They make the waiting bearable.
A lot of people buy Bose 501 speakers because they're the next best thing to the speakers they dream about having some day the Bose 901 Series III. So it's easy to overlook just how well the 501's succeed in providing, at significantly less cost, many of the advances made in the 901's toward creating, in your living room, the experience of a live performance.
Reflected and direct sound.
The 501, like the 901 Series III, is a Direct/Reflecting speaker. Its woofer aims low frequencies directly into the room, while the tweeters reflect high frequencies off back and side walls. The listener is surrounded by a balance of reflected and direct sound, as he is in a live performance.
The sound is spacious and realistic, with none of the shrillness of even the best direct radiating speakers.
The big 10-inch woofer points straight ahead, while the tweeters are angled back to reflect sound off room walls.
Flat power response.
And, like the 901 Series II, the 501 is designed to achieve flat total power radiation, rather than flat frequency response on-axis. The 501 radiates the same total energy, encompassing all directions, at every frequency.
This means accurate frequency balance almost everywhere in the listening room.
Highs, lows and muddles.
We also gave the 501 features all its own. Its specially designed and very potent 10-inch woofer has a long-excursion, 1-inch voice coil for exceptionally clear bass at high volume.
The two Cabinets are walnut-grain vinyl.
3-inch tweeters were also specially designed so their response increases with frequency, to power radiation. And an unusually complex crossover network adjusts response and phase of woofer and tweeters through the crossover region for smooth midrange response.
So enjoy your 501's while you wait for the day you have 901's. After a while, you may forget what it was you were waiting for.
The 501 creates, in a living room, the same kind of balance of reflected and direct sound experienced in a live performance.
The Mountain, Mountain, Framingham, Mass. 01701
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Also see:
EQUIPMENT TEST REPORTS: Hirsch-Houck Laboratory test results on the: Audio Pulse Model One time-delay system, Avid 101 speaker system, Realistic SA-2000 integrated stereo amplifier, and Shure M24H stereo/quadraphonic phono cartridge, JULIAN D. HIRSCH.