Bose 901

Most audiophiles are not familiar with the original Bose 901s. Every subsequent version of the 901 has been a step down. And other Bose speakers are, from the audiophile viewpoint, inferior from the get-go. (The tiny cubes do have some merit for inconspicuous background music). This is why Bose is the whipping boy of Audiogon.

In the right room, with something like a rough brick wall to bounce the sound off, and a very powerful amplifier to cope with the drastic low end boost, and the right kind of large soundstage music, they can sound great. But these are too many restrictions. Besides, the original version is long gone...only the shape remains.
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Dazzdax...The 901 did have one of its drivers facing the listener, and the imaging was not as bad as you might suspect. The earlier time of arrival of sound from the front speaker probably made it dominant with regard to imaging.

Stevecham...Not true. Closely spaced drivers behave like one big driver except at very close range. The best example is the line array configuration, which may include a dozen drivers.