded, and inexperienced.
pkgum said:
I applaud you suggesting BOSE and I agree to anyone that says the 901s don't have the lowest frequencies possible. However, they employ 9 full-range drivers, the patented acoustic-matrix enclosure that can handle up to 60Mph. of air. Theoretically, my physics teacher and I argued up until we started with equations, after the math we found that with 100W RMS. that the 901s will "pump" up to 62Mph. of air. 62.105mph. to be exact. The second reason why I'm not going for the 701s is the price tag, In my area the cheapest price for these is 1399.99(Canadian) . That is 400 bucks more than what I would pay for the 901s. Oh yeah and, I wouldn't get the amplifier. I'll porbably buy a sunfire amp.(Bob Carver) or pre-amp later. Unless I upgrade my Dad's hometheatre with the BOSE VCS-10. and BOSE 141s or something. anyway....I'm going to check out those links that another guy had referred me to. so I'll be back.
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