...a response to the Bose/Paradigm thread and by the time I get around to posting,"...pffft, it was gone..." or rather, locked...cheez that s*cked, with a capital s*ck...so anyway, here goes nuttin'...in it's entirety, and then some:
Let me preface my remarks with this...sorry Mulester, I think the idea of 'piggy-backing" two Bose EQs is not a good one...and that is exactly what you are saying you are doing...one patched between the pre-outs of your receiver or pre-amp and another in the tape loop...daisy-chain style...it may not appear to be so, but it is the case...with 36dB boost@35Hz, under the right conditions, you could quite possibly damage the drivers...also, BTW, Series I and II EQs are apparently substantially different from subsequent ones and Bose, at their website advises against mixing vintages. Series I and II were acoustic suspension designs, the latter ported.
Now for the good stuff...I reiterate my earlier post to some degree(particularly since it elicited no responses)...I suppose it's my wishful thinking or vivid imagination that I enjoy deep, accurate and articulate bass with my 901s...perhaps my SPL meter is also delusional!
No' Bose doesn't post FR specs...if the response curve(in my listening room) is as ragged as I seem to have discovered, not a good selling point to reveal it, so in that respect I'll agree...don't ask, don't tell...sell, sell, sell...but to say the nine drivers w/EQing are incapable of pushing air...I strongly disagree...when I hear(and moreover feel) things like E. Power Biggs pedal work on something like Bach's "Toccata And Fugue" I have to laugh at the mere notion of such criticisms...and again the 901-IIs are my point of reference...I'll refer you to my earlier post(in the other thread) for other examples in the rock or jazz idioms.
The nine drivers, as a unified group, each with a +/- .25in. excursion can move air...if the units are well designed and of sufficient power handling capacity, with the proper EQing they can produce a FR outside their nominal frequency range...particularly if we are stating a range with +/- 3dB...perhaps there is a drop to -8dB@40Hz, if you can augment that electronically and the voice coils can handle the required power and your amp has the capacity to supply it, there is no reason why the low-end cannot be extended sufficiently...and in actual practice it is a reality...in this case an 18dB boost is applied @35Hz. I use an HK Citation 19 power amp rated 100Wpc RMS@8ohms, both channels driven...capable of 200w@ 4ohms and even with all the Bose EQing and subsequent processing from my SAE half-octave unit, I use about two-and-a-half watts under normal listening conditions. As acoustic suspension units, they are not particularly efficient speakers.
Other manufacturers have done it...I recall the NY Hi-Fi show at the Statler-Hilton, back in '77...Philips had a demo room that contained two, fairly sizable loudspeaker enclosures, each perhaps 2/3 the size of a Klipschorn and they were spotlighted for dramatic effect...or so it seemed...the sound produced was commensurate with what one would expect for such enclosures, particularly the bass response...the kicker was, at some point in the presentation, the lighting was changed, revealing the "speakers" were actually a scrim on wooden frames, behind which sat a speaker roughly the size of an attache' case and twice its thickness...and audible gasp or groan or some such of disbelief was heard from the audience...Philips called the servo-controlled EQd system "David" alluding to the Biblical tale...but enough ancient history...
To continue, I suppose the deep and wide soundstage and proper instrument placement I perceive is also a figment of my imagination...along with the phantom center-image...well, as long as it's in the source material, that is...and again, everything doesn't sound great or spectacular, so it's not a case of self-(or substance-)induced euphonics.
Anywho...anyone who carps about the use of equalization or other processing , should really investigate how much goes on "behind the scenes" in the production and re-production of recorded sound, all with no ill effects. There is, if I recall correctly, some 16 to 20dB of bass boost applied by the RIAA curve in your phono pre-amp and an equal amount of treble attentuation, all in an effort to undo the pre-and de-emphasis required to cut the analog signal into the master...and digital...DON"T GET ME STARTED...
Tone controls and/or equalizers are considered verboten by the "golden ears" among us...to which I reply, poppycock...it's the incorrect and injudicious use of them where problems can arise. Put it into perspective, all the loaded, vented, ported loudspeaker systems pretty much apply the same concept, however they do it mechanically...
As previously stated, the 901s require a different mind set to fully appreciate them IMHO.
If anyone would like to take this out of the realm of a "joke" and discuss the matter further, keep the thread going and I will respond as time permits.
jimHJJ(...thank you for your time and indulgence...)
