You hated the Bose 901, I thought it was a fabulous sounding device; absolutely astonishing! It had no problems to my ears.
Once heard, never forgotten. It was one of those "moments" hearing them for the first time, when as the great H von K used to say "all else" suddenly became gaslight and nothing would be the same again. And do you know, it never was....until.... I decided, to turn the Metronome design into an omni because I couldn't get a folded pyramid, quarter wave cabinet to work out on a paper drawing.
That happy decision resulted in a Bose 901 type of presentation that hit me straight away. Even with a lashed up cardboard up-firer, I KNEW this was it...that was the sound! Although, with the cardboard speaker it was coloured to hell, when I listened past the colouration, there it was!
When Richard Dunn got wind of what I was up to, he was, because of his long experience with Allison type semi-omnis, vis-a-vis the NVA Cube series, well placed to be able to help out, giving advice freely, or trying to, in between the heavy bursts of noise and increasingly raucous and desperate bullshit from several people who, fortunately no longer post on this board.
So I'm sitting here listening to the album, "We Get Requests" from The Oscar Peterson Trio" and "Have You Met Miss Jones" is playing. I'm sitting in my usual listening seat, which is off to the side and outside the field of the left hand speaker. Hell, I'm not even facing the speakers. I'm at 90 degrees to them, not even a bloody hi-fi position
And yet, we have the trio in the room, playing softly and there am I, as if I am sitting at a table, front left of the stage, having dinner with my favourite woman, who is sitting opposite.
There is Oscar, centre stage, Ed Thigpen on drums, behind and to the left of the piano, nearest to us.
Bassist Ray Brown is on the right and furthest away from our table.
It is quite an immersive experience, every buzz of string on fretboard, stutter of brush against snare skin, every utterance of Peterson as he quietly accompanies himself at the piano, quite clearly audible on this wonderful recording.
Such is the illusion, but it isn't hi-fi or is it? Maybe it's not conventional stereo, but then again, does it have to be stereo to be hi-fi? Now
there's an interesting idea to unpack.
I sit where I like and the sound remains the same, I can leave the room to make a cup of tea, and the sound doesn't change apart from being a bit softer, but the illusion of a band playing in the next room is absolute; incredibly enjoyable and thoroughly addictive. It's the sound that was trapped in my head, released and unleashed.
Another interesting possible conversation to be had might be:
What is is the hi-fi illusion we should aim for - "you are there" or "
they are here?"
Sgt. Baker started talkin’ with a Bullhorn in his hand.