Amar Bose set out to make a speaker that reproduced the sound of an orchestra playing in a concert hall where the majority of the sound reaching the listener is reflected. When you hear acoustic music being played in a hall the pinpoint imaging many audiophiles get all goose bumpy over is nonexistent. I have only listened to them in loud rock and roll settings where they did ok but weren't amazing. I have a friend who is a concertgoer who maintains that a properly setup pair of 901's does indeed do a better job of simulating a concert hall than any other two channel experience. Surround recordings played on a multichannel system are superior, in creating the reverberant field, than any two channel system can come close to, thereby making the whole "direct/reflecting" thing irrelevant today. Dr. Bose has a Ph.D in electrical engineering,. He's not an idiot. I am not a huge fan of their tiny little home systems but have owned three cars with Bose engineered systems in them and they all sounded way better than the modest option price would suggest.
Bose 901