BO problem

I have a fairly cheap (i guess) old Pioneer stack system
Dual tape decks, radio, small graphic and a turntable on top that is powered by a curious single jack that looks like a headphones jack (small type)
Anyway it all works fine
\

Just bought a Bang and Olufsen TX2
PLugged it into the outlet on the wall, and the L/R RCA connectors into the "phono in" on the Pioneer system
Problem is it sounds like crap
Distorted, staticy, not very clear at all, as if the speakers were blown totally but they arent

Could it just be the needle/cartridge? I hope it is not some problem with the turntable itself. The needle looks ok to the eye.
Is my old Pioneer system just not able to handle the TX2? Power differences?

I also tried plugging it into my surround sound system and it blew the amp on that! but thats another sad story

I was gonna delete this but ill leave it as i fixed it

needle itself was slightly bent down in transit so wasnt sitting right
all is well now

VERY VERY nice turntable for $20!

And heaven help you when you need a new cartridge. They are over $150 nowadays. And they only take B&O cartridges. Treat that stylus/cartridge unit with consummate care. SoundSmith is about the only source in New York.

B&O are going cheap on ebay because of the proprietary nature of the parts they need, (aka bastard parts). Anyway, if the stylus shaft was bent in any way by any amount is is no longer any good. You cannot straighten them out to any degree of accuracy which is around .0001 of an inch or better and it will destroy your records eventually. You can try the suggestion above or check out eprey but I suggest you replace that stylus.

B&O, like Bose, are overpriced snazzy-looking components.
Designed for people into eye-appeal and fat wallets.
Ya want that snazz, ya gotta pay the snazz price for service parts down the road.

MattTech wrote:B&O, like Bose, are overpriced snazzy-looking components.
Designed for people into eye-appeal and fat wallets.
Ya want that snazz, ya gotta pay the snazz price for service parts down the road.

Oh man, if anyone has ever mirrored my thoughts -that is it.

Where I live in Manhattan people routinely buy-play-toss expensive electronics.

I have tons of Bose products and while they are "OK" soundwise, the build quality is really substandard for the price. I have two of the large Acoustic Wave CD/radios. Paper tweeter cones, screws into plastic, flimsy boards and generally Aiwa Boombox quality of construction. Their version of a Helmholtz resonator for bass is a gimmick along with the agc for the bass (how did they get patents on those), but it sounds decent. At $150-@200 it would be a good buy.

Their speakers are where things get really appalling. Light paper cones, --foam-- surrounds, the cheapest particle board boxes and a lot of lossy "crossover" tone shaping to compensate for the mediocre drivers Really.....

I do have a B&O Beocord (cassette) Beosound 1, and a Beocenter 4600 and have fixed-gifted a few others to friends. In general B&O is decently made, way better than Bose -but grossly overpriced. They have company showroom right nearby and I've visited to sample their ideas of "premium sound". It is a case of style over substance but listenable. Here I give Bose a slight edge for visceral sonics. The B&O headphone are actually good, but terrible flimsy.

Aside from the people who live in this area, the real market for Bose is the working types who have no real idea about sound or build quality, but see ad's. A Mexican friend Edgardo bought a Bose home theater system ($2500) against my advise (to impress Chiquitas) three years later the DVD player reads fewer and fewer disks and "buzzes" at times. Oh, and the woofer...I mean "bass module" smoked due to really poor solder work on the AC input. I fixed that for him and told him from then-on he was on his own.

I don't mind repairing this stuff if i find it in the street, but i would never pay for it.

Rob

You're right, Rob.
Advertizing "glitz & hype" sells cheap toilet paper too.

As for build quality, it's the external shiny stuff that helps sell, the insides are never seen by consumers.
Those cheap standard speakers are only designed to make it through warrenty and a perhaps few years past that - nothing special.
Smoke & mirrors of sorts, to uneducated and unsuspecting customers.

Me?
I've got a decent Technics components system, circa 1990's stuff.
After touching up factory wave soldering on weak spots, (heatsinked components, SVI chip) the receiver will run for decades.
I also modded the fan system for better performance.
The cassette - flawless after 10 years.
CD player - also flawless.
And, it's snazzy enough for my tastes.
Besides, it's hidden behind smoked glass doors.
Oh, and a sensible direct-drive linear-tracking Kenwood turntable rounds it out, along with an Akai 4000D RTR.
It's all I need.

Yeah, I bought one of those Bose Wave-Radios/CD player combo with the optional 3-CD module back in July, 2012, because I heard one in my co-worker's office and was amazed at the bass response even at a nearly whisper volume. Finally took it out the box in January, 2013 and stuck it on my huge dresser as a night radio (I absorb music in my sleep), but yet to plug it in. About $800 worth of radio sitting there after over a year of purchase.

