original bose 901s – not the greatest audiophile sound for the money, but surely interesting to look at with its horizontal approach and beautiful cabinetry.

in the light of the new hyped-up kith + bose collab reissues of this classic speaker we thought we’d share a bit of its history, as i myself once considered buying a pair, almost a decade ago, but instead opted for a pair of magnepans instead… but here it is non-the-less… “there may be no singular product in modern audio history that has generated more accolades, derision, or pure controversy than the bose 901 loudspeaker. introduced in 1968 by a then four-year-old concern named after its MIT-educated founder, the 901 neither looked, nor sounded, like any speaker that had come before it. with its pentagonal cabinet that faced eight of its nine identical 4-inch, full-range drivers at the reflecting wall behind the speaker, its designer amar bose sought to have it mimic the way we hear in concert halls and imbue its sound with a giant soundstage and spatial realism that was unsurpassed.

amar bose and his 901’s in a clear cabinet

copy of bose 901 series III owners manual

beyond any success of its spatial trickery, the 901 had its issues — the combination of its small cabinet and unusual dispersion pattern required equalization at both ends of the frequency spectrum, and it was (not surprisingly) room and placement sensitive. some sophisticated audiophiles bemoaned a perceived lack of detail and veiled quality to its sound. j. gordon holt, founding editor of our high-end sister publication stereophile, noted in a 1971 commentary that the 901 “produces a more realistic semblance of natural ambience than any other speaker system, but we would characterize it as unexceptional in all other respects.” my own mentor, harry pearson, jr., told me in the early 1980s that he bought a pair of first-generation 901s after reading the positive reviews in the mainstream audio press and was so disappointed that it prompted him to found the absolute sound as an alternative voice.

you are looking at he BACK of the speaker here

in the legend and mythology of the bose 901, the review we’ve reprinted here, written by julian hirsch for hifi stereo review’s september 1968 issue, looms large. it has been suggested by some observers that few factors beyond bose’s own advertising contributed more to the speaker’s huge commercial success. while the review retained hirsch’s usual dispassionate and professorial voice, it was certainly as close to a rave as he ever got. in 1998, when sr celebrated its 40th anniversary and hirsch was asked to reflect on the most noteworthy products he’d encountered, he cited the 901 right alongside such classics as the original shure v15 cartridge, the marantz 10b tuner, and the dynaco a-25 bookshelf speaker. back in ’68, the 901 review appeared without fanfare and was mixed among the several featured each issue in hirsch’s “technical talk” department, which always began with a brief essay (not reproduced here), followed up by a handful of product tests.”

above sound dispersion and positioning – positioning the 901s, which fire backwards, in a standard room can be challenging as the 12-inch gap necessary between the apex of the speaker and the wall places the front of the speaker about 30 inches from the wall. you need to be sure to have a room that can accommodate that. over all a great consumer level speaker system, with some proper positioning and staging however in my opinion “too much electronics” to make this a true pure sound audiophile unit

original  hifi stereo review magazine review from 1968

“depending on one’s viewpoint, the bose 901 speaker system might be considered a revolutionary approach to sound reproduction, or simply a workable combination of well-established (and sometimes deprecated) techniques. the bose 901 enclosures house nine small, specially designed drivers that have 4-inch cones and powerful magnetic structures. eight of the drivers are angled to the rear, while the ninth is mounted on the front of the enclosure facing the listening area. this arrangement is intended to achieve approximately the same ratio of direct to reflected sound that exists in the concert hall…” to see the rest of the review by julian hirsch, in the 1968 issue of hifi stereo review magazine, click on the link. by ss