Bose 901 sound test by TonePub?

Please let us know when it's up on the site. Thank you!

 

Well the SL-1200 is the Bose 901 of the turntable world....
jk, jk

 

Oh, I think you'll know.

 

Actually, while I await the 901 review expectantly, I wish Jeff or someone like him would review the current iteration of the 301; for most people, a more practical speaker from a price and application standpoint. My own suspicion is they're a bit 'soft'-sounding, not a bad thing for taming the budget receivers they're likely paired with in Best Buy or wherever.

 

RVG Edition cds are the the Bose 901 of the cd world...

 

Good point and I agree completely, although I must say that I have never owned 301's and in fact have only heard them in less than optimal conditions (sitting on a crowded shelf in a noisey Best Buy Store). But even from my very limited experience with them (and the 201's) I felt they were both very well balanced sounding, with smooth, slightly soft treble, good mid bass and a natural sounding vocal range; a very full sound considering the price level. A good choice for your typical $200-300 stereo receiver.

 

Haven't heard the 301 in a long time, but like I said above, I am a fan of the 101.

 

The 301s and the 201s are the only conventional speakers made by Bose I personally can recommend in good conscience to someone if they specifically ask which Bose speakers to buy for a music or HT system. Though since the 301s include a rear-mounted tweeter facing out at an angle, that model does have specific location requirements so it's a little more difficult to recommend (I think that tweeter may be crossed over at a different point than the front-facing tweeter, but that's just a guess based on some not-too-controlled listening with my ear placed next to them ).

 

Have you ever heard the Bose public address speakers? Oh, those are awful. I ran into one of those at a nightclub one time, and I was really appalled. Not good.

I dunno about the 301s and 201s, but my gut feeling is, there's a lot of good modest speakers in those price ranges ($230-$330), and the Bose speakers are nothing special. There's tons of stuff I think will be as good or better.

 

You mean those line source things? I went to hear a friend do an acoustic gig at a club that used those. They worked well for the simple guitar+vocal type of show, I doubt they'd handle much more than that.

When I went to have lunch with my friend Dean, the restaurant had music playing. I said to him, "I hear Bose." Yep. You can always tell. If speakers were comics, Bose would be Garfield. They might be boring and unspectacular, but at least you know you'll never be offended.

 

Sounds like you are describing the 101--or the professional equivalent, at least--nice midrange, good with vocals, but missing any bass and a bit of HF sparkle. They are good for what they are.

 

They were self-powered cylinders, whatever they are. And oddly enough, placed behind the musicians. They threw a good presentation, and coverage was adequate for the hall. No substitute for a full-blown PA setup, but for solo gigs, it sure beats lugging around amp racks and bass bins.

 

I agree - that's why I wrote that I only mention them if someone specifically wants to buy speakers made by Bose. But I will admit I like their laid-back sound which*, with the exception of the Andrew Jones-designed Pioneers (though the Pioneers are warm and detailed, not easy to do at this price!), is quite difficult to find in that price range. Btw Sony's SS-Fxxx series also have some of that same laid-back sound too.

And at the risk of sounding like a shill, these speakers are one of the very few in their price range which offer a light wood finish instead of just black (I do like black wood/vinyl lookalike finishes but do not like gloss black at all). I used to sell HT gear and am very familiar with the er....discussions...between couples as far as a room's interior decor is concerned and black speakers were almost universally shunned by the wife or g/f. Just another obstacle for home component audio systems to overcome these days.


* as I mentioned earlier in this thread - pages back by now! - last time I listened to the 301s they exhibited some rather obvious bass boominess to my ears, which I personally attribute to cramming an 8" woofer into what IMO is a too-small ported enclosure (I bet this latest re-design is due to pressure from customers who want smaller and smaller audio gear ). But I believe if paired with a properly-configured subwoofer this probably would not be an issue, because then the 301s wouldn't have to deal with that particular part of the audio spectrum.

 

I was only recently told about this thread, so perhaps that tardiness is a little wacko

I see that quite a lot has been said about readership and circulations in this thread. Such discussion doesn't make much sense without hard data, I feel. Stereophile is a member of the Audit Bureau of Circulation, which has strict rules about what can and cannot be counted as paid circulation.

The most recent ABC report, for the final 6 months of 2011, listed Stereophile's circulation as 71,695. This figure is relatively stable, but what is more interesting about this figure is that around 9% is now our Zinio and Apple Newsstand editions, which are growing rapidly.

Stereophile also has a Web presence and Google Analytics currently counts Stereophile around 500,000 unique visitors per month with 3 million total page views. (Note that this doesn't include our new Web ventures, AudioStream.com and InnerFidelity.com, which are tallied separately.)

Alexa ranks Stereophile.com 16,000th, which may not sound like a high ranking. However, I believe it is the highest-ranked pure audio publication, Web or print, in the Alexa database.

Now that I have offered our metrics, I hope that other publishers/editors do likewise.

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile

 

Ooh! Another high profile member. Cool. Welcome to the forum, John. Hope you will become a regular.

 

@ John Atkinson: Welcome to the forum!

I've got the highest regard for your work and hope you stick around here.

 

Holy moly.

 

Come on JA, where are the graphs?

 

JA, welcome!

Your posting of subscription data and metrics is in the spirit of transparency and full disclosure, much like your audio measurements. Good, hard data always helps the discussion (but seldom tells the whole story).

 

Btw, I did sort of predict that this whole Bose review thing would become epic. <pats himself on back>

LOL.

 

Welcome John!

I've always appreciated your willingness to have an on line presence. Nice to see you here!

 

Welcome to John Atkinson. I'm a Stereophile subscriber who just switched from Zinio to print. Had a Zinio subscription and didn't enjoy it as much as the print format. Old school I guess.

 

Two more weeks 'til the start of the F1 season!

 

Not me, I've been getting Stereophile via Zinio since they introduced it about 9 or 10 years ago. I'll be curious to see how much of their subscriber base moves to Zinio, etc, now that the tablets are getting major traction.

 

Whoa! I’ve been off being mesmerized by the Should We Close the Audio Hardware thread, and lo and behold...

Peace is declared in the Bose 901 forthcoming review thread....

Editors from two of my favorite publications, Stereophile and ToneAudio, exchange bows...

This is a welcome vindication of the stuff I’m currently reading in Steven Pinker’s The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined.