On 1/13/14, 1:25 PM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 1/13/2014 12:16 PM, wrote:
On Monday, January 13, 2014 1:04:50 AM UTC-5, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 1/13/2014 12:27 AM, wrote:

On Sun, 12 Jan 2014 12:26:58 -0500, "F.O.A.D." wrote:



On 1/12/14, 11:51 AM, wrote:

On Sun, 12 Jan 2014 11:25:52 -0500, "F.O.A.D."
wrote:



That's cool...are those M-Audio speakers? They look very much
like mine.



I bought my wife a set of Bose speakers that are the size of a Spam

can and sound like a boom box.



http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41aYSHGKCwL.jpg



A typical Bose sound.

The only problem is you can hear the flaws in low bit rate rips ;-)





I know they are very popular and highly rated, but I've never been
fond

of the sound that emanates from the Bose speakers I've heard. I don't

know why that is. My "main" stereo speakers are electrostatics, about

six feet tall, and I like they way they sound. I've got a pair of

M-Audio speakers on my computer desk, and they're adequate for that

purpose.



Like I said, the Bose sound. It seems to be aimed at people who have

very good hearing in the higher ranges. The sound is very crisp. I

worked on line printers long enough that my hearing has a bit of a

notch in that area.

I like that good old 70s deep sound you got from ARs or Sansui with

cabinets that could hold a small child.







Over the years Bose has earned a (often deserved) reputation for phony

sounding speaker systems but that was not always the case. Way back

when the original 901 speakers were introduced, they were met with very

positive reviews by audiophiles of the time. Also, the Bose sound

reinforcement designs in small sound system packages have been copied

and emulated by many other small speaker and/or radio/CD/mp3 players

manufacturers over the years.



Back when "hi-fi" was the rage, there were two distinctive speaker

"sounds", the "West Coast" sound and the "East Coast" sound. The West

Coast sound emphasized the mid range and tended to be brighter sounding.

The East Coast sound was a more mellow sound with the mids somewhat

de-emphasized.



The original 901 and even the original 501 Bose speakers were pretty

good for their time. Obviously technology has advanced and, to me, the

most natural sounding speakers today are ribbon types and some

electrostatics.

Wasn't it the 901s that had a special sound processor box that hooked
up between the pre-amp and amp? Basically an equalizer that shaped
the audio to compensate for the speaker's lack of a flat frequency
response.

I always thought they sounded impressive... for a while. Then
listener's fatigue set in, and I didn't like them anymore.

I've been running a set of NHT's for a few years now. Great sound,
very accurate.



The 901s required an equalizer as did some of their PA and sound
reinforcement speaker systems.

A friend of mine is heavily involved with his church and was given the
responsibility of upgrading their sound system.

He is also a regular customer at the guitar shop and performance venue I
built and equipped and he asked me to recommend a new system. I visited
the church to scope out it's size and noticed the PAs they were using.
The church is not very large, so a big system was not required. They
were using a pair of older Bose PA speakers .... I've forgotten what
model number and they sounded terrible. They are supposed to be used
with an equalizer (like the 901s) but it didn't exist. The speakers
had been donated minus the equalizer and no one knew they needed it. We
checked eBay, found one and bought it cheap. When it arrived we hooked
it up and he was blown away at how much better they sounded. Saved them
quite a bit of $$.



Sort of church-related, but not. The last time I was in New Haven, one
of our hosts played a CD of Bach he had being played on the 1928-1929
Skinner Pipe Organ at Woolsey Hall (you know that place, right?), and he
was playing it over a Bose 901 system he's had in his house for years.
Well, the "lackabass" of that sound system was really noticeable,
because what we heard through his Bose speakers didn't sound anything
like the Skinner, which I've heard dozens and dozens of times. The pedal
notes sounded like intestinal gas being passed.