Good highs, decent bass for and 8" driver

Needs a midrage driver.

Clearly, all of us who LIKE these speakers are morons. It must be some kind of mind control that Bose has over some people. I bought these speakers in 1980 in Abilene, Texas. They actually made my pathetic little MGA 30 watt receiver sound good. They were my main speakers for more than 10 years. I can't believe that I was such an idiot for liking the sound. It seems full and rich to me. Clearly, my ears are defective. To make matter worse, I upgrade to Bose 501's. I am so ashamed to say that I liked them as well. Please God! What's wrong with me!

Of course the truth is, there's nothing wrong with me. I liked the speaker, both the 301's and the 501's. Many people I know like the speakers. Can you buy better speaker for the same money? Probably. Can you buy worse? Probably. Here's the problem in this forum: most of the people knocking the 301's HAVE NEVER OWNED THEM! If we ignored their shrill, ducklike quacking, the rating would be much higher. Of course, those of us who OWN 301's and LIKE 301's could just post a "5" rating for each of the naysayers, but that would make us as irresponsible as they.

Bottom line: These are good, middle-of-the-road speakers for the average person. They would work well with a mid-range receiver (60 watts) in a small room. Don't expect room-shaking base or glass-shattering highs. Not for this money, anyway.

Similar Products Used:

Bose 501

I listened to the 301's in an extensive, and objective session in attempt to ascertain thier draw to the masses. I thought, attractive design, maybe it will sound as good as it looks. I listen to Bartok and Dvorak, along with some Dave Weckyl cuts for percussion.
After digesting what I had heard, I decided that these speakers are horribly strident, with no treble or low bass whatsoever. The midbass thump was offensively obtrusive. There was NO discrenable resoloution that could exceed your average AM radio.
Upon examination of the driver compliment, I notice extremely cheap paper whizzer cones (about $3.00 each at radio shack) and a cheap woofer. As my listening proved, horrible quiality, poor parts.
Since I cannot come to grips with the attraction to these obvious parody incarnate of a set of loudspeakers, I must rate them one star, especially compared to an *obviously* far superior design from even...dare I say...Radio Shack. The LX-7's [same price] so thouroughly outperform the Bose that I struggle to imagine a scale wide enough to graph them both.
Please, do yourself a favor: learn what accuracy is and compare. You will find Bose 301 speakers as thouroughly revolting as I do.

Bose 301'sI have owned these little jewels since 1977 and been extremely happy with them. Bass response is good for an 8"
woofer in a small enclosure,good midrange on vocals and good treble response from a 3" cone tweeter.I have augmented the treble response by adding a dual element piezo electric tweeter, wires up to the crossover network.
The piezo tweeter has a wide 90 degree horizontal dispersion pattern.The best way to position these speakers
is to fly them, they need to be in the air to get the best
sound out of these speakers. I have the 301's a little over
six feet in the air with a pair of Optimus Pro LX 5's with
the dipolar Linaeum tweeter sitting on top of the 301's. This combination really produces some spacious omnidrectional sound. These speakers aren't near as bad as
a lot of you out there have rated them.I use them in a 2
channel multi- speaker set up. My room is 30'x30', I have
a pair of JBL LX 55 3 way speakers,10" woofer-5"midrange-1"
titanium tweeter on one side of the room and 2 pair of Advent's from late 70's-early 80's,2way acoustic suspension speaker with 10'woofer,1-3/8 rolled dome tweeter stacked in a d'appolito
fashion on the other side of the room. I am running the speakers through a speaker selector switch box, so I can
choose to listen to any combination I choose. I am using
an old Yamaha CA 810 integrated amp with an Alesis M-EQ
230 1/3 octave equalizer. I know a lot of you out there
will shrill at the mere thought of using an equalizer or
tone controls but hey I adhere to a different school of
thought on this matter. You can really improve the sound
of your system through the proper use of an eq. Will help
out with room aberrations and speaker placement. Remember
people a stereo system is a replication of music and you will never achieve perfection through speakers and elecrtonics no matter how much you spend.If you want perfection go out and support and listen to live music with the band or musician of your choice. Stereo equipment especially speakers is an entirely subjective choice.People
have differing opinions on the likes and dislikes on the sound of speakers. Trust your own ears and buy what you like within your economic means. A stereo system is for the
enjoyment of music not a competition of my equipment is beter than yours. For all those jerks out there that have to rip other people and make derogatory remarks need to grow up and get a life. But hey opinions are like assholes
everyone has one. This system floats my boat and makes me
me happy and that is all that matters.From the land of ZZ
Top, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimmy Lee Vaughan, The Fabulous
Thunderbirds,Lou Ann Barton, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings,Freddie King,T-Bone Walker,Albert Collins,Johnny
Copeland,Pee Wee Crayton, Lightnin' Hopkins,Johnny Winter,
Gatemouth Brown,the Derailers, Elvis T. Busboy & the Texas
BluesButchers and other bad to the bone musicians.

