Bose name on the front means something to some people. Mediocre sound - as average as any other cheap speaker.

Average, cheap speaker. Crappy 'guillotine' wire jacks

I used to sell Bose, Pioneer, JBL, Cerwin Vega, etc - all of the big 'box pusher' warehouse store speakers - and I've listened to them all fairly critically over the years. However, perhaps my ear is a little more fussy than yours, so if you like them, buy them. But do yourself a favor and walk down the street to the little audiophile store first and try out a real speaker. When you listen to a speaker like Bose, JBL, whatever, just remember - you're getting what you paid for. From my experiences selling speakers, listening to speakers, installing/building speakers, etc. you CANNOT get a good speaker for $300. The crossovers alone would probably cost close to that for a quality speaker. There are a lot of companies out there that make quality speakers, not quality marketing. Listen to a good set of speakers and the Bose name will start to mean: Better Order Something Else If all you have to spend on a pair of speakers is $300 then either wait and save your money or realize you won't come home with a super-good quality speaker and buy the best of the worst. I don't mean to say they are crap just because they are Bose. Yes, they sound terrible. But yes, so does every other $300 speaker.

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any and all speakers, $100 to $20000

dynamic hanging in the corner of the room!

Needs sub to complete the package.

I purchased my bose 301 new in 1981, they have outlived my Yamhaha amp, denon amp, pioneer amp and many other speakers along the way ... they are now hooked up to my hk arv20II as front channel speakers. Just last week, the foam around the woofers came apart... I can get a kit to repair this for around $20 and will. I will also go out and purchase a new set of speakers. I plan to audition as many as possible - but the real kicker for me is I like to hang my speakers in the corner of the room and this speaker works wonders. I am a very satisfied customer... say what you want about bose, mine are 20+ years old - that's about $8.25 a year. That's value. Oh yeah, they survived the 80's when I used them hard.

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yamaha, pioneer, sony, b&o, cv

Great sound, good price, small enough for wife to accept.

everyone thinks you''re a yuppie just ''cause you buy Bose.

Fantastic Speaker for the money..... I wasn''t going to buy these speakers after reading all the bad reviews on this site. I don''t know what everyones problem is... After testing MANY different speakers (of similar size and price) these speakers were my choice and clearly the choice of many other people around the world. Bose tends to have a real Love / Hate following - maybe it''s a genetic thing - if you have the gene you like them, if you don''t you hate them... So many people can''t be wrong. And to the Bose hate club out there currently reading this, no im not another sucker for Bose advertising because i have not seen 1 Bose ad in my life - They are not shown in Perth Australia... The bottom line is it all comes down to personal preference and i prefered to spend my $670(AUS) on Bose 301''s over many others, not because they are Bose but because they sounded better to me.

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B&W, Sony, JBL.

Sound quality is beautiful, Very good power handling for such a small cabinet, Price

Speaker wire terminal (push-button, needs bannana)

Well I just read all the reviews and a few things caught my attention. To start off the speaker is in the $300 price range, you can''t compare it to a legacy or m @ k, come on be a little practicle. Next this speaker is a bookshelf, not a powered tower. And finnaly saturn cars are made out of a polymer plastic but they are still considered to be good cars, so what does it really matter if these speakers are still made out of paper. If you plan on poking these speakers with you finger, yeah they might tear, but last time i checked these where indoor speakers that are stationary and have a grill for protection. My personal opinion is that with all the speakers i listened to before purchasing these is that in the correct room these speakers sound much better than any speaker, and thats compared to about 100 different brands, even recording studio speakers. The clarity with these speakers is award winning. And with a $300 price you can''t really find better. Once thing to consider is to get a subwoofer with these. The subs generally have a crossover with will eliminate distortion to a certain level. If you want extreme clarity and the most lifelike sounds these are the speakers

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Infinity RS 625, Mirage, Bose 901, Harmon Kardon, Polk

none

paper cones paper tweeter

cheap drivers,cheap cabinets,technology only takes you so far.these are junk

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b&w nht products

small, look great on stands, fills entire room with sound with no sweetspots

none

have had these speakers about 6 months now and they sound great. no matter where you are in the room. plenty loud enough with minimal distortion. i bought these after trying a pair of jbl bookshelfs and these bose sound much better. i don''t care what other people think about these speakers, good sound is different to each individual. i did add asubwoofer to compliment these speakers and the system blows people away when they come over and hear it. 5 stars for bose

