sounds okay

cheap materials used in construction

It is probably true that this Bose model is over hyped and should be sold for less. I have opened the box myself using a screwdriver, and I have observed that the construction is somewhat low in quality. Bose used cheap materials like ordinary capacitors, pressed board, paper cone and screws. This model must be targeted for budget conscious individuals who love to show off well-known brands like Bose. However, I still feel it is a little expensive for what you get. It may not be the best sounding speaker on the market for the price range but the quality of the sound of this speaker is okay. It does not sound like crap as others might put it. Sound quality is very subjective, and sometimes you need an equalizer to get the output you required. It is just unfortunate that I have not found technical specs like frequency response or sensitivity rating for this speaker. I must emphasize, however, that you can actually buy a better quality speaker for the same price.

full sound, fills the room

upper end

I am dissapointed to come to this WWW sight and see so many people posting like little children. With all of the power of the internet, why do we have so many rediculous sounding people and such useless information. Can't you stick to doing something useful.
With that said, I do like the 301 but I am a little dissapointed with the upper range of sound. For a bookshelf speaker, they are over all pretty good.

Similar Products Used:

Polk, JBL,

Great sounding product

Everything imaginable!!! absolutely the best speakers ever made!!! The base is only paralled by MAYBE the Wilson Audio WATT/puppy. and the Treble! My god, dynaudio wasted their time designing those silly esotar tweeters(not to mention B&Ws wacky nautilus tweeter design, but I'll get into that)!!! Who'd have thought that the best treble in the entire world could come out of a $2 paper wizzer cone?!

The only weakness I can think of is that their not for free!!!!!!!!! I love them THAT much!!!

I wanted a very accurate 2-chan music only system for my gameroom in the basement. so I decided that B&W Nautilis 803s with a Rotel RCD-990 CD player, Bryston 14B-ST amp (500 watts x2, $5500), and Bryston PB-25 MC pre-amp($2900) would be the way to go. And they where great!!! the base was incredibly dynamic with the 500 watts per chan, and the treble and mid range where some of the best I'd ever heard. But then One day my girlfriend made me go into the nearby bose-outlet. I didn't want to go, being the snobby rich audiophile that I am, but I went just to appease her. The first (and only thing) I heard where the Bose 301s. I couldn't believe my ears. The 301s have the best treble I've ever heard. Way better than those $95 tweeters that the 803s use. Here I went and spent $5000 on a pair of speakers when all along I could have gotten a $300 pair of BOSE that put my 803s to shame!!! I felt SO stupid. The 803s claim freq. response of 36Hz-20kHz. If thats true, then the 301s must be capable of like, 25Hz-40kHz!!!!! At least!!! That stereo everywhere sure works too! I used to have to SIT DOWN in the same chair to get the best out of my 803s. But with 301s, I can just wander the room and really scrutinize my favorite recordings. I mean the most carefull listening is always done while moving seats, right??? The best speakers on earth! I sold my 803s the next day and used all the money left over( I got $3600 for some stupid jack*ss!!!) to buy the 301s for $300 and spent the remaining $$$$ on candy bars and yahoo stock. I kept all the expensive electronics, I mean, $10000 of electronics is just the begining of what bose deserves right?!
The moral of the story? Bose speakers are the best in the entire world. end of story. If you spend money on ANYTHING other than bose, your wasting it;)

Similar Products Used:

B&W Nautilus 803s. Bryston electronics. Revel Ultima Studio.

They make good wheel chocks for my truck.

My dog refuses to pee on them.

These blow me morning, noon and night. Only a total boob would buy this trash. At the price or one-tenth of it, there are few greater rip offs in this world than this marketing-induced dreck. It has the sound of my dog with really bad cheese gas. Yet still, there are donkeys who keep buying this skee-ball prize. And then they delude themselves by saying how nice they sound, convincing the next moron to take the bait. Buying a Bose is like getting VD -- you just can't wait to infect someone else to make you feel better that you had to get it. At least you'll save on pest control, as they'll drive all the roaches from your home.

