Bipolar radiation with front & rear radiating woofers, large port area, high efficiency, will play loud cleanly.

So-so styling (don't like the grilles but they can be removed)

Background:The new Bose 601 IV speakers were introduced in October. They feature two 6 1/2" woofers and a 2" tweeter in a waveguide (transmission line) enclosure. These replace the old 401 and 501 speakers and feature improved sound and cabinet construction compared the these older designs.

I have been an audio hobbyist for about 15 yrs., and have designed, built, and sold a few speakers over the years. I am not opposed to buying speakers, however, if I can get good sound for a reasonable price, since they should (in theory) be designed and tested to a higher level than what an amateur can achieve.

Some of my favorite speakers have been transmission line design (a long folded tube with damping material), because they seem to have a natural bass quality to them. I also like the sound of bipolar design speakers (front-and-rear radiation design made popular by Mirage and Definite Technology) because they have an open, "out of the box" sound. I was initially attracted to the 601 IV's because they have both of these design features (I can't think of another that does).

In looking at other speakers in the price range, I found most of them only had a single woofer in a ported enclosure, which, when I compared them to the 601's on dynamic material, usually resulted in port noise or audible compression of bass notes, especially drum whacks (such as the big Telarc drum used by Eric Kunzel). I found this to be true even on the expensive B&W's. The reason why the Bose performs well in comparison is probably the transmission line with its huge port; 3" x 7 1/2", which is an area more than half that of the woofers. The port area on typical ported speakers is 10-15% of the woofer area, by comparison. This was a big factor in choosing these speakers.

The second factor was the bipolar design, with its open sound quality. The sound seems to come from not just the plane of the speakers, but all the way back to the wall and even beyond the wall. When I stand up and walk around the room, the soundstage is still there across the back wall. I can listen almost anywhere in the room and get a balanced sound. These are not "sweetspot" speakers by any means. I like that.

As I mentioned above, I listened quite a bit against the B&W CDM-7 SE's. These have a very nice finish and an excellent tweeter. A lot of attention has gone into reducing cabinet colorations and resonances, and in these areas they are better than the 601's. In comparison, the Bose speakers have better bass reproduction, more midbass and lower treble detail, and more sense of space.

I have these speakers set up along the long wall of an 18 x 15' room, 2' out from the back wall, connected to a Sony SE cd player and 200W amp. (the cd player connects directly to the amp). I find that they have a very flat response and terrific bass without the need for any bass boost at all. These are definitely the class leaders for bass among passive floorstanding speakers. I can also listen almost anywhere in the room without getting the sense that I am "out of the beam". I credit both the tweeter radiation pattern and the biploar woofers for this. They sound natural to me, and about the only fault I can find is a very slight dark coloration to the sound which may be due to the bare walls inside the cabinet. It is only a very slight coloration (and should be correctable-see below) that is only heard in comparison with very expensive speakers. I'm kind of stretching here, these are $650 speakers after all.

Being a speaker hobbyist, I couldn't resist the temptation to see if I could modify them for better sound. Having built transmission line speakers before, I know the quality of the bass can be adjusted by the amount of stuffing in the line. To see, I removed the rear woofers and looked inside. There was a small amount of polyester fill inside, just above the port outlet. My wife has some of the same stuff that she uses to stuff pillows, so I added a handfull more, not quite doubling the amount that was there. Sure enough, the bass got tighter and deeper, though slightly less loud. I like a tighter bass anyway, so I left them like that. In the future, I will experiment with upgrading the wire inside the cabinet and adding acoustic foam to the area right behind the woofers. Incidentally, I noticed that the rear woofers were at different heights on the left and right speakers. This must have been done to randomize some resonance or for some other reason, I get the impression that Bose must have done a lot of computer modelling to optimize the design of these speakers.

I highly recommend these speakers for use in a medium to large room where they may be placed at least 18" out from the wall. They would also be good for home theater use- midrange clarity is very good, sound effects must be awesome. Try to get a demonstration in the store with a little bit of space around them- many retailers crowd all the floorstanding speakers together, these need room to breathe!

