After hearing all of the negative reviews on Bose products, I decided to give them a listen when I went out to Electronic Express at my local mall.
For a fairly small and inexpensive speaker sysytem, I thought the Bose 301 sounded decent. Imaging seemed somewhat fuzzy, but that could have been my location in the store. Bass seemed a little punchy, but was not overly offensive. Overall, not bad. Not bad!

I would not mind owning these speakers in an office situation or small bedroom.

Went speaker hunting the other day. I read all this crap about Bose and thought "Can they really be that bad?" I was seriously considering these, and the 201s as well. The sales rep whipped out some lame stuff that made it sound good. I plugged in a few CDs of mine and realized that these didnt do justice to anything I listen to. There were no highs and very little bass. Mid was nice, but that hardly justifys the lack of everything else. For the same price I got a pair of Infinity RS3s. These just walk all over the 301s. I will give these 3 stars because they werent all that bad. I just wouldnt buy them.

Bose has been the same for 20 years or so. Paper tweeters and a paper woofer.Other bookshelf models will reveal a nice treble to 20khz. And a less mid bass boomy low end. For this, Bose gets a generous 2 stars.

Last night I tested the response of the 301 speaker system with a test CD, the high end was about 18khz and the low is about 67hz. So the response of the BOse 301's is fairly good. I have my new KSW 12 Klipsch sub set around that point.


Bose 301 series 4 67-18,000hz

These speakers have some of the most incredible booming bass response from some mid-size speakers that I've ever heard. You can feel the spl's hitting you on each bass note. Unfortunately the sound quality is lacking, and the treble response is not too great.
A definite four star speaker, but it loses one star for being overpriced, and loses another star for having bad sound quality.

First these speakers are a disaster for home theater. With their midrange pointed away from the listener you must be..... not even going to get into details. For just less than half the price i bought some pinnacles that sound so much better, much clearer better vocals. I had the bose for two years and unloaded their "direct reflecting" junk on some sucker for 190. 2 for sound one for price

I bought a pair of Bose 301 speakers, after that I went into this site and I was very disapointed with the reviews about them. After listening these speakers, I think they are not bad at all. The soundstage is the best I have ever listening, everything is there. I don't know why they hate Bose speakers?.I give four.

well bud,I will tell you why I hate BOSE.
The ALL are made of the cheapest PAPER drivers whuich are whizzer cones. NO real mids, or tweets for the price.
I listened to SIGNET speakers that cost the same, they had a REAL [seas] tweeter and Vifa woofer. They had dynamics and transparency that BLEW BOSE AWAY ON EVERY LEVEL!!!
I look at Bose as a gimmick speaker, not quality reproduction. For price VS performance, I rate the 301's a reluctant 2 stars.

Perhaps the best speakers I have ever bought. After reading all of the bad reviews, I was not sure if I should have picked them up or not, but as soon as they were hooked up, I knew that I made the right choice. I am using these speakers for my primary front speakers in my home theather setup. The bass is slamming and the high's are right on the money. Absolutely the perfect choice for home theather. I still do not know why people give Bose a bad review. They must be doing something right to be around for so long. If NASA trust's them, I trust them. There are alot of higher priced and better sounding speakers on the market, but as for price, name, and sound quality, you can't beat the Bose 301 Series IV.

Bad news Chris, I like many other people have beat these at a significantly lower price. I own the OPTIMUS PRO-LX8s that I paid $99/each on sale about 2 years ago that would blow those paper drivers of yours away with no problems. There are also people who have purchased the Paradigm Titans/Atoms, PSB Alphaes, B&W 302s, Mission bookshelves, Tannoy Bookshelves, Polk Bookshelves, Infinity Bookshelves, and many more that sounds much better for a much lower price. I hope you recently bought these speakers so you can return them but before you do go to any real audio store and ask to do direct comparisons with similar to lower priced bookshelves and you will amazed that what you bought is easily the worst buy. The bass is harsh, mid is colored, and highs roll off so quick with no definition that you actually would be hard pressed to find a speaker of similar price with worse performance. Though this throws a large soundstage it lacks imaging because of the dopplar effects of the poorly placed tweeters. This speaker also uses paper drivers when most of their competetors use a stronger poly (or at least treated paper) and real tweeters (usually polycarbonate though some use metals like aluminum). Most competetors now use gold plated binding posts (Bose use spring clips) and at least 1/2" MDF that is braced (look inside and prepare to be disappointed). Bose only use a in-line poly capacitance while others use a cross-over network for the bass and tweeter. Look at the thin interior wire connectors in your Bose and the lack of dampening materials. Nasa uses Bose for SOUND CANCELING not SOUND PRODUCING and this is based on low-bid contracts (with paper drivers this should be an easy win). Pick-up this Bose 301s and then lift any other brand with a quality associated name and you will notice Bose is lighter because it is built worse (this is really bad when some of their competitions woofer are just 5.25"). Have you noticed that no movie theater brags about a Bose speaker system, no Bose owns a THX certification, and no recording studio uses Bose for mixing and shouldn't these be indicators that you shouldn't use them either. At least Optimus is the official speakers of the Rock-N-Roll hall of fame and these can be found at RS. Sure you can find Bose in certain stadiums but these are maybe the easiest least demanding environments to produce sounds. To give you an idea of the quality of drivers in your typical Bose products compare them to your TV, Clock Radioes, Boom Boxes, Cars 50-mid 80s, and your lowest of the low-end speakers. The funny part is that this is actually one of the better Bose products (LOL) when it comes to sound reproduction which should really tell you how bad of a line of product this is. Have you noticed that no high-end dealer has these setup for sale (some have them for comparison and would love to sell them for the high profit margins but after hearing the other offerings for the same or lower price no one could really consider this unless they are tone deaf or completely deaf). Most of us who do listen to well built speakers just are amazed at all the Audio newbies who continue to buy from this company (especially the ones who keep buying from this company, what fools), even at one time I considered buying from this company (even this particular model) until I seriously listened to other brands and realized how horrible this really is. I hope for your sake Chris that you can still take this back and after listening to other brands I think you will agree with me and all those who are not bashing this for the sake of bashing but wish to reveal to all others the truth. I hope if enough people stop buying Bose that maybe just maybe that they will come out with some real speakers that doesn't require Origami skills to manufacture.