Nice size for a bedroom, attractive modern looking cabinet, reasonably priced.

May get lost in a large room.

In have the 201's for over six years as speakers in my master bedroom, and feel they lend themselves well to this size room. Rarely do I ever crank them up. Even at low volume levels they sound good for an inexpensive speaker.

price. Good surround speakers

Lackluster sound, limited dynamic range

I bought these speakers to use as surround speakers, but have resently been using them as mains in a 5.1 setup. Set up on decent stands and with a sub. crossing over at around 90hz,the sound is decent enough. Sound from both movies and music is nothing special though. A little shrill on top frequencies. I think they worked better as surrounds where there limited bass and highs are less noticable. But for the price a good surround speaker or a so so main speaker.

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other bose products, infinity, yamaha.

These speakers provide enough rear channel to fill the entire back of the room with realistic effect instead of any "spot effect". With my son's d.j. service (mostly school dances), he has gotten only positive comments from the participants. The ultimate compliment to the system came during a sound check before a Christmas concert, when a teacher came into the gym looking for a "live" piano. It turned out only to be an excellent reproduction throuh his 201's. Enough said.

Bass could be a litle deeper (not much of a concern with the sub).

My family and I are very pleased with the performance of the the Bose 201's and the Bose Corporation. We used the speakers as rears for our surround system, which consisted of an Onkyo 575x receiver, Bose 501 fronts, a Bose VCS-10 center channel and a JBL SUB 6. Whether listening to cds or 5.1 dvds, the 201's always fulfilled or exceeded our audio expectations. We have since upgraded our system (another review), which gave our 201's and the JBL SUB 6 a new home, with my son and his small venture d.j. service. His system also consists of a Yamaha RX-V495 Receiver, Realistic mixer and Denon c.d. players. The bottom line for us is that we purchased an extremely versatile speaker system. I would love these in a dorm, on stage or in any living room. A very good value at any price I have seen advertised.

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Mirage MBS Bipolars as rears and sides. Bose 501's as rears and fronts.

Sharp crisp highs. Good price. Room filling sound. Great bose look and sound.

None so far. I am still breaking mine in.

These are great sounding speakers. I am using them as my fronts in a HTS. THe highs are crisp and tight. THe mids are decent. I have heard better mids but in more pricey speakers. I have a KLH 100 watt sub. The combination of the 201(F) Yamaha(C) Bose 141(R) and KLH(sub) my movies sound awesome, and my entertainment room is filled with pure music and sound when I listen to cd's. There are a lot of people out there are really biased against bose. I was one of them because I couldn't afford them. Now that I can, I am glad I did. I have a pair if Marantzs' that I bought about 20 years ago. With those added in the mix. WOW!!! The 201's are great for those who want to fill a room with sound and hear good quality sound.

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KLH 911b (With port)

descent sound for rear end of home theatre system.

Sound is miniscule. Cheap build as compared to Axioms 3ti. Way overpriced, should sell for no more than $120 a set.

Well I took the plunge. Four months ago I bought a home theatre system consisting of Bose 601, 201 and a center channel. The theatre rocks!? But after reading more reviews I started to have some doubts so when I was back in the states I decided to take the plunge for Axioms speakers in order to compare my Bose, what the heck if there not worth it I’d send them back to Canada before I headed back to Europe. What a shame that I can’t get them mailed to Europe through the Fleet Postal Office (FPO). I tell you the Axioms sounded terrific! The Axioms bookshelves alone make me mad at paying so much for the Bose 201. I wish there was some way of getting my money back. As a home theatre system goes the 201 don’t have a critical role to play, they just provide the background. For this purpose alone I feel that I have paid too much. I have done a lot of research because I wanted to get my home theatre system right the first time, and now that I have had my system up and running for nearly four months I will say that it is not an easy task finding the right components to create the Ideal system. And I wasn’t aware of what I was missing until I bought the Axiom millenniums, which are highly, rated for their build and their fidelity. I will say this, “the 201’s cabinets are made of cheap plastic and the binding post are not of gold. Oh they’ re okay sounding for rear speakers, but trust me they are not worth the money I paid, but for fifty dollars more I could have had the Axioms 3ti’s, which have a substantially better build, offer three color choices, gold post, and a removal grill, so I could see what it is that I am paying for. No matter your choice of bookshelves you still need a power sub like my 10’’ Yamaha subwoofer (YAM-YSTSW320) to get your walls to rock when listening to Bach’s great organ pieces, and trust me nothing less than 10” of down firing power will due. A dual scanning Sony CD player utilizing an optical cable that runs into my Denon 2803 receiver now plays my CD’s and DVD’s. This arrangement gives me the best of both worlds. I get true symphonic reproductions, and a top-notch home theatre system that rumbles my walls, and has me leaping for cover when explosions go off, Holy Moly!

