Bose 901's with "highend ancillaries"??

I don't think audiophiles ever considered 901's a high end speaker. J.Gordon Holt trashed them in his Stereophile review when they were introduced. I saw/heard them in two stores in the Santa Clara Valley in 1971---in the "best" room at Pacific Stereo (N. California's leading Hi-Fi chain in the late 60's/70's) in Mountain View, where you could compare them with the AR-3a and JBL L100 (which I did), and in an early true high-end shop, Sound Systems in Palo Alto, where I heard them against speakers from some new company named Infinity (which I also did).

In both stores the 901's sounded just as Gordon described them---a big amorphous blob of sound. Terrible, just terrible. The AR-3a was a pretty withdrawn, distant sounding speaker, yet considerably better than the Bose. The JBL L100 was the opposite of the AR, being very forward and brash. Still, not as bad sounding as the 901. At Sound Systems, even the $139 Infinity 1001 (the lowest priced model in Infinity's 1971 line up) was a far better speaker than the Bose. And Infinity's 2000A (at $299 each, close to the $500/pr Bose) absolutely mopped the floor with the Bose. Then there was the Infinity Servo-Static, at $2000 (which would also buy a brand new family sedan) not a fair comparison. But it did show me how good a speaker could sound. Being a young starving musician, I bought the 1001's, for about half the price of the 901's.

I'm not the first to say that the basic premise of the 901 is fatally flawed. Bose determined that the sound reaching the audiences ears in a concert hall was 11% direct from the stage and 89% after reflecting off the walls, floor, and ceiling of the hall. So the 901 imitates that ratio with one forward facing driver and eight rear firing. Yeah, but a recording of a performance in a concert hall already contains the direct and reflected sound reaching the recording microphones, from different directions and at different times. It's more than a little simplistic to think you can simulate the 11%/89% concert hall direct/reflected ratio through two speakers playing recordings made in the type of room you're trying to simulate. You're actually doubling the direct/reflected effect with the 901, you see? You would need to make a recording in an anechoic chamber, one mic for the direct sound and multiples for the reflected. Then play the recordings on a system that mirror images the recording mics---one speaker facing the listener and eight firing from the sides, back, and ceiling.

And what about a recording made in a studio? Here, the direct/reflected premise is more than meaningless, it's completely wrong! Is it any wonder that the 901 does not, in fact can not,image?

Then there is the matter of trying to reproduce bass through 4-1/2" drivers! Not to mention high frequencies!! Nope, sorry---can not be done. One listen to a 901 will confirm that.