Umm, I'm surprised. (1 Viewer)

[Lyle_JP]

Now I may be naive, but if a speaker sounds good, it sounds good. There's no trickery about it.

Not necessarily. If indeed there is a little box re-equalizing all the sound going into the speakers, then one can assume that the music is being altered to favor the speaker's strong points. It may sound good, but it may not be anywhere near accurate, and a good speaker should reproduce sound accurately and not use tricks to color the music.
-Lyle J.P.

 

[Mike LS]

Not if you look at the entire picture.
I think everybody will agree that certain receiver/speaker setups just seem to complement each other. Why would you say this is?
I'd think it's because the "little box" inside the receiver is EQing the sound in a way that complements the speakers that are being used, thus you get a good sound.
All speakers are made differently, hence a different sound out of almost every speaker you listen to. Some good, some bad, some extreme of each, but they're all different. They have strengths and weaknesses, and speakers that sound great on one system, might not sound so great on another system.
The reason is because of the source, or the equipment between the source and the speakers (receiver or EQ).
So really, all systems depend alot on how the sound is processed before it's sent to the speakers. Bose has just figured that since they know what their speakers will and will not do (the way they're designed anyhow) they might as well process the sound to complement the speakers.
Granted, to me it seems like alot of trouble to go to....why not re-engineer the speakers to sound better with a "raw" signal from the source? I think it would change alot of minds about their product. That's not for me to say though.
But basically, the processing that happens on the way to the 901's is not much different that the processing that happens inside your receiver. In this case it just happens twice.
It would be interesting to see what a "normal" set of speaker would sound like with the sound running through Bose's processor box. ??