Similar Products Used:

Listened to similar models from Polk, Infinity, BA, Linn. Did a lot of listening against the B&W CDM-7 SE ($1800).

the tight bass, natural sound......

its not manufactured.......now.

This is the best of best speakers i have had .....The bass is natural and the sound is very live.
And for those who are bose bashers......very sorry friends, first listen to the speakers and then post the coments.
The accuracy in these speakers cannot be matched with even the latest models.
If u get a chance to find these gems , grab it with out a second thought..

Similar Products Used:

bose501mark4, ARsonodyne, Allison4 , BoseAM5.

Direct Reflecting Bose Technology,Handsome Appearance,Superb presence and accuracy.

Absolutely None On This Model!

I have always been a big fan of the Bose technology ever since I first heard them way back in 1982. As a young guy in the mid 80's I worked at an Audio dealer and sold alot of Bose, AR and Infinity speakers. Although all three were our most popular sellers, and we sold just about everything as it was a big dealer, the Bose would always outsell them 2 to 1. I would get many customers coming in to demo various speakers over and over again prior to finally purchasing so I had many the oportunity to match up the vaious Bose models against their competitors. Because of this I had become quite fond of the unique and realistic presence that only the Bose speakers delivered. I did really admire some of the Infinty and AR models but for my personal taste they were much too bright and sterile sounding. It was funny thought because whenever a customer who appreciates the technology Bose has developed would hear the Bose speakers switch on during the demos, their faces would light up and it was like someone threw a swich on. Anyway I can honestly say that I prefer the Bose sound not because of the stupid nameplate as other on this forum ae constantly spouting off about but because I actually prefer the sound. If you don't agree with me that is just fine but that is merely your opinion as is this mine. Well I have friends who proclaim themselves audiophiles who proceded to assure me that my admiration of Bose products was nothing more than nameplate related. Since I happened to be in the market for some new main speakers after picking up a brand new Sony STRDE-1075 me and my friends decided to go speaker shopping. One of them dared me to take the blind speaker challenge at 3 different audio retailers just to prove his theory. I happily agreed and brought along all of my favorite CD's to demo with. Funny thing was in two of the shops the salesman were quite into our little challenge and went out of their way to assist. Well I demoed speakers in an almost dark room where both the salesman and my buddies were switching again and again between the above listed models pausing to ask my opinion each switch. I had my one friend keeping a record of my responses as he was impartial. The results were not to be revealed until all three shops were demoed. When we got to the end of the last demo I could see the long faces on my self proclaimed audiophile friends of who were just hours before so assured my Bose admiration had to be name tag related. Well when my buddy keeping record revealed my choices which I was rating by a 1 2 or 3 with 1 being the best sounding to me, I had actually rated the Bose speakers with a 1 at every single shop we had been to. This was done without me even being able to see at one of the demo rooms where they had turned down the lights and faced me away from the switch panel. I really didn't make a big deal out of it and they were all pretty quiet themselves. In fact all that was really said after that was my one friend who simply said my advice is that you should really just buy the 601's. :)
I grabbed a pair went home set them up. Which BTW... for some of you reviewers who ar writing about the stupid spring clips... THERE ARE NO SPRING CLIPS! The 601's come with binding posts. Anyway once I heard them at home I was very pleased as they actually had an even better presence in my living room. I moved my existing 301's to the back and what a well rounded sound they provide together!

I highly recommend the 601's over the 701's even because I feel they are actually a better value for the money at about $400.00 less you get cloth bound woofers instead of the foam that is on the 701's and to me the two 6.5" woofers create a bit of a more robust mid range than the 701's did. Don't get me wrong I liked the 701's but just not as much as I did the 601's and to me are the better value. Anyway I hope that some of the new people reading through the reviews here will benefit from some of the more positive and factual ones and use the information to be able to go in to demo speakers without a preconceived notion from people who for some reason or anothe just do not like Bose. They should be able to choose a speaker for nothing more than what the sound is like for them and not because they read a negative review about the 601's spring clips which are not even used on the 601's. Geesh! talk about biased misinformation. Anyway my advice to anyone who cares is that these speakers are classic Bose sound and exceptionally clean at high levels using a 100w RMS cont. source. Very very impressive. So if you are in the market for speakers please make sure you demo various brands with your own personal CD's to ensure compatibility with your particular music preferences.

