In a message dated 1/2/08 4:32:35 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
drieben@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:
BTW, does anyone recall the Bose 901 series speakers? They were pretty
popular back in the
1980's.
I currently own two pairs of 901s, one pair is still in use as the front
stereo channels of our main surround-sound system. I've experimented
with
several 901's of various vintages over the years.
I assume that they were the standard 8 ohm impedance type
901's are anything but "standard". In later versions Bose developed
their
own unique "woofer" for this application. Like some Tesla Coilers, Bose
used
edge-wound ribbon instead of round wire to make a more compact voice
coil
assembly. The ribbon edges are on the inside and outside of the coil,
not the top
and bottom as we wind it for a TC. Not that strange, other manufacturers
have
done the same, and some even use *hexagonal* cross-section magnet wire
to
more efficiently pack the wire into the limited space in the magnet gap.
IIRC, all 9 of the identical "woofers" in the original 901 were all
connected in series. I also remember in later versions there was a
series/parallel connection. A lot of tweaking and technology went into
the later versions.
and it seems like I heard someone say that as part of Bose's
advertisement
campaign for these
speakers that they actually connected the input leads of a Bose 901
directly to
a 120 volt outlet and the speaker did not blow.
I've seen a lot of the advertising for the 901's, even the original
magazine reviews from the late '60's when they first came out, and never
saw
anything like that. Believe me, it would've stuck in my mind!
They *did* originally spec them at "unlimited power handling in
non-commercial applications", but much later changed it to something
specific and
quite reasonable. The later versions were much tougher, anyhow. I *can*
say I've
never seen a blown 901. Like many older speakers, especially of the
mid-70's, they tended to dry-rot and fall apart (Bose even had a
trade-in upgrade
program going for original owners).
Assuming the 8 ohms to be the correct resistance that the 120 volts, 60
Hz
AC saw, that means
that the speaker would have been processing 1875 volt-amps (not sure
what
the power factor
would be in this situation) of sound power!
That's no big deal. I drive my 901's with an older Carver TFM-45,
rated
at 375W/channel continuous indefinite, 750/channel for a few seconds,
and
I've measured it as much higher on the peaks. Carver had some
interesting
designs that used power supply transformers with a lot of leakage
inductance to
store energy, instead of big filter caps on the DC bus (although the
TFM-45 has
pretty big caps, and Carver amplifiers are another story unto
themselves...).
I once plugged the speaker leads from my TFM-45 into an uncooked hotdog,
and
at full output the hotdog began smoking as it made music...
During the heyday of the 901's, there weren't too many affordable
amps
that were capable of putting out enough clean power to blow them. But
the
901's were very inefficient speakers, so it took a lot of power through
them to
get them as loud as most other speakers. Another tradeoff...
People (myself included) would take 901's, turn them around, and use
them as PA/sound reinforcement speakers. Bose eventually introduced the
802's,
which were basically 901's turned around without the 9th driver on the
backside. So they were very tough.
Sorry to get a little OT here, but has anyone else heard this "story"?
Well, now that I typed all this, I figured we might as well find out.
I'm just dumb enough to try something like this, and in a position to do
so:
I just took a single 901 speaker, Series V, 1983 vintage, downstairs
to
the garage. Donned safety goggles and *earmuffs*. I plugged it directly
into
the wall. No ballast, no variac, no switch, no nothing! Twice in a row
for
five seconds each time. No smoke, no smell, and a good clean 60 Hz sound
with
no indications of clipping. Lights dimmed very significantly. VERY loud.
My
wife upstairs said it vibrated the whole house.
-Phil LaBudde
Center for the Advanced Study of Ballistic Improbabilities
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