Overpriced, coloured sound, poor imaging. Spring clips, paper drivers, extreemly bright, aweful mid range.....

I see that in America, Bose means good sound. So I try experiment, I use low power SET amp. I can not belive that the sound was this bad. I even try a solid state amp. Nothing will prepare you for the sinking feeling that you get when you realize that you have been ripped off by the American Marketing Machine. Better sound through research may be the motto, but Better hook em while they are still young sounds more like it. The Tobacco industry could only wish that the had the support of the American joe average, like Bose does. It is a shame what passes for quality speakers these days....

Similar Products Used:

many.... none this bad!

They look good, but looks can be deceiving...

Everything!!!!

I purchased a pair of these speakers before I knew anything about home theater. I went with all the advertising hype from the magazines. Little did I know that there are better speakers, at half the price.

It's kind of ironic how Bose wants you to compare their speakers to other manufacturers, but they insist their vendors to have seperate listening rooms to demo its' products.(are they afraid of being exposed) Even to the casual listener you can hear how deficient their speakers sound. Remeber that Bose has more money budgeted for advertising than most speaker manufacturers make in a year.

Direct reflecting tweeters

Not the greatest sounding speaker out there for that price

Point blank and period, these speakers fall short of good sound. They are very expensive if you were to buy them at full retail, but a lot of other speakers are too, so that is not really my gripe. I got a set because I was told by so many people how great Bose speakers are and I found them cheap at a garage sale. It seems that the guy who sold them to me was owed some money and did not know that he could have sold these for a lot more. They sound about as good as the cheap box speakers at best buy, like the KLH speakers. I use them on my Deck, as the are light enough to move around. The sound is about average, not worthy of a 800 dollar price tag, but they work. I like them best outside in an open air enviroment. If you can find them really cheap then you are going to in for a treat, as the bandpass woofers crank out the the boomy bass needed for those late night parties. Most of the people that have heard them say that they sound good to them, but they are casual listeners and a 5000 dollar speaker sounds as good to them as a 500 dollar speaker. I got so many remarks, like wow those sre really expensive speakers to use outside. I guess Bose speakers ae precived to be very expensive by the masses, which is normal.

Similar Products Used:

tons and tons of speakers...too many to name

Slim design, trendy looking

we will get to that.

Average sound at an above average cost. That is what you get when you buy these speakers. I myself did not want to buy them, but my wife thought they sounded great. I figure that it could have been worse, she could have forced me to buy the AM 10s. I feel that I can write a review of these speakers because I payed for them for my wife's stereo. I bought her a 25 disk sony changer and a Yamaha receiver for her birthday/anniversery. I thought that it might be nice for her to pick out her own speakers for Christmas, so to the stores we went. The gear I bought her is great and I got a good price on it, but I feel that I paid way too much for the Bose speakers. I have never heard such poor sounding speakers at this high of a price.They are overly bright,bright to the point where I have to leave the room when she turns up the volume. The low end has no clarity to speak of. The midrange is fine if you like it spread out all over the place. I do not understand why these speakers are priced so high, I mean I paid $500 for the Yamaha and it has a lot going for it. 24-bit D/A converter, 100 watts per channel and so on. I had a set of 10.2 Bose speakers in college and they cost me a good buck, but that was when Bose made a good product. I found this site when I was shopping online and thought I would check it out. I see that some people like these speakers and that is fine, but I can only say that I am glad that I have my own set up to listen to music. I can't listen to the 701s for more than 15 minutes at a time, I want to cringe, but my wife is happy.

Similar Products Used:

too many to speak of

none for the price they are asking

spring clips, side firing midrange driver

Although I don't own these speakers I have heard them on many occasions. I even thought about buying them. I have owned the Bose 601 series I speakers since 1980 and was looking at replacing them with another Bose product. I did not buy the 701 (or 501) because they did not sound near as good (IMO) as the 601. Build quality of the newer Bose speakers are inferior to the older ones (pre 1990). Then I heard a pair of speakers that blew away the Bose 601, the BIC V736. The MSRP of these floorstanding speakers are half of what Bose charges for the 701 and they sound ten times better! People had always told me that a 2-3" paper tweeter could not compete with a 3/4-1" dome. I did not want to believe it, but they are right. Bose owners are missing alot of the music. Take it from one who has owned Bose speakers for over 20 years.

