Scott,

I was in the organ business back in the 70's. Conn made a box with a couple of speakers in it and put so called electronic metal pipes on top of the box. Supposedly the pipes were tuned to musicial notes. These pipes maybe made a sleight difference in sound. The major difference in sound was because the speakers in the boxes projected up.

In the early 80's Baldwin made their version of electronic pipes also. These were actually plastic sewer pipe with a speaker mounted at the base of each pipe. Supposedly the sewer pipes were also tuned to musicial notes. These really sucked just like Baldwin organs. They were also butt ugly.

I believe if you were to take apart the Bose tower you would find lots of small speakers pointed in all different directions. Instead of projecting up like Conn and Baldwin I'd be willing to bet that they project forward in a 180 degree pattern.

In the Conn (by the way these electronic pipes were a con) and Baldwin the actual pipe was supposed to resonate to a tuned frequency to enhance the sound. I believe in the Bose the tube is just a place to mount speakers. The tube on the Bose may be tuned to enhance mid range frequency response much like a bass reflex cabinet.

Tom