When I first purchased this speaker I was happy with it. I am now becoming aware of its limitations and am replacing with a Polk S35. Almost the same size, which I like, but much better performance and value. I don't know why anyone would buy Bose when they refuse to publish the frequency response of their speakers. I realize that numbers don't necessarily relate to good sound, but frequency response is a basic parameter for a speaker. If Bose published the limited response rage of speakers like this one, nobody would even consider them.

Did I get my moneys worth, yes, back in the day these were ok. They are not the center channel speaker you want for today's newer HT equipment as they had to be constantly adjusted to hear any dialog an even then it was not very clear. I would have to rewind a movie or say what was just said. Very frustrating so 7 years never again going with Bose. They made their name years ago with the 901's as I also had them but would never pick them over the brands out there today, especially for the price they want. So stay away from the VCS 10 unless your budget only can afford them. They are slim in design and fit under big screen TV nicely which is all I can now say about them now.

Interesting little speaker.. I own the latest model 301's and at the time was running a klipsch center channel. Sound was awesome, but i did not have a great place for the center so it looked funny with the flat screen sitting on top of it. I decided to go with the vcs10 and place it directly in front of the tv. Out of the box and without touching any settings on the Onkyo TXNR609 I was a little dissapointed. The 301's had noticeably more high end and as subjects panned across the front stage the vcs10 sounded a bit flat. By setting the treble on 0 and increasing the center eq in the reciever on the 16000khz setting just a bit I was able to perfectly stabilize the front sound stage regarding high end frequency. I had to do the same with the low end. Bass was set to 0 on the reciever and the center channel frequency (low frequency) was increased just a bit. This evened up the low and mid frequency. As subjects panned across the front sound stage the sound was seamless. By lowering the bass on the reciever my 301's actually cleaned up and a lot of muddiness was resolved. In comparison to the way I had the system set up using the klispch the overall sound is much improved. I now have a nice flat response with no peaks or spikes over certain frequencies. The onkyo has the ability to adjust bass and treble like all recievers, however with the TXNR609 you can boost different frequencies for each channel. This makes all the difference in the world. A person should not expect this center to keep up with speakers when you run bass and treble as high as you can. It is obviously going to come up short since it has no tweeters and the drivers are very small. You must set the center to the small setting in your reciever. This allows a small portion of low end from the sub to blend nicely with the center. Depending on your sub and front mains will determine where the low frequency crossover is set. Example; I have a small to med size room. I set my 301's to large (they play down to approx 60hz) and the rest of the channels are set to small. (If I set the mains to small the low frequences through the sub are over emphasized. If i lower the sub then it does not blend well with my center and rear speakers.) I set my sub to LFE and let my reciever to the work. It is set at 120hz so it works great with the center and rears since they most likely don't play below that frequency. Overall I am very happy with this center channel. The reciever is THX certified and will play quite loud. I have watched the transformer movies at THX levels and the speaker has kept up nicely. Absolutley clear undistorted sound. Again this is my set up in my living room. Different size rooms will yield different results. I would not attempt to use this in a large room with large mains. It would be a bad choice. With my small room my mains sound better with a flat signal which works out great for this center. I have heard many systems that sound great. After getting to know the characteristics of this speaker I would say it has the potential to contend with much higher end models IF you know how to set up your system. Just a comment regarding a review where it stated the speaker had no crossover....The drivers are full range drivers. Obviously due to the size of the speakers and response some would say limited range...haaa. I run pretty high power to this speaker and have never heard any type of distortion which would be associated with making a speaker try to play something it wasn't capable of. I think bose did a good job on this one.

