Picked up a pair of t1000,s off craigslist for $150 and immediately had all the surrounds replaced. The cabinets and grills are in excellent condition Light oak. Hooked them up to a kenwood ka-8100 amp, a pioneer TX-8500ii tuner and a sony cdp-ce375 CD player and also have a M&K MX-70 sub with them. Sound very well doing most everything. Don't expect deep base but very tight everything else. Acoustic is my favorite on them.
Have these in my living room and look vintage beautiful. For reference comparison I also have a pair of DQ10's , polk RTA 15TL's and a pair of Infinity Composition Preludes in different systems in my home and absolutely don't feel that the Boston's are out of place or are lacking.

Excellent build quailty. Nice solid heavy speaker. Inputs on bottom of speaker so you can hide the wires and walk around the speaker.

Foam is deterioriated, but if good it would not have cost seven bucks!

Ok, I don't know if anyone will read this, but I just bought these speakers a couple days ago from a thrift store for seven whole dollars. All four 8 inch drivers have deterioriated foam, but the tweeter and midrange on both look great. The grills are intact, and the housng I would rate 8 out of 10. I plan to buy replacement foam off of ebay to fix them. That is if they still play at a low volume.

Customer Service

At the thrift store they carried the speakers to my car on a dolly.

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Klipsch Legacy Rear surrounds speakers, mid line Klipsch center, low line Klipsch bookshelf. 10 inch KLH Subwoofer, Infinity Satellite System. AR 70 Watt powered Speakers.

They are very well balanced and reproduce the whole spectrum.

Slightly weak in the lowest bass (nothing a tone control can't fix)

I have had T1000's since the mid-80s, and I have used them with a Hafler preamp and power amp the whole time. They have seen many sources come and go, but they continue to satisfy. I will be quite sad when they finally die because they have served me well in many living situations and rooms, playing rock, jazz, fusion, country, and movies. Loud, soft... it's all there. There are speakers with better low bass.

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JBL L86

Good tonal balance, reasonably smooth highs, easy to live with

Not as transparent as some newer speakers

Faced with the choice in 1987 of choosing between a number of full range speakers, which, at the time, came down to the Boston T1000, the Mission 780 (I believe), the Vandersteen 2, and the B&W Matrix 3, I settled on the Bostons. Admittedly, I couldn't really afford the B&W's, and the Vandersteens were equally out of my price range, so the choice was a simple one.

Since that time, I've never been disappointed with the speakers. Driven first with a NAD 55wpc reciever, and next with a Carver C-1, M1.0t combination, the Bostons have performed reliably, and have looked good doing so for a number of years. There's a lot to be said for real walnut wood veneer over black plastic 'wood-grain' vinyl covering. Even in a 'well-decorated' abode, these Bostons won't look out of place.

Getting to specifics rather than history, the best overall aspect of these speakers is that they have the right tonal balance and smoothness to make listening to just about any kind of music enjoyable. Hence, as another reviewer said below, they're easy to live with. They don't have any significant faults that interfere with the enjoyment of most sources (CD or turntable). If I'm getting picky, I'd say that they don't have quite the level of transparent and transient detail of some newer speakers, and that's ultimately why I'll eventually replace them. Also, the bass could be a bit 'tighter', but that's a minor quibble.

While I'm looking forward to replacing my amplification (for my Rega Planar 3 and my CAL DX2), I'll meet the replacement of my speakers with ambivalence. Although I know I'll likely be getting a more detailed and transparent speaker in something like a Linn Ninka, I'll also be losing what feels to be like a good friend. Decent equipment should be like that.

I've had these speakers for about ten years now. I remember the saleseman summing up BA speakers as being "very easy to live with". I compared them to several Snell models and Vandersteen 2Ci's, and thought the large Bostons were a better bang for the buck. In hindsight, I have to agree with that salesman. Everything sounds at least good on them. My wife and I listen to almost any type of music, and I never have to adjust the tone controls (on my Adcom GTP 500 preamp) to get a balanced sound. I believe their best strength is in reproducing female vocals and acoustic guitars.
Several years ago (2 years outside of warranty) one speaker suffered water damage (these things USED TO make great plant stands). The wood separated badly on one of the top corners, so I called BA expecting a $300+ repair. But they agreed to fix it at NO cost. They even paid return shipping. I also own a pair of A40's and have BA speakers in my current and last car. I love their sound.

I realize I'm posting a review on a discontinued product, but maybe someone has access to a used pair and is looking for an opinion. Buy them.

I owned these speakers from 1987 to 1998, and played them probably 12 hours a day. They were always excellent with all kinds of music. A very satisfying full-range speaker. In light oak real wood veneer, I also thought they were great to look at. I ended up giving them to my Dad when I bought a 5-channel system with small speakers. I still think the T-1000s are equal to many speakers even today, and I think a used pair in good condition is worth about $400 - $500.

Natural timbre and pretty decent soundstaging. Beautiful matched walnut cabinets.

Deep bass from two 8-inch drivers, but some cabinet resonance (due to build quality) colors it.

I've lived with these loudspeakers for a good ten(!) years and they have made it hard for me to pony up the cash for an upgrade. Though I will likely go for a pair of Paradigm Studio 80-mk IIs later this year, I have to say that Boston really offered the best value at the time when I bought this pair for about $1050. I remember the enthusiastic review that Audio gave them, as it prompted me to go check them out myself.It appears that they made the right compromises in the design, as they still sound great and operate perfectly. They can play loud and soft with aplomb and are well suited for most music types and do double duty as mains in home theater very well too. Allison Kraus, Sarah Vaughan, Diana Krall and Stan Getz sound fabulous over them.

BTW, if anyone is looking for a pair of these in excellent shape, make me a reasonable offer (be realistic, I'm not going to give them away). I could use the cash towards the Paradigms.

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T1030s, T830s