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Axioms 3ti's of course they're not in the same league. Axiom is hi fi, and these bose are lo fi!

The company's name

Not a real value for the cost.

Well it has been four months since my last review. I bought the Bose 201 as a compliment to my 601, which are part of my home theatre, and I thought that they sounded good, but they are certainly not made to be alone, like a good pair of bookshelf speakers. I recently bought a pair of Axiom bookshelf for about fifty dollars more. Let me say this The 201’s don’t even come close to the build of the Axiom for the fifty-dollar difference, and I can understand why Bose chose not to have the grill made removable. So I do understand the negative comments, but as a home theatre system the 201 don’t have a critical role to play, they just provide the background. For this purpose alone I feel that I have paid too much. I have done a lot of research because I wanted to get my home theatre system right the first time, and now that I have had my system up and running for nearly four months I will say that it is not an easy task finding the right components to create the Ideal system. And I wasn’t aware of what I was missing until I bought the Axiom millenniums, which are highly, rated for their build and their fidelity. I will say this, “the 201’s cabinets are made of cheap plastic and the binding post are not of gold, they’ re okay sounding for rear speakers, but trust me they are not worth the money I paid. For fifty dollars more you can have Axioms 3ti, which have a substantially better build, offer three color choices, gold post, and a removal grill so you can see what it is that your paying for. No matter your choice you still need a power sub like my 10’’ Yamaha subwoofer (YAM-YSTSW320) to get your walls to rock like when I listening to Bach’s great organ pieces, and trust me nothing less than 10” of down firing power will due. My CD’s and DVD’s are played now a by dual scanning Sony CD player utilizing an optical cable that runs into my Denon 2803 receiver. This arrangement gives me the best of both worlds. I get true symphonic reproductions, and a top-notch home theatre system that rumbles my walls, and has me leaping for cover when explosions go off, Holy Moly!

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Axiom's 3ti

Crisp sounds all around me.

None yet!

Wow, I tell you these bose's sound fantastic. I don't know what some of the negative comments are about. I have donet allot of research because I wanted to get it right the first time. I'm stationed in Italy and have attended over 40 symphonies and as many opera’s. Believe me when I say that my house sounds like a concert hall. I can hear every single instrument as if they where playing in my home. I didn’t pay much more than 1500 dollars for my system, which consists of two Bose’s 601, Bose center channel, two Bose 201’s, for the rear surround, and a powered 10’ subwoofer by Yamaha. My cd’s are played on a Sony play station with an optical cable running into a $500 dollar Denon receiver. I tell you I have the best of both worlds. I get my symphonic reproductions, as well as top notch home theatre that rumbles my walls, leaps my out of my seat, and has me doggying bullets and laser blast, holy moly!

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Infinity and Polk audio.

good size for a bookshelf nice design clear, crisp sound great deal

none

I don't know what a lot of people are complaining about these for. I think they sound great.. plenty of power for my small room and the vocals are clear. I listen to a lot of psychedelic music with weird noises and stuff andthese speakers bring them out great. great deal. highly recommended

crisp highs lots of mid

low end but that is to be expected

Lets face it there are people that hate Bose. I myself do not understand this. I have these bose 201s as my mains for years. they provide a clear rich sound at any volume my amp can provide (80 watts @ 4 ohm). frequencies lower than 100hz are non-existant. but if you think about it where do you get a 6 1/2 inch woofer that will blast a 25hz frequency with some authority at the less than 350 dollar range. i mean these speakers sound just fine on there own but really need a sub to be apprecated. running along with the bose 201s i have a 10" custom built bandpass sub (400 watts @ 4 ohm) even the crazy amount of sound this subwoofer produces the 201s fill in the sound with amaizing prosistion.

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Bose JBL Polk cerwin vega

Bernhard Stenchlik Gartenstr.113 10115 Berlin Germany

Bose 201 Speakers