Hello - I inherited some Bose 901 speakers. I have the EQ but am a bit confused on how to hook these things up and hoping to get some advice.
Ultimately I want to mostly play audio from my phone via Bluetooth/ streaming. A bit of context and info on other audio gear I have: I have a number of Sonos speakers around the house. I have a SONOS AMP I could use with these if it works. Or, if it is better, I could use this old Kenwood 103AR Receiver I have laying around too. I bought a cheap bluetooth module off Amazon.
Doing a bit of research on the sub-reddit it seems people don’t necessarily love these things. But, and advice on setting these up and which cable to connect where would be appreciated.
I dm’ed you pics of my own setup connections. I sold mine but still have the pics. Good luck
Thanks. Appreciate it. I think I am tracking on the input and output on the receiver and EQ. What would I connect this little Bluetooth module to on my receiver?
Video or CD ought to work.
While that receiver will let you use the 901’s, it doesn’t have nearly enough power to get them going.
That Kenwood is about as cheap and cheesy as they ever made…look for something more substantial if you want to use those speakers.
Need a unit with a tape loop or tape monitor. The sound going out of the receiver needs a loop back in to run through the amp. Plus you want more power ;)
https://products.bose.com/pdf/customer_service/owners/901_guide.pdf
The manual is here. You need to use the tape in and out on the Kenwood.
Don’t listen to Bose 901 haters. Most of them are either talking out of their ass and have never heard them or heard them without the EQ. Set up correctly they can be jaw dropping.
You’re 100% right. For their time, they were/are amazing. They needed plenty of power because of the eq, but they are special. I was shocked at how well they’d hit those low ~20hz notes.
I sold my 901’s years ago, but I sometime regret it.
I love mine paired with a Yamaha CA1000. You could play music through the best speakers,and tell someone the sound was coming from BOSE 901s and they’d tell you it was garbage.
https://www.tonepublications.com/review/we-review-the-bose-901/
that guy literally talks about “upgrading” speaker cable from 1 brands 16ga to another brands 16ga making a difference in the sound quality. so i would take that entire article, and anything he ever has to say about anything, as pure nonsense.
“Stepping up the cable quality from standard Radio Shack 16-gauge wire also pays dividends in upper-midrange clarity and high-frequency extension—both priorities. Swapping the 16-gauge wire for a $199 pair of AudioQuest Rocket 33 speaker cables, and the supplied RCA patch cords for two pairs of $39 AudioQuest Copperhead interconnects, brings greater focus to the overall presentation.”
yeah no. fuck that guy. he dosent even mention what hes listening to them on, the size of his “test room”, and the entire article is nothing but meaningless buzzwords and marketing jargon. hes the kind of guy who believes that the kind of wood in an electric guitar makes a difference in its sound, because the company paying him to review it said it does.
FWIW, those look to be 901 Series II, and there’s a good chance that the foam driver surrounds will need replacing (if they haven’t been already).
Series II don’t have foam surrounds. They’re very similar to the series I.
My bad. Thanks for the info! Series III started the use of the foam, then?
I believe so. I have a pair of series II, so that’s as far as my knowledge goes.
Placement is everything with 901s. Most people who don’t like the sound of these speakers have listened to the speakers placed incorrectly.
The manual posted earlier will give exact specs, but generally they need to be place about 8 to 10 feet apart at least 3-4 feet from any corner with 2-3 feet between them and a SOLID wall behind them (no windows the more solid the wall the better). These are reflecting speakers that have 90% of sound coming from the rear, this is why proper placement and room dimensions are so important.
In the proper room, with a good amplifier these should sound great. They can take a lot of juice to really hit their potential so a vintage set up (amp, reel/ turntable) is ideal. It would also be ideal to keep everything wired with good cables (no Bluetooth).
That kenwood receiver will not work with the 901 equalizer. Allthough it has tape inputs, it does not have a tape monitor function. Without a tape monitor function you don’t get the equalizer into the audio playback loop.
it will work fine. tape play = tape out. tape rec = tape in. connect tape play to equalizer input, and tape rec to equalizer output.
That will only work with a tape monitor function. That allows one to hear what’s being recorded from the deck rather than the source. Without that function, you never get the equalizer into the audio loop. The kenwood doesn’t have that function.
huh…im not going to continue arguing my former point as im kind of questioning my logic at the moment. i might have been for some reason mixing the tape in/out up with a preamp in/out.
Those look like series 1 or 2, early models, cloth surrounds on all the speakers, mine sound great
Those Bose 901’s are horrible speakers. Send them to me and I’ll endure listening to them for you.
A off topic question:
What were the differences between the 901’s and the Panaray 802’s? I knew a friend who had two pairs of 802’s that he used to DJ with. He said they needed a ton of power to drive them, and was more of a PA type speaker, which only played well with other speakers like highs (rows of tweeters); and lows (large folding horns). He also said that he had to replace the speakers from time to time as well. Did the 901’s have problems and individual speakers need to be replaced often? I would think that the older versions had to be re-done.