Good luck to all and happy listening!

Similar Products Used:

Infinity IL30, JBL S310, Polk RT800i,Acoustic Research AR9, Bose 701.

15 years of heavy use

Speaker wire clips. They don't make em' like they use to!!!!!!!

Hi all!

I've had my Bose 601 series II for over 15 years and they sound great! No repairs and they still look brand new. The $600.00 that I paid 15 years ago was the best audio investment that I ever made! I've had Denon PMA 700 PMA amp and a currently a Yamaha Receiver (I Hate It) feeding them!

Dollar for dollar these Bose simply cannot be beat! Let’s put things into perspective here. There is a diminishing return on money spent versus performance when you get to a point. Are there speakers out there that sound better than these Bose? Of course! However, be prepared to take out a second mortgage! Yes, at one time and only one time did I consider replacing them with KEF 104’s; too bad they don’t make them anymore. Of course they were almost three times the cost, but I can tell you the performance was NOT three times better.

I will mention that the bigger the sound stage or room the better these 601’s sound! I’ve had the privilege to listen to these speakers in a large hall and oh my Gosh they were absolutely incredible!!!!

As of now, with current technology, I would probably consider buying a pair of Martin Logan’s if I had the space and the money for elaborate power systems. However, I’m planning to keep my 601’s and just buy the best Amp and Pre Amp that I can afford.

I will mention that I would not even consider buying a new Bose product. They just don’t make speakers like they used to!

Respectively,

Rich

None what so ever

More than this space allows

these speakers, the NEW AND IMPROVED 601's and worse than anything on the market today. the overall sound in shrill and boxy at the same time, I don't know how these speakers made it off the drawing board. The mid range was lost inside the boomy bass and the "run your fingers over glass" high end. the New 601's list for around 600 dollars, that is a joke. I have head 100 dollar speakers from that place where you buy cheap speaker wire sound better, yes that radio hut or someting place. This speaker did not stack up well against a polk tower which was next to it, and a bookshelf something or other speaker that I heard. BOSE is a JOKE! I wish I made Money at my Job doing a half assed job like bose does. Better sound through Studip people buying a speaker that JUST HAS A NAME STAMPED ON IT...

Similar Products Used:

none

ummm.......??????
cool sticker you get on the side of your speaker

well were do i start. might as well not even make a list, they only give you a few lines for this part.

Just to let everyone know I work at a bose outlet store.
And the only reason I work there is beacuse you people how have been brainwashed for years buy this pathetic name brand like there going out of style (which they sould), and you all make me lots of money!!

first off I don't know who bose thinks they are. But if your making money selling crapy speakers that everyone thinks are good, might as well keep doing it. Like I said I work for bose, and I never have or never will own bose speakers. another thing that makes me burst into tears with laghter is the thank you letter you get with every bose purchase, saying that we would like you to compare bose with others in that price range so you can have a further apriciation for the quality, or some crap like that. I do encourage you people to do this, because you'll be puking your self because you got ripped off. And then there is the part about all our profits going back into reasurch...!!!WHAT???
You havn't changed anything in decades.

Two more things,
1.You know those little cubes you all love so much, they cost 7 cents to make!

2.NO HIGHS, NO LOWS, MUST BE BOSE.

happy listining

Similar Products Used:

all bose products, and many other better speakers

Availability. Bose just started putting these out again.

Everything else. Build quailty (thin, lightweight plastic
cabinet), ugly grills, direct reflecting 'technology', looks, and, most importantly, the sound

They're baaaack!

And might I forewarn you, this isn't going to be a pretty rating. All the negatives of what I guess were the weaknesses of the original Bose speakers remain; paper cones, the dubious 'direct reflecting' scheme/scam. The wood cabinets of decades past are replaced by CHEAP plastic abominations that don't even DISGUISE the fact that they're cheap plastic, like the nicer-looking Infinity Entra series.

