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Despite what you think when you see this title, I am actually asking a serious question about probably the only Bose speaker I ever really been impressed with...the 601 series 3. I don't know if most of you are familiar with it, but lets just say it a floorstanding design, with an 8" woofer on an upper, slanted baffle (on top of the cabinet, angled toward the front) with four, free air mounted mid-tweeters, basically pointing toward the four corners of the cabinet mounted around the 8" driver, (like you'd imagine with a Bose design) and on the lower front baffle, another 8" woofer, and I have no idea what the crossover point are for any of the drivers.
My question is this; putting aside all the valid reasons why one could be putoff by the Bose Corp and their products (and yes, I concurr with most); is this kind of configuration so terrible. I ask this because a lot of people are going gaga over OB designs, as well dipole and bipole designs, in the DIY community, why is the direct/reflecting gimmick not being considered. I say gimmick because there a lot of gimmicks in audio; some work some don't, noe are perfect because there is no free lunch, yada yada. I would imagine that every detractor you could think of for the d/r concept could be applied to dipoles and bipoles. I myself have built single driver bipoles and am so enamoured with the results, I contemplated doing a copycat 601 design. (I came close to even getting 601 cabinets at a pawn shop, but they had been damaged to the point of not being worth the effort). Of course, I would use better drivers than what I would find in actual 601s, and a knock-off could made for way, way less than Bose's SRP.
Follow Ups:
Greets!
Rather interesting, don't recall ever auditioning them, though as David noted, proper room placement would be critical.
GM
Loud is Beautiful if it's Clean!
Placement is very critical. I note that with my bipoles that I built, they sound okay up against the wall, but they sound ordinary, if not a tad boomy. They need to be a least a foot or more to enjoy the bipole benefits of soundstage and 'clean' bass.
This is why I don't own 5.1 yet - I don't have a room that is condusive to 5.1; I'm lucky to be able to properly place two speakers, let alone 5 or more.
The 601s my friend had were a blast to listen to, but when I got my Polk Audio SDA/CRS speakers, they paled to the Polks for quality of bass and highs. But as I said, I'd use better drivers.
FWIW I had 5.1 for a short while and used horns for the mids/HF, so near wall placement wasn't an issue.
Loud is Beautiful if it's Clean!
rather liked the original 301/501 and 601 arrangements, provided you have enough room around the cabinets to get a decent, spread stereo image. All 3 designs were a compromise from the get-go but they all provided a sufficiently acceptable quality of sound that they stayed in the product line for quite a few years.
If you're planning to use some of the early cabinetry, however, I'd suggest some bracing as this is not where Bose sunk it production $$. Outside of that, it should be a fun project to see what kind of sonic improvements you'll get.
BTW, Google the Sonab name to see what others did with similar driver layouts. I see a set of those occasionally come up for sale but rarely.
Cheers,
David
I noticed that with the pair I saw in the pawn shop a few months ago. i had a friend in the Navy who owned a set of 601 (back in the '80s) and the cabinets were heavy as hell. But the ones I saw in the pawn shop were moisture damged, more so than they should be, and I guessed it was either submerged in water, or they used cheap building materials. The drivers were rotted out as well, a problem with Bose, as they used rather cheap drivers with foam surrounds.
The Bose 901 series 1 had cloth surrounds.
This original 1968 pair was purchased from the original owner, with the original stands, optional wood faces and xeroxed typewritten manual. All 18 drivers have original surrounds intact.
They work as good as they ever did I'd imagine, which is to say not particularly well. But, they go quite well with the Danish Modern furnishings in our living room...
Sorry about the picture quality, it is dark, the lens on the phone is broken and the lighting was not designed for photography.
eso
did they have 1 ohm drivers in series?
Regards Philip
the 901 Series III started in with the 0.9 ohm drivers connected in series. This was implemented for a couple of reasons one of which was the implementation of a 3rd connector on that series.
This connection allowed the then-new Bose receiver to implement a blend control that had part of the left signal added to the inner 4 drivers of the right speaker and vice versa. It was a cool trick but didn't prove to be a big differentiating selling feature.
I've wondered why Bose didn't sell that single 0.9 ohm speaker in the auto sound market.
Cheers,
David
I've never opened them up.
eso
Love that picture, Eso. Very atmospheric. I'm entirely serious.
Jonathan
Yeah, a buddy had this set-up complete with the optional chrome stands, definitely the best of the 901s IMO. Some later ones I saw had what looked like cheap toy drivers in them, with powder blue foam surrounds and bonded paper diaphragms made like some Lowthers, folded with a glue seam. They had good size motors on them though.
Loud is Beautiful if it's Clean!
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