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Post by graphic on Jun 4, 2019 19:35:03 GMT -5
Series IV, I later bought a series VI I bought a pair of 901_II back in college in (I think) 1974. I got them for cost as a buddy worked there one summer. His brother in-law was a Production Mgr. It was late in the run for the series 2 and they were about to come out with the series 3 (which sucked). Bose had installed drivers destined for the ser3 that had foam surrounds and not the CTS drivers with cloth surrounds. The foam went after 15 years and Bose honored the warranty (5 yrs) as they felt responsible for the error. I got a pair of ser6 for $350 and used them for 20 years. I never liked them as much as the acoustic version. Bass not as good and port chuffing and a muffled sound with speech. I never found a preamp/amp combo that worked well until I set them up for sale with other gear for sale. This combo worked well. XPA-2 G2, Rotel Pre and Tuner. Short lived as they all sold quickly.
I picked up a pair of Ser2 with the correct drivers and had the EQ recapped with quality components and have never looked back. I think they do a great job as HT rear speakers.
My first serious stereo was an AKAI reel to reel, Kenwood Tk140x, 60 watts, iirc, AR turntable with Shure cart and Bose 501 speakers. My brother and I went back and forth and he bought the original Advent Speakers at the same store I bought the Bose and he got The AR receiver and Empire table and cart. Right around 1969? David, I dumped the 501’s for DCM Time Windows, bought at the factory on Airport Road in Ann Arbor. Still playing them in my workroom. When Bose discontinued the 901, I thought I should have a pair. Picked up a great pair of series 2, and then found someone to ‘hot rod’ the equalizer. I think the same guy as yours, they look pretty much alike! My jaw dropped when I heard them. They’re not electrostats, but there is no “no highs,no lows, must be Bose” at all. Crystal pure treble, great midrange and smooth base. Typically the placement is critical, but everyone who’s heard them is dazzled. Driving them with a vintage Kenwood M2A, with 250 watts/channel, I can bury the meters and the Bose just sits there grinning. Great fun for 50 year old gear.
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Post by DavidR on Jun 4, 2019 19:47:55 GMT -5
................................................................................ David, ............................................................................ When Bose discontinued the 901, I thought I should have a pair. Picked up a great pair of series 2, and then found someone to ‘hot rod’ the equalizer. I think the same guy as yours, they look pretty much alike! My jaw dropped when I heard them. They’re not electrostats, but there is no “no highs,no lows, must be Bose” at all. Crystal pure treble, great midrange and smooth base. Typically the placement is critical, but everyone who’s heard them is dazzled. Driving them with a vintage Kenwood M2A, with 250 watts/channel, I can bury the meters and the Bose just sits there grinning. Great fun for 50 year old gear. I used DHS (David Shirly) Speaker Service. He's into 901's. I didn't want to use Sonicap and wanted all the resistors in the audio circuit to be 1% metal film resistors. He wouldn't deviate from what he used and told me it wasn't worth the money - that I wouldn't hear a difference. I bugged him so much he almost told me he wouldn't do my EQ. All in all the improvement was big. The first thing everyone one says is : "Oh my God the bass". The treble is the biggest improvement. Great on rumbles in movies and some other sounds.
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Post by graphic on Jun 4, 2019 19:57:59 GMT -5
Yes, same guy. I asked for a few things too, but as you say, he told me no, sternly. Can’t say he was wrong, they are far and away the best 901s I’ve ever heard, and I was there in 1968 when they first came out. Bought the Van Dyke Parks album ‘Song Cycle’ after hearing it demoed on the 901s!
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Post by cwmcobra on Jun 4, 2019 20:09:06 GMT -5
To continue my saga, the Heathkit AR-1500 was replaced by a pair of Dynaco Stereo 400's, a Dynaco preamp and a Kenwood tuner. Wish I had kept them......
Oh, and Fisher? I have a pair of Fisher speakers in my shop driven by an old Technics receiver. That system sounds good to this day for playing ripped albums from the PC or listening to the radio.
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Post by tchaik on Jun 4, 2019 21:34:02 GMT -5
First Real Hi-fidelty system after I got the bug, and put this together between 11th and 12th grade. this remained my system though college with some changes on the way. AR turntable Dynaco SCA-35 tube integrated amp Sony TC 630-D reel to reel tape deck Dynaco A-25 Speakers View AttachmentView AttachmentView AttachmentView Attachmentin my 2nd year of college. I changed to this amp.... Dynaco SCA-80 amp.......... View AttachmentI do recall looking at those Dynaco A25's. They were direct competitors to the large Advents. Did they use a foam surround or the much longer lasting rolled cloth ones? they actually came out before the advents. I don't remember the type of surround material but the online pics show a rubber surround. I think they were made by scanspeak for dynaco. my buddy bought a pair of advents a year after I bought the dynacos. I was very jealous. the advents were superior.
