They have the "BOSE" name plate (Makes them easy to sell).

How much time do you have???

I hate when people write reviews that do nothing but complain, but I can't help but do exactly that in this case.

I owned a pair of 301 IV's for over a year and was NEVER pleased with the sound quality. I tried placing them all over my room, changing the bass and treble settings on my receiver. I even replaced my receiver with an H/K AVR35. Nothing seemed to work.

I was like most people in assuming that if it was made by Bose, it would sound great. Oh well.

Let me tell you a secret. I purchased a pair of Acoustic Research tower speakers model #AR P428PS from J and R Music World via the web (www.jandr.com). They are 4-way towers with a 1" tweeter, a 5" mid, an 8" woofer AND AN 8" 120 WATT POWERED SUBWOOFER IN EACH CABINET!!! The frequency response is a room shaking 28Hz-20,000KHz!

Here's the best part. These giant killers are priced at $199 each, and you can get them to lower the price down to $169 each plus shipping ($400 total for the pair), if you get the right rep on the phone. These speakers weigh 65lbs. each, so the shipping runs around $30 each.

Do yourself a favor. Buy speakers, not a name. Powered tower speakers for $400 a pair??? Sorry Dr. Bose.

excellent soundstage, very clear midrange, superb off-axis response, copious mid-bass, warm, pleasing tonal character

poor imaging, fair dynamics, lack of any real bass (<50hz), boomy off-axis bass, general bass fuzziness in general, midrange coloration

Well I found myself with some extra time on my hands a few days ago, so I thought I would take a critical look at the much-maligned Bose 301. When I bought my present speakers a little less than a year ago (Polk Rt7), I didn't even bother auditioning the 301s due to the preponderance of appaling reviews on this website. After hearing a pair of Bose 201s sound quite good in a very poor room arrangement, I thought I would give the 301s a try. The thing that first leaps out about the 301s is the exceptionally clear, warm midrange response. Vocals practically leapt out of the speakers and were warm and full-bodied through a wide range of musical genres. Unfortunately there seemed to be a large amount of midrange coloration at work, as all vocalists exhibited this same warm, rich tone regardless of how they sound in real life. Admitedly this added warmth is a very pleasing effect, but it makes it quite obvious that faithfullnes to source material was not high on Bose's priority list. Dynamics were so-so, on large orchestral entrances the volume level did not seem to change very much. Soundstaging was excellent, as the speakers projected a wide, 3d soundstage that lived up to at least part of Bose's claim of delivering "concert-like sound in your home." On the flipside images within this awesome soundstage were diffuse and hard to place. Sounds seemed to appear and disappear from a great mass of music rather than from distinct points in space. Additionally the 301s had a hard time projecting a stable center image, as vocalists sounded almost split-in-half, rather than dead-center between the speakers. Resolving power and accuracy of the 301s was generally medicore compared to the other speakers mentioned. Sounds I heard on the MMGs were nowhere to be found on the 301s, and as mentioned before the 301s always seemed to add their own warm tonal character to the source material. I doubt anyone in their right mind would ever use these as a pair of studio monitors due to these accuracy issues. I would say this lack of accuracy is a great advantage when listening to poor-quality source material (pretty much any mass-market music) since vocal sibilance is almost completely eliminated, and other instances of hiss and grit on the recordings are thankfully inaudible. Bass performance was so-so. Mid-bass was reasonable fast and controlled, and prodigous in quantity, but really suffered in over-all quality compared to the other speakers mentioned. All bass notes seemed to sound similar regardless of the instrument. From string bass to synth, it all sounded almost the same! Bass seemed to roll-off in the 40-50hz range. Comments on the design "flaws" in the 301s: the lack of a real tweeter was not noticable in the least, which utterly shocked me! Perhaps the lack of a real tweeter contributed to the weaker-than-average accuracy of these speakers? The flimsy plywood cabinet, lack of a real cross-over network, lack of internal bracing, multiple midrange drivers, and foam surrounds appeared to have no detrimental effect on the actual sound. The cheap grill, on the other hand, exhibited an annoying rattle when the speakers were presented with deep bass. The 301s appeared to be a little on the inefficient side, but showed no strain when driven hard. The spring clips have no place on a speaker of this price! They really should put some decent binding posts on the next iteration of the 301. Overall these speakers proved to be very competitive as compared to the other speakers mentioned. They have their strengths and weaknesses like any other speaker, and certainly deserve a listen from anyone interested in a pair of <$500 speakers. Hardcore audiophiles would probably shy away from these due to the accuracy/faithfullness issues, but 95% of prospective buyers would probably be in sonic heaven with these. 5 stars for sonic performance compared to similarly priced speakers, and 3 stars for value due to cheap construction.

Similar Products Used:

Magnepan MMG, Polk RT7, B&W DM602, Paradigm Titan, NHT SuperOne, Polk RT55

Commission I made off the idiots who purchased these.

Its Bose where do I Begin?

These are quite possibly the worst speakers I ever heard. I'am curious about the people who review these favorably and classify themselves as audiophiles. Audiophiles are knowledgeable persons with a distinguishing ear for sound quality. To call yourself an audiophile and give a favorable review for Bose speakers, is the epitomy of contradictions! It's funny, I did notice a large percentage of people who purchased these were wearing hearing aids.

Ok i bought a pair of these Bose not too long ago. I use as my back speakers and they serve their purpose just fine. Watching The Matrix on DVD sounded just fine. To tell you the truth i've spent about $900 on my speakers and an additional $300 for a woofer. My room fills up with sound and sounds excellent for its price. Now i'l admit Bose is over rated, but they suck? I'll have to disagree. I think they were well worth the $$$ Like I said not the best but they do a great job as my back speakers.

