The two reviewers below, that is, Gary and Jerry, make several critical errors in drawing their conclusions that Bose speakers are the best.

The first erroneous assertion has been peddled before: namely, that you must buy Bose speakers in order to review them. This is absurd. Taking this flawed reasoning to its logical conclusion, you cannot judge anything unless you have purchased it. Okay. Ever test-drive a car? Or have you ever looked for a house or appartment? You go around to open houses and examine the various places. Looking at different considerations, you make a decision to either (1) purchase it or (2) not purchase it. Note that you made a judgement call despite the fact that you may not have bought it. We all review things all the time without buying them. I can go to a store and watch TVs, listen to speakers, and determine which one purchase by doing this. There is no reason to further elucidate this point. It should be quite clear by now that this is a faulty claim to base your claims.

Secondly comes the conclusion that Bose "product[s] must be exceptional because otherwise no one would go to such lengths as in here." Huh? The purpose of posting a negative review of a product is to warn others from making the same mistake. People are going to such lengths here because they don't want others to be ripped off. That's what it comes down to, in the final analysis. If you bought a used car from Joe and it was a lemon, wouldn't you tell your friends not to buy a car from him? I know I sure would. According to your logic, Joe's cars must be of the highest quality because people criticize him.

Finally, note that once again, pro-Bose reviewers NEVER post WHY Bose speakers are so good. Instead, what we find is "Bose is the best and that's the bottom line." Why are they the best? We'll never know. Note that many anti-Bose reviewers (i.e., audiophiles) explain WHY they dislike Bose. Sure, there are some joke reviews (of course, if you look carefully at some of them, they do make excellent points, just in a humorous way). But there have been some dynamite critiques which effectively drive an oak stake through the heart of Bose.

To all the Bose fans out there: Check your premise.

Great highs, great lows, and the mids are soooooooo fine.

None

These are great speakers, really great. Your room fills with the most wonderful sounds each time you listen to them. The highs are crisp, clear and real. No other speaker can reproduce the mids close to these speakers. The lows are great too and if you have a powered sub, the mix is awesome.

Bottom line, these speakers are great becasue they sound good. Listen to them and you will agree. Movies are better though these speakers than "at the movies." Get a good center speaker and buy a couple of bose double cubes for the rear. The combination gives a great sound.

You can't get better speakers no matter what.

Similar Products Used:

JBL, Polk, BAs, KEF (the all time nasty sounding speaker on the market), B&W, Tannoy.

Nice Bass, spacial sound

still looking

By no means do I consider myself an audiofile, nor am I a proponent of Bose. I am just a casual listener who purchased a set of Bose 701s because they were under $600. However, I did have the privilege of listening to one of the greatest sound systems ever put together. The system belonged to David Mancuso of SOHO, NY and he shared this system, comprised of 6 Mark Levinson amps, mated with 8 KlipschHorns,each 6 feet tall and hand built by Paul Klipsch himself, with those lucky enough to be invited to his home in SOHO, otherwise known as THE LOFT, back in the '70s and early '80s. All I can say is if David Mancuso could hear the tunes he played on his system, played through my 701s, in MY HOME, he would be damn proud. They sound great mated with my marantz SR940, which I've had for 15+ years,and run through a dbx 1bxIII dynamic range expander. As I've mentioned, I am not a Bose proponent. I've had JBL J350A's for over 15 years and loved them, although they could not handle the power that the 701s can handle. These are good speakers FOR MY HOME. They may sound terrible in your system or home. Compare these speakers for yourself. There are deals to be had out there on these speakers as Bose has released the series II.

Similar Products Used:

JBL J350A

They sound very good

none that are obvious

Wow the negative response to 701's is just simply mind boggling because its not what I hear when I listen to just about everything from Robert Johnson to ZZtop.... Light Jazz to heavy metal... I listen and play a wide variety of music and maybe my old ears are just not working well anymore but it sounds pretty dang good thru my 701's...I've owned and listened to quite a few different brands from cheap pioneer to not so cheap Infinity and Polk Audio and I'll shell out the 7 or 800 for the Bose.. I listened to speakers ranging from 600 to almost 3000 bucks and settled on the Bose. I've heard better but not at this price.In conclusion A VERY GOOD SET OF SPEAKERS.I'm not going to post a bunch of nonsense numbers to attempt to sound like one of these experts, they just sound good..Please don't listen to most of the negative feed back in this forum.Mostly just hot air from self appointed experts.

