Speakers: all-time worst

I agree with several of the respondents. I had a Bose 901 about 14 years ago and the sound was RUBBISH. Unfortunately I fell prey to the MIT hype, and should have known better. At least the experience thought me what NOT to listen for and subsequently I bought a Spendor LS35a, B&W CDM1, and a Contour 3.3 by Dynaudio.

While Bose must take the cake for making uniformly bad speakers for a long time, my nominee is the Wilson Grand Slamm. At an audition lovingly set up by a dealer, I was mainly impressed by the "bleeding ears treble" nature of the speakers. Sounded a bit like a pair of JBL studio monitors, but without the stigma of low cost. If you really want to spend $60K+ on stereo, build a well-designed room and put good-soounding speakers in it!

You Guys are cracking me up!!! I'm laughing my head off reading the comments! This is better than a good book and I do agree about the bose speakers. Bose, as the saying goes "All Highs and no lows-come to think about it, what highs!!?? Joe Lienhard

When I was in college, a twice annual lampoon of the student newspaper was eagerly anticipated by all. Mind you, this is the university where Dr. Bose taught, and still teaches. Well, in one memorable lampoon issue, there was and advert for "Blose" speakers (very easy to alter the logo, even well before the days of Photoshop). Like the Bose adverts of the day, the text was a mish-mash of pseudo-scientific babble about acoustics. In particular there was a description of the "revolutionary" port system in the speakers which required less air than the output drivers. Or to quote, "This research breakthrough has resulted in a remarkable speaker: one that blows more than it sucks". Enough said.

Cardinal, are you saying that Bose is "blow" the quality standards of those seeking music? I certainly agree! (Great story, thanks!)