Early Bose 501 amplifier recommendations

[Jamestjohnston]

Just received by a stroke of luck my first set of bose 501's.. they're in good shape visually, haven't applied power to them as I'm cautious of all my vintage equipment. Being my first post to an online thread, I'm curious for recommendations of an amplifier that will complement these. Open to all constructive comments.

 

[lovinthehd]

Since they appear to be 4 ohm rated speakers, so an amp rated for 4 ohms would be best, altho almost any decent amp will work up to a point (of volume). What's your budget?

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

Looking around the web, I don’t see anything to suggest that the 501s are a difficult speaker to drive. Therefore they should work with any amplifier you wish to use.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

Since they appear to be 4 ohm rated speakers...

Where did you see that they're 4-ohm? It's hard to find any specs on them!

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[lovinthehd]

Where did you see that they're 4-ohm? It's hard to find any specs on them!

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

I looked at this, seemed to have enough info to be somewhat credible (altho of course being Bose, details/measurements would be somewhat rare). https://audio-database.com/BOSE/speaker/501-e.html

 

[Jamestjohnston]

Since they appear to be 4 ohm rated speakers, so an amp rated for 4 ohms would be best, altho almost any decent amp will work up to a point (of volume). What's your budget?

Looking to stay in the sub 1k range for used. I have a Harman kardon tube amplifier I'm trying to get refurbished. I suspect it would be the best one lol

 

[lovinthehd]

Looking to stay in the sub 1k range for used. I have a Harman kardon tube amplifier I'm trying to get refurbished. I suspect it would be the best one lol

Do you need an integrated amp or a power amp? What other gear do you have/need to use with it?

Why would your tube amp be particularly appropriate? What model is it?

 

[trw005]

Early 80's speaker. Any decent rec/amp can drive them. A lttle base heavy but quite musical. I'd check the drivers/surrounds before using them. If they sound good to you maybe a x-over recap and refoam would bring them up to useable.

 

[Jamestjohnston]

Do you need an integrated amp or a power amp? What other gear do you have/need to use with it?

Why would your tube amp be particularly appropriate? What model is it?

Integrated would be ideal. I'm looking to have them as a single setup. I just thought the Harman would compliment as it's of the same vintage. Forgive me for ignorance as I'm an audiohaulic not an audiophile

 

[lovinthehd]

Integrated would be ideal. I'm looking to have them as a single setup. I just thought the Harman would compliment as it's of the same vintage. Forgive me for ignorance as I'm an audiohaulic not an audiophile

An audiophile just likes high fidelity audio reproduction gear for the most part, it's not a skill, if you're here you likely qualify Just because they're of similar age doesn't mean a lot (except that failure is more likely). I'd prefer a solid state amp myself. Maybe something like the Wiim Amp for a bit of modern connectivity and sufficient amp. What would your input sources be, though?

 

[Jamestjohnston]

The amplifier is a harman kardon ta230

 

[Jamestjohnston]

An audiophile just likes high fidelity audio reproduction gear for the most part, it's not a skill, if you're here you likely qualify Just because they're of similar age doesn't mean a lot (except that failure is more likely). I'd prefer a solid state amp myself. Maybe something like the Wiim Amp for a bit of modern connectivity and sufficient amp. What would your input sources be, though?

I live by Bluetooth unfortunately. Quick and easy is my thing but I would employ my turntable and vinyl

 

[lovinthehd]

The amplifier is a harman kardon ta230

The specs for that receiver does mention it's rated for 8-16 ohm speaker loads....and doesn't look to have much power, but could work at lower levels.

 

[lovinthehd]

I live by Bluetooth unfortunately. Quick and easy is my thing but I would employ my turntable and vinyl

The Wiim amp doesn't have a phono stage so you'd have to use an external one....why I asked, figured you might still be using vinyl...

 

[TLS Guy]

The amplifier is a harman kardon ta230

That is not a good choice for those speakers. That is a 1958 amp, and speakers were generally 16 ohms then. A lot of amps had taps on the output transformer for different impedances. Tubes handle the speaker load very differently from solid state amps, because of the high source resistance and the requirement for an output transformer. If you connect that amp to those speakers it will not damage it, but it won't produce much power into those speakers because of the impedance mismatch.
If there was no output transformer tap then the amps were generally optimized for 16 ohm loads on those days. Your amp will deliver about 8 watts into those speakers.

 

[Bernie Williams]

Used to have those speakers, powered them with a 35W/channel sony receiver.Seemed to work just fine.