i bought my 701's 1 year ago for $699 though the base exchange mag. i have always been a bose fan, i believe their stereo everywhre is a great tech. i have them set up in my dolby digital home theather, and for movies these speakes rock!!! they are also a great music speaker if you like that live sound, i know these speaker are not for everyone but if you like your movies to come alive and surrond you from all directions without sitting in the sweet spot, and your favorite band or music artist feel as if they were sitting in front of you, these speakers were designed for you. if you would like to argue or need some more info please email to csnavley@webtv.net

First of all I would just like to say the Bose company is not that bad at all. Every review I hav read says that they are overpriced, well I wouldn't exactly call other speakers in the audio industry cheap, and then you still have to buy components. The 701 is a good value for the money,size, and sound compared to most other speakers in the range. I currently have a Lifestyles 25 system and for 2500, it was a good investment. I have not found another system in the world that is so simple to operate and setup. Most of the people I know don't want to dink around for ten minutes each time they want to hear a tune. With a 65 foot range remote I can be in my room, upstairs I can control what I am listening to. I have been complimented many times on the sound of the system in movies. The VideoStage is a very nice feature, it is quite like Dolby Digital except it puts it on every thing. Now tell me what other system lets you choose what speakers you are listening to by a button on the remote. And also 2 zone that can do two different things at once out of the same sleek unit??? What system packs this many features into such a small unit??? You be the one to tell me what big bulky rack unit plus sub plus ten quality tweeters with two zones, radio remote and circuitry designed not to blow the tweeters. Also I have never, never heard any distortion come out of those speakers, ever. You find me a better value with so many things, if you can, you probly can't. I have been so utterly pleased with this system I wouldn't think of owning another brand other than a Harmon product or Bose, so I am going to get myself a pair of these " Horrible, " yet wonderfully sounding speakers. Thank You Very Much. And for all of you who sit there and bad mouth Bose, PULL YOUR HEAD OUT, and face the facts and listen to the Bose and other brands and their prices, size, etc. And you probly will choose the company with integrity. And in case if your not entirely convinced, try looking at their website and LEARN!!!! www.bose.com-

I bought a pair of Bose 701 in October of '98. I absolutely love them. I haverediscovered my whole CD collection. The lows are superb, and the highs are incredible. Razor sharp definition. The soundstage no longer sounds like it is
coming from two boxes, but rather the whole end of the room. Recorded live performances sound errie. Listen to something like Carmina Burana or Alexander Nevsky on these! The only thing better is a live performance. Excellent for all types of music, but they excell at modern jazz, R&B, and classical. As an added bonus, I live in a condo, and the small footprint of the speaker design (just over the size of a piece of 8 1/2 x 11 paper) is great. My neighbor came over for coffee, because at normal listening levels, she thought I bought a powered subwoofer. Simply astonishing.

It has come to my attention by browsing through this web-site that there are many "Bose" bashers. Many of these individuals post reviews that are not helpful to consumers. While it is easy to say that a product sucks, stinks etc,it takes more intelligence to post a subjective review. In the future I hope that many more individuals will post reviews more helpful to everyone.Okay on to the review..... I purchased a pair of Bose 701 loudspeakers two years ago. I had not even auditioned but decided to buy them based on Bose's reputation. I brought them home and hooked them up to my reciever and couldn't believe that I had just payed 750 dollars for a pair of speakers that sounded no better than my previous Bose 301's which cost 319.99 dollars. What I heard was boomy, one note bass, ear-piercing highs, and mids that sounded harsh and grainy. After listening to these speakers for ten minutes, I had to turn my reciever off from "listening fatigue". I also did not like the colorations that the speaker reproduced. It made all of my music have an "echoey" sound, similar to using a "DSP" mode on your reciever for concert, hall, etc. I quickly packaged up the speakers and returned them to the store where I bought them. I later auditioned speakers from Infinity, Mission, Nht, Polk Audio, and Klipsch. I could not believe how much better these manufacturer's speakers sounded in comparison to the Bose 701's. I had finally heard music the way I knew it was meant to sound. The moral of the story is to audition everything that you can before settling on a speaker. Don't buy a speaker based on a company's reputation. If possible, make sure to audition a speaker in your home before purchasing it. While the sound of a speaker is a very personal thing, the sound of Bose products does not appeal to me. I would rate the sound quality of the 701 for the price a 2. If this review was based on looks of the 701 I would rate it a 4. However, in my opinion you can buy speakers for 100's of dollars less and sound much better than the 701's. If you love the 701's, audition Nht, B&W, or Paradigm loudspeakers against the 701's and you might be suprised at what you find.

To Greg: you have made up a whole story by insinuating I approve of $5000 cables in your own mind. I never mentioned that. There are a myriad of brands for less than Bose costs that sound better, on an extreme scale.
Bose having two 8" woofers is pointless, as a KEF 104/2 has two 8" woofers, yet hits cleanly into the lowest octave, Bose cannot hope to match KEF's clarity.
Yes Greg, if you like Bose, and think they belong in high end, I am saying you have bad taste and poor hearing. Take that for what it is worth, because you obviously cannot understand quality and clarity.
For the price of a pair of 701's you can get a 10" powered sub [paradigm, b&W, KEF, etc." and a pair of satellite [Signet, Paradigm, Boston, Kef, B&W and so on] that DESTROY Bose.
I bet you have velvet Elvis paintings and like to drink old milwaukee also.

