Bose 901's with "highend ancillaries"??


I STILL see Bose 901's are available here and maybe new after umpteen years in existence and yet I have still never hear a pair (unless you count the occasional high school concert which used the professional version).

Has anyone ever used these with "highend" gear, and if so what was the result??

Just curious if there is actually something good about the speaker other than the marketing the Bose Corporation has done over the years as they have never been inexpensive and even now hold their value pretty well.

And while I ma sure one can do better for the $$$ etc etc I am only looking for comments on how they actually SOUND - strengths and weaknesses
jrinkerptdnet
I bought a pair back in the early 80s when I was stationed overseas. "Party" speaker is an excellent descriptor for the 901s. You can really go loud with them.
The amp was a Sansui B2101 with a Kenwood preamp and of course the source was all vinyl. At the time I enjoyed the heck out of those speakers. Very easy to listen to if you had space to set them up.
Years later the surrounds rotted so Bose sent me a new pair for not much money and my old speakers as trade in. I sold the new 901s without ever hooking them up and bought a pair of Paradigm large floorstand speakers. I have to say the Paradigms sounded much better. That is until my son blew the woofers on them. He wouldn't have been able to do that with the Bose.
The first question my non- audiophile friends ask is "Do you have Bose speakers?" My answer is always no and they just can't understand why. I must say I had a Bose system in a Corvette that I had a few years ago and it sounded like poo poo! Every one has a different taste in speakers so Bose must be doing something right!
I've heard them as the pro 801's a few times and they do "OK".. I always thought if you could use it as a mid component, cross over to a bass bin at 180 or so, and crossover to a tweeter like the JBL glass job at 6500, you might have a decent pa speaker.
BTW the Bose bass pro unit sort of sucks very boomy and does nothing below 50.
Bose 901s were my first speaker purchase back in 1973. Thought they were pretty good and enjoyed them for many years. I kept these until 1996 which by then were stored away making room for higher end speakers as my system evolved. Since I was not using them I sold them. My current systems have speakers from MBL, Ascendo and Kharma but one day got the bug to find another pair of 901s just to mess around with. You have to go with either the series 1 or 2 as the surrounds are cloth and don't fall apart. Found a decent pair of series 1s and match them some vintage McIntosh electronics and once again enjoyed their sound. Are they as good as my other speakers. Of course not. But they are still very enjoyable to listen to and at only $120 quite a bargain. I had our audio group listen to them when we did a shoot out between JbL Lancer 66s, RTR 240 towers and bose 901s and they tied with the RTR for the best sound and everyone was amazed on hiw good they sounded. Yes they get a bad wrap, they are not nearly as bad as people say, match them vintage electronics and good stands, I use 4 pilar Sylan and Place them somewhat properly and enjoy the sound.