I bought these as replacements for my old Mission 707's. I have a Nakamichi AV surround receiver that puts out 120 watts/channel normal and 160 watts/channel peak. I listened to them for three days and decided that they seemed to get a little "nervous" when I cranked the volume past four. I returned them and got Polk RT 55's in their place, which I'm much happier with. If you're considering auditioning the 301's at home let me give you a BIG WARNING. I didn't put the little rubber pads on the bottom because I wasn't sure if I was going to keep them. The bottom of the speakers got the living you know what scratched out of them on a pretty clean end table - they move around a lot! If you're not sure if you're going to keep them, put a towel under them if you think you might possibly return them. Best Buy was kind enough to take them back for a full refund even with the scratches.

Here's the bottom line people - Bose inspires such strong opinions, both positive and negative, that it's impossible to separate the product from the hype (both good and bad). So do yourselves a favor and avoid them completely. If you're really interested in quality speakers that have a great bang for your buck, DON'T go to Circuit City/Best Buy and DON'T listen to Bose. Go somewhere where they have a broad range of speakers, both well known and obscure, with salesmen who really know their stuff and aren't disgruntled teenagers who are more interested in lighting up after work than helping inform customers of all their options.

Boy oh Boy Lots of diffrent things to say about these little guys. When I first started to get into the whole stereo thing I admit I was one of the newbes who got sucked into the aww of glossy papers that have all of the pretty colors advertising the Bose 901's. Just the Bose name was like " GOD of speakers". But has anyone noticed that all of Bose speakers revert back to the 901's. Like there little peice of crap lifestyles syestem... "It acts just like the Bose 901's" direct/reflecting speakers. So when a good friend of mine decided to go out and buy some new speakers, I went with him to Circut City. He saw the Bose 301's listened to them and decided to buy them. We got them back to his house, hooked them up and they sounded pretty good I was impressed we listened to them with a couple of CDs then for HT. All in All not bad... So I thought, Boy was I mistaken, I brought my speakers over to his to use as surrounds (Infinity SM82s)we listend for a while and decided to hook them up as fronts (I always knew my Babies sounded better but I had know idea)I was Shocked the Bose lacked everything in everyway the bass was just a joke, it sounded like someone hitting a garbage can lid inside a box. I understand the resoning behind putting tweeters in diffrent ares to "fill the room with sound", there again another comidey rutine. The highs wernt there, there was nothing. If you sit right infornt of the tweeter you might be able to hear some highs its like most people who listen to music listen to it infornt of the speakers so what dose Bose do, they go and put them on the side and make them out of paper.Ahh good idea...not. Every thing IS worng especially the price, my speakers where about $150 less and have about $300 more sound.

ALL IN ALL... NOT WORTH IT. BASS SOUNDS REAL FAKE AND TWEETER ARE PLACED LIKE A PICASSO PAINTING.........ALL WRONG

Sound good to me, there small, light and pretty darn loud.

They are about $100 over priced. Speaker box is kinda cheap 1/2 inch press board.

Why are people making such an effort to put down this product. Obviously they have never owned and tried the product or have something way better and are thinking that these speakers will match the quality of Larger louder speakers.

I have had these speakers for quite some time. I run a reciever off my Sound Blaster live card on my computer. I use winamp to play my thousands of MP3's that I have. Winamp has a 10 band EQ built in also.

After a few minutes of use I have these speakers pushed right to there limits b4 blowing them out. They sound great.

Paper speakers seem to discourage people about the quality of the product. Obviously they are using paper to achieve a certain type of sound quality. Certain materials provide differnt types of sound. Judging by the speaker material these seem to be the speakers for classical music more or less. Which they would work excellent for.
Now for playing hard rock, country, techno, rap and what not like I use them for they sound great. Placement really seems to be a key in getting the most out of them.

For those of you that say they sound like crap I dont know what to tell you. I have them running off my computer with ample adjustments for bass and treble they sound just as loud as a pair of 3way cerwin vega towers with out the bass of course. This is a bookshelf speaker mind you not a floor speaker.

The best that these speakers run on is a DVD movie. It sounds just like your at the theater. What you will notice the most is the voice of the commentator on the movie trailers at the beginning. It sounds exactly like a theater

Finally to finish the complete sound you want with these speakers is a subwoofer. I run 2 cerwin vega LW15's on my system and it sounds great. You cant beat the sound that the subs produce.

To wrap this up I would say these speakers are excellent. Price is a little steep and the boxes arent all that special but they sound good and that is what you want. I think basically bose is making you pay for the sound they produce more than the components that the speaker is made of.
Honestly I havent seen anything in the price range that will beat the sound of these speakers. Maybe cerwin vega 3way floor speakers will but that is the only one.

2 stars for value these are a little expensive
4 stars for rating they are Very good in sound Quality is a tadd weak.

If you want to ask me about these email me @ Stick_96@hotmail.com

Similar Products Used:

Cerwin Vega
Klipsh
Polk
Infinity

clean sound that you can feel

none so far

i just got some older 301 on ebay for 50.00 they are mint and sound great.i decided to go retro when my old system died. i got a marantz 2235b early 70s and picked up some bose 501 series 4 and just added the 301 s.i think they are series 2 from like 1982. the setup is the best ive heard. clean sonding and rich.i went with the marantz after i picked up a brand new reciever and the sound sucked. i said let me take it back and get an old marantz . they sound better than the new stuff thats out now. trust me

none

to all of you that said that your 301's sounded like crap, it had to be because one, your reciever sucks or two, you don't know how to adjust the bass/treble volumes.