Here's my two cents on them...used to work at an audio retailer that sold them. Bose travelling reps encourage you to set up demos so people can here the difference between different bose systems (i.e. the single acoustimass cubes vs doubles, or 301's vs 201's). However, have you ever noticed how Bose are rarely setup in a manner that facilitates performing a-b comparisons with other brands? There's a very good reason for it, but, in the interest of not starting a flame war, I won't say what it is. I had befriended one of the Bose travelling reps that worked with the salesmen at various retailers in my area, and after he quit the company and took a job with a different company, he confided in my that Bose did infact encourage that type of setup, and that many Bose employees don't think that highly of the product themselves. He told me that he could get speakers at considerably less than 50% MSRP, yet he had paid full price for a competing brand in a similar price range as the Bose 901's.
Another bit of food for thought...Bose's flagship speakers, the 901's, haven't hardly changed in design (other than some cosmetic changes to the cabinetry) in I don't know how long, at least 20 years. I can't think of any other industry where one of the more well-known brands can get away without improving their product over 20 years without being left in the dust by the competition. Speakers are no exception. The 901's consist of 9 full range drivers (no tweeters, no woofers). It's been proven that small drivers don't perform bass as well as larger ones, and larger ones don't perform treble as well as smaller. One size of driver can't cover the entire frequency range. Bose is the only brand I know of that tries to cover the whole frequency range with one single sized driver in its flagship product. Also, you have to use their equalizer with their 901's to even get them to perform as intended, and unless you have a bi-amped setup that requires equalization to filter out the extreme freq's for the various channels, an EQ usually isn't recommended (by many audiophiles/purists, that is).
I have tried very hard to give my opinion without flaming the brand name. This is one of the very, very few times, maybe the only time, where I find it near impossible to do so, especially considering that I've sold them, and interfaced with the company, and witnessed sales tactics I didn't think were completely ethical, from their blatant, blatant price fixing to their discouragement of having their speakers set up so that they're easy to demo against other brands. Even if I disregard the quality of their products (or lack thereof), I would still have a strong disdain for the company and their business practices. My boss used to get on my case all of the time about my selling technique, because I would always try to sell the customer a better, even if cheaper, speaker, rather than go for the easy quick sell, as Bose are well marketed and known. Many salespersons like bose insofar as they're perhaps the easiest sale out there, they're in many people's price range, and they come in thinking they're among the best, and they don't listen objectively. So if you tell them what they want to here (and consider prices are fixed, so you don't have to worry about them finding a better deal in town), you can make the quick sale and move on to the next customer. I never could do that though.