Trim design.

Sound quality.

This is a great looking piece, nice and trim to blend in on top of my XBR. And, it was from BOSE. What could be better? Well, basically my television''''s internal speakers. Ugh. I wasn''''t overly impressed with the piece from the start but liked the look. It didn''''t ever sound better and I couldn''''t send it back. Its OK for just watching CNN on TV, but really doesn''''t cut it for HT. Listen long and hard to this before you buy.

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BOSE, JBL, and now Paradigm

I''m trying to think of one. Nice design?

No tweeters (biggest weakness). Small drivers. Paper speakers.

I am not at all a Bose-basher, though there seem to be alot of them. If it sounds good to you, great, but I recommend keeping your mind open to the possibilities. I owned Bose for awhile and until I heard otherwise, had no complaints. If you are considering this product, or any Bose, the one question you should be asking youself is: "Where are the tweeters?" The answer is, "There are none." This center just cannot recreate the range of sound other speakers can, simply because it doesn''t have the driver/tweeter arrangement to cover all the frequencies. Think about it. Or better yet, go listen to it. Circut City has the Bose systems arranged alongide other high-end components in its audio room. Listen to something with swordfighting or singing. You will notice the limitations. Trust your own ear. I adjusted the center channel on my receiver to try and maximize it''s performance but still had trouble hearing the dialog. You can do better with practically any other center. (recommendations: Polk Audio if you''re willing to spend a bit more or JBL if you are on a budget).

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Test drove Klipsch, JBL, Infinity, MTX. Bought Polk RM6600 (and love ''em).

Sleek sexy look and good expansion of overall sound, seriously different. If you want to buy front, rear, center, and sub forget it just get the bose VCS-10 center it fills the room with sound everywhere sense of surround.

paper cones, price, and.. and...

What a difference from the everyday look of a conventional center channel. And yes! I buy the Bose name because it''s Bose. So what u wanna fight about it!

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everything, yes thats right everything!

Clear, distinct sound

Width too long and too short in height, needs to be at the very front of my cabinet.

Sound is clear and distinct. Bought as replacement for Infinity Center speaker and think it was money well spent. I didn''t like the Bose cubes compared to the Infinity Minuette speakers, but the Bose Center speaker is a good compliment.

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Infinity

But what about dipole speakers such as planars? Don''t they produce a lot of reflections? Compared to monopole speakers they normally produce less reflections. This is because of the off axis cancellation. For more information on this go to WWW.LinkwitzLab.Com. However, bipole speakers are designed to produce more off axis sound then monopoles. This is because they only produce a small portion of the sound and it is to help them add spaciousness to the mix. This is not the same as having most of the sound being reflected before it reaches your ears. In sound reproduction more direction speakers are often used to increase the "critical distance." Outside the critical distance the reflected sound is greater than the direct sound. This contributes substantially to distortion and limits intelligibility.

So do Bose'' systems sound good? Only you can decide that. I will say that better performance is normally not hard to find for less money. Do Bose'' systems reproduce sound accurately? The few Bose systems I have listened to do not.

I am not posting to tell anyone what sounds "good" or "bad." You can decide that for yourself. When I shop for sound reproduction equipment I do not ask myself, "Does this sound good?" I ask myself, "Does this sound believable?" I feel, as most of us do, that a piece of sound reproduction equipment should produce the illusion that I am listening to the original source. Unfortunately, even the best speakers only produce a crude representation of the original source. So how can we get natural sounding voices and sounds from systems that fall so short? To do so requires an understanding of not only electronics and acoustics, but also of psycho- acoustics (the study of how we humans perceive sound.) Whether or not you realize it, psycho- acoustics plays a part in your everyday life. For example, the telephone only has a bandwidth of 300 Hz to 13 kHz, but the consonants such as "t", "s", and "k"can contain higher frequencies than 13 kHz. To make these consonants more intelligible a "presence peak" is introduced at about 3 kHz to emphasize the fundamental (lowest frequency in a sound.) This is as it should be, However, the limbic system (a subconscious part of the brain) picks up on this and we perceive the sound as being artificial. This also can contribute to what is known in psycho-acoustics as listener fatigue, which causes listeners to lose interest or become distracted. So what does all of this have to do with Bose? Many of their designs throw important parts of psycho-acoustics and acoustic studies out the window to achieve a marketable sound. Bose'' "Direct/Reflecting" technology is a prime example. The idea is to radiate sound in all directions to create a "live" sound. While this is acceptable and often desired in sound production it does not reproduce the source accurately in sound reproduction.

