Make good fire wood.

See review.

Having heard that the 901 Series VI was the Bose ‘Flagship’ speaker, I wanted to give these speakers a try. After all, Bose must have surely invested some effort into making a decent loudspeaker if they go to all the trouble to label it as their ‘Flagship’.

Anyway, the listening experience was done in my own house. Which is the only true setting in which to judge audio equipment.

The following equipment was used:

McCormack DNA
McCormack TLC
VPI 16.5
Sony SCD-1
Monster Cables and Interconnects


Anyway, that is the short of it in regards to equipment used.

I wanted to experience these speakers on both Vinyl and Disc. As the arm of the Turntable lowered onto the record; I sat back, closed my eyes and awaited sweet music.


(I have to interrupt this review to clarify something; I am
NOT a violent man, I have never struck anyone or anything in my life.)

As I was saying, I had settled back to enjoy the music when the next thing I know, I was leaping to my feet, eyes scanning around the room looking for the vile intruder who had just broken into my house and was proceeding to trash the room while making foul hissing and scratching sounds during his assault. I stood alone and puzzled, there was no intruder, or was there?

Yes, there was an intruder, two intruders to be specific and they were both vomiting some incoherent noises at me, the likes no one could ever decipher in a thousand years. Quickly I ran to the turntable and carefully lifted the arm.


SUDDENLY!!!


Peace again :)

Dare I try some music via the CD, should I risk it?
Perhaps I choose the wrong medium in which test these.....uhm...hard to say this....so called ‘speakers’. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, I started up a CD of classical music only to find that the intruder was back again, but worse then ever. I immediately hit the ‘Stop’ button on the remote and leapt towards one of the foul objects sitting innocently in the corner. I knew what I must do, I had to cleanse the house of their presence and pacify this demon of anger that had awoken in me. With a mighty heave I tossed the foul beasts into the backyard and marched to the garage with a single purpose in mind: “Destroy” the beasts!
I returned with an axe and lighter fluid, I knew I had to cleanse the air and ground upon which they occupied, it would have been a sin not too.

With crazed glee, I began to laugh as I assaulted the foul objects; cheap pieces of paper cone, foam, and types of plastic things flew past my head as I rained death blows down until it seemed dead. Then, in a final act of purification, I set the pile of rumble ablaze, it was amazing how it lit up the night sky. Basking in the warm firelight I heard the phone ring in the distance. I rushed to answer, it was the audio store down the street, which had loaned me the pair for a test drive wanting to know how I liked the pair. Looking out the kitchen window at the now burning cinders, all that was left of the Bose 901’s, I told the man in a now calm, composed voice: “Well, looks like I just bought the pair”.





In the final analysis, I cannot recommend these "things" as a tool for music enjoyment.

Similar Products Used:

An insult to list other products in this space.

Room filling sound, retro looks, great customer service

overpriced, poor imaging, smeared soundstage, finicky placement, poor build quality, strained treble

I can only think of a couple of situations where these speakers would be appropriate...a bar or a dance studio. Anywhere where the listener is not concerned with a soundstage or proper imaging. Background music is all these speakers are fit for. The series six are my second set of Bose 901's having had a set of series III which I bought from e-Bay, so I have some experience with them. With both of these sets, I was using a mediocre Yamaha integrated amp and at the time I thought they sounded good. That is, until I started learning about what a true stereo signal is supposed to sound like. I decided to upgrade my equipment to mid-fi. It then became glaring apparent that Bose 901's are truly lousy speakers. Weaknesses as I see them:

1. smeared soundstage
2. difficult to set up
3. eq adds noticable distortion, esp on the treble side
4. poor build quality...paper cones, plastic speaker frames, ultra thin internal wiring, cheap steel binding posts, eq rca's not gold plated
5. strained distorted treble
6. distorted flabby bass
7. stands ring and not sand or shot fillable
8. hollow sounding with all types of music
9. parts of the audio spectrum actually disappears!
10. amazingly overpriced
11. awful for home theatre, voices sound unrealistic and hollow
12. poor imaging

Strengths:

1. they look cool!
2. can get amazingly loud, if that is your forte
3. can be hung out of the way
4. room filling sound

These speakers are simply not worth the money. I now consider them a poor buy at even 500 dollars. My new B&W DM602 S2's blow them away.

