I bought my pair of bose 301´s back in 1976 together with a HK 330B and a Thoréns record player.
I was one of the first who bought them in Sweden.
The HK has done it so now I'm looking for a new amp for my speakers. I'll never get rid of them.
Need I say more??

Ahhhh the much maligned Bose 301 speakers, I can honestly say that I have always been happy with mine. I purchased my first set in late 1978 they had just been released and after hearing them fell in love with them and their warm all rounded sound. many people say they are crap and not worth the $$$ but I've had many other speakers over the years and while some may have been technically superior none could match the listening quality of the 301's. I had mine until 2004 36 years and they were still sounding great. Unfortunately a lowlife decided he needed them more than i did and so I now have another set of 301's newer but still sounding great. I believe that the stereo needs to match the speakers and I purchased mine in 1978 so I at least have a quality built system. Ther must be something right about the set up as all my kids are arguing over who gets the system when i pass on

I can do nothing but jerk off and splatter goo all over the walls every time I hear these speakers!
I almost dropped my Schlitz malt liquor on my lap, WOW! I came like BARBARO! What a splattering.
You must own these speakers! My girlfriend rubbed herself to ecstacy ALL NIGHT as well! Evenutally we got together and slammed it, but even before that, these speakers induced massive loads of goo from me to the walls!

I've live with the same pair of bose 301 series 1 since 1980.I have replaced the bass drivers once and they are still going strong. For 9 years I worked for Bang & Olufsen, have a sound degree for the film industry, and am a musician. I believe I know music when I hear it.

These speakers have the capability to really give a very warm musical sound, it's all in the equipment that's driving them, plus cables. If you've got harsh, cheap gear, that's how they are going to be heard. Get a nice warm amp and cd player, get some high end interconnects and some great speaker cables and the sound is wide, deep, detailed and warm warm warm warm. It's mainly the warmth that I have loved with this speaker, oh, and wide and deep. I have sounds jumping out at me, 5 foot beyond my walls.

It took me a long time to realise the importance of a good cd player and cables. I recently replaced all my cables and these speakers had a 2nd life. They have never sounded so brilliant.

Placement, I have rarely had them at ear level but have always had to put them on wall brackets at about 6 foot off the floor. They work great at this level. Having just bought a pair of series 2, I tried them for a few days. The series 2 will go on ebay very shortly. The series 1 leave the series 2 for dead. The series 2 will require a very large room. They are VERY direct and if you're too close, you'll be in the firing line of a very bright tweeter. They were harsh and fatiguing. I put them on the wall twice over two weeks. They will never go back on my wall again. Anpther really nice aspect of the bose 301 series is that you don't need to sit at a pin point position of an axis of a triangle to hear a stereo image. It doesn't hurt at all to be right in the centre, but if you're not you're still going to hear a pretty good stereo, live image.

I have toyed with buying some b&w 603 series 3 or similar, but I think I'll miss my lovely wide warm sound. I know these are not the best speaker in the world, but to be able to listen to them for 30 years says something for them. I'm just about to buy a rotel rb1050 amp that i'm trialling right now. Every step I take, just brings more life into these speakers. What more can I say.

This is hard to describe product! As a long term audition addictive, thes small, poor-looking speakers shocked me in many respects. All negative comments to do with mis-placing or some other technical reasons within your system. To improve performance of those Jewel 301s try followings ;

First of as those jewels use direct reflecting technology, which means they have nothing to do with its poor wooden boxes (otherwise would be an awful results) but the drivers itself. What you hear is full range,direct driven full frequency, from lowest to upper registers!!!

- Place them on the level of your ears (just precisely check this!)
- Place contraverse what is written on the back; place the "left" written speaker on the "right" and same with the other.
- Use small rubber stickers at the bottom.
- Never use them upright position, always horizontal.
- Cables also very important: they do not need high end costy cables. Best result obtained by me is DNM Speaker Cable.
- Use tube preAmp or Tube buffer, or Tube Power AMp to get incredible, difficult to believe or hear lower bass performance.

