Nice highs, Good bass, clean sounding. You can listen to these speakers at moderate volume for long periods of time(8-12hrs)without getting tired. Great Value!

Mid-Range...These frequencies are there, but they are faint. You have to 'listen' for these freqencies rather than just hearing them.

I've noticed a fact with bose reviews...You either absolutey LOVE the products, or absolutely appaul thier existence. For me, I absolutely love them. I have had them since 9th grade and Im currently a Junior in college, and these speakers have treated me very well. Just recently I purchased a Paradigm PS1000, subwoofer and that compliments these speakers greatly. I have a Yamaha RX490 amp that delivers clean supple power with ease. My father is a sound technician in the air force...and he knows his $hiT*(he builds this stuff from ground up), He is the one who steered me the right way with this system, and for the bang for the buck, my system was the greatest VALUE...Show me speakers that can produce the same sound quality for $180 bucks and I will shut my mouth. Till then these are #1 Bookself value. My father has owned TONS of speakers in his lifetime...as can recall getting rid of them for others and regretting it, and that advice is coming from a trained ear in audio. TRUE the 301's aren't the loudest,best, or most expensive but they do a damn good job. The beauty of these speakers rest in their quality of listening ease as I stated above. I have listened to many friends speakers, which are louder cranked up @ full volume, but the sound they inflict is rather harsh. I am very pleased with my current set-up...easy listening with rich deep bass satisfies my listening binges for many hours. It's weakness is midrange, but I am more concerened with crispy high's and nice filling bass... with more of an abstract sound of mid's. For my listening style I am very happy, and to those Bose bashers.....BOO YAH! HERES 5 FOR YOU! :)

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1st speakers ever owned :)

Bose name so you can sell it to a clueless friend.

Muddy sound. No clear highs. No punch to the bass.

I bought these babies because of marketing. I didn't listen to other brands first. I'm not a Bose basher. Unless that term refers to a disatisfied customer. Frequency response is impotant to compare speakers to each other. Listen to these and then listen to JBL S38 or S26's and you start to realise why Bose doesn't list specs. B&W 601's are the same price and infinitely superior in my opinion. Some instuments and sounds are missing when you listen to the Bose. Of course there are many other good speakers as well, these are just some examples I have run across. I have rid my home theater of the Bose name for good and am listening to a much better sounding system now. My friends haven't heard of B&W but they have heard that Bose is best. Bose makes speakers for the uninformed masses. Paper cones and tweeters, speakers boxes made of the cheapest possible material. I'd say it cost them about $50 to build, and the rest that you pay is in marketing and pure profit. Listen and learn. Quality speakers have cones not made of paper. Also look for binding post connections. And try not to buy from Best buy or Circuit City.

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JBL, B&W, M&K several others.

Clean, distinguished sound.

Not many.

While admitting that these are not the most powerful speakers in the world, for the price, what you get is clean, realistic sound. If you close your eyes the speakers seem to disappear while the music remains full and clean. As far as bass goes, a powered sub is needed for those who listen to rap or rock, but I can't think of one bookshelf speaker that this doesn't pertain to.

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Polk,Paradigm,Bose

old school

old school

these bose speakers are old school. tried and tested old school sound using old school tech. sound is modest relaxed and definitely not edgy. nothing crispy. great for natural music (i.e., classical, jazz, voice), but bad for electronica.

voices sound hella real with these speakers. electronically produced sounds sound poor.

good for mellow nordstrom music. the ladies like it cos its mellow and not edgy. young dudes don't like it cos it's old school and all sounds seem to be muffled.

all in all, i'd say a pair of bose fits the bedroom for a little nitetime listening, and keep a pair of crisper more modern speakers in the living room.

bose speakers are like cadallacs with pushrod engines, cush suspension, nothing dramatic. definitely no hi-revving sports car. if you're a chill person, you'd be happy with bose.

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Infinity towers

Wide expansive soundstage.

Bass response, highs are unpolished, cheap speaker wire connections, paper tweeters.

