BOSE 802 speakers : eBay Guides

There is a huge amount of snobbery surrounding and nonsense spoken / written about BOSE products in general and particularly the 802 range of speakers.

Many of the drivers fitted to the BOSE range of speakers LOOK similar: 901, 802, 502, 402 and 101 but they ALL have different impedances ranging from 0.9 ohms to 8 ohms. This is simply good business practice to standardise the components that make up these drivers. All the voice coils have different impedances though - this is very important.

802 drivers are 1 ohm impedance - NO other Bose drivers are 1 ohm impedance.

Many Ebayers advertise items as 802 / 502 / 402 drivers. THERE IS NO SUCH THING.

Never mix impedances in a cabinet as some drivers will dissipate more power than others which will always lead to early failure of these drivers.

Imagine if you bought eight 8 ohm drivers to re-furbish your 802 cabinet! You would end up with a 64 ohm cabinet!!!! If you run your 802 cab from a 200W into 8 ohm amplifier, the amplifier would only deliver 25 WATTS into a 64 ohm cabinet before running into clipping. Clipping can be about the most damaging condition speakers will experience.

All 8 drivers in an 802 cabinet are wired in series despite what you might read in Ebay listings. A single blown driver might not stop the sound completely but that is because some signal can reach some of the drivers via the frequency / dispersion networks.

You will NOT blow up your 802 cabinet by running without the "dedicated" controller. The controller BOOSTS nearly all of the frequency range to make the speaker sound OK. The only frequecies that are cut are in the 20Hz and 30Hz ranges which are generally cut by any decent modern amplifier anyway. If anything, using the controller actually drives the speaker harder. Some frequencies are boosted by a massive 17dB.

Many sound "experts" look down their noses at graphic equalisers being used in a system but think nothing of using BOSE speakers and "controllers" - a BOSE controller is no more than a non-adjustable graphic equaliser.

The 802 is a decent cabinet - compact, lightweight, fairly rugged and sounds OK - but do not get carried away with the notion that it delivers the very best in high quality sound. Accept it for what it is.