Those jewels have everything hidden inside waiting for you to take them out one by one. After all you will also so much impressed with their performance, close to todays some high-end speakers.

Warm easy sound. Natural sounding

Poor Poor construction - more solid MDF cabinets would be wellcome.

I cannot for the life of me understand why it's become a national passtime to roast these speakers. In this site, folks talk of old technologytweeters, cheap electronics and poor stereo imaging.

The are missing the point comeplely. While most modern silmilar priced speakers are technically excellent and brilliantly detailled, they lose the plot when it comes to painting a portrait of the music.

These Bose do not!.

I've no doubt that many a speaker would trounce them on many levels, but they all seem to lack translating the OVERALL "musicality" of voices and instruments.
In fact I LOVE those miderange/tweeter cones; deliciously balanced and very real.
Too many modern speakers have wayyyy to shrill upper frequencies, almost to the point of wanting to make you screaming out of the lounge.

True, some more lower midrange would be welcome, as would some extra base extention, however it's the tonal balance that seems so sorted with these little 301's

I often get the impression that they were designed more by music lovers than by technicians and scientists looking for the "Holy Grail" in technical perfection.

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Good all rounders. Can take plenty of punishment. Controlled lows, no over bright highs. Compact

Poor stereo image. Not sure about the rear tweeter thing. Paper cone looks like poo.

These Speakers have always impressed me for what they are. I bought them as monitors when i was living in a flat in Sydney studying Audio Enginerneering. I used them to do my home work on and they served me well! They hosted many a party too and done the job perfectly, took some abuse from my 2x 85wRMS Denon amp. I now have Mackie 824 monitors to do my work with but i still listen to any production after its mixed down to get an idea of what the rest of the world will be hearing. I've read plenty of bad stuff about bose but i deffo rate these 301v's. I now use them as fronts for my 5.1 dvd sytem in the beadroom and they do equally great job.

Customer Service

never needed any.

Price (but I got mine on sale in a big way)

Work great with low wattage vintage receivers c.1976 (I'm running 12.5 watts per channel - yes you read that right)

Sound great in a slappy room, can't believe it!

Were EXACTLY what I needed for these receivers - sound **almost** as good as the original 4 Realistic 3-ways I used with these receivers playing vinyl back in the day.

They're Bose - so you, like me, are likely to never give them a chance.

Will probably not sound as good with newer receivers. Matching your receiver with just the right speakers is critical. Go do your homework and don't be afraid to drag your receiver out to test speakers you're thinking about buying. Just do it.

These are bookshelf speakers. Don't think for a second you are going to get thumping humping pumping SUPER LOUD clear sound with ANY brand of bookshelf speakers.

I seriously doubt they would sound this good in a large carpeted room full of plush furniture.

Suited for stereo sound - cannot imagine using for surround of any sort.

First off let me start by saying I NEVER purchase my A/V equipment at Best Buy. Second, let me say that I've been disaapointed in Bose for the past 20 yrs.
So why on Earth did I buy these speakers??? I can't believe it either!

I've spent two years searching for the right speakers for my vintage low wattage Harmon Kardon receivers (330's and 430's) that could capture the true sound my 4 old Realistic 3-ways delivered. And nothing provides the warm stereo sound you get with vintage Harmon Kardon receivers short of going to tubes (try McIntosh for contemporary equip.).

I visited countless rummage sales searching for oldies, mainly Realistic (good luck there) but trying everything that didn't need to be re-coned. I've dragged receivers to high end audio shops to test the sound with new tech to no avail. Wattage is the issue. Today's speakers do not broadcast the depth, clarity, and warmth of bass and midrange sound without wattage to make them open up (duh). Smaller speakers just sound too thin and tinny, that is unless you want to spend $4k for speakers with internal amps, which I almost, in an act of desperation, did, even though it still didn't quite pass muster as the receiver STILL needed to be cranked too high IMHO...and I thought twice because I already have a high end set in another room so...

