I have a pair of ol-llld 201s that were given to me. Even with the bad tweeter they sound pretty good. But it does need to be replaced. I am trying to see if there is someone or some site or video that might be helpful in performing the "surgery". The box appears to be glued together and it's very awkward trying to reach in through the woofer hole to do anything. I don't want to damage the casing because I may just want to sell these. Any thoughts? (I am also wondering if anyone knows whether or not a 301 tweeter will stand as replacement ... the boxes appear to be the same size on the older model 301s and 201s). Any input appreciated.
I was hoping to avoid all that. These are at least twenty years old. Thought someone here might have some knowledge on it. I've never had dealings with Bose directly, and shudder to think about who in Banglalore or Philipines (or worse yet, Boise) I would end up speaking with (or trying to). Perhaps someone else here might have had some experience with this sort of thing.
Art, Everybody is from someplace! Heck, I'm from Chicago! Please don't hold that against me.
I've spent a little time in Idaho and would move back to Payette / Fruitland area so I could be in one of the banana belts while being close to Ontario for 'duty free' shopping.
Chicago? Don't get me started. Oh, and by the way, my whole point is to get these 201s in ship shape for a quick sale on eBay. I may offer them with the bad tweeter as "fixer uppers". I have to tell you guys, I stumbled onto a pair of DBX bookshelf speakers from Gawd knows when in the sixties (?). They are some of the best sounding speakers I've ever heard, hands down. Naturally they're light on base, but when you hear these and the mids they command, you start to think base may just be over-rated. I haven't been this impressed since the Klipsch Heresy. In fact, I would go so far as to say that these are like "mini me" Klipsch Heresys. They even have a little horn tweeter. I am not a great audiophile, but I've been around long enough to be able to tell you guys, if you ever run into a set of these, grab them.
That was a typo, Art. But the glee with which you pounced upon it is very telling indeed. Must be some kind of Ore-Ida "thing" that you've got going there.
Having said that, I must take some small issue with you on Bose. Most of the models are fine speakers. In the military I was fortunate enough to own (first) a set of 601s (worst of the lot, but still nice), then some 501s, and finally some 901s. Not in succession, mind you. I detoured to experiment with Cerwin Vega, KLH, Klipsch and several others.
The problem with Bose is not their quality. Bose has precisely two problems at present:
PROBLEM #1 - Bose is overpriced, hands down. The quality is high, but not as high as the price. This has helped to lead to....
PROBLEM #2 - An almost inexplicable psuedo-elitist penchant by a dwindling few, for turning one's nose up at the very mention of Bose. This is a "ten years ago" attitude, and nearly extinct; however, like Sasquatch, it is possible to encounter one of these colorful "upturned Bose-nose" creatures in those still-wild portions of the great Pacific Northwest --and even more infrequently, on discussion boards like these.
One must be very quiet. These critters are shy and frighten easily (though not so shy as to lash out at any perceived threats). For proper viewing of this vanishing beast, an excellent idea would be to hollow out an old Advent tower and use it as a blind. Caution, folks, be sure to put a wire screen in the woofer hole.
Now get out there with those cameras, kids. And be careful for gosh sake!
I have a feeling everywhere you go something odd happens...just a thought...lol! I haven't lived in Idaho for 26 years. I have no idea what those folks are doin' over there.
Art - typos oft come in threes, and so without futher adieu, I am a veteran basE and acoustic guitarist Does this satisfy? I certainly hope so. Again, your need to dominate a conversation is most telling. Your LOLs are but weak camouflauge. The fact that you felt guilty over calling me a liar (either that or the fact that you were afraid of what your compadres here might think) caused you to edit your post. But being a stickler for old and originals, be it equipment, words or otherwise, let me for the benefit of the rest of the gang (for I would like to think of you all as my new excellent, good friends) make right Art's "sin" of revision so that 1.) all may see, and 2.) Art can begin his path back to honesty:
"Wow, that was profound. BTW you spelled it "base" more than once, it wasn't a typo, which makes you a liar. Enjoy your Bose!"
While it is nice of you to try to bowdlerize yourself, your words, once submitted, nevertheless made it to my inbox. No edits possible there, my good friend. Oh, um ... let me try. Never done this before, but here goes. Bit uncomfortable doing it but ... um ... LOL.
Nuck, you called it. Glued it is. Casing as well. You can see the old drips along the seams when you shine a light in the woofer port. That's why I think I'll just sell them as is, cuz I don't feel like dealing with all that. It's just not worth it.
Leo, it is a pleasure to disagree with you since you do it with a healthy sense of humor, you elitist dawg. I see what you mean about people bashing for repair issues, and I was not aware of that because I've never had occasion to look into repairs until now. That's when I had the fabulous good fortune of meeting my new buddy from Oregon. Fact is, I've never heard of or known anyone to have problems with Bose systems unless they were physically damaged.
