Hey Martin!
Welcome to the boards. I have owned Bose 901's for about 25 years now. People love to slam Bose and I think that comes from some of the questionable lifesyle concepts they have come up with to get a share of the mass market. Still, even those, I don't think are as bad as people love to say they are. The 901's however do not fall into that mass market category. They are considered Bose flagship model and for good reason. I have heard the 901's in some outstanding settings. Actually I have even had mine in some very decent sounding settings.Unfortunately, I have had mine in more unsatisfactory settings than good ones. Due to the design of the 901's, placement is very tricky. Also, as someone else has already mentioned, they are power hungry. The more you can supply the better they like it.Unfortunately for me, I could never afford the high powered units that would be well suited to these speakers.
Sorry I have never heard the 80's but I do have the 60's(supposedly the same sound just not quite as low) which I bought to replace my 901's.One of the things I didn't like about the 901's was the lack of LF's.
I bought the 60's strictly for music. They are not currently being used for HT. Of course, when I first got them I had to put them in the HT just out of curiosity. Wow, what a difference over the Polk Audio 6600 set. Well I had no intention of getting rid of the 901's, so I was trying to decide if I would put them in the bedroom or what I would do with them? So I decided what the heck I'll try them in the HT as my mains. At first I was unhappy with that. The direct/reflecting design seemed to wreak havoc with the delay settings and the volume wasn't there and the voices seemed a little echoey. Then I started thinking that they should be outstanding front speakers because of the multiple small drivers. I couldn't stop the voice in my head "no highs, no lows must be Bose" . Well I was going to take them out and just use them as a secondary music setup in the bedroom. Then I thought that most of the job of the fronts and center are for voice and dialogue in the HT setup, so I decided to turn the 901's around.Yep use them in reverse of the way they were designed to operate. I recalibrated with this configuration and the sound is just amazing. I have a new found respect for my 25 year old speakers.
I got the Lucinda Williams Live in Austin DVD for Christmas. When the house was empty I put it in and cranked up the system a little extra loud. The sound was fantastic. I was several tracks into the disc before I realized that the player had defaulted to stereo. I could not believe that all I was hearing was the 901's and the subwoofer. No center and no surrounds. Had I known this from the get go I might have just added a sub to the 901's and never have found out about Axiom. Don't get me wrong I love the 60's. I have also since bought 3ti's and love those as well. I'm now considering whether to get 22's of 50's for the bedroom. Or get the 22's and put them in the HT as mains and finally move the 901's to the bedroom. One thing I'm sure of, I will not be getting rid of the 901's anytime soon. I know the sub makes all the difference, but hey, it works.
One of the things to consider if you are looking a 901's is, it is widely beleived among their own fans that the series 1 was good the series 2 was better and then they decided to go for more efficiency and they went down hill from there. Not sure how true this is, but I have seen that in print more than once. I also want to say that I retired the equalizer from the speakers a long time ago. It is not necessary to use it with that in line. It just gives a little added control for different room acoustics. I don't feel the 901's would be good as surrounds because of their difficulty in placement. But who knows maybe if you turn them around and use them backwards maybe you'll be lucky too. Bottom line is mine is a work around or making due with what I have. If I was doing it today I would say go with the 80's unless you can get the Bose for a steel. The 80's, or even the 60's for that matter, will not disappoint.
oz
