Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Bose = Brilliant Engineering

It's taken me 28 years to realize just how brilliantly engineered the Bose 601 Series is.

The 601s were my very first speaker purchase back in '90 when I purchased a Yammie receiver, CD player and tape deck from Krazy Kiley's in Saskatoon. For $850, they threw in all the interconnects and 10 gauge speaker cable terminated with soldered and crimped ring tongue terminals to accomodate the posts on the 601s.

My 601s have made the rounds. When they were replaced by my M80v2, they went to a buddy for surround duty. When he no longer needed them, off they went to another buddy, again for surround duty. He refoamed both bottom woofers. As of last night, they're at another friend's, along with my 17 year old Denon, this time as mains. She's never had speakers so this is a real treat and gives her time to save up for M3v4s which she loves so much (and rightly so).

It took me all of 5 minutes to set them up and that included the time to adjust the balance using a mono signal. Real simple - slap them up against the front wall and leave 2 feet of room on either side. Done! Wide front soundstage with a bit of depth yet stereo imaging nowhere to be found.

As I sat there listening not so much to what was there but to what wasn't, it struck me why Bose sold so many of these. First, you have to recognize there's no appreciable bass below maybe 200Hz on these things. Also, large swaths of mid-range are missing. Likely there are no highs above 6KHz and between the large swaths of missing mid-range and missing highs, there are likely many more valleys. Yet, the music is understandable and those who have never heard a full range speaker wouldn't know what they're missing.

Are you starting to see the brilliance? You throw these in a room and without any fussing, they don't sound boomy and they don't sound harsh. The reason: all the bands that cause room-related effects are not there! The listener gets what they believe is wonderful sound without any effort; just instant enjoyment.

Brilliant. Wouldn't you agree?

P.S. I was glad to get back to my place and rinse my ears-brain with a good dose of M5s before that terrible affliction called Boseitis set in.

That is what they are famous for. I remember those little surround sound setups at Best Buy where you stood in front of a 20-something inch TV that was playing Jurassic Park, and they had above that 1 listener, in a circle, the little Bose cubes. Their "bass module" would hit just low enough to hear the T-Rex foot steps, and the cubes were high enough to hit crisp bone crushing. That is about it. It was cranked up loud to give more "impact" in your little 100cuft circle. Sounded like a million bucks to most people. Little did they know how much sound that wasn't even being reproduced.

Yes, I saw a demo like that I think in Disneyland.

I was wrong about the series. Mine are the Series 2. I found the attached PDF that describes their design and even includes schematics. I have the 3-terminal version which was intended for some kind of a virtualized Bose never introduced. Have a look t that schematic. Both woofers operate across the entire frequency range.

https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.audiolabga.com/pdf/BOSE601II.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiar4y32tngAhUI11kKHZngDGIQFjACegQIAxAB&usg=AOvVaw1I-4WdaytPQBRj92IsdMSj

Krazy Kiley's - man i forgot about that store. They had a knack for getting you to walk out the door with something. Bought alot of car audio there in 2000-2003

Krazy Kiley's in Saskatoon and Krazy Kelley's in Winnipeg...LOL! I also remember Advance Audio/Video in Winnipeg on Portage Ave. I wonder if it's still there.

I can't believe I'm reading a trashing of the 601s!
I've always considered them the only good product Bose ever made. I drooled over the 601s back in the late 70s when I couldn't afford them. I wound up getting something called Radian Research; which I liked but have no idea if they were really any good.

By the time I could afford the 601s I didn't have a good place to put direct reflecting speakers. Then came kids, so nothing. And then I lucked into hearing about Axiom.

I paid $110 Canadian for them in 1990. They were used. I bought them over Polk bookshelves which were selling for$350. I almost bought the Polks without listening because Matthew Polk looked so official with his white lab coat, stethoscope and spiel about time-aligned tech. Remember all that?

I'm listening to them right now at my friends. I've mated them to my very modified Sony sub and it sounds absolutely splendid compared to her TV speakers. She is so happy.

See photos. BTW, she's in love with the M3s.

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=166il34Dv9AsWVnZbmmEwVb4Az7GNozuN

I've discovered a speaker worse, much worse, than my Bose 601. The JVC SK-202(C). What a total piece of crap even by yesteryear standards!