The 8" woofer can not handle anything lower than 100Hz without showing signs of strain. You will want at least a 10 band eq to tone down the midbass peaks or just live with the boxy sound that they produce. Male vocals are very colored in that they are mutted at times. The highs, like cymbols level off and do not extend as far as they should. A poor sounding speaker for demanding music like heavy metal or hard rock. A servicable speaker for softer stuff, like jazz or Folk music. If you don't have a crital ear then you may like them, but audiophiles will find lots to complain about and should pass on a purchase. Bose speakers seem to get a bad rap around here, but they are not the worst speakers on the market. The 301's work best with about 50 watts of continous power, as anything more overdrives them wildly. Once you get them set up properly, they offer a soundstage that is huge and very open. It sounds like you are listening to one big speaker, instead of 2 small speakers. If you are looking for a big soundstage and average sound, the 301's wil fit the bill nicely.

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None that employ the direct reflecting design

large soundstage

imaging, detail

Everyone seems to have a sort of love/hate relationship with this speaker; some hate to love them, others love to hate them. But extremes are rarely helpful advice, so I'd like to give my own observations from the middle ground: they're not the worst speakers out there, but they're definitely not the best either.
Contrary to what some audiophiles have stated, what's wrong with these speakers isn't that Bose Corp. practices ruthless marketing/advertising gimmicks. And I would even hesitate a little (just a little) when people argue that Bose speakers are made of cheap materials. Yes, Bose speakers use paper cones, but that doesn't necessarily make them bad speakers.
The problem stems from the flaws inherent in the design of the speakers and from Bose's design philosophy in general. Dr. Bose argues that 91% of the sound in a concert hall reaches the listener's is resonated off the walls, rather than direct, sound. Thus, his patented "direct/reflect" technology claims to reproduce these concert hall conditions and "spacious, lifelike" sound. While this may be true, what his speakers provide isn't "resonated" sound, it's "reflected" sound. Yes, there's a difference. Resonated sound emanates when objects are made to reverberate (vibrate) from a sound source. These reverberating objects then contribute to propagating the sound wave. Bose's favorite example of this phenomenon is the large sound coming from a small flute. The inside walls of the flute reverberate when played and amplify the sound by reinforcing the sound waves. But reflected sound, doesn't involve objects reverberating. It only involves sound waves literally bouncing off a surface, just like a visual image bouncing off or reflecting off a mirror. The light waves aren't causing the mirror to vibrate (like resonated sound), they are only bouncing off the mirror (reflected sound).
In the same way, Bose speakers don't emanate reverberated sound, only reflected sound. Bose does this by having the speakers fire BACKWARDS. In addition to the fact that this design only emanates reflected, not resonated sound, this rear firing design sacrficies imaging and detail. Imaging refers to creating a sonic picture. For example, when listening to a band on stage you should be able to close your eyes and say that the guitarist is on the left, the drummer in the back, singer in front-center, and bass guitarist on the right. But in order to "image" correctly, the sound waves must reach your ears at very precise intevals. Comparing this phenomenon to sight, you can only see in 3 dimensions because your left eye and right eye give you two different snap shots of the same visual image. In the same way, being able to judge distances and directions with sound is dependent upon the different times that the sound waves reach your ear. If the sound source is located to the right of you, sound waves should reach your right ear before your left one. Your brain translates this time difference as direction and tells you exactly where that sound source is.
But with Bose's reflected sound, the sound waves bounce off 2,3, or even more surfaces before reaching your ears. So, the distance the sound waves has to travel (and thus the time it takes to reach your ears) isn't dependent upon where your speakers (or sound source) are, but rather the dimensions of your room, the shape of your room, and the placement of the speakers. And while this may overwhelm the listener with a huge wall of sound (sound waves are literally filling the room and bouncing off every wall, the floor, and ceiling), the QUALITY of the sound that does reach your ears is not detailed and cannot provide an accurate image because the sound waves are travelling different distances and are bouncing everywhere. Hence, Bose's "revolutionary" "stereo-everywhere" technology argues that it has a much larger sweet spot than traditional front-firing speakers, which is true. However, this room-sized "sweet spot," isn't so sweet...neither is it detailed, clear, and clean-sounding.
These speakers were great 30 years ago before Dolby digital when everyone listened in 2-speaker stereo mode, but now many people listen with 5 or more speakers: 2 fronts, 2 rears, subwoofer, and center channel. In other words, there are other ways to create a large soundstage, i.e. to get room-filling sound. Try bipole rear speakers, for instance. That way, you'd have both the precise detail of traditional front main speakers and room filling rear speakers.
I'm not saying these speakers are bad. They're actually decent speakers. In fact, Bose speakers would make pretty good rear speakers because of the way they fill the room with sound. But as front speakers for a 5-speaker system? Technology has progressed from stereo mode to Dolby digital. Maybe it's time Bose speakers did too.

