Cool sounds! These speakers were wonderful when I had them plugged in... | Pleasanton Towing Pros

None so far.

Okay, I got these for free, so my expectations were low. All they needed was one port to be glued back in. My main speakers are Linn Nexus LS 250s. I think they're really good. And to be fair, these hold up much better than I expected. Yes, the cheap cone tweeter is no match for the Hiphequons in the Linn's. But that is to be expected. For what these sell for they're not bad at all! The dude who hooked them up to his Mac tubes then said how bad they are is an idiot. Of course they don't sound like that kind of gear. Get over yourself. These are cheap speakers, an for what they are, they really do sound pretty good.

Three upper bass is a little tubby. I wonder if the crossovers could be upgraded to address that. Of course, no real low bass extension. But the bass that is there is tight, and they go low enough to be useable for most music without a sub. That teeter... It could be better. Can be harsh at times. Missing detail at others. But you know that when you look at it. They did an admirable job designing a pretty decent speaker with drivers that are obviously built to a price point. Not high end by any means, but totally listenable for a speaker that sells pretty cheap.

Out of about ten sets of floor standing speakers I have in storage, the 401’s are my overall favorite. They have a rich, pleasant sound that rivals larger speaker sizes. I’ve only had them for a month in my main living room stereo. They’ve replaced a set of new Polk audio T-50’s they easily outperformed in all categories.

The quality of materials used to manufacture them are a bit lackluster but are well put together.

35 years old and still perfect. Mated with a vintage Rotel system, the 401s perform wonderfully.

I can't think of a weakness, other than size. But that's a cost of depth and sonic richness.

I use my Bose 401 with Yamaha AX 596 Stereo amp and Yamaha EQ 330. I really love this speaker. The bass is really punchy and good, mids and trebles are delicious too, everything sounds the way it's suppose to be. They are very musical speakers hence a real feast for your ears.. I own bunch of other speakers and this is one my favorite. Of course there a lots of far better sounding speakers but in it's price range (used unit price is not so much) it's I think a very good purchase. I tried it with my other amps and they sound pretty decent on those too. I don't think it chooses amps and it pairs pretty good with many stereo amps out there. I wouldn't use this unit for cinema I would stick to music...

Their shape is not a common one so it's hard to place it and you need experiment it. Siwtch the pair and angels etc.

I've had 4 of these Bose 401s since the late 1980s. They've moved with me from Guam to the US Mainland and I'm still using them as a secondary system in my garage for my workouts. They are extremely durable and still look in great condition. They also still sound great. I've added a cheap Onkyo subwoofer (part of a home theater system) and they can compare with many fine speakers today. They need a subwoofer to bring out the bass but are adequate without one.

These are 4 ohm speakers. They are not efficient and need a powerful amplifier to bring out the best in them. I have added 8 ohm speakers in the past to supplement these, but they didn't play well with those speakers. The efficient speakers were blaring at high volume while the Bose speakers were just getting going.

Just listening to some music through my 25 year old Bose 401's. I've owned them this whole time, they have been dragged around the country, worked hard, stored at times in likely substandard conditions. They have some chips, the Veneer is lifting in some places and there's some swelling of the particle board. I inherited some even older (likely 35+ years) 501's which took their place for a few years but an back to my old 401's. I originally ran them through a Luxman amp and now have the Yamaha RX-A2000. This amp continues to impress after 5 years especially since I've remembered the Direct Pure function which cleans up the sound so much.
Recently I was listening to a friend's $15000 Focal Utopia's and coming back to the Bose left me wanting, so I found myself in an audio shop listening to Focals in the 2-5k range plus some other offerings. I liked what I heard but coming home and listening to the old faithful and sure I can notice some lacking in the finesse of mid and high range but overall I'm still not happy to fork out $5k to replace them, I'd likely get away with $3k with a subwoofer.
So we all hear the "Bose is crap" line repeated over the decades, I'm not sure if current Bose floorstanders but know I never liked the older acoustimass type but these old crappy 401's have put a smile on my face for a quarter of a century.
So I guess I'm no where near an audiophile, I'd maybe argue I am as close as you can get but even though I'd love to listen to perfect sound I just can't see my way clear of spoiling my ears to the tune of $20000+ for a setup I might not be able to pick fault with.

I purchased a pair of Bose 401 speakers back in 1994, as of today these speakers sound great. They sound great for any application weather is just music or for surround sound while watching a movie, the sound that comes out of these speakers is great. You cant go wrong with these speakers.

I read some of the reviews here and in fact found myself stunned over all the gushing on these speakers, so I located a set of used ones and thought I would try them out. First I took the speakers over to Speaker World to make sure they didn't need any repairs done first because I did get them rather cheap, then took them home and hooked them up to my smaller Fisher 800C tube receiver and popped in a few CD's and the speakers sounded boxy on every CD. The base was muddy and mid range was boxy or hollow sounding, and the highs were not that clear.

So ok, maybe it was the Fisher so I hooked them up to my main system which consists of two amps so I was able to try both separately since there is no biamp'ing possible with these, the first amp is a MacIntosh MC275 (a tube amp that normally runs the mids and highs on my main speakers) and the other is a Harman Kardon PA2400 (which normally runs the base speaker on my mains). First I connected the Mac and got the same dismal sound, thinking perhaps the speakers just don't like tube amps so I connected it to the HK and it sounded worse in the mids and highs but the base went from muddy to punchy with a hollowness to it.

So back to Speaker World I went to find out if something was wrong that the physical inspection missed, they hooked them up to some of their stuff and the owner said something quite amazing, he said there was nothing wrong with those speakers functionality but they sounded just like Bose had built them...crappy. He said they used cheap drivers which is why with the cabinet and speakers combined only weighed 29 pounds. So back on Craigslist they went and I sold them a week later for small amount more than I paid.

After reading all the bad reviews about these speakers I was a bit concerned about buying 401s but I picked up a pair for 40 dollars in good condition and have to say that I am pleasantly surprised at how good these sound. I have had Magenpan 1.6, Martin Logan Source, B&W DM1400, Dali, Mission Elegante and Final electrostats so have a reasonable background to compare and I can happily sit and listen for hours to these. I find the imaging, tonality, dynamics, bass, treble and midrange to be very acceptable to me and they are quite revealing of micro details which I wasn't expecting. I was expecting to hear a dull lifeless unbalanced bass and treble shy sound going by the reviews but that hasn't eventuated at all. I do get the feeling that they might not be very amp friendly though, which is just a feeling. I am running these on Denon POA-S10 monoblocks and a Micromega Mydac, so you could say that amplification is ample and I would think that you would want something reasonable to get good results (GIGO). I bought these as a fill in until I can get some more Maggies but I am having to seriously rethink that now considering I got these so cheap. Anyway time will tell.