Realistic clear dialouge ,as if they are in the room,Very sleek looking.

lack of bass

To the bose bashers"how stupid are you to buy such a crappy speaker?Didn't you try it?"
To every body else with half a brain.If you want a great speaker for the center channel that does a great job of reproducing the voice and to be able to hear it clearly,then this speaker is for you.
Since when does a center speaker need to produce bass?Thats why i have a sub and a couple of Jmlabs at the front.The center has one job to do --reproduce dialouge clearly no matter what volume .This speaker does it brilliantly straight out of the box.
The problem with big center channels is that they are boomy.They tend to over whelm the higher mid frequencies make the voice sound muddy.
I had a jm lab center with a hefty $1000 price tag but found when i was watching movies the voice just wasn't clear all the time.I had to constantly adjust the EQ.The movie Zodiac was the last straw.Every body seemed to mumble.So when i went to the tv speaker it was clear.So i wanted a speaker that was like my 127 cm pioneer plasma but could handle the power of my denon avc-a1se .Welcome the bose .
Since then i've never had to rewind to see what they were saying.The price doesn't reflect how good this baby does as a center for movies.
Try it .My dealer said if i didn't like it i could bring it back.No way!I hocked my other center on Ebay and won't be changing this for a while.
It seems like its a sin to be a bose user and a audiophile.Go waste your hard earned money on some elitist product,I'm sticking to the basics.Buy the way this is the only bose product I own.My jm labs do a great job as fronts and backs but maybe I'll check them out next time i decide to upgrade.
Go out and have a listen for your self don't let the negatives put you off a great center speaker ...You'll be surprised

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Similar Products Used:

Wharfdale,klipsh,JMLab

Looks. Midrange

No Highs or Lows (down to 80 or 90Hz). POWER HUNGRY! Needs at least 150w

Well you either hate them or love the. I purchased this speaker because I needed a new center channel. This was right in my price range at the time. I already own a pair of bose 701 series 2 floor standing speakers and I use a bose jewel cube for my rear center. Bose has always struck me as a sexy speaker because of their size and ability to blend into the walls. But I am moving on. The 701's I will keep for now but the center has to go. It lacks the range needed to truly reproduce the full vocal range and dynamics that a center should. I use to have a Klipsch sc-1 and I cant for the life of me figure out why I got rid of it. I bought another klipsch center cause the bose center is a joke. For those that are saying that this speaker just needs more power and a little tweaking for it to come alive are on crack. The efficiency of the bose is low enough that you do need to drive it hard to get it to speak up but it sounds muffled. And I have a Yamaha Reference 9.1 receiver. Hopefully some sucker on ebay will buy mine.

Very nice looking.
Pretty good sound

Made in Mexico!!! Come on Bose, you already WAY over charge, then use cheap slave labor???

WAY overpriced.

Cheap materials.
Spring clips?? Come on Bose, you should be ashamed..

After reading many reviews for this center channel (most of which were negative) I still decided to go with this center. Bose has a sound that my ears like. I am fully aware of their ridiculous prices, cheap materials, and extreme marketing.

I was replacing an 8 yr old Accoustic Research center which still sounds great. I also bought the Bose 301's for front left and right which were replacing a pair of JBL S-26's which also still sound great. These are all hooked to a cheap RCA receiver going through an Audio Source EQ.

After taking them out of their boxes, I thought they looked very nice, almost classy. To me, they sounded great. Not really any better than what I already had but I was not as disappointed as most. I could hear dialog just fine from the VCS-10 so for those who claim they can hear little or nothing, I think they are exxagerating or just need a new receiver. The 301's have great bass and pretty good high's. I did place them on their side with the front tweeter facing up towards the top. That made a HUGE difference in sound and clarity. I feel they are very good speakers but definately not worth what I paid. For a total of $527, I could have bought much better but like I said, I do like the sound Bose puts out.

Similar Products Used:

JBL N-38

Low profile
Aesthetically pleasing
No piercing high notes
Does not draw undue attention to itself

Power Hungery Drivers
Often Muffled Dialog in Home Theater Mode
Hard to balance with rest of home theater speakers
Could use more bass!!!
Mid bass sounds "punchy" and at times and distorted when used for home theater music passages, eg. Titanic 1997 Irish Music by Galiec Storm in DTS 6.1

I have owned the Bose VCS10 Center Channel for the past 3 years and have learned to live with it's sonic peculiarities and enjoy it's more positive aspects. I am one who finds the VCS10 actually better for listenning to music than movie dialogue. I had 2 generations Bose 301's as front speakers (Series V) and surrounds (Series IV) respectively and was interested in maintain the "natural sound" characteristics for which Bose is well known. I must say that the VCS10 is lacking in lower range bass but not to a point of exceptional distraction. I do like the lack of piercing highs which the 2.5" drivers shy away from producing.
I also approve of the VCS10's styling and low profile on top on my CRT television set. Much to my delight, hardly anyone even notices its presence on top on my 27 year old 19" RCA television sent hence avoiding an overwhelming consumer electronic aesthetic to my living room area. Overall, the Bose VCS10 rates 3 on a scale of 5.