Style

very wide awful sound

I am by no means an audio enthusiast, or a Bose basher (as a matter of fact I own and enjoy two acoustic wave radios that were given to me as gifts). However, this product left so much to be desired that I returned it to the store within days of buying it. First off, the reason for a center channel is to focus dialog etc...to the front so that the sound is clear and understandable. The speakers did so poorly in this area that it was difficult to discern language. When I reverted to the speakers that came with my Samsung HDTV, it was no contest. The stock speakers sounded much better. Second, be aware that the unit is almost 2'' wide, so it will take up quite a bit of room in your cabinet. With so many other center channel speakers out there, I would recommend to any casual listener to look elsewhere. As stated above, I''m not an enthusiast, and I was really disappointed in the product. The center channel that came with my H/K 5.1 system is much better.

Style (very sleek)

no tweeter (like all bose speakers)

I purchased this center speaker over the summer at Circuit
City and I must admit that it may not be the best to some but to honest the vcs10 has performed flawlessly for me,after hearing that this speaker sounded terrible while watching The Matrix, I also disageed on that it does a fine job on capturing dialogue and adds to the special effects aspect of my HTS. Now I some real kick ass rears the Mirage AVS 200's that handles DD sound with no problemo. I did have to tweek with my center controls on my receiver to really push it to perform to ten decimbals once you do that it really captures the highs of all action seens right in your face. Would I recommend this speaker to anyone , I would say that you are taking a big chance,I guess I lucked up with an more than exceptional hookup because that is the only bose speaker I own!!!!

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Cerwin Vega Re 20 series speakers.

looks

sound, price

Don't be fooled by the recent good reviews.

This center channel sucks!

All Bose Speakers suck.

Seriously though, you can do much better than this speaker. If you're on a budget, look at the Energy Take 5 system. Significantly better.

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Energy, paradigm, atlantic technology

Sleek design, excellent mid-range reproduction. Hiss-free at high volumes.

Bass reproduction on the weak-side.

Purchased this speaker to compliment the rest of my surround sound system, made up of BOSE AM-7 series. Am running the system from a SONY STR-DE945 receiver which has individual channel sound adjustments.

This speaker is slightly underpowered, but with a few fine-tunings of the receiver, it blends beautifully with the rest of the system.

As for the bass response, it is a little on the weak-side, but what does one expect from a speaker with 2.5" drivers, and best of all, for a price as nice as this one comes?

I compared this speaker, side by side by side, to everything POLK Audio, JBL, and Cerwin Vega had in this price range and it absolutely kicked their asses in clarity, hands down. All produced a noticable hiss at the high end, except for the BOSE.

For those looking for more power and bass response, you better start looking in the $400-500 price range, but for the $200 price of this speaker, it delivers rich sound, second to none in its class.

Perhaps the people knocking this speaker should first look at where the sound is originating(ie.receiver). With an inferior digital receiver, this speaker may not be getting the praise it deserves.

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Polk

Strong agressive sound, works well with my Mission 707 and
Rodgers LS6, Great size and visual appeal

Not enough low tones

I am very happy with this set up, I need the benefit of
a small package and this looks and fits great. I was very
concerned after all the negative reviews that I had read.
Many felt that this speaker only worked well with the
BOSE system, I feel its great overall. I was concerned
enought that I bought both the BOSE and PSB at the same
time and compared them and could see no benefit to the
added price and size of the PSB. I am happy with my
choice, don't be swayed by the anti-Bose posse. Try them
yourself.

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PSB Image C8