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jbl,cerwin-vega

Realism, compact size, (these 8 in. are like other companies'' 10 s)

distortion at higher volumes on the bass end

I''ve had them for almost 4 years, and in that time I have listened to an incredably diverse and dynamic range of audio on them. They are amazinginly well suited for jazz music. If you have a good clean source... classical, as well. (A lot of symphonic music has a "hiss" that takes over the track at higher volume levels) How about the bass? Honestly my family has threatened to kill me in the past when I have cranked up some good "down south" rap like Master P. They get the job done. Without having tested them, I''d say they have a good bass kick at 50 hz, and can handle a clean sustained tone down to about 35 hz. I''ve listened to Prodogy and other electronic- style artists on them and they can be pushed! As far as vidio... I have them set up w/ my t.v. The imaging is so real, it often sounds like the diologue is coming from the screen, even though they are 2 feet away (like a center ch.) and yes, Ido turn the t.v. speakers off!

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Pioneer 10''s, Polk bookshelves, Satalite systems, ALL other store- exibited models

people might be impressed with the Bose name

too expensive for the quality of the speaker

Highs: very shrill and unatural sounding, limited in range
Midrange: colored and muffeld
Lows: none for a driver of 8"! Could not handle 80Hz test tone.
Imaging: forget about, my bookshelf Aiwa system does a better job of placing the instruments where they go.
Soundstage: rediculously large and overbearing.
Price/value: overpriced and poor overall quality.
On to the review..

Armed with the paper tweeters that every other speaker maker stopped using 25 years ago the 301s are in a class all by themselves. My Free Sony walkman's speakers don't even use paper tweeters, not that they are the last word in sound, but a metal tweeter might be a step forward for Bose.
Only a handful of speakers today still use plastic spring clips for the speaker wire, among these the 301's. The wrap on the top of the cabinet test shows just how poorly braced these speaker really are. When I popped the 8" paper driver out, I saw a lightbulb inside? The 301 is really a fullrange speaker posing as a 2-way, in that it don't gots a crossover, 'cept for a cap. So I put them back together and listened to some music. My test tape has tones from 17Hz all the way up to 25kHz, I ran a sweap of sorts first to break them in, then tryed to see how low&high they would play. 8" driver only made it to 100Hz without massive distortion, tweeters made it to 14Hz before no sound came out. I know that the people that like Bose speakers will have a field day with my review,"why did he take them apart, why didn't he just listen to them?" I did listen to them for about 5 hours, I was not impressed. I took them back and bought a set of Cerwin vega's at a local thrift store and I think I have made the right choice...

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I have used lots and lots of speakers before and built some too

handsome, clear & pleasant sounding...not "boxy"

placement

These are good sounding speakers...& that is what counts. I've heard Energy loudspeakers that proclaim to have very high & low frequencies...but they just don't make u feel "good".

Would u go for "numbers"/ "specs." or "feel good"???

If u wanna feel good...then go for these babies.

They're good for classical & concert dvd's. They really make the performance seem almost "live" ... I guess that's why u have to be very careful with the placement.

For those on a tight budget, these are good buys.
I use them with Yamaha 495 amp/tuner.

GOOD SPEAKERS.

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polks, b&W's, energy

I have listened to these speakers, as well as others in the Bose line for a while now as i am employed in the audio business. I will not say that the Bose line is trash, but i will say, that i am continually amazed that someone would actually purchase these speakers when they could get better at either the same price or less.

It is true that people hear things differently, but if you go on facts alone, its hard to argue.
Many Bose speakers DO NOT reproduce the full Frequency Range
Many are not quality built speakers
Most are very sensitive as to placement
And they are not very efficient.

So, with this in mind, i hope i have raised the eyebrows of some would be Bose shoppers. Please do a little reading, and educate yourselves on the basics of home audio and speaker geometry/specifications.

You will find that you can have some good, quality speakers for the same price or less.