Low price, very small and light, great sound - classic Rear Surround Speakers

needs a bit more power

I have used the Bose 141s as rear surround speakers since 1996. my reciever is a pioneer pro-logic 4x110Watts.
What can i say? these speakers rule. Don't be idiots and say that they lack low bass cos they are not meant to deliver that kind of frequency. for stereo speakers use normal, BIG speakers and tweeters and stuff. don't dish the 141s just cos you use 'em for the wrong purpose - they are *1-way* speakers. and they are the best 1-way speakers i have ever heard.

If you need rear surround speakers they are a good choice. if you need front speakers do yourself a favour and buy some decent 3-way speakers with a 10"+ woofer or a subwoofer instead.

small, portable

pure cacophony

I bought these hastily for my dorm room at college. My first impression was that these things were the worst speakers I've ever heard. I have JBL 4312's at home but no way of getting them to school. I drive the 141's with a moderately powered receiver. Let me tell you they sure do suck the juice for no output. Where's the sensitivity? I only use these things out of pure necessity. I plan to upgrade soon. All the sounds run together. I wish I had taken a more educated approach and use the 80 bucks elsewhere.

Fairly nice looking & handle 40 watts continuous power.. They look like they might even be waterproof!

no lows, no highs.. THEY SOUND LIKE CHEAP SHELF SPEAKERS!!

For shelf speakers, actually bookcase speakers, they aren't bad for the price (the price I paid). I didn't really pay much attention to them until I turned up the volume.. most of the time I flood the house with my own low-level version of MUZAK while I do what I do. The sound is flat but at low levels, hardly noticeable. That's it. FLAT. I'm not a audio guy so I don't know all the jargon.. but I have a keen sense of hearing. FLAT FLAT FLAT For $50.00 you would be hard pressed to find speakers this nicely finished.. if on the other hand you bought your speakers to listen to, well, don't give the old speakers away. I BOUGHT THESE BASE ON THE BOSE NAME AND THE SALES LITERATURE. I BOUGHT MY MARANTZ 2270 BASED ON SALES LITERATURE. I guess it doesn't always work out that way. These speakers are nicely finished, have a nice heft to them, are a convenient size for apartments or small homes.. but THEY DO NOT SOUND LIKE QUALITY SPEAKERS-THEY SOUND LIKE CHEAP BOOKSHELF SPEAKERS. I am not an audiophile, but I did manage to find my way here to this website and am I glad I did. These reviews will "greatly" help me in making another selection. For what I paid, eh.. they're alright.

Similar Products Used:

Sony, JBL, Marantz

Great sound, small size, attractive looking.

No real clear cut way to set up like my KLH set has with mounting brackets, etc.

First of all I just want to say that I think it's pretty crappy that there are so many people that put reviews on here that don't even own a set of these speakers, or many will say they have and seem to be lying about it. I am a full time musician that hears live music, recorded, etc very often. I am slowly putting together a decent "home theatre" system and decided to head over to Circuit City and Best buy and compare different speakers to start out with for my rear channel.
I'm not going to say I'm an audio expert, because I'm not, but I listened to many of the different speakers at both stores and found the sound quality to be great in nearly all of the Bose speakers. It seems like whenever a company or person is on top of it's game in this world there are always ignorant jackass's to bring it down. I'm sorry but these 141's that I decided to go with have a great sound for the money. I paid $60.00 for the pair on sale and compared to the other brands I listened to they sound pretty damn good. I was actually dissapointed when first seeing these as the ads and such kinda depict them as being larger in size but after I heard the sound I was pretty happy. I think it's pretty amusing reading some of the reviews actually on the 301 series speakers and hearing one gentlemen say he bought a pair of $40 speakers that sounded better than the 301's... get real. I don't know what or how, or when someone is able to consider themself and "audiophile" but many of you people are way to into your narrow minded train of thought. Most people out there that I know of want to hear good sound, plain and simple, and they want a product with a good record to back it up. Bose isn't brought up often when talking about good speakers for nothing. Talk about all the other brands and bash Bose all you want, I think there are several other good speakers out there, but when it comes down to it what speakers usually recieve the highest praise, which speaker do quality sports cars and luxury cars usually come equipped with for superior sound? I own a 86' Mazda RX-7 that had polk audio but the original owner switched over to bose and I love it's sound. Back to the 141's, sorry. I recommend these speakers for anyone who wants an all around decent speaker for a bookshelf type system, or for anyone who wants a nice surround sound speaker, keep up the good work Bose.

Similar Products Used:

KLH 911b speakers closest probably.

Price/Performance as Surrounds - with other Bose speakers

None that I can determine, for my application

These little speakers perform well as Rear Surrounds in my HT setup. At $70/pair from Circuit City, the price was right. They sounded better than the Bose Model 101's and the upscale JBL's in the store, and are much better than my old "entry level" JBL's at home.

I have them sitting on a pair of home-brew speaker stands about 4-1/2' tall and about 10' apart. All my HT speakers are oriented in shallow arcs, as suggested by Crutchfield. My other speakers are Bose 4001 mains, Bose VCS-10 center, and a JBL PSW-10 S/W. I have not used the 141's as mains, and don't intend to.

My experience seems to bear out the observations on other threads that Bose speakers play well with other Bose speakers, but may not be compatible with other brands. I can't really comment further on this, as I have little or no opportunity to experiment.

Bottom line: The Bose 141s sound good in my setup, fit my budget, and fit my room - I'm happy with them. They are certainly woth consideration as Rear Surrounds, especailly with other Bose speakers.

Similar Products Used:

JBL

I bought a pair of these 141's and was really impressed. They provide amazing sound for how small and cheap they are. They do lack a little bass and aren't the best on really bright highs but they sound amzingly good for a single 4.5" driver. If you are looking for a small speaker with big sound for not a lot of money I would go with these.

I had these 141's for about a year already. i recently upgraded my system (to Infinity Delta 60 and center, DVD Panasonic A120-U, Teac AGD9000 receiver, Advent AV550s 15 in Subwoofer, and more)while i used these as surround sound speakers. So far, these 141 provide excellent background noise. They are pretty good since you aren't suppose to really listen to the background noise but rather wash you in them. I do agree that they cannot be used as main speakers because they sound bad then. I would love to upgrade these speakers once i can afford better stuff. I would love to get the Infinity Delta 30's as surround but i'm a college student. so....these will do for now. the price is great for surround speakers but pretty bad for main speakers....so a 4.

I like mine. But, I use them in a nearfield studio situation. They are one of four pairs of speakers/monitors I check mixes on, and they are not bad. The response curve is very flat, so yes for pure listening and sweetning the sound they are not that great. But they give you a good Idea how a mix is going to sound on mid level equipment. The price is not bad either. To clarify my rating, pure sound enjoyment I give them a 2, for accuracy and detail vs. price they get a 4 so the review stands at a 3.

This is another over-priced, over-hyped, and under performance product from Bose. My advice is to buy KLH's mini-monitor at Best Buy (cheaper, better build, mid-range/tweeter construction means better performance, and a "key-hole" for easy hanging so you won't even need to buy a bracket). If there is no Best Buy my advice is to go to Radio Shack and buy their Pro-X55AV when it is on sale. Since in DPL the frequency is about 100-12000hz (usually 100-7000hz but some tracks actually goes much higher) and DD processors can usually redirect bass lower than 80-100hz their is no real need for rears to produce bass (though in DD and DTS has full range capability making it now necessary to use rears with tweeters). To explain the construction and performance of this driver (Bose) compare it to the 70s & 80s car speakers (at least these had paper "whizzer" cones for high frequency production, this Bose don't). Please look at other options and try other speakers as these are very poor and comparible to the type of speakers found in clock radioes, old cars, entry level boom boxes, and TV speakers (otherwise HT would never have took off). Bose make sales off their name, advertising, and "cute/small" size (their are other companies that are just as small but have incorporated tweeters and midranges). Though I don't expect a speaker this small to sound awesome, for a limited purpose speaker there are better options.

Small size

Sound quality

What can I say, you get what you paid for. Works well as a rear speaker though.

Similar Products Used:

Klispch