Customer Service

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Good upper mids...little high end, looks good and fits anywhere. very good dispersion with no sweet spot.

Mid base, high end lacking. Make another option....two 4' star drivers and two angled cone tweeters would do the trick.

I have Bose 201 with a Velodyne Sub as the maine and Bose 161 as Sat. with a 7.1 Onkyo Rec. Was using an old Radio Shack Centr because it was rated well by CU. Bought the Bose and have been mildly disappointed. I decided to run it through an 8" powered sub, set to large, to give me a little more mid base control. I am pleased with the sound, but disapointed that I had to add a sub. to get there. I wonder why a company like Bose would off just one Center channel, obviously calibrated to thier AM systems. Looks good and fits anywhere.

Customer Service

non needed

Similar Products Used:

RS. Boston Acoustic, AR, Velodyne, MCM components

Great Looking

Terrible Sound
Sound Level is too low(yes, your nice expensive receiver is gonna get hotter than you expected)
Cheap and thin cabinet

I have used this Bose around 6 months as a center speaker in my home theater system. This speaker is not a good performer by any means. Whoever claims that it sounds good is either ill-informed or has no idea about acoustics.

Without a tweeter the high frequency dies out much lower and there is no bass at all. I consider that the mid-bass drops off at around 250hz. An Audio Enthusiast wrote here that bass is for subwoofer not for center channel. Here is the truth: A good center channel should go down at least to 80hz. Most of the center speakers in this price range go down to 80hz. You use subwoofer for even lower frequencies. That is why, a subwoofer ideally crossed over 60-70 hz and never higher than 80. By the way, that 80-250Hz range that this speaker literally erases, is responsible for majority of contralto, baritone and bass vocals. Also, a speaker supposed to produce any signal transmitted by the receiver. In other words, it is the receiver's job to determine which sound should come from which speaker. This Bose is though, do some filtering/erasing job by itself.

There are specific driver sizes which corresponds to certain frequency ranges. It is an insult to acoustic engineering to say without a tweeter and larger cones, this Bose produces a sufficient range of audible spectrum. You may argue that the cones are small but there are four of them. Don't forget this: There is no active crossover to seperate the signal. So, all cones are driving the same frequency bands.

Second myth: People claimed that this speaker will sound better when matched with other Bose. Absolutely wrong. It is always preferred to use same brand center and main speakers in a system, because same brand speakers mostly have similar acoustic characteristics. However, a bad speaker is always a bad speaker and same brand speakers won't make it any better.

In brief, this speaker can not produce a significant range of audible spectrum, including human sound frequencies. It has speaker clips, and same size cone drivers to reproduce full range sound. Speaker clips are cheaper than binding posts and cones are cheaper than the tweeter. Is this what you expect from a $200 product? Think about it, than you will understand why no other respected speaker company do not produce similar speakers.

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Several Infinitys, Studio series JBLs

Attractive Low Profile won't scare our kids, reasonalbly priced for Bose product

Dull and Harsh sounding, difficutly balancing with 4 inefficient drivers sucking up wattage. Limited frequency range, lacks mid-bass

The Bose VCS 10 Center drove me absolutely crazy for the first 12 months because it only works well if precisely and NEEDS TO BE REBALANCED FOR ALMOST EVERY DOLBY DIGITAL 5.1 OR DTS RECORDING. The sound quality is somewhat dull due to the lack of tweeters and limited bass reproduction but at the same time the accentuated mid-range can hurt your ears unless toned down by lowering the treble and bass moderately. Sometimes it sounds fine when it unassumingly blends with the rest of the speakers. I am not sure Bose did use 301 owners and above a real favor by using cube techology in this effort and wound strongly recommend they built a next generation center channel that can be set on LARGE on most higher end receivers rather than small. It does center the sound to some degree and is aesthically pleasing so I will give it a 3. I don't think it measures up to the 201's or 301's in sound quality.

Customer Service

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