Similar Products Used:

JBL,Polk Audio,Infinity,Advent Legacy II's & III's,Yamaha

To the dude: Thanks for lending credibility to my review. You obviously dont own these speakers or you would know that the woofers, as well as the other 3 drivers are NOT ACCESSIBLE. The woofers are placed in the cabinet within a multi port enclosure. You must have $$$$ to burn if you bought these speakers only to tear them apart to access the drivers. Besides, who gives a fart if there is glue visible. The driver cant be seen from the outside of the cabinet. As far as your comparing the 901 to the 701, again you missed the mark. The 901s have 9 multi frequency drivers that are all identical in structure. That is why the need for equalization. Anyway, I thought the 901's sucked compared to the 701's, and I listned to both of these speakers in the same room on the same day. You are obviously a Bose basher with nothing better to do and no knowledge of the product you so ignorantly reviewed.

The highs, mids and lows sound so good. I still sit and listen to them and can't believe I own such good sounding speakers.

There isn't one thing I don't like about these speakers.

701's fill the room with wonderful sounds, from high to low. A friend of mine works at a "sound" store. He told me that they do not carry Bose becasue the profit margins are narrow. He told me that some of the big name speakers I read about on these review pages are actually "cheap" for the dealers with huge profit margins (he showed me the invoices on several, they have a 60%-68% mark up). He told me that the shop and chain owners know that Bose is better but that they can't make the kind of money they need off of them. Therefore, they sell what makes profits and convince people that the sound is so much better. Anyway, just some history lessons. In the end, I let my ears do the judgeing and bought the 701's. If you are looking, do the same. These speakers are the best sounding items you will ever own.

Similar Products Used:

Had old speakers

Strong overall sound throughout the entire listening area. Crisp highs, enticing mids, and heart warming lows. Best speakers made for thoes of us who like music and movies.

Needs a powered sub for movies, but I have not found a speaker that doesn't need this.

These speakers are so much fun. They sound so good with music and movies. The best. Don't get the Bose center and rears becasue they are only good with lower end equipment. The Bose cubes are excellent for the rear (i am not wild about the cubes "as" the system). No matter what, these speakers out perform any other in the $600-$2000 price range. You can count on the sound. If your looking, look no further than these speakers.

Similar Products Used:

B&W, Polk, Boston Acoustics, Paradigm, etc.

Sounding good when under the influence of hashish

Sounding bad when run out of hashish

I can tell you that one thing is for certainty, there comes a point where you just want to come home after a long day of cab driving and jam the tunes sir. With the 701 speaker I can not do this jamming of the tunes. I saw some smoke coming from the hole in the front of the speaker when I was listening to some Metallica. As I was sitting in front of the speaker I heard a tiny popping type sound. I think I have how you say, fried the chicken on these bad boys. I do not know about speakers, but smoke comming out of the speaker is bad as far as I can hear. I am not knowing about speaker repair, but the speaker is dead and does not play anymore. I use the 1500 watt Carver amp and let me tell you Johnnie, this speaker could not take the power of Bob Carver. I guess I will have to buy more speakers.

Great sounds; good highs, good lows, wow, it must be Bose and the mids are good too.

None

I was so happy to see the blind test that was carried out. I too love my 701's. The sound is so excellent. I use them for movies, for music, for backround with conversation. It is about time that the Bose haters get a clue. The world is sorry, so sorry, but Bose makes an excellent product. No one wants to believe the truth becasue everyone would rather be "right" than "president."

For the serious, buy these speakers. You get the best of both worlds with them: Music and Movies. The people who wright in these reviews do not even own the Bose speakers. Why would any of us listen to them?

Great, great, great speakers. Do a blind test, figure it out for yourself.

Similar Products Used:

Listened to speaker for a long time: B&W, Polk, etc. Over and over.

They make great pedestals to sit things on.

They sound like a hollow can, as do the 901s

I currently own the 975s and was a prior owner of the KLF-30s. Both speakers are excellent values. I have auditioned the 701s and they sound like garbage, no bass and the mids are muddy. The old industry saying about bose is " No highs, No lows, Must be Bose". Even the guy at Best Buy said they sucked in comparison with the above mentioned speakers. I believe the prior reviewer needs to get his hearing checked. But I guess it is the sound he likes and not what the rest of us like. Good luck in your speaker buying ventures!

Similar Products Used:

Boston Acoustics VR-975s and Klipsch KLF-30s