Bose 901

My first bad experience with stereo equipment came with an early pair of 901s when I was about 9-10 years old. My dad brought home a pair from his bar along with a new Sansui receiver. The 901s needed to have a special pre-amp or post amp? I can't remember, but it needed some other box to work right with most amps. I hooked them up straight from the speaker outs of the receiver and promptly fried it. After that we hooked it up with the proper additional box and ran it with a Fisher tube receiver. I remember thinking that it filled up the room with alot of sound but after about a month we went back to his old KLH Model 6 speakers that sounded more natural to my young ears.
They might be cool if you were trying to make a retro '80s room for historical purposes :) but like Hack said only if they were cheap.

I started this thread after reading a review about the 901's from an audiophile. He was very enthousiastic about the speakers, although he also has heard many other high end speakers from very respected manufacturers. He said nothing compares to the sound and musicality of stacked 901's, despite the age and oddness of the design etc., etc. (And he was not blowing weed at that moment).
It reminds me somehow of audiophiles who are saying that they've never heard better sound than that coming from stacked Quad 57's.

Only when a Yugo beats a Porsche in the 1/4 mile!

Dazzdax - I think your friend would be more accurately defined as a Boseaphile.

I have had direct experience with many Bose products, including two versions of the 901s and can confidently say that none of them were even close to my cuppa tea. The 901s were the only ones that were even remotely interesting, and that was because they can be quite serviceable for PA work. This is because they are relatively small, work optimally in high corner placement, and can be driven to insane SPLs with enough power. That being said, Klipsch La Scalas, frequently used for PA work back in the day, absolutely roach them.