"No highs, no lows, must be BOSE", I think I've lost track of how many times I've seen that statement bandied about. Yes, I am aware that this specific speaker system requires frequency compensation to achieve a full range of sound. No, I haven't experienced this full range wonder first hand, but have a fair idea of what it sounds like.


See, I've experienced the rich, almost tangible ambience that a well amplified live act can deliver to a well balanced room. In my (again, as yet inexperienced) mind, the hubbub surrounding the BOSE debate is that the BOSE sound embraces live experience (not to be confused with reality). They purportedly sound big and full, and looking at the undressed baffle, I can bridge the disparity between a full stack of eight 12 inch guitar speakers across a hall and these eight 4 inch drivers right in front of my face pretty easily.

Besides, I'm absolutely not interested in using these as say, studio monitors; rather, I'd like to deploy these epic characteristics that some people defend with such gusto as a recording stack for guitar, etc. No harm in investigating the phenomenon.


However, in doing some preliminary research I've come across two widely agreed upon points.
1) Evidently BOSE doesn't believe in publishing curves or specs on their wares.
2) These seem to be geared toward high power applications, hinting at horrible efficiency.
The low efficiency angle may render my original idea of making a nice compact stack with the Princeton on top into mulch.

After thinking on it for a bit, I've decided the efficiency thing is not a dream killer, as I can simply deploy a higher power tube amp to drive these at lower recording friendly volumes.


Of course, I'm bound to discover some obstacle to my quest for determining if these things can sound useful at all. I observed a few drivers were resting loose in the case, so naturally I take a peek inside. That's about as shifted as a magnet can get.


These two parts are in love. I didn't exert a lot of brute force in trying to free these, as magnets are jumpy and I'd just as soon retain the voice coil that appears to have escaped unscathed. I'm guessing these were dropped, the basket to magnet joint failed - dropping the magnet, and whoever discovered this on inspection placed the magnet as seen to prevent further damage. In the meantime, remaining adhesive qualities of the cement have frozen the moment in time.

So my plan of just plugging one in and seeing how it sounds has been replaced with tearing one apart, making sure all the drivers are intact and operational (hopefully failure has been isolated to one cabinet), and doing what I can for the other one in time. Fortunately I have drivers awaiting refoam that will drop in, as I'm not tooled up for the precision alignment to reglue the basket to the magnet.