I sell at Circuit City too; and over the last year and a half that I've been in the audio department I've gone from the stereo minisystem crowd to the (getting closer to) high-end market. In defense of Circuit City's commission system, at least in the time that I've worked there we haven't been paid any more to sell Bose garbage then any Infinity or Polk or whatever else. The percentage we were paid on speakers ended up being about the same. I noticed another reviewer commented otherwise so I wanted to at least set the record straight.

Anyway, we hooked these bad boys up and I was actually anxious to hear how they sounded; I was, to put it mildly, not impressed. Bose's great direct reflecting system had the effect of making treble impossible to pinpoint (not that
the single paper driver and single tweeter were going to do
much anyway) and the bass stupefyingly boomy and hollow. I commented that 'they sounded like a $600 pair of Pioneer towers... wait... make that a $300 pair of Pioneer towers.'
In fact, the detail was so muddy and distorted that during a part in the Gladiator soundtrack (track 3, your one-stop test CD for a rocking speaker), I couldn't even hear the violin that I knew was playing; it was buried somewhere in the mud. Mud? Try landslide.

I'll exonerate the speakers in this respect - when I first turned them on, they physically hurt my ears. I checked the bass and treble on the receiver and found that they had been turned up (treble especially). I turned it back and the sound didn't hurt quite so much. So my initial feeling about the speakers was a little off-kilter, but after correcting the bass and treble (neutral, please) they were still rock-bottom at their price range. I thought the Polk RT600i speakers were abysmal in the $300 price range.. guess it gets a whole lot worse.

Good speakers at the price range of the Bose 601 speakers are the Wharfedale SP87-89 line that you can purchase from Ubid.com; as much as it makes snotty jerks like me wince at the prospect of paying less than $150 per speaker, the SP87s are incredible at their price range. Perhaps mine are a bit overmatched seeing as how I have over $3,000 worth of electronics driving them (hell, the CABLE going between all this stuff cost me more than the speakers..) but they really sound great. I think I posted a review about them earlier. The Infinity IL30 are at the same price point as the Bose 601's but with comparably magnificent neutrality and definition. Both the IL30 and the Wharfedale line can be bi-wired for vastly improved sound quality (no, the sales geek is not trying to pad an additional 20 feet of speaker wire onto your bill, cheapskate.. or if he is, it's for your own good).

Bottom line- at this price point, this is the worst god damn speaker I have ever had the misfortune to be in the presence of. Bose should be ashamed of themselves as a company for wasting valuable space in my sound room on these miserable excuses for loudspeakers.

Similar Products Used:

Infinity IL30, Wharfedale SP87, Polk RT600i

Availability. Bose just started putting these out again.

Everything else. Build quailty (thin, lightweight plastic
cabinet), ugly grills, direct reflecting 'technology', looks, and, most importantly, the sound

They're baaaack!

And might I forewarn you, this isn't going to be a pretty rating. All the negatives of what I guess were the weaknesses of the original Bose speakers remain; paper cones, the dubious 'direct reflecting' scheme/scam. The wood cabinets of decades past are replaced by CHEAP plastic abominations that don't even DISGUISE the fact that they're cheap plastic, like the nicer-looking Infinity Entra series.

I sell at Circuit City too; and over the last year and a half that I've been in the audio department I've gone from the stereo minisystem crowd to the (getting closer to) high-end market. In defense of Circuit City's commission system, at least in the time that I've worked there we haven't been paid any more to sell Bose garbage then any Infinity or Polk or whatever else. The percentage we were paid on speakers ended up being about the same. I noticed another reviewer commented otherwise so I wanted to at least set the record straight.

Anyway, we hooked these bad boys up and I was actually anxious to hear how they sounded; I was, to put it mildly, not impressed. Bose's great direct reflecting system had the effect of making treble impossible to pinpoint (not that
the single paper driver and single tweeter were going to do
much anyway) and the bass stupefyingly boomy and hollow. I commented that 'they sounded like a $600 pair of Pioneer towers... wait... make that a $300 pair of Pioneer towers.'
In fact, the detail was so muddy and distorted that during a part in the Gladiator soundtrack (track 3, your one-stop test CD for a rocking speaker), I couldn't even hear the violin that I knew was playing; it was buried somewhere in the mud. Mud? Try landslide.