Rantings from an opinionated Texan who adheres to the common sense school of stereo, you don't have to spend mega
bucks to get good sound.

wide full sound

i have had these speakers for about 4 years and they were the very first piece to my home theater. personaly i love these speakers and the 201s i have for my surrounds. i have paired them with a klipsch center channel and the audiosource sw15 subwoofer. my system sounds great. i have experienced many speaker demos and i must say, my speakers sound just as good as most. my brother is running pro ac fronts and a snell center with a klipsch sub, all high end equipment and i must be honest, it sounds no better than my system which cost about 6000.00 dollars less. if you dont like bose (a lot of people seem to hate the name) dont buy bose but i have heard many high end speakers including the 6700 dollar celestials and i will stick with my bose thank you.

None...

all of them, no mid's, not so good high's, bass not dynamic at all....

I had these speakers since 82, I've known all along that they are not the best, but they have provided me with yrs of enjoyment. Recently I had the opportunity of listening to some audiophile speakers, which made me realize that I have been missing out on good sound throught the yrs. and the time has come to give these trusty 301's the retirement that they deserve. but overall it has been fun

The most realistic sound this side of a Quad ESL, price

Bass extension, needs a small room (like mine).

This was a real shocker. A friend of mine had a pair of Bose 301's in his system, which he recently replaced some B&W monitors. He wanted to see how "bad" these speakers were, and was astonished. The next day, he put his B&W's up for auction on eBay, and I thought he was BS'ing me. But I went to his house, and there they were- in his VAC system. I then listened and was amazed personally. Nah. Something fishy here. Must be some synergy with his tube gear. He then let me borrow his 301's for my solid state (Levinson) system. Two days later, I sold my Wilson CUB's and bought these. (If I had a larger room, I would have bought maybe the 501.)

Needless to say, I now know the REAL reason why people hate Bose. They cannot accept the fact that a $400 speaker is capable of outperforming a $4000 speaker (after the fact they blew all that money), and a lot of resentment. (At least I bought the CUB's used, so I didn't take a real hit in the pocketbook.) Call me crazy, but other than a Quad ESL, this is one of the most accurate speaker lines on the planet. Coherent. Fast. It sounds like Linda Ronstadt is in the room with me. It also brings out the subtle differences in analog vs. digital audio, the latter which I still don't care for.

Let the flames begin...

Similar Products Used:

Wilson CUB, ProAc SC1, Dunlavy, Rogers LS3/5A, Quad ESL

Wide cover of sound

What type of sound is the issue

I once thought I had a great stereo system, but it was compared to other people that I knew that had over grown Boom-Boxes (tape, CD, radio with 2 speakers in one unit). They use to come over to my house and fall in love with the music. I had Yamaha separates (pre-amp & 125 watt amp), Yamaha 50 watt surround sound, Yahama tuner & tape deck, Sony ES CD player playing through a Roger Sound Labs (may they rest in peace) sub into Bose 301's hanging from the cealing, Polk SDS2 for mains, and Infinites for the rears with odds and ends. I use to love how the Bose 301 played a different tonality then the Polks. It was like the Ying and Yang of speaker sound. What one did, the other did not, and visa a versa. Then one day I did a bad mistake, I played Holly Cole's CD Temptation with my friends Martin Logan Aruis speakers and was blow away. I went straight away and bought the Martin Logan SL3's because I found them as a floor model. At first I replace the Polk main speakers and left the Bose 301 hanging, there was no difference in sound. "My God, I spent $3000.oo on Martin Logan speakers and NOTHING"! I found out my Yahama amp could not power the Martin Logans, got an Aragon 8008BB dual mono 200 watt amp, there was the sound I heard...shear beatuy. It was then I notice that the Bose 301 took away from the Martin Logans. In other words, the Bose 301 muddled up the sound. I was amazed. I thought Bose was suppose to be top notch, what is this junk!! Took the Boses down and will never buy a Bose again. I look at this story as when I was an art major in college and I thought I had a good eye, but when I took up photography, I began to see how light moved and had tones. I mean, I can now see minor shades of each color and there is no such thing as White or Black. Its the same with Bose audio products, if you don't open yourself into new sounds, you will always think you have the best, but you dont. This is scary. A "3" for the 10 years I had these, and a "1" for having Bose's pull a fast one over everyone.