Very clean sound, responsive, excellent all-around.

Slightly awkward shape, positioning requires much trial-and-error.

After reading all the reviews here about these speakers, I had mixed feelings about buying them. That is, until, I heard them demoed in the store. There is no comparison to these speakers for the price. They sound fantastic on their own, but I'm using them as the front channels on a Surround system. By themselves they are also great for music (the stereo sound is damn good). I find it funny that ALL the poor reviews for this product were posted by people who 1) Hate Bose speakers and 2) Have never used the product. Bose speakers are designed for people who want to produce authentic sound. Many of the complaints against Bose speakers stem from arguments regarding synthetic sound. I am not interested in synthetic sound, therefore Bose speakers are fantastic. If you're interested in that sort of thing, these speakers are not for you. However, in 10 years, these speakers will still produce great sound you can appreciate, while others will begin to sound boring and stale. My parents had a set of 701's from 1975 that I've heard most of my life. I've compared the sound of those speakers to every other speakers I've heard, and 100% of the time the Bose speakers produce the best overall sound quality.

For lack of anything better to do, I tallied up the ratings on the Bose 301 Model IV speaker reviews here in this thread.

Prior to October 3, 1999, users were only able to submit an overall rating of the product. I included those scores in the "Overall Rating" results (below). That is why they are off balance with the "Value Rating" scores.

There were some duplicate entries, which I believe I've managed to exclude. However, I may have missed one or two. There were 112 reviews to go through. Overall, it gives you a good idea of the higher and lower end ratings given to the speakers by their owners.


Value Rating
____________

5 Stars - 26
4 Stars - 20
3 Stars - 10
2 Stars - 12
1 Star - 28


Overall Rating
______________

5 Stars - 24
4 Stars - 11
3 Stars - 11
2 Stars - 7
1 Star - 18


I'd like to take this opportunity to correct a comment I made in my review of the 301's (below). I said that Bose encourages you to compare them to any other bookshelf speaker on the market. I should have said, "in it's price range, on the market". Also, a value and overall rating was required to post this message, so I was forced to re-rate them. In doing so, I chose 3 and 3 stars, respectively, in an effort to keep this post from affecting the final rating. 3 is neutral and shouldn't change the current numbers.

To those of you who demo them at a store, have fun! In my opinion, they are great speakers for audio enthusiasts and entry to mid level home theatre users.

Sky

Wide Sound

Not very Good Sound Compared to the Competition, Cheap Materials

The only good thing I really noticed about these speakers was the wide sound it had, but that's where the good ends. The look, feel, and most importantly the sound is CHEAP. The materials are of the most cheapest quality and don't justify the $300 price. Do yourself a favor and spend your $300 on some real speakers like the Aegis One or JBL S26.

Similar Products Used:

JBL S26, Acoustic Energy Aegis One, B&W 302

Great Center Speaker in Home Theater, Sharp Sound, Good Reflected Sound

Not Electromagnetically Shielded

I felt compelled to write because of all the bashing of products here. It is one thing to discuss the weaknesses of a product and quite another to put people down for buying something they enjoy. The bottom line: If you can spend this amount of money on speakers and still pay your rent, this subject really isn't all that important. What IS important is that you enjoy the MUSIC. That is what we buy stereos and speakers for. So, bottom line: get what you can afford and enjoy the hell out of it. I bought this speaker as on open box deal at Circuit City to use as a center speaker for my surround sound system and couldn't be happier with the way it delivers vocals in audio and dialog in movies.

Clear sound (specially on live cd's), deep base (if positioned right), the sound quality on this speaker is outstanding.

The only thing I can say it lack a little is on midrange. BUt it is hardly noticable

I purchased the Bose 301 IV direct/reflect

Similar Products Used:

Polk, JBL