I had a pair of Bose 4.2 once when I was a kid and liked them then but I had yet to hear a real high end speaker until a year or so later. They were ok for the mass market of people out there that just want descent sound without worrying about sweet spots or how much power they need and can just set them up and go. I am not a Bose fan by any means but they do have a market which is people that don't want to shop very long for audio and want good sound without the time to look around at what else it out there. And by the way the 4.2's were the some as the 301's