Bose 901

At $1,400 MSRP the 901s represent an excellent choice for any number of non-audiophile music lovers. If all you want is a speaker that fills the room with sound, is not terribly large, isn't demanding about setup, has good apparent bass and isn't insanely expensive, then the 901 fits the bill. Is it as good a speaker as comparable priced NHT, Paradigm or Energy products? No, but any of those speakers would start you down the path towards system matching, finding the best cable(s) and dealing with speaker/room interactions. That's great if that's what you want to do, but if all you really want is to sit down and listen to music, then the Bose 901 is an honest and viable product.

Another advantage of Bose speakers is that if anything breaks, now or even in the distant future, Bose will still be in business to deal with your problem. Only a small handful of audiophile oriented companies can say that (and Dalhquist ain't one of them).

Subscribe to the Audiogon Bluebook. At the prices that they are going for you might try them I ran a pair that were given to me for some years until I embraced this hobby. While I was still using them my first tweak was to upgrade interconnects and speaker cables. By the standards I then had, they did improve quite a bit.

They could even be a deal at $500.00, equalizer included.

Bought a pair in the early 80s when I was stationed overseas. 901s were THE speaker to own for military overseas. I enjoyed many hours of listening with them. And when the foam rotted Bose replaced the speakers with latest version for nominal fee. I sold the replacements without listening to them and bought a pair of Paradigms. The first thing I noticed was that certain cds (poorly engineered one) sounded terrible where as with the 901s they sounded fine.
I don't miss them but I've learned that finding equipment that doesn't make listening to many of my favorite cds a painful experience is what I'm after.

I remember this phenomenon during the 70's myself as that was when I started down the road with my first high end system of decent separates....A friend of mine heard my system and he was bound and determined that he would have one too....so he went out and bought a big Radio Shack receiver and Bose 901's...Then he invited me down for a listen and cranked up a Heart album....since we were both dairy farmers my only response to that wall of sound was Holy Cow...After that session I understood why I could never own a pair of 901's unless I went from the Dairy business to the Bar business...

They can rock the house but arn't considered high end.