Current system:

B&W DM602 S2 (bi-wired with DH Labs Silver Sonic T-14)
Lovan Jazz 18" stands, shot filled
Parasound P/HP 850 (tone controls bypassed)
Carver TFM-35x
Ah! Njoe Tjoeb 4000
DH Labs BL-1 Series II interconnects

Similar Products Used:

Kloss Original Large Advent, Bose 501, Bose 901 III, currently B&W DM602 S2

Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive

Kryptonite

Hey Stephen, let me tell ya something: Bose isn't very good. At all. They're not bad speakers if you cut the price by 75%, but for this outrageous sum of money, they're just not worth it. Bose uses extremely cheap parts. They spend all their money on advertising (often misleading I might add) and keep saying how they're innovators and how they're speakers are great. Just because they repeat the same thing over and over doesn't mean it's true.

Do some research into home audio. Don't just read a few advertisements and convince yourself Bose is great. They're not. True audiophiles know this. That's what they've been doing on this great website, demonstrating the truth. The favorable Bose reviews are so catchy and use all the buzzwords that they're obviously written by Bose staff members.

I took the double-blind test. Of course, I have x-ray vision so I could see through the blind-fold, both of them! So maybe I'm biased. But still ...

Friends don't let friends buy Bose.

As I said before, LISTEN to the speakers, not the reviews--and that's true of ANY speaker. People are too subjective when selecting speakers, and everyone has their own idea of what "sounds good." I do look for comments that reoccur consistently like "shrill highs" or "boomy bass" but only if 85% or more of the post mention it. If you really think you've got superman hearing--go get tested--you may be surprised with the results. Look at the the dB level required before you could hear a given frequency--that tells you the true tale. Hearing tests show the Frequency and dB level required before you could hear it. I guarantee that the vast majority of people (especially men) over 30 cannot hear above 15kHz without pushing dB levels to over 90dB.

Most respected speaker designed by an Indian fellow

Indian fellow was tone deaf

The 901's are supposed to be the greatest speaker reguardless of price. Well why are there more expensive speakers out there? Why do stores sell other speakers as well? Nothing is the best, if they tell you that they are lying. Something is always better. With that in mind, expect a smeared midrange, followed by sloppy bass, with rusty tuna can lid sharp highs. That is all for the forcast kiddies.

Similar Products Used:

Shaving cream, socks from 400 oak street

exceptionaly smooth powerful base able to display a wide dynamic range

tricky set up intelagent user required

I would like to start this review buy doing an A-B compairson 901 series VI & altec stonehenge I the altec's are flore standing speakers over 100 pounds from the same time period costing $1000 in & around 1974 I beleave thease altec speakers would rate class A today for desien & sound. fist off I was amaysed how thease 901 speakers held up to the big altec's the smooth powerful base not only matched the altec's but out performed them truly amaysing for there dementions how could a 32 pound speaker pull this off ? god knows it must be bose!! when it came to midrange smoothness the gap tightend with surprisingly close results voices sounded superb on both seystems the bose a tad more newtral the altec's a tad forword sounding however when it came to the highs the altecs had the uper hand while the bose highs were exstreamly smooth sounding the altecs were a tad more open the cyembels sound awsume on the altecs so if thease bose 901 speakers can reach this level of performence its behond me how on gods green earth they could get negative reviews it has to be set up ! they do require an intelagent user but surely not that diffacult come on guys read your manuals & get it together hook thease babies up to your amp the corect way place them two feet or so from the back wall & your 901s will be reborn & have you wondering how you gave thease superb speakers sutch a unjust review I love mine & thats striat from the horses mouth heha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Similar Products Used:

maggies

In the seventies I listened to a friend's 901's...They were positioned away fromthe back wall (@3-4') , they were played Loud...I was not impressed. What they
looked like were 8 car speakers in the front and a speaker in back (and think
of the mess of wires inside). They sounded crappy then, they sound crappy now.
IF you are serious about spending the amount that the 901's cost check out
B&W, MISSION,MIRAGE, etc,etc at a "high end dealer" find one that's been
around awhile. Let your ears decide..also check out "FAQ:rec.audio.*Speakers
5/07" for help on evaluating speakers.