Similar Products Used:

Bose 601

Good looks, perfect for non-audiophiles

Bright, over-priced, mushy bass

The BOSE debate rages on and on. What all the audiophile nuts don't realize is why do so many people buy and LIKE Bose speakers. Audiophiles scratch their collective heads wondering "We heard these speakers, they don't sound good, the average consumer LOVES them!".

Hopefully, after my own in-home listen, I can explain the situation. I hooked up the Bose 701's to my Nakamichi AV-10 receiver (admittedly not the best amp in the world, but I had under $1,000 for my receiver). I played my classical and rock CD's through my best CD player (my Toshiba 2200 DVD). Throught the "B" speakers, hooked up to the AV-10, I switched between a pair of Tannoy's and Paradigm's I brought home from a local dealer.

The Bose were perfectly engineered for novice listeners. This means they were overly bassy and bright. An introducing study was done by THX. While this study didn't say anything new, it confirmed what audio experts have considered general knowledge for years, that the untrained ear 'prefers' extra bass and brightness in their music. THX took 100 people and put them in a room. They played music and soundtracks using state-of-the-art equipment, where even most golden-eared audiophiles would have a hard time determining if the music was live or recorded. They then artificially (ie: using an equalizer) boosted the bass and treble. After this artificial boost they asked these untrained listeners which sound system they preferred, and 97/100 preferred the artificially boosted sound, even though it wasn't even close to sounding like the live music.

If you give a novice a 12 band equalizer and tell them to use it in their home to make their sound better, when you go back a day later you'll see the equalizer in the classic "smiley" face configuration. Bose marketing have known this for years, which is why sales continue to sore and audiophiles continue to scratch their heads.

In my listening tests I found the 701's not only bassy and bright, but the bass was very mushy. Drums lacked the sharp 'whack', and violins were harsh sounding. Lack of a smooth upper end really made listening to classical music difficult on these speakers. The Tannoy's were beautiful, very neutral. That's when the neighbor came over to say hi. I brought him downstairs and played some music, first through the Bose and then the Tannoys. He said he liked the Bose better, so I just sat their scratching my head.

Similar Products Used:

Tannoy, Paradigm

Great sounds, highs-lows-mids

none

You don't need "TECH" talk to understand these speakers. THEY JUST SOUND GOOD. REALLY GOOD. HIGHS, MIDS, AND LOWS. THEY SOUND GOOD. What more could anyone want to know about them? Speakers are SOUND. I have listened to many, many speakers and the "TECH" information never co-relates with actual sound. NEVER. THE REASON I LOVE THESE SPEAKERS IS BECAUSE OF SOUND.

Similar Products Used:

Infinity, Polk, JBL

The Bose 701's were on my audiotion list this past month. They are quite pricy for a pair of paper tweeters and an 8" woofer. Compared to virtually *every* brand I listened to, Bose came in dead last in accuracy, clarity, dynamics and price quality.
The previous poster makes all Bose clients look bad, he is defending his poor taste and listening ability with vulgarities and attacks on those that have taste and logic.
If someone heavily adveratised a Ford Escort, and said how great and fast it is, you still could compare it with other cars too see what hype it is. Bose cannot deliver the goods, but the 701's do look like pretty door stops. As far as sound goes, they sound better than bottom of the line Sherwood, Kenwood and Pioneer speakers, but the mid model Pioneers have actaul woofer and dome tweeter, costing 1/2 of Bose.
I am not endorsing poor Japanese speakers, I am just saying by comparision they sound better, do more, and cost less than Bose. And yet they are trash compared to American, canadian and European models too numerous to mention.
Bose will never be a constellation, but it will always be a star---one star!

I just got the 701s and I have to say they are EXTREMELY good sounding speakers. I agree 100% that whoever posts a one-star (speaker) review for this is the type that buys $12,000 amps and $50 per foot speaker cable, and then some. Come on, these are very good for the money (and even if it was a little more $$$!)
The only thing that pisses me off is the connectors are at the bottom...it doesn't make sense unless you have some kind of custom design where you want to have wires coming through the floor, but even then...

Other than that, they're great. Fuck off you Bose haters.

QUOTE:"he is defending his poor taste and listening ability with vulgarities and attacks on those that have taste and logic."

Oh so you're saying that just because I like Bose that I have poor taste and listening ability? Do you know me? Ever heard of something called stereotyping? And you're saying that $5000 speaker cable is worth it? Oh yeah OK you have lots of taste and logic, especially since you don't even know that the 701s have TWO woofers, and TWO tweeters AND a midrange. Get your facts straight buddy.