I'll exonerate the speakers in this respect - when I first turned them on, they physically hurt my ears. I checked the bass and treble on the receiver and found that they had been turned up (treble especially). I turned it back and the sound didn't hurt quite so much. So my initial feeling about the speakers was a little off-kilter, but after correcting the bass and treble (neutral, please) they were still rock-bottom at their price range. I thought the Polk RT600i speakers were abysmal in the $300 price range.. guess it gets a whole lot worse.

Good speakers at the price range of the Bose 601 speakers are the Wharfedale SP87-89 line that you can purchase from Ubid.com; as much as it makes snotty jerks like me wince at the prospect of paying less than $150 per speaker, the SP87s are incredible at their price range. Perhaps mine are a bit overmatched seeing as how I have over $3,000 worth of electronics driving them (hell, the CABLE going between all this stuff cost me more than the speakers..) but they really sound great. I think I posted a review about them earlier. The Infinity IL30 are at the same price point as the Bose 601's but with comparably magnificent neutrality and definition. Both the IL30 and the Wharfedale line can be bi-wired for vastly improved sound quality (no, the sales geek is not trying to pad an additional 20 feet of speaker wire onto your bill, cheapskate.. or if he is, it's for your own good).

Bottom line- at this price point, this is the worst god damn speaker I have ever had the misfortune to be in the presence of. Bose should be ashamed of themselves as a company for wasting valuable space in my sound room on these miserable excuses for loudspeakers.

Similar Products Used:

Infinity IL30, Wharfedale SP87, Polk RT600i

walnut veneer, excellent quality, natural sound

foam rot

what a steal! sure, bose today should look back to their roots, quality not $, but isn't that the problem with the world. i paid $50. for 601's (series 1,c.1977),and i wouldn't sell them for less than $500. one woofer had foam rot and had to be replaced (the guy had them in his basement), but i think no big deal, (bose sent me a free woofer). i hear that is a common problem for old speakers although my dynaco's which i have had for about 25 years seems fine.
i agree with consumer guide, 1979, "the bass response ramained strong, clean, and well-defined with an apparent rolloff from about 50 Hz downward. doubling effects in this frequency region were virtually nonexistent-even when the 601s were driven abnormally hard.the low end actually made it down to 20 Hz, although the response was understandably weak at this frequency. as weak as it was, however, the response remained relatively undistorted. midbass was smooth and powerful, but it displayed no undesirable false boom or heaviness. midrange and highs continued upward to beyond audibility with good balance, transient bite, and virtually no audibly directive effects up to the region of 10 kHz. beyond 10 kHz the output remained nicely distributed well off axis, and a slope to inaudibility started at about 15 kHz. response to broadband noise was fairly smooth, with a minimum of upper frequency coloration, and it was amply distributed into the lisening area. on some material, the highs from the 601 seemed a bit too prominent, and the speaker also presented what could best be described as "a close-up feeling." the 601 proved itself an undeniably clean and authoritative reproducer that spanned the full musical spectrum with ease and natural clarity."
i like the symmetry control switch, that adjusts the relative amount of high-frequency engery produced from the two tweeter pairs, but feel that speaker placement is very important.

Similar Products Used:

dynaco & wharfedale

Great midrange, true sounding highs, unique even bass quality.

OLD!

My father purchased the Bose 601 series 2 speakers new in 1983 and enjoyed them until 1997 when the woofers needed replaced. I got them from him and replaced the woofers(all 4!) for less than $200. My father and I have both loved these speakers now for 18 years and I hope to get at least 18 more. If you can find an older pair of these that need a little work, buy them! I challenge you to match the sound quality for any price even with today's modern equipment. HINT: Be careful with the grills- They're a little fragile. The Bose 601's of yesterday BLOW AWAY the ones on the market today!!! That includes the 901's. To all the Bose bashers: Try the old stuff before you run your pieholes!

Similar Products Used:

901,Advent Legacy, etc...