Rrog, really nice, and thoughtful, post. Mikey's blog had a bit of a shock jock quality to it, not that mine was any more demure.
It has, however, been a long time since the 901 filled the coffers at the Bose Corp. They were an engineering company then and it seems they are more a marketing company now. That role has been assumed by lifestyle components such as the Wave radio and various compact home theatre systems the worth of which may be, arguably, quite a bit less, in sonic terms, than the 901s.