I take issue on the sound of Bose, however. I realize it's not the popular stance to take, but c'mon guys, are you serious? Get hold of even a pair of, let's say, old 101 bookshelves. Give them a listen, a good one, and then come back here and foist this nonsense onto the board. I would not be so rude as to call you liars if you wrote scathing reviews. I would, however, suggest that you are being disingenuous.
Bose bashing is, to my thinking, a kind of disease of the mind, fostered by long years of exposure to other Bose bashers. Let's face it, Bose bashing is "cool". Hence, you bash bose. But Bose bashing is boring.
Seriously, though. I went through my Bose phase. They are not my speaker of choice. I don't even necessarily like them as much as I once did. But to just plain old *trash* them is, well, dammit all I'll say it, just plain hive-minded.
Wow, Art, your response was so incredibly fast it's almost as if you stayed at your keyboard with fingers poised just waiting (and dare I say drooling a little?) for something to reply to. Are you kind of the token troll here? Maybe someone else would like to field that one?
BTW the edit function is there for a reason...try it sometime. I changed the words to be less offensive, but I meant them none the less, and I still do.
No revision needed as anyone who can read knew what I meant.
That you didn't spell bass correctly isn't the issue, You are not the first to spell it that way here and I've never mentioned it. It was the post which made it appear that communicating with folks beneath you may not have been preferred. I don't recall our other New Yorkers having any difficulty communicating with Idahoans. Most of us don't like going through some phone bank overseas to get our questions answered but lets face it, I asked if you had contacted Bose, not if you called them. You then made several assumptions, one is that I asked you to speak with Bose, I did not. The other is that if you did speak with the folks at Bose that it would be unpleasant, you may be correct on that, I don't know...do you?
BTW I owned several Bose speakers that I bought at garage sales and they were just awful. No follow the leader here, most of us have heard Bose. Enjoy your Bose thread.
But I begin to see. I have offended you, poor thing. Would you like an apology? I am willing to do it if you like, even though you completely misconstrued what you thought to be offensive. When you asked me about contacting Bose, my response was in no way meant to offend. I did not know you were a sensitive former Idaho denizen. Let me explain my little "Boise" deal to you.
I work in IT. A few years back I was the point person at a publishing house for Dell Gold Warranty Service repairs. One of the things I had to do was submit for parts replacement on laptops and such. If I explained the problem, they normally would just send out the part, be it motherboard or screen, etc. We communicated via their web interface. I assumed that they were in India or something. And many were. But oftentimes I would get push-back from some hot-shot who wanted me to further troubleshoot when I already knew well what the problem was. This pissed me off because it was time consuming. Finally I had to just out and out lie, or pretend I was doing the troubleshooting so that they'd acquiesce and send the *&*^%$ part out.
Well, guess what. One day it occured to me to ask one of these "hot shots" which country they were from. To my shock and horror, he replied that some of the Gold Warranty help desk staff is in Boise.
Now, Banglaore? Manilla? Even Ethiopia? All excusable. But when I searched the communications logs and realized that all of the people who were wasting my time were the Americans out of Boise, well, that got me to thinking about the entire American business infrastructure and its demise. I concluded that Boise is one of the focal points of American demise.
Is that so bad, Art? I mean, is that *really* so offensive? Anyway, back to the point. I never took your mention of contacting Bose as some sort of request by you to contact them. Furthermore, that has no relevance whatsoever and is just cheap filler for your bloviating paragraph (above).
Lastly, the fact that you bought your Bose at garage sales could account for your bad experiences. Next time try a proper retailer. Or not. Again, it's unimportant. My only argument here is that Bose bashing is a bit tiresome. Bose PRICE bashing would be a whole lot more understandable.
I did own a pair of Bose Roomates new in the 80's and my family bought me a pair of 601's way back when, they were new and they went back to the store, not so good. Really this isn't about blind Bose bashing, most of us have listened to them, really.
I would (and have) just hammered in a glued tweeter and shake out the bits, then replace, a coat hanger will fish ou tthe leads, likely still attached to the bakelite board.
But if it is a Bose, just go ahead and smash the enitre cabinet of the POS.
Boise is indeed part of the Axis of evil. I believe the President will be speaking to it this evening while ratcheting up the terror alert...naw, probably not.
You just happen to be dealing with folks in Boise, could have been anywhere...like perhaps Albany, Oregon...actually we do have a call center here...OMG maybe the NW is the Axis of evil!
I know that there is more micro-brew there than anywhere else, so it's all good. Except if they have Bose POS speakers on the patio, then all bets are off.
