How to connect Bose 901 vi Speakers with a denon avr2500

[Phil964]

I just acquired some Bose 901 vi speakers with the dedicated equalizer I have a denon avr2500
Receiver that I’ve had for a long time I haven’t really used it lately but I have a room that the Bose will historically go into and want to get them set up my initial set up didn’t work but I haven’t really found a source for the music yet I’d like to hook my iPhone into the receiver
I’m wondering if this receiver will work thanks in advance for your thoughts

 

[lovinthehd]

AVRs generally are not friendly to the eq box, as they generally don't have tape/processor loops suitable for such.

 

[Eppie]

I just acquired some Bose 901 vi speakers with the dedicated equalizer I have a denon avr2500
Receiver that I’ve had for a long time I haven’t really used it lately but I have a room that the Bose will historically go into and want to get them set up my initial set up didn’t work but I haven’t really found a source for the music yet I’d like to hook my iPhone into the receiver
I’m wondering if this receiver will work thanks in advance for your thoughts

Short answer is no on the AVR2500. The minimum you need is a receiver with pre-amp out jacks which could feed the EQ and then connect the EQ to an external power amp. The 901s need the EQ, so you are likely best to go old school if you want to use those speakers. Look for a good used receiver or integrated amplifiers that either has pre-amp out and pre-amp in jacks for an EQ loop, or that has cassette tape in and out. You can use the monitor function on a receiver to run all sources through the tape loop and connect the EQ that way. For your iPhone, you need an adapter to convert to RCA out. If it has a headphone jack, a 1/8" to RCA adapter is all you need, but if not you need the lightning to 1/8" dongle and then the 1/8" to RCA. The iPhone volume turned up high is enough to drive the inputs on a receiver. Alternatively you can get a streaming device to stream to and connect that to the receiver. Any input jack on the receiver will do except for phono. You can use Aux, CD, or Tape In as the signal levels are all the same.

 

[Trebdp83]

Newer Denon X2500H, no. Older Denon AVR-2500, yes. Use the DAT/TAPE IN and DAT/TAPE OUT with TAPE MONITOR engaged for connection to the equalizer. An alternate connection would be to the PRE OUT FRONT and MAIN IN ports.

 

[lovinthehd]

Newer Denon X2500H, no. Older Denon AVR-2500, yes. Use the DAT/TAPE IN and DAT/TAPE OUT with TAPE MONITOR engaged for connection to the equalizer. An alternate connection would be to the PRE OUT FRONT and MAIN IN ports.

I looked briefly at the AVR2500 manual (available on hifiengine.com fwiw), but didn't see that it had a way to control volume particularly (didn't see that it had a monitor function). Good eye...

 

[TLS Guy]

I just acquired some Bose 901 vi speakers with the dedicated equalizer I have a denon avr2500
Receiver that I’ve had for a long time I haven’t really used it lately but I have a room that the Bose will historically go into and want to get them set up my initial set up didn’t work but I haven’t really found a source for the music yet I’d like to hook my iPhone into the receiver
I’m wondering if this receiver will work thanks in advance for your thoughts

You will need a vintage rig, with a tape monitor loop to drive those speakers. I hope you find it worth it. Those speakers were packed with cheap speakers the at cost $3.50 each back in the day. The speakers therefore make the ghastly racket you would expect.

 

[Eppie]

Newer Denon X2500H, no. Older Denon AVR-2500, yes. Use the DAT/TAPE IN and DAT/TAPE OUT with TAPE MONITOR engaged for connection to the equalizer. An alternate connection would be to the PRE OUT FRONT and MAIN IN ports.

Thanks Treb, good catch.

 

[Trebdp83]

Given the same receiver, I might try and find an Airport Express Gen 2 for iPhone connection so that the iPhone isn't anchored to the receiver and connect the Express to the CD input.