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axiom, psb, paradigm, b&w, polk

Is this a stupid question? What are you talking about? Why is this section even here for the speaker being reviewed? Is this a joke

Everything

I can't believe they charge $300 for this thing. It can't image, the direct reflecting technology makes it sound worse. Let me introduce you to my theory on Bose. I believe when the 901s first came out like about 30 years ago, they sounded good for back then. This speaker made bose famous. Now ever since everyone has thought bose made the best speakers. But those morons at bose are using the same technology that they used 30 years ago. Nothing has improved. All this company knows how to do is market. They take a cheap speaker, put a bose logo on it, and put on a big price tag. If you ever thought about the technology they use, it's stupid. Which other speaker company points their drivers backwards. If you notice all high end speaker companies that cater to audiophiles, have all the drivers pointing forward. this is because they image better that way. I challenge people who currently own these speakers to unscrew the woofer and take a look inside. Everything is so cheap. Cheap MDF, paper cones(even sony is decent enough not to use paper), and no crossover. THAT'S RIGHT NO CROSSOVER. Now how cheap is that they couldn't even put in a crossover. All they have is a capacitor mounted on the woofer to cut off high frequecies. The crossover is one of the most important parts of a speaker. The only thing that I could give them five stars for is marketing. I now use these speakers in my computor. That's all they are good for.

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Polk, Klipsh, Jbl, Infinity, B&W, Martin Logan

Makes noises that could be called music.

See reviews of others below.

After shopping around more, I've decided that this is a speaker that is less than ideal for music. I think I could build a better one for $100. Direct reflecting tweeter my ass. I've heard it from good authority that the salesmen laugh themselves silly after they sell a pair using Bose speak. I'm $350 dollars poorer. Mr. Bose was a respected name 20 years ago. What happened?

Absolutely NONE

sound quality. "No highs no lows ... must be Bose"

Wow do these speakers suck. They sound like a pair of $75 dollor speakers but cost $300. They lack any type of imaging and have absolutely no clarity in the mid range. Also they are made extremely cheaply so they probably won't last ... not that this is a bad thing though. The Polk audio RT35I is a far superior speaker in the same price point along with just about every other bookshelf speaker ever made in the $300 range. The only thing that saves it is that it does have above average bass response for a bookshelf speaker.

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polk, infinity

Handles a good amount of power , descent bass

clarity, too much coloration

I now own BA VR-950s, but I had the 301s a couple of years ago. I was a student back then living in a dorm. I listened to hip hop, r&b, and some dance music. The sony boombox I had finally gave up on me and I decided to take a step up and buy a receiver and a pair of speakers. I bought a sony amp and a pair of 301s. That costed me about $450.
To be honest with you, I really didn't care much about sound quality back then. It was really all about how loud they can go and the BASS. I hate to generalize, but probably most college students are the same way.
I also had a pair of 701s, but the 301s are much better.
The 701s produce boomier bass and have no clarity in the highs and mids. I've also listened to the 501s and they seem to have no bass.I'd have to be honest. The 301s cannot even compare to the BA750s I currently own. However, there was a time when I loved the speakers. Back then, I thought these speakers were the bomb. It's kind of depressing to see all these negative reviews on the 301s.