Bose 901

The most hilarious experience ever in my shop when I tried them.  We laughed so hard I still remember it.

Successful?  Sure, at marketing and taking out really "cool" ads.  These were the days of Hugh Hefner's TV show where pipes, smoking jackets, jazz on the stereo, and scantily-clad ladies discussing Heidegger and the politics of sex were successful, too.

It was a period in time where the company, which continues its ways, presented itself as based on total science--I think they had guys in white coats in some of their print ads--to cover the ridiculous products they tried to sell.

Never has there been a worse-sounding speaker MASQUERADING as a great scientific achievement.  Well, I take that back.  Some of today's charlatans charge infinitely more for their hoo-doo, and they get it just like bose did back then. 

Evidently, some of their stuff is once again popular for some reason.  I would not waste any of my time seeking to hear anything they made back then or today. 

But hey, have at it if you wish.  The world is a big place full of many people.

Cheers--and still laughing!

@ jdmccall56  Now, my post was not vitriolic.  If you will re-read it, I point out that we are STILL laughing.  They were a riot!

Someone posted a query as to what we might have heard that was better.  Well, let's start with anything Magnepan made or makes for the best and then go down to pretty much any box speaker--maybe leave Cerwin-Vega out, but really, Radio Shack's old Minimus 7's are spectacular in comparison.

No vitriol, just laughing at the success of marketing and incessant blather over reality. Kind of reminds me of today's politics, but we won't go there, OK?

Cheers!

@mrdecibel Sorry, not sure what you mean by "plugging speakers into an electrical outlet." Possibly you could provide more explanation with that. I am not good at guessing what that means.

Minimus 7 was kind of a joke, but pretty much any hand-held transistor radio from 1960 sounds better than anything bose makes today or ever made, IMO.

Sorry if you disagree, but that is what makes the world work and what brought customers to my shop back then.

Cheers!

@ishkabibil  So glad you never came into my shop.  I guess we did not have a punched "AUDIOPHILE" card or whatever YOU think is RIGHT.

Probably be one of the customers I "fired" each year at xmas.

Pain in the rear, and no, it did not matter HOW MUCH MONEY you had or what you bought.  You were let go from the shop and given a contact at something like Sound Advice or some other pop retailer in our area.

Enjoy the music!

Cheers!

Presented without comment:

The audio equipment retailer Bose said in January that it planned to close 119 stores globally, including all its stores in the US.