can the amp in an old bose spat ctrl rcvr be upgraded?

[r63122]

I have an old Bose Spatial Control Receiver bought around 1981, ser# 15188214282, along with Bose 901 Series IV's. One channel seems to have some distortion. Has been this way for a number of years. Lost interest in trying to fix it after having someone look at it that said they were unable to offer any suggestions. Thought I would take a look at trying to examine alternatives again. Anyone have any ideas regarding options:

1. Know anyone that has experience with the electronics in these? Can they be replaced or even better, upgraded to better electronics?

2. Or would it be better to just pitch it, sell it on Ebay, etc & just buy an equalizer for the speakers & hook them up to a different receiver?

Thanks in advance,

R

 

[Leprkon]

you didn't really give a budget, but some of the Denon and Yamaha receivers beginning around $ 500 have built-in auto-detect electronic equalizers.

using the old slide type of equalizer might damage a receiver that has Dolby Digital or DTS processors.

 

[r63122]

so finding one of the old Bose active equalizers would not be necessary to run the speakers with a different receiver?

this says Bose eq is needed:
http://www.epinions.com/content_4064256132

that's why i've not replaced the receiver previously; the eq is built in.

I guess I'm back to my original question. what cost to repair/upgrade & who can do it? or is it cost prohibitive; better to just get an old Bose eq. & plug it into that Denon.

The Bose eq. could damage the receiver?

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

R

 

[Leprkon]

any external EQ could damage a surround sound processor IF it is between the DVD player and the receiver.. where you are coloring the sound before it gets to the processor. the processor is looking for a specific set of signals and you have skewed them, so it overheats when trying to compensate.

if, as the article indicates, the Version IV Bose EQ only works as if they were the base and treble controls on a receiver, a modern receiver should have no trouble adjusting the speakers to match your room.

The writing indicates Version III and IV were pretty simple controls. It seems some of the other versions were much more complicated.

I don't actually own any 901's, but several other posters do and can hopefully fill us in on what they did to solve the problem.