1973, 18 year old Marine stationed on Okinawa. I had disposable income and determined to bring home a Kick Ass Stereo because components were cheap being in Japan and in the military. Back then, speaker sound was correlated with speaker size; bigger was better, so I went in looking for BIG speakers. Listened to a bunch and then I was pointed toward some speakers that just got in the store. They were "small" [and heavy] but MAN could they push some sound!!! I was in love and bought them immediately: Bose 901 [before there was a "series"]. I paired them with a Sansui receiver, Akai cassette player, and Gerrard Zero One-Hundred turntable. NOW I was playing with the stereo big boys :)
1974, small college fraternity bedroom with my stereo gear set-up. I was the crazy ex-Marine and KING of sound in my frat! I LOVED my Bose's and so did everyone else [what else could they say :)] !! I will say, one of my frat brothers bought some ESS Heil's and I did like them a lot [maybe better than my speakers, but I kept that to myself]. Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon, turned up to 25 at 1AM was awesome. Surprised not a lot of people complained.
2022, my Bose are hanging from my great room ceiling as one part of a 9.2 home theater system. This is probably their best use :)