Not to flog a dead horse, but Jim B's claim that audiophiles don't like 901 because high end salons can't get them to sell is unconvincing -- Bose's own stores are a relatively new thing, and 901 were sold in all sorts of stores for years before that. While they sold a ton of speakers in all these stores, I suspect that Bose went to selling in its own stores because they weren't getting the volume of sales they wanted, perhaps because not everyone likes the sound of 901s, and given a choice, they didn't all go for the Bose -- what's the point of spending all that money on advertising if customers are going to actually trust their own ears?
I think audiophiles often shoot themselves in their own feet by slagging Bose so assiduously. Certainly they are not the greatest speakers anyone has ever heard, and they cost way more than they should, given the cost of the parts (like such a thing never happens elsewhere in the high end!), and Bose sues when they get a bad review. But they are not terrible speakers, and some are pretty good. And if you want a huge soundstage regardless of whether the imaging is bloated etc, 901s are about as good as it gets in the regular consumer market. And this is a major issue -- regardless of whether 901s are truly high end, or even contenders to the high end, they are probably the only speaker claiming to be high end that most consumers will ever hear.
And, especially at first hearing, 901s sound pretty impressive if you don't have any standard of comparison. Most people haven't heard a speaker that attempts to be full range powered by a muscular amp, so when they hear one, they are impressed. So when we all dump on it, and them, its not likely that their first move is going to be going to an audio salon to be dumped on again (which is generally what happens to a regular person at a high end store). More likely is that they will think that we are either closeminded, or simply idiots. Neither are likely to motivate them to go out and listen to other similarly priced products, especially since good audio stores are so hard to find, and ones with uniformly knowledgeable tactful and nonrapacious staff are even rarer.
Much the same thing, of course, comes into play with the Technics 1200, a very nice table (and reliable!) that to my ears, at least, almost defines the upper limit of very good, but doesn't make it into the excellent category -- what opportunity do most people have to hear anything better?
Its odd that the last defence, but also always the best defence against crappy audio really is the absolute sound -- never mind that the magazine with that name turned audio into a vicious version of high school -- either you were popular or you were worthless -- HP was correct that the real test of any stereo was whether it sounded like real unamplified voices and instruments. None really do, and in the era of home theater, maybe no one cares, but the best argument against the supremacy of 901s is that they simply don't sound like real life size people singing and playing guitars.
