901 equalizer needed

[unwrinkled]

I hope this is the right place to post this, I couldn't find a "wanted" section.

Through a rather tragic circumstance I have recently inherited my dad's pair of series 1 Bose 901s. He had them set up for years without the equalizer and wouldnt listen to me when I told him that that was crazy. Anyway, I have them now but the equalizer is nowhere to be seen. I've scoured ebay and can't find one. Does anyone here have any recommendations on where to find one? Thank you very much - music is the thing that connected me to my dad and he loved these speakers and i'd like them to purr again.

Thanks!

While I'm at it - if I get the equalizer, can anyone recommend a decent integrated amp under 1K to power these things? (ideally will have phono preamp to deal with my music hall turntable, but i dont mind buying separate)

 

[TLS Guy]

I hope this is the right place to post this, I couldn't find a "wanted" section.

Through a rather tragic circumstance I have recently inherited my dad's pair of series 1 Bose 901s. He had them set up for years without the equalizer and wouldnt listen to me when I told him that that was crazy. Anyway, I have them now but the equalizer is nowhere to be seen. I've scoured ebay and can't find one. Does anyone here have any recommendations on where to find one? Thank you very much - music is the thing that connected me to my dad and he loved these speakers and i'd like them to purr again.

Thanks!

While I'm at it - if I get the equalizer, can anyone recommend a decent integrated amp under 1K to power these things? (ideally will have phono preamp to deal with my music hall turntable, but i dont mind buying separate)

What series are those 901s?

The early series were sealed and an equalizer works and did. They looked like this.

These were the best of the 901s, and that is not saying much. Then it was all down hill. The reason Amar Bose, not a stellar designer, changed the speaker to ported, like this.

Now a sealed speaker has a bass roll of of 12 db per octave and cone movement is limited by the air compression in the cabinet, and so an equalizer makes sense.

In a ported enclosure bass roll off is 24 db per octave, albeit starting from a lower frequency point. However below system resonance the drivers completely decouple from the cabinet. If you attempt bass Eq then the speakers have uncontrolled cone motion, which is useless and produces no sound. It is also bad for the drivers.

So if your speakers have ports, your father was correct to an extent. The bass Eq is unpleasant and destructive, however the Eq also provided equalization for the strange mix of direct and reflected sound from those speakers. The Eq makes an awful mess with unpleasant bottoming of the drivers on deep bass program. The drivers in those units could be had for $1.70 on the OEM market, so they are less than robust in any event.

If you do find and equalizer you will need something with a tape monitor loop, so that to a large extent restricts you to vintage gear. However there still a few integrated amps and preamps with tape monitor loops.

 

[unwrinkled]

SERIES 1

(I know I need the tape monitor or loop - that's no problem, I like the old stuff. I still use a tape player and do a lot of transfers to digital, etc.)

 

[Matt34]

Item number: 370438589826

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-BOSE-901-ACTIVE-EQUALIZER-Series-II-/370438589826?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item563fdc4d82

 

[Knucklehead90]

A Harman Kardon 3490 would work for those 901s. It has preamp outs and main in jacks.

 

[it502]

I'm looking to get an equalizer too. good luck

 

[unwrinkled]

So I bid on that equalizer and have been outbid and am not interested in paying $150+ and then probably having to send it back into Bose to get updated electricals anyway.

So here is my solution (i have a feeling this idea will be cause for many chuckles): I just bought a marantz pm8003 (liked the sound, found a good deal, figured it can power some stuff) and now want to turn my unequalized bose 901s (Series 1) into a second pair of speakers.

So let me describe the listening room: long open loft style hall 75 feet long, 15 feet wide, with listening area mostly on one half, but sound does get turned up to blast the whole room (kitchen in back) and porch beyond on occassion. (there's also a half room nearer the listening area - this whole part of my home is L shaped)
So - since the bose need to be on the wall (****ing annoying honestly - too much of an assumption about listening rooms required for these things) i was gonna slap em halfway down the hall.
Here are the questions:
1) what kind of speakers to get for the front?
2) is using the unequalized bose as a second pair just stupid?

obviously i want to audition stuff.
background on my musical taste: i'm a music critic and write about contemporary classical, improvised music, jazz, world, soul and experimental. Focus mostly on experimental, which means i really do need the big range. When choosing, I prefer louder, more pronounced bass to partially hidden.

I can spend about 1000 clams on a pair.
the rest of this system is a very nice music hall turntable, cant remember which MMF, bought it 3 years ago, it's beautiful. CD player is 9 year old dual deck denon, nothing special. I also play tapes and have an old denon deck. that's all. (should i move/ retitle this thread since ive given up on equalizer BS?)

thanks people

 

[TLS Guy]

So I bid on that equalizer and have been outbid and am not interested in paying $150+ and then probably having to send it back into Bose to get updated electricals anyway.

So here is my solution (i have a feeling this idea will be cause for many chuckles): I just bought a marantz pm8003 (liked the sound, found a good deal, figured it can power some stuff) and now want to turn my unequalized bose 901s (Series 1) into a second pair of speakers.

So let me describe the listening room: long open loft style hall 75 feet long, 15 feet wide, with listening area mostly on one half, but sound does get turned up to blast the whole room (kitchen in back) and porch beyond on occassion. (there's also a half room nearer the listening area - this whole part of my home is L shaped)
So - since the bose need to be on the wall (****ing annoying honestly - too much of an assumption about listening rooms required for these things) i was gonna slap em halfway down the hall.
Here are the questions:
1) what kind of speakers to get for the front?
2) is using the unequalized bose as a second pair just stupid?

obviously i want to audition stuff.
background on my musical taste: i'm a music critic and write about contemporary classical, improvised music, jazz, world, soul and experimental. Focus mostly on experimental, which means i really do need the big range. When choosing, I prefer louder, more pronounced bass to partially hidden.

I can spend about 1000 clams on a pair.
the rest of this system is a very nice music hall turntable, cant remember which MMF, bought it 3 years ago, it's beautiful. CD player is 9 year old dual deck denon, nothing special. I also play tapes and have an old denon deck. that's all. (should i move/ retitle this thread since ive given up on equalizer BS?)

thanks people

If you are a music critic, you need speakers a heck of lot better than Bose.

I would ditch ditch the Bose and get a the best set of two channel speakers you can afford.

Try Salk, B & W, PMC, and Spendor.