I own the last twenty years or so (I forget exactly this is so long!). I love them! They are incredibly strong, the sound without being absolutely faithful, is nonetheless very pleasant on the style of music I listen to (rock, house, jazz ...). I bought with the accessories available at the time: bag + battery, you believe me if you want the battery fontion still almost like new! (It is capable of supplying the integrated amp for 8 hours afile volume 3 / 4. I use it with a CD walkman, but it would work perfectly with any mp3 player (very little for me) or i pod (already much better). It is not monitoring speakers but rather to portable speakers, and in this role, I know nothing which comes close. It's too bad Bose does offer more and even if you offered me 1000 Euros, I do not sell!