These speakers just suck. A person I know wanted to compare them to some NHT SuperOnes and the Bose just died. The SuperOnes are half the price and one third the size yet they kicked the Bose around like a soccer ball. The Bose were less sensitive, dead in the midrange, grainy int the trebble and they couldn't even match the bass. These things just suck.

The examples why Bose is a waste of money and inferior sounding: For the price of the 701 I admit you get a good looking speaker, but you are paying for the hype.
Why would I settle for PAPER CONE tweeters, which have been superceded by decades as being a VERY POOR means of high frequency reproduction.
Why would I settle for weak 8" woofers with NO midrange driver when a good two way monitor with a sub has it all?
For the price of 701's:
You can get a 10" powered subwoofer from Paradigm, PSB, Energy, Boston Acoustics, and many more. These all are MUCH deeper and flatter than Bose could dream of. They get heroically close to the bottom octave compared to Bose.
They have no MIDBASS HUMP like all Bose have.
You can also buy a pair of bookshelf/satellite speakers from many companies that have a true, transparent midrange [not the nasally distorted Bose sound] with clean, crystal reproduction to 20khz, which Bose dies at 16.5. You will get a clear, [not Bose grainy] treble.
Why even buy Bose? the ads? you have to be like your neighbor? they look cool? I can afford what I want, Bose is never even a consideration because they are not real speakers.
I hear how bad they are in the dealer's shop, and at friends house they sound worse: no matter how well they are setup.
If you are non critical, and can't tell the difference anyway, buy Bose, but don't be fooled- they are not the best, they are not high end, and in most accounts, they are barely MID fi.
That is why they truly suck. To add insult to injury, you pay a premium price. It's like paying $15.00 for a quarter pounder at Macdonalds, when I can have ribeye at Outback.

After reading all of the postings here, I feel that I must present another negative side toward the BOSE 701. A close friend of mine bought the BOSE 701 and a pair of BOSE 301 Series 4. I thought that he had a great sounding system and I wanted to get a set of BOSE myself. To make a long story short, 1 year later and lots of research (which for those of you who think that research is going on third party info and believing the BOSE ads, you are way off. Try going into some of the stores that sell high-end equipment. They won’t mind setting up comparison demos for you.) I found that BOSE were high priced garbage. Needless to say, my friend agreed with my conclusions after accompanying me to the local HI-FI outlet. He feels like he got ripped off after spending all that money and not getting the quality a comparable speaker would have given him. I told him that the extra money was for the cheap BOSE key chain that he got in the mail a few weeks after he got his speakers. If you all want to know why there are so many BOSE bashers out there, take my advice and go discover what we’ve known all along.

I DON'T HAVE A PAIR OF 701'S JUST YET. AND I'M NOT MADE OUT OF MONEY LIKE MOST OF THESE BOSE BASHERS ARE. I JUST WANT TO PLAY MY OLD 70'S HARD ROCH AND HEAVY METAL REALLY LOUD AND FOR LONG PERIODS OF TIME. GOT A PIONEER AMP THAT PUSHES 250 WATT/CH. I'M SICK AND TIRED OF BLOWING 200-300WATT SPEAKERS. I JUST WANT TO ROCK MY WHOLE NEIGHBORHOOD TIL THE COPS ARE CALLED ON ME. SO ARE THESE 701'S THE BEST DEAL FOR THE MONEY OR WHAT?

I owned the bose 701's for 3 years before doing a complete overhaul of my home theater speakers. Used for the front channel they were powered by the Sony STR-DA80ES dolby digital receiver. Here are my pros and cons for the 701's:PROS-
1.Looks. These speakers just flat out look good! My wife put some of her household stuff on top of them (which i hated!). Friends would come over and think I was a doctor or something.
2.Bass. This speaker can put out some room filling bass that is actually impressive and not boomy. I listen to r+b and some rap and the 701's could produce bass that was really deep but for the most part smooth. Bass really comes alive when watching DVD(Sony DVPS7000)! When producing bass notes friends would look at the 701's in amazement.
3.Spaciousness. Makes the room sound larger than it actually is. 701's are GREAT for stereo listening because it sounds like a real concert.
4.Two tweeters. With one tweeter actually pointed at you this helped as bose has not been known to do this. The 4 tweeters actually surprised me as they spread the highs around the room and instruments seemed to be from all over.
CONS- 1.Midrange. What worked great for scenes with music did not quite do it when actors simply talked. Some of that crucial midrange is lost to the sidewalls when actors conversate.
2.Tweeters. Although the tweeters performed well you can tell bose tweeters from infinity tweeters as the 701's tweeters sounded grainy at times.
I now give my dad the 701's for his home theater. This is bose best speaker! I have upgraded to Infinity RS3 for front channel with Yamaha YST-SW150 powered subwoofer. Please see my review for bose 301 next.