Unfortunately, I live nowhere close to Kansas City. I wish I could hear your speakers.
This aside, I do know Bose very well. I knew 3 guys that had 501s. It's a wonderful speaker in many ways. It's my observation that you are right...it takes a little work and effort to maximize the sound from the Bose 501.
To me, even though Bose is typically a very well balanced speaker, it can not compete on any level with the JBL L-100T, JBL L-100, Cerwin Vega U-321, Ohm C-3, Klipsch Forte or a host of other speakers when you are playing heavier rock music with heavy bass transcients. They (Bose) are not optimized for this type of music. Check out this link from Bose's Marketing Department...no heavy rock music heard here:
James Taylor's You Got a Friend sounds amazing on Bose! Rage Against the Machine's Testify doesn't sound so great on Bose. To produce big sound (bass), you need big cabinets. It's the physics that you can't escape. Bose typically have relatively small cabinets. Those cabinets produce OK treble and wonderful midrange and barely OK bass. To get a Bose based system going, you need to run an EQ or add a sub-woofer, or best, add both! With the add-ons, Bose becomes competitive with rock tracks.
With Marine0811's recommendation of JBL L-100T, you get a rock speaker with huge sound immediately out of box. Placement doesn't matter. No EQ necessary. No Sub-Woofer necessary unless you want to shatter any nearby glass faster!!!
So maybe we need to define rock a little better:
1) Soft Rock - Fleetwood Mac, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Billy Joel, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Eddie Money, Eric Clapton, Hall & Oats, Jackson Brown, Moody Blues, Pat Benatar, Pink Floyd and etc.
2) Heavier Rock - AC/DC, Aerosmith, Allman Brothers, Average White Band, Bad Company, Black Sabbath, David Bowie, Foreigner, Grand Funk Railroad, Heart, Helmet, Jimi Hendrix, Judas Priest, Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynyrd and etc.
In my opinion, I think Bose is better suited for list number "1)", than list number "2)". Again...it's just my opinion.
Back when I was in college, I worked part-time at a stereo shop called "Tech-HiFi". Back then I watched very carefully how people selected speakers. It was fascinating watching people do it because everyone hears music differently. There is no right or wrong to any of this.
I have given my opinion above based on what I hear. My opinion is only correct for me...and maybe a few others. If you have found magic in the Bose 501, that's awesome! You aren't alone, others like them too. I feel that you are very fortunate because I think most people are still searching for the sound that will please them best.
So, I meant not disrespect toward Bose. My only point was, generally speaking, different speakers do different things well.