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Post by Gary Cook on Jun 4, 2019 22:26:26 GMT -5
Remember my first stereo ............... of course ........... I still have it (reference the ship of Theseus paradox).
Obviously I've changed the turn table, pre amp, CD player, power amp, sub and speakers along the way. But it's still my first stereo system, it just has had some upgraded components added over time.
Cheers Gary
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Post by strindl on Jun 5, 2019 0:34:04 GMT -5
I do recall looking at those Dynaco A25's. They were direct competitors to the large Advents. Did they use a foam surround or the much longer lasting rolled cloth ones? they actually came out before the advents. I don't remember the type of surround material but the online pics show a rubber surround. I think they were made by scanspeak for dynaco. my buddy bought a pair of advents a year after I bought the dynacos. I was very jealous. the advents were superior. Rubber surrounds are much more durable. Advent, AR, EPI,Bose, etc all used foam surrounds almost exclusively during that period, and they all rotted away after about 10 or 12 years. The Advents were very nice sounding speakers though.
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Post by 405x5 on Jun 5, 2019 8:24:39 GMT -5
they actually came out before the advents. I don't remember the type of surround material but the online pics show a rubber surround. I think they were made by scanspeak for dynaco. my buddy bought a pair of advents a year after I bought the dynacos. I was very jealous. the advents were superior. Rubber surrounds are much more durable. Advent, AR, EPI,Bose, etc all used foam surrounds almost exclusively during that period, and they all rotted away after about 10 or 12 years. The Advents were very nice sounding speakers though. The foam was superior over rubber sonically, even though at the time the early foam surrounds were not holding up as well. In high humidity, they could fall apart even quicker (8 years or so). The newest foam, from a chemical standpoint, supposedly holds up much longer. I sure as hell hope so.... I had 6 done a little over 2 years ago. They are in a central AC environment, so the test will be a LONG time coming. Bill
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Post by pedrocols on Jun 5, 2019 8:30:39 GMT -5
In my home growing up we had a Technics stereo system. The thing held up pretty well and even uses it for parties.
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Post by DavidR on Jun 5, 2019 10:50:12 GMT -5
Rubber surrounds are much more durable. Advent, AR, EPI,Bose, etc all used foam surrounds almost exclusively during that period, and they all rotted away after about 10 or 12 years. The Advents were very nice sounding speakers though. The foam was superior over rubber sonically, even though at the time the early foam surrounds were not holding up as well. In high humidity, they could fall apart even quicker (8 years or so). The newest foam, from a chemical standpoint, supposedly holds up much longer.I sure as hell hope so.... I had 6 done a little over 2 years ago. They are in a central AC environment, so the test will be a LONG time coming. Bill Polyether foam. The 901 ser6 I had were still perfect when I sold them after 20+ years of use.
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Post by 405x5 on Jun 5, 2019 11:01:10 GMT -5
The foam was superior over rubber sonically, even though at the time the early foam surrounds were not holding up as well. In high humidity, they could fall apart even quicker (8 years or so). The newest foam, from a chemical standpoint, supposedly holds up much longer.I sure as hell hope so.... I had 6 done a little over 2 years ago. They are in a central AC environment, so the test will be a LONG time coming. Bill Polyether foam. The 901 ser6 I had were still perfect when I sold them after 20+ years of use. I was only aware of the earlier generation cloth on the 901's. What year was the 6?
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Post by DavidR on Jun 5, 2019 13:00:09 GMT -5
Polyether foam. The 901 ser6 I had were still perfect when I sold them after 20+ years of use. I was only aware of the earlier generation cloth on the 901's. What year was the 6? The series 1 and 2 were cloth surrounds. Series 6 began in (maybe) 1987. I don't remember when I got mine (maybe early to mid 90s) thru a warranty exchange but the polyether surrounds were like new after 20+ years. They just didn't sound as good as the acoustic version. However, I could pound them with 450 watts with no ill effects.