John, please demnonstrate on the technical talk board that Bose is three times ahead of other speaker manufacturers. My opinion is that bose develops innovative product concepts. These concepts are irrelevant to the sound reproduction quality, but are relevant to people's lifestyle and desire "to keep up with the Jone's who just got some bose...". You can debate on this for ever. However, there is one thing you cannot debate on: It's about the quality of the components chosen to build bose speakers. Take one bose apart, and compare it to another brand similarly priced. You will recognize that bose is stilling your money. But who is going to take a bose apart? No one, and bose buyers are not seeking the absolute best sound reproduction system, and bose buyers do not get involve in long, structured, educated decision making process when choosing a system. It's more an hedonic pulsion just like a kid who sees a candy in the store; he has to have it. That's why they keep advertising and selling very well a poor product (poor from a technical/physics/audiophile viewpoint).But anyway. Show us on the technical board that bose is three times ahaid of the other speaker manufacturers...
Because I had owned some Bose in my lifetime (301, 501, AM-5, 401) and have experience with other brands (JBL, Infinity, CV, B&W, Polk, Mirage, Definitive Tech, B&O) and now build my own speakers, I feel that Bose is worth nothing in terms of how well the music reproduction is close to a real instrument.

Quoted from John below, "No One's adveritising is good enough to sustain a poor product for any length of time. "-
-Then explain how General Motors survived the late 70's and 80's.

Anyway, There has been a number of times in the past where I considered Bose as an investment. Each time I demoed a bose product I always found somthing to be missing, the lows weren't low, the highs weren't high, and none of thier products can take high volumes levels well. The only reason I kept looking back to Bose was because of thier advertising and popularity. I find the same problem with most Sony products too. They just don't impress.

Just my humble opinion. (which is right, of course - as always) . . . just kidding there.
I have to add that there are worse speakers than Bose out there (Yamaha's NS-A636's come to mind, as do Jamo and Sony speakers). For the same amount of money, take the B&W's, listen and you'll see!

Later!
mike s
v7q2@unb.ca or
mjs@nbnet.nb.ca

This is a comment to Bose, not to the unfortunate people who bought from them:

Who would have thought that when the model# gets higher, the quality
gets lower? With Bose, that seems to be the concept. The people who
have the responsibility of monitoring quality for Bose should be fired!

The 901's remind me of when I was in junior high and didn't know a lick
about speaker construction or about design specifications. My friends
and I decided to build our own speakers. So we ripped open the speaker
cabinets of some speakers we found in the trash and we ended up with 28
or so speakers of various sizes when we were done scavaging the
neighborhood. We ended up with some woofers and
mostly boombox radio speakers. I didn't know anything about crossovers
and just figured the speakers will play the highs on their own. My
friend Patrick built an ugly box that looked strangly like Bose 901's.
He put about 7 boombox speakers in it, and one woofer, all paralell wired.
Needless to say when we hooked them up to my garage sale receiver, they
sounded like an over amplified clock radio. Much like the Bose 901's.
I've come to the conclusion that my old friend Patrick must have been
hired by Bose as a speaker engineer. Now, I realize that this design is
nearly 30 years old, so it must have been his dad.

When it comes down to it, I figure anyone who buys the 901's might as
well just try to build to build their own. They couldn't do much worse.
In fact they might get lucky and build something that surpasses the
901, even if they are completely untrained. If I told you how, that
would be unfair, because I know what I'm doing, and have special
cabinet design programs based on woofer performance specs. I can also
build a cross over from common radio shack capacitors. I could stop
by the local Builders Square and have them cut some MDF. Then I could
call Snell and erroniously claim to have bought their speakers and ask
where I could get replacement drivers for the ones I blew.

Yup, Bose sucks. Patrick's intellilectual geno-pool has migrated
into the Bose laboratory and factory, and now they have hired lawyers
legally enforce the adveritising rhetoric to brainwash the uninformed.
If my posts can in any way inform and warn future buyers against Bose's
overpriced 'recycled garbage', then I've done a good deed. I would
defend Bose, if I thought for one moment that what they make has any
quality to it. I have to say though, that Bose has absolutly no
quality in any aspect of their engineering or construction. There is
no rating for Bose. Multi-million dollar company and no conscience.
I wish there was a 0 star rating.

Have fun,
Timothy