bose 901 speaker replacement ideas

[thylantyr 10+ year member]

that my dad wants to use

The money invested to rebuild this could be used to make something superior.

 

[req 5,000+ posts]

well please elaborate, because replacing all the drivers with the said goldwood speakers would cost just bout $100.

so my budget is btweet $100 and $150. for all materials. and i am terrible at designing things like this.

so please, please show me soemthing that will get quite loud and sound really nice. its going to be a poker room, and he does not want something crazy obtrousive sitting in the middle of the floor. he is not a sound quality freak, he just wanted his vintage speakers to work.

so please thy, fill me in with a design and the hardware needed for this project and ill build something for sure.

 

[DBfan187 5,000+ posts]

i have a pair of bose 901 cabinets from back in the eairly 70's that my dad wants to use, but all the surrounds in the cabinets (its a line array of 8 speakers on the back and 1 one the front) are totally thrashed and disentegrated.
here is a few shots -

EVERY speaker is destroyed because of non-treated supfoam surrounds :'(

and heres the crazy wiring diagram

says on the bottom "for normal recievers use only "+" and "-" terminals, see owners manual for use of "*" terminal."

now, my DMM ran out of batteries and was a POS so i dont have one at the moment. it SAYS on the internet they have a nominal impedance of 8ohms, so im guessing its some crazy weird way? i dont know if each driver is 16, 8, or 4 ohms.

i also cant find ANY T\S params for the speakers. i want to REPLACE EVERY DRIVER with something like the NSB's that wereon PE for $0.50\each, because we all know boston wasnt the greatest equipment ever.

the MOUNTING DIAMATER for the speakers is exactally 4-1\4 inches and i can fit about 5" speakers at the biggest. i was looking at these;

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=290-370

but they are 4ohm each, and as you can see the diagram shows that the stock speakers are ALL ran in series, and the only config that i can see for anything near nominal impedance of 8ohms is all 1 ohm coils in series. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

if i did all 4ohm coils, i wouldnt be able to hook up that front speaker, but i could get nominal of 8ohms, i would be able to run a set of 4 in series for 16ohms, and then the pair of 16ohm series arrays, in parallel for 8ohms.

how would i hook up that front speaker?

or better yet, can anyone find me some drivers that are manufacturered for CHEAP (im talking SUB $10\each and NOT a REFOAM kit?

thanks for the help - many minds are greater than one i always say //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/tongue.gif.6130eb82179565f6db8d26d6001dcd24.gif

lol my dad has the same ones along with the 301s. Same **** thing happened to his too! lol

 

[DBfan187 5,000+ posts]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Bose-901-LIFETIME-Speaker-Repair-Cloth-Kit-P-L901K_W0QQitemZ9719616132QQcategoryZ61374QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[Shelbyturbo1989 10+ year member]

My friend's dad built a set of those when the series 2 were out. The drivers in his cabinets are 8 ohms. There are three drivers in parrallel which gives 2.66 ohms:

(1/( (1/8) + (1/8) + (1/8) )) = 2.66

then there are three sets of these in series which brings the impedence up to 8 ohms

2.66 + 2.66 +2.66 = 8

That's how you have nine 8 ohm drivers and still maintain an 8 ohm speaker.

Vic

 

[req 5,000+ posts]

can anyone find me some drivers that are manufacturered for CHEAP (im talking SUB $10\each and NOT a REFOAM kit?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Bose-901-LIFETIME-Speaker-Repair-Cloth-Kit-P-L901K_W0QQitemZ9719616132QQcategoryZ61374QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

sigh.

thanks for the info about 3 sets together for 2.66 ohms each and then up to ~9

i think thats how im gonna have to do it.

 

[DBfan187 5,000+ posts]

it says, RE-CLOTH, not RE-FOAM!

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

 

[req 5,000+ posts]

lawl u noob //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 

[thylantyr 10+ year member]

I don't follow the bang for buck loudspeaker crowd. I did get side tracked last

year to build the budget line array using the now sold out 49 cent drivers.

That would be a great project for you. Seek low cost drivers and just make

a tall azz array with center tweeter, it will perform better that fixing the Bose.

To extract more bass from weak drivers, port the array and tune it with a peak.

Black sheep, but works miracles.

 

[req 5,000+ posts]

i didnt say it had to be a sweet audiophiole bass thing.

this is for my dad. he does not want to spend lots of monies.

and he wants his old speakers that he got nigh on 30 years ago.

i dont follow your non-understanding for the crowd that is not audiophioles that. 100~150 is the absolute budget. i dont want to do alot of work.

i dont care if there is not a ton of bass or the speakers arent the best.

these cabinets are here, and somewhat cheap to fix. im just gonna replace with those goldwoods. *sigh*

 

[Darth Audio 10+ year member]

The Bose replacements that MCM has are for some Bose stage monitor and are a different size then what you are needing. Which Goldwoods are you guys talking about?

 

[IamDeMan 5,000+ posts]

Bose speakers = Teh LOSE //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/mad.gif.c18f003ab0ef8a0d9c27ca78d77a6392.gif
My wife has a pair of 501s that her mum gave her. Still intact and play fine - but no high end extension to speak of. They'll make nice bookends, I think.

I will agree to their overratedness of product they currently haveout, but I like the sound of the 901s. My dad had a set too and I always thought they gave a nice sound. They filled out a room nicely.

 

[req 5,000+ posts]

The Bose replacements that MCM has are for some Bose stage monitor and are a different size then what you are needing. Which Goldwoods are you guys talking about?

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=290-372

 

[Darth Audio 10+ year member]

Well I guess those will work since your dad isn't too concerned about hifi sound. Actually some of the Goldwoods aren't bad. I used some of their 6.5 aluminum mids and those little $5 Dayton tweets w/ a crossover I designed for a friends car. He's a cheap bastard if you hadn't gathered that, but anyway it sounds pretty good. They aren't the most efficient drivers though, I had to use like a 5db L-pad on the tweet. Let me know how it turns out w/ the 901's.

BTW I checked out your IB install, very nice. I had some OLD MTX Terminators in my old Cutlass in a IB config. Man they would drop and were very clean.

 

[joetama 5,000+ posts]

I would tell your dad sorry about your loss, and go build/buy something new. Cause well, TV speakers might just sound better. Just my 2 cents.