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Post by geeqner on Jun 21, 2019 9:54:03 GMT -5
I remember it FONDLY - it's burned into my memories: Christmas, 1979 My Dad owned a TV & Appliance store in a small town in Brillion, Wisconsin One line that he sold as Zenith That year, it seemed like almost ALL of the presents were for my younger brother - but then towards the end of the evening, Dad mentioned that he had one or two things "stashed-away", and he proceeded to bring-out a veritable PARADE of LARGE boxes: RECEIVER = Zenith MC7030 (25 Watts, minimum continuous [conservative] RMS which meant that it "punched above it's weight", made for Zenith by Sony): It's still in my basement as a "back-up" probably not worth restoring / re-capping but it has sentimental value. TAPE DECK = Zenith MC9070 Casette with Dolby NR (and could handle almost any casette tape type known to man) TURNTABLE (Actually, a fully-automatic Record Changer [Re-Badged Garrard or BIC?] with solid but cheap Shure cartridge) Upgraded to my beloved Teledyne AR "The Turntable" (that I still have and use) during my College years: SPEAKERS: Zenith Allegro 2000 = 10" 2-Way with tuned port These actually had pretty darned decent drivers and were probably the 2nd highest-end speaker that Zenith ever made (Allegro 4000 had 12" Woofers and added a mid-range driver) Woofers were Rola - with coated accordion-folds instead of foam surrounds (they really held-up well over the years) Tweeters were foster horn-loaded units with a phasing-plug (looked like a mini jet-inlet) (I was pleasantly surprised when I "resurrected" these - hooked them up to my new system before giving them to a co-worker music-lover who had fallen on hard-times they STILL sounded pretty darned decent. Everything still worked and crossovers seemed to still be properly functioning after all these years!) Then, to top it all off - there were: -Speaker Stands that made the speakers lean-back a bit and isolated them from the floor somewhat -A Glass-Door Cabinet to put the components in and keep my favorite records in the bottom! It was "quite a haul" - not too many 14-year-olds have their own Component Stereo System. (Before that, I had a cheapo "suitcase-style" stereo record player with removable plastic-housing, single-driver speakers.) Where we lived - there were NO "high-end" or even mid-end Stereo shops, so what I had was WAY above average for my area, even it it was actually a pretty modest system (but it served me well through my College years and beyond)
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Post by brutiarti on Jun 21, 2019 10:00:32 GMT -5
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Post by audiobill on Jun 21, 2019 13:21:02 GMT -5
1970:
Acoustic Research AR receiver AR xa turntable AR 2ax speakers Shure V15 cartridge Sennheiser HD414 headphones
All purchased at usaf base exchange for great prices!
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Post by tweed on Jun 21, 2019 18:38:11 GMT -5
Going back to 1972 time machine-
Pioneer 626 receiver Large Advents AR turntable Sony reel to reel
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Post by bitsandbytes on Jun 23, 2019 7:40:24 GMT -5
First real system purchased back in 1977 while stationed at the Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni Japan: Sansui AU20000 integrated amp Teac A650 cassette deck Pioneer RG-1 Dynamic Range Expander JVC Sea-10 Equalizer Technics turntable Sony headphones JBL L65 speakers Loved it! Sill if only I knew back then what I know now... everything would have been different!
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Post by 405x5 on Jun 23, 2019 8:58:40 GMT -5
First real system purchased back in 1977 while stationed at the Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni Japan: Sansui AU20000 integrated amp Teac A650 cassette deck Pioneer RG-1 Dynamic Range Expander JVC Sea-10 Equalizer Technics turntable Sony headphones JBL L65 speakers Loved it! Sill if only I knew back then what I know now... everything would have been different! Like your Avatar... I hear Oldfield on Pandora these days. Those Sansui integrated amps were wildly popular back then. Bill
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Post by 405x5 on Jun 23, 2019 9:52:39 GMT -5
1970: Acoustic Research AR receiver AR xa turntable AR 2ax speakers Shure V15 cartridge Sennheiser HD414 headphones All purchased at usaf base exchange for great prices! I never tried the V15 in my XA, even though it MUST have been the most popular choice at the time. Started with the Empire 999VE that was the same 75 bucks I paid for the turntable in 69. Sounded harsh no matter how I lined it up and replaced it with a Stanton 681EEE. The harshness disappeared immediately. Bill (the other!)
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Post by DavidR on Jun 23, 2019 11:17:45 GMT -5
1970: Acoustic Research AR receiver AR xa turntable AR 2ax speakers Shure V15 cartridge Sennheiser HD414 headphones All purchased at usaf base exchange for great prices! I never tried the V15 in my XA, even though it MUST have been the most popular choice at the time. Started with the Empire 999VE that was the same 75 bucks I paid for the turntable in 69. Sounded harsh no matter how I lined it up and replaced it with a Stanton 681EEE. The harshness disappeared immediately. Bill (the other!) Did you ever change out the clunky tone arm that came with the AR TT? I've read you can hit the base with a hammer and it will NOT skip.
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