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Overview » The Challenge » The Solution » Applied Learning 
Developing a loudspeaker to recreate the way music sounds and behaves in a concert hall posed numerous challenges to Bose engineers.
"It seems so simple and obvious today," recalls John Wawrzonek, an engineer during the project, "but doing what's never done before is the biggest obstacle."
While testing the original 2201 speakers, Bose engineers first began to understand why the ratio of reflected to direct sound is so important to live music. Their experiments revealed it was the spatial characteristics of the concert hall that gave music its live quality. To get the same effect from a loudspeaker, they'd have to emulate those characteristics.
Thorough experimentation ensued, and in 1967 a pair of pentagon-shaped enclosures, each with nine drivers, emerged from the lab. But it was their unusual configuration —eight drivers pointing to the rear and only one to the front — that was the breakthrough.
The team had learned that a desired ratio of reflected to direct sound was about eight or nine to one. Because the majority of its drivers faced the rear to reflect sound off the walls, this unconventional speaker system delivered sound similar to that of a live performance. Years of research was finally realised with the launch of the 901® DIRECT/REFLECTING® speaker.
How we've continued to apply the learning » | 
In a concert hall, the majority of sound is reflected off the walls, floor and ceiling before reaching your ears.
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Technology in DIRECT/REFLECTING® Speakers
DIRECT/REFLECTING® speakers from Bose immerse you with a combination of reflected and direct sound.
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901® DIRECT/REFLECTING® Speakers
Quite simply, the finest speaker Bose produces. Only live sounds better.
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"In the early days we were bringing loudspeaker technology forward. It was different than anyone else's, and we were creating better music for people in their homes as a result." |
| - Bols L., marketing manager |
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| The Science of Sound |
 Learn how a U.S. patented BOSE® audio technology delivers room-filling sound to our space-saving waveguide products. |
| Waveguide technology |
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