I think the Bose stuff sounds nice, but mediocore performance and over-priced for what they offer, due to their aggressive marketing and advertising.

I still have a pair of Bose 901, Series V, that I bought back in 1982. I like the sound of them and they were sorta unconventional. I first heard the earlier (Series II) at a yard party back in 1974. Some military guy had them in his back yard hooked up to a killer amp/receiver he bought overseas. I then heard them in a bar and they were suspended from the ceiling. They kicked really hard and no subwoofer was needed. I was just impressed with such a big sound from a small box.

They sound great with Classical music. Parts Express has the speaker repair kits (for foam rot), and introduced replacement drivers a few years ago. I can't remember, but they may be made in China...definitely not American made.

Magnavox did good on their direct/reflecting system and Bose probably copied that same concept from them, and then charging big bucks like they were the only game in town.

Eventually, I'll plug the damn Wave thing in and run the setup CD that came with it. It's long been paid for, so that's water under the bridge. It's too late to return it now, so I'm stuck with it. I'm sure it will serve my purpose as a simple bedroom radio, but at a price.

I'm not here to boost or bash Bose. To each his own, and they have worked for my applications. There are some Bose basher websites out there, and I just stay clear of them. --BB

Bobby Basham
Tucson, Arizona

Did you get the Bose equalizer box that plugs into the tape monitor loop with the 901 speakers. If not, you didn't get all of it.

They were way overpriced. They used small speakers and equalized them to sound better.

There were several companies with overpriced products, given what was in them. You were buying the styling and the name. Examples:

Altec Lansing
B&O
Bose
Crown
Electro-Voice
Klipsch
Marantz
Revox
Tandberg
Thorens

Some of them were expensive because they were designed for broadcast or production use.

At one time I thought the TEAC and TASCAM units were overpriced, until I got my hands on some and found out how well they were made. They are designed for sound production, not home use.

Since the Bose 901 is mentioned, I do have an older type active eq box.

About five years ago I did a set of curves to see what it does.

Here are the basics:

With "Below 40 sw @ "dot" -normal position: A bass peak of 16db @ 34hz With switch at "Decrease" the boost is cut by 9db @ 34hz but only down by 4 db @50hz and down by only 1/2 db @ 100hz. A lot of inverse feedback here.

With "Treble Level" sw @ "dot" position and "Treble Contour" at "dot" : A boost of 10db @ 16khz and rising above.

From this you can see what Bose was doing. Since the speakers they chose were 4-1/2 inches they really aren't ideal for either woofer or tweeter use. So we have a classic example of the trade-off in trying to use small drivers for full range applications.

These speakers were introduced right at the time (1968 IIRC) when high-power complimentary transistor circuits were becoming available. Those early amps were not that great sounding and were a bitch with emitter flameouts but were essential due to the huge power demands those boosts would require. Just three years earlier these would not have been popular as 25-30 watts was considered "high power" in consumer audio.

As far as the curves from this little box go, you can easily replicate these accurately enough with an 1/8th octave graphic. Even a three-pole R-C filter (18db) would do but you will need to offset the insertion loss. I do recommend a subsonic filter be used.


Rob

So Rob, what you're saying is...
Even though 9 speakers, totaling 143 inches in cone area, could not produce the bass intensity of a 12 inch woofer with 113 inches of cone area?
Even though 9 individual voice coils pumping those small cones cannot collectively drive out the sound levels?

Further, stating that smaller cones that would usually be more efficient for producing high-frequencies - and still need "help" to boost output?

Something sounds wrong there. - the Bose design sounds utterly lacking in something - needing so much tweaking.
Me thinks it's the result of phase relationship problems among the drivers themselves - some internal cancellation effects I suppose, due to the odd-shaped enclosure.

I've heard the 901's, they do sound nice, kinda, nothing utterly outstanding about them to me.
And my opinion of course is they're more eye-appeal than anything.

MattTech wrote:So Rob, what you're saying is...
Even though 9 speakers, totaling 143 inches in cone area, could not produce the bass intensity of a 12 inch woofer with 113 inches of cone area?
Even though 9 individual voice coils pumping those small cones cannot collectively drive out the sound levels?

Further, stating that smaller cones that would usually be more efficient for producing high-frequencies - and still need "help" to boost output?

Something sounds wrong there. - the Bose design sounds utterly lacking in something - needing so much tweaking.

Remember that bass response is based, in-part on cone excursion as well as area.

I don't have much dealings with 901 -etc, however a location owner brought in a system of two 901s, a Crown basic power amp and CD player for Irish music on St Patrick's day in 1990. There was no eq. box and it sounded a lot like those old Universal or Atlas P.A. columns -essentially flat w/little at the ends of response.

It didn't really matter, as soon as the crowd descended on the place (right near the Parade finish area) they demanded the jukebox be turned on.

Rob