The Bose 901: A trilogy in three parts...

They're cheap enough

 

So, how was the 911 Cabrio with Burmester sound?

My one experience with Bose 901s was in 1984 or 85, while visiting some friends. I did mushrooms, and listened to a wide variety of music. Last time I did anything like that (listen to Bose).

I can pretty much guarantee that Jeff's experience with the 901s won't be as mind blowingly positive as mine was.

 

Porsche/Burmester was awesome - 0. You can read about it in issue 46, where the 911 will grace our cover.

 

Looking forward to the rest of the review. Any chance you'll be giving away the review unit of the Porsche 911 on FaceBook?

 

The one I drove had a sticker price of $149k, so not likely...

And if Porsche gave us one to giveaway, I'd probably cheat the deal and keep it for myself.

Though Dieter Burmester said they gave him a pretty good deal on his car!

 

Yes and yes, although I don't know anyone who has purchased a pair this millennium.

One of the best shows on television, with several seasons featuring good hi-fi eye-candy to boot!

 

Porsche - There is no substitute.

 

Actually, there are quite a few. But, that's for another thread.

Driving any sports car with top down, and worrying about music? Not important. But, any decent sports car will have a nice system, I guess. It's part of the package, isn't it?

 

Timmy.

 

I knew several people who did this in the 1970s, and I never got it, either.

 

I owned a pair of the 901s twenty five years ago or so. Mine succumbed to the dreaded foam rot. At that time Bose offered a super deal on a replacement pair which I sold as new without even listening to them. With the money I bought a pair of large Paradigms. They were a much better speaker than the Bose.
Oh yeah, I tried my 901s suspended from the ceiling a couple times. Didn't care for them hanging unless it was party time and they were cranking.

 

I predict part three will have a link to the Audiogon for sale ad.

 

TONEPUB-
I love a good trilogy!

 

On a second note,

the 901 is road-tested (in production since the 70's) so there is something to this speaker!

 

I heard these at RMAF.

 

Mine don't sound disconnected at all...if I understand what you mean. The only downside I've really noticed with this arrangement is that the speakers tend to fail the sit down / stand up test. IOW, adjusting for best high frequency balance when seated causes a bit too much on top when standing. But I don't listen standing up, so it's not an issue.

I know what you mean by "gauzy soundfield" but that's not really how I would describe mine. If the recording has well defined imaging, I hear it. It's just that the image size is bigger than with most speakers so there is a bit of overlap I guess sometimes. Maybe gauzy isn't a bad description after all. I would prefer life-sized.

 

But this is a trilogy in THREE parts. Most truly great trilogies have four or five.

 

+1, Jeff.

 

went to a dinner party two weeks ago and as soon as we walked in there they were: the 901'ers.
We were there 4 hours or so and I found them to be easy on the ear. Smooth. They've got that lower mid-range sweet spot - totally different from my setup where the extreme high/low are more exaggerated.
A most enjoyable and totally different sonic experience. It was a great night out and the meal was outstanding.

 

Yep. You can say what you like about Bose, but the bottom line is, they will not annoy you. Hmm. Maybe "Bose. We won't annoy you." could be a whole new advertising campaign.

 

Bose: We don't even bother trying to recreate the original musical event AND our sound won't annoy you.

 

Considering that Bose PA's are ubiquitous in live sound, I would have to beg to differ about your "original musical event" comment. In other words, oftentimes Bose speakers are an integral part of the original musical event.