Bose 901s in home theter?

[walter duque]

Thanks guys. I will try to use them in another room if I can. If not, selling them is always an option. They are in mint condition. I had to take them down and put them in the original boxes when my kids were in their walkers because they kept bumping into them and I was afraid that the bose on their pedestals would fall on them. Now that they are grown up, I decided to give the bose a try, but it might not work out.

You drive them with a high powered amp and they are still great sounding speakers. Most people only listend to them on low powered receivers back in the days so they never heard what these speakers are capable of putting out. They have a hell of a sound stage. Keep them. You drive them with a 350 watt amp and you'll be surprised how they perform.

 

[sholling]

I think that's the idea behind bipoles/dipoles.

Yes but... with bipoles/dipoles as right/left surrounds you have the energy being sent to the front and back of the room and that works pretty good. With the 901 you have the majority of the sound reflected at a wide angle off the wall, and still have a forward firing driver to give it some crispness. I think it would make for a wider and crisper surround but it would require a pretty big room before it out shined bipoles or dipoles.

 

[tedhontz]

interesting combo

So let me throw this out there and see what kind of input I can get. I wanted a receiver with all the goodies so I went with the Yamaha RX-V2700 Network Receiver which I love. I had a Yamaha RX-V3300 which was bigger but not a network receiver and didn't have all the new stuff like HDMI. What my new receiver is missing however is a PRE-OUT MAIN IN. It only has the pre out outs. So there went my dbx processor. But then I found out about a RANE thx equalizer that works from the pre out outs on the receiver to the ins on the eq and then from the outs on the eq to the ins on the dbx processor. And YES it worked. But I found things sounded better by just fine tuning the YPAO (Yamaha's version of Audessy). Yes I'm getting to Bose here..... Well my speakers are huge 6 foot tall BG (Bohlender Grabener) Radia 520dx ribbon speakers. They are extremely power hungry. So I bought a Parasound external amplifier and they work well together. My complaint about these 6 foot tall speakers is that when you stand up you can hardly hear them and if you are off to the side in any other chair other than the one the calibration mic was setting in, the ribbon speakers sound terrible as well. For being huge speakers they have a HUGE widespread range but only in one chair. They have such a small sweet spot. Now I know the Bose 901's aren't as good as my BG Radia 520's but they might be better for my new house. They are finicky I know but they aren't as bad as my current speakers. And you can get the Bose 901's for a bargain of $300 right now. My question, like most, is how can I use the EQ? I noticed my Parasound out has both input jacks AND seamless OUTPUT jacks. So.....could this be the way to connect the Bose EQ? If so, do I put the EQ in the middle between the receiver and amp or do i put it after the amp. Next question. I have to use the YPAO to calibrate the sound so will it work with the 901's? Wouldn't I just have to essentially have to fine tune everything with the Bose 901 EQ? Yes I'll miss my big 6 foot tall ribbons but they are such an overkill for my little living room to the point that I can hear a little too much of the imperfections. I don't need all that anymore. What do you all suggest?

Thanks......long letter I know. (Sorry!)

 

[KEW]

If you have a 5.1 or 7.1 amp, you really don't want to use the stereo audio pre-out/main-in or tape in/out for the EQ! The reason is that the EQ will mess up the other channels which have normal speakers. You cannot use a tape out/in for the same reason.
Isolate the EQ so it goes to the 901's, and only the 901's. 901's w/o EQ or any other speakers with Bose 901 EQ would be far worse than using the TV speakers.
I believe most modern receivers have a pre-out (even those without a main-in), so if you want to try the 901's as mains (or surrounds), you need to buy a separate stereo power amp (ideally with a volume knob). Route the signal from your pre-amp FR & FL outputs to the Bose EQ to the stereo amp to the 901's. The main channel amps of the receiver will be idle, but unless you have a discrete main amp input for the front channels of the amp, I don't think that can be helped. AT least your receiver will run cooler than designed for.
Assuming it works like Audyssey, I would expect the YPAO to work fine with EQed 901's. It doesn't know or care about the EQ in the loop, it only reacts to the sound at the microphone.