One day I went to Best buy to get some DSL filters and happened to hear the Bose 301's as I was browsing around. Hmmmmn. they didn't sound half bad and were on sale for an unbelievable $189 per pair. Wha????? It was the last day of the sale and I had to rush home, grab my receiver and get the manager's okay to hook it up (Best Buy - one is in the company of ignoramuses). I could only attach two speakers but honestly I was impressed. And now I'll have to take back all the negativity I've directed at Bose since the 70's. I bought two pair and do not regret it.

The setup: 4 bose 301's with a Harmon Kardon 430. Also, I'm running them in an unbelievably slappy room - 91/2x14, wood floors, solid wood furniture, plaster walls, 5 ft of windows (a room you'd never set up anything worth its salt in, really). The damping effect of the speakers compliments this type of room. The speakers are along the short walls, 11 in from the corners, 36 in off the floor, polarity reversed on one pair for that pseudo-quadrophonic stereo sound.

The sound is clear with warm delicious low range ( NOT muddy, surprise, surprise) and wide depth of midrange and the high end is perfect - not brassy, not tinny, not distorted. I frankly cannot believe it with Bose speakers. Seems like the low and high ranges on them absolutely stink, but not so with these. Did I say I can't really believe that????

I listen to everything from rock to bluegrass, from classical to opera to Gregorian chants, from punk to techno to disco and jazz. It all sounds superb - goosebumps, enmeshed in lush sound you can touch - these speakers work perfectly with the 20Hz-20KHz range of the Harmon Kardons.

Note: I never turn the HK 430 past 1 o'clock. Why? I've learned the hard way. I keep duplicate HK receivers on hand for the sake of parts. Setup even sounds excellent with even lower wattage HK 330's I also have, volume no higher than 2 o'clock. I've been running the Bose for 2yrs now though and have not had a problem at all with any of the receivers.

Beleieve it or not, Bose is good for something these days. Who would've thunk?Not me, That's for sure.

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McIntosh
Boston Acoustics
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Realistic (waaaaaaay back in the 70's)

Great dispersion of sound
Terrific Aesthetics
Bold yet tame bookshelf speakers

Port Noise and Muddy bass in current design

I purchased the BOSE 301's V in aproximately 3 years ago to complete a 5.1 surround system using the previous Bose 301 model for surrounds. In spite of the salesma's insistance that the bass is improved in the latest version, I conclude otherwise. The 2 round ports of the newest 301's produces some port noise with a muddy sounding bass while the earlier version's sloted port produced clean sounding bass with no accoustic complications. The newest 301's does have greatly improved treble which they atttribute to the trageting lens over the front angled tweeter. I therefore see the latest 301's as not in total improved over the earlier model as much as anticipated. They do look great and good enough for my purposes. I like the natural sound that Bose is attempting to create and am glad that the tweeters are not piercing or so predominate as in alot of competitor's models.

Customer Service

Excellent Customer Seivice

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8 inch woofers,other speakers added with bose

tweeters,they should of used high end tweeters.this design is 16ohm parrel wiring makes 8ohm.I dont know about speaker wiring ect,but this is how I heard they were made.I replaced some tweeters,they were vey cheap to buy.

II like to start with why I dont like the design.reflective speakers.lets enter 4 601 bose series 111 floor standing speakers as an example.ive done this test.this equals to 16 tweeters 4 woofers. to me theres to much treble.I always use regular speakers with it.then it sounds fine.the same test can be done with bookshelf speakers,I think it would sound better less tweeters.people always want to hear my system,there not interested in hearing the bose,although half are.they want to hear all the speakers.all I did was use 7.1 pre amp out to 2 stereos.its A total pain,to many speakers.I wanted to try this set up to see how it would work.its fine no clipping.but I dont leave the other 2 amps on very long.it draws 2 much current.sorry I got off the subject.ps I wanted denons 10.1 amp.but its $6,000 this was cheaper.

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