Quote:
Originally Posted by
LanceJ 
I wanted to post the following (I'm no Bose fanboy and I do not like the way they market their products; and with few exceptions I think most of them are overpriced, most of those exceptions being their 201, 301 and 901 series of speakers):
* IMO unless a person has heard the 901s PROPERLY set up, then that person doesn't know what the 901s are actually capable of doing.
* IMO unless a person has listened to the 901s operating with their MANDATORY active EQ box in place, again, they cannot know what the 901s can actually sound like.
Lance, I have to agree with you. I don't like the current Bose marketing system of selling overpriced products at fancy Bose factory stores using specially constructed demo audio sources. Before that they were sold a regular audio stores. I think this started when they came out with their cube systems. Even if you go to a place like Best Buy you cannot A/B a Bose system against other speakers because they are set up in a different area of the store and can only play the special Bose demo music. As far as being over priced. I paid $450 for my 901 Series II in 1974 and that included the walnut trim pieces.
You are correct without the a EQ box in place the Bose are a useless speaker system no better than an average boom box. You also needed an amp with lots of power to drive then. I use an an old Sansui 9090 DB to drive mine. In the era of Stereo music it was very hard to find a two channel system that could out perform a properly set up and tuned set of 901's, especially at loud volume. I always felt that they pretty much faithfully reproduced the music source. If bass and treble were they they gave them to you if not they did not create then. I still use mine to listen to music but I could not incorporate them into a home theater system they just didn't match other speakers and needed their own power amp because of the EQ. The one thing I do find interesting that the direct/reflecting sound of the 901's is somewhat similar to the multi channel sound of a 5.1 system. Perhaps that explains why many stereo purists didn't like the 901 system.