Hey, can someone tell me ... Will this board support photos? I mean right in the message, linked? I haven't looked at other threads yet, but right now this site is very slow for me. Cablevision is out on the road, and I keep losing my connection. Later on I want to post something to help identify and/or get some history on.
Never OWNED Bose. Not even the stock, which may or may not have been or will be a mistake: Disclaimer: I am not now, nor ever have been associated with with NYSE or any of its affiliates or member companies.
Shite: I forgot what I was going to say!
Just kidding:
That being said, a trip to the Bose store was enough to convince me. That and a brief viewing of one of the HSN channels, featuring Bose products and a host people who have never shopped for audio outside a big box store. My first listen to Bose was a set of 901s at a Pacific Stereo in about '74 ....give or take. The best part of the demo was the Phase Linear 400, an early Bob Carver effort. My neighbor, who could care less about audio, has a pair of 301s up on the overhead plant shelves. Not bad, all things considered and easily as good as the 90$/pair Insignia.
The 'upload image' tick box works for me, but I think the size limit is about 400x400 pixels. Don't know from 'Shrinkpictures' but Photoshop works for me! None of my pics have psychological problems, anyway! Sample file of about 83k. The original is spectacular and will go to 20x30 easily.
My first listen to Bose was at a Sound World store in Pocatello, Idaho. It was one of only a handful of stores in the country with a room designed by Amar Bose for his 901's.
I always liked the 301s and the 501s as being good sounding speakers. The 601s were meh. Muddy highs, ho-hum basS. 901s are just ok, but again, over-pricing is the problem. Because I play, I have always been more into amplifiers and such, and less inclined to get too caught up in recent home music systems / speakers.
But I don't want the sound to suck either (to unwind at home I listen to classical and some older jazz, as well as acoustic guitar music). I guess you could say that, because of my experiences in bands, basS is less important to me in home speaker systems. I prefer crisp but not overstated "highs" and a thorough and "punchy" middle. BasS should accompany, never dominate (unless you're Entwistle or McVie, in which case you just shut your mouth and gape slack-jawed) --I get more than enough of the lows when we are doing rehearsals or gigs.
I am glad I found this site. In future, if I decide to expand my home listening, I think I can get some decent advice here. Well, as long as I never mention Bose again. Heh.
Oh, hey Leo, I saw the Blue Angels at Jones Beach. Pretty nice. I am not militant by any means, but I must say, the real "star" of that air show was F-22 Raptor.
Towards the end of the day, and prior to the Blue Angels' arrival, a Raptor "appeared" hovering (or so it seemed) in the sky directly above us. It just sort of sat there, tilted, for a a minute or two.... And then, like some kind of futuristic space vehicle, it fired its rear thrusters, or whatever you want to call them, let go a throaty scream and seemed to "launch" from a dead standstill in the sky --and go straight up. Then, like an A-10 Warthog, it started going into tactical maneuvers, cutting right, left, up down, in seeming impossible ways.
Again, I am no militant dude. But when I saw that baby doing it's thing, one of the first thoughts that came into my head was 'Go ahead, China, make my day ... feelin' lucky, punk?'
A shame that they cut the budget on the Raptor. Glad they didn't cut it completely. I do wish that they would upgrade the Blue Angels to F-22s. Not THAT would be something.
Pretty much Gavin. That room also had the Mac electronics and Altec19's and Valencia's. The Mac integrated with Altecs using a Thorens deck was pretty amazing. I was just a kid getting into audio and Brian (yes, I still remember the salesman's name) let me hang at the store anytime I wanted. When there weren't any customers, I closed the door to soundroom and rocked out. Brian's kindness to a kid who obviously loved music and who aspired to move up from a Ward's Ailrine stereo was pivotal. When I was 13 I bought a Marantz 2220B, a pair of Altec Capri's and a Pioneer belt drive turntable...the rest is history or poverty...!
I meant that everything else in there sounded better
I have never heard a properly set up pair of 901's. To me, they have boomy bass, and a huge wash of midrange.
It is funny because I think that Bose pro products like the L1 and 800 series are decent (and I know that the 901 is supposedly a descendant of the 800 series).
The DJ at my wedding used an L1 based system and I have to admit that I have never heard a DJ have such a smooth, warm sounding rig. It was nice to be able to enjoy the night without having my ears drilled out by cheap horns. My guests were even commenting on it to me. Not to mention he was fun.
"The rest is history...or poverty!"
tell me about it! I just made a post stating that I have to hunt down a decent ML dealer to audition the Source... it directly replaced the clarity and I am curious to see if it sounds any better. Just about everything about the speaker has been changed (and it uses a paper woofer).
Done properly (and with a good amp) a paper woofer could be a change for the better.
