None

Over-priced, poor internal components, mediocre sound.

Good sound is subjective. Bose speakers are crap. I owned a pair of 901 Series V. I played with room placement for weeks trying to get these babies to sound "right". (And yes ,I had the Bose EQ hooked up correctly.) Six months later, they went up for sale. Audio has come a long way since the late 80's when I purchased the 901's. Speakers are no exception: Axiom makes a great little speaker called the M3Ti. Price: around $300 Canadian. These speakers will put anything Bose makes to shame. There are plenty more quality speaker manufacturers out there. Bose isn't one of them.

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Products from Paradigm, Tannoy, KEF, Sound Dynamics....

Super power handling (plug them into a wall socket and listen to 60hz - try that with any other speaker) Wide soundstage. Good support from manufacturer. Accurate music reproduction - isn't THAT what we want after all? Actually reasonably efficient considering the power handling capabilities.

Later series require refoaming (as do many other vintage speakers). Critical of placement. - As are many speakers. Maybe a little high priced - though have you checked the price of the B&W nautilises (amongst many others) - not much gain in listening enjoyment I bet.

This isn't THE best speaker ever produced by any stretch of the imagination. It isn't the best at imaging, soundstage or any one criterion of "high fidelity". But it does everything quite well and thus is much more than the sum of its parts. As previous reviewers who know how to follow instructions have said this speaker is critical of placement, MUST have the equalizer properly installed, and requires a decent amplifier and upstream components. A few months ago I got a Carver amp to use with them and the Boses really opened up compared to the Yamaha Pro amp I had been using - tons of bass(contrary to what some say - I actually used a test cd and the output easily went down to 30 hz). Then last week I got a vintage Dynaco ST 70 tube amp. Hooked it up to my vintage Advents and started listening to my cds all over again. Then just now thought I'd try the 901's with the dynaco - WOW - 30 watts a side and they're every bit as loud as the Carver (200 watts a side) at the same preamp output setting - amazing! And some say these are inefficent speakers??????? Bottom line - they may be a little high priced at full retail but they are reasonably priced on the used market - these are very musical sound reproducers - plenty of punch, tight bass (obviously 4" speakers are easier to control at low frequencies) , great airy and accurate midrange (their greatest strength), decent highs to 17 khz ( above that there is very little music content - cymbals and snares are reproduced almost as well as my KEF reference monitors ) . All in all I recommend these speakers. Present setup: Rotel cd player NAD 1020 preamp Dual 701 turntable w Shure v5 Dynaco st70 (or Carver m400a) DBX 1 bx111 dynamic range expander Pioneer F90 tuner

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Bose 601-2, Paradigm Titans, Boston Acoustics A70's, Original Advents, KEF 102 reference series (still own all these)

Put them in the right place, give them plenty of clean power and they are a joy to listen to. Anyone who has ever heard mine has said that they have never heard a better stereo. I don't hang out with snobby rich punks though.

Placement and need good power if these can be considered shortcomings. Read between the lines here folks, they can only be as good as the rest of your system.

I have owned Bose 901's since 1976 when I bought my first pair of series II's and have always enjoyed what they are capable of doing. I have had series I, II, IV and VI and my favorites are the old II's. My series VI's were bought early in the buyback program from Bose when I traded in a used pair of IV's. I like their sound but think that the II's reproduce more naturally. The IV's sounded good and needed less power than some but they had that foam problem. I currently have series I, II (2 pair)and VI. Maybe I don't like the VI's as well because I only listen to CD's with them. I do like the sound of vinyl with the II's. I wish I knew why so many people hate these speakers, even the audiophile mags were tough on them. If you have enough clean power and good components, they are hard to beat for the money. I heard the big Mirage (m5's, I think) and was impressed and maybe they sounded better than my 901's (cost $5000, they should) but I was in a store and unable to crank them up like I do the Bose. They really come to life at high volume. I believe these people should look at their other components as a possible cause of their poor ratings. I have noticed that they are often using receivers for amps so I wonder what else they have. I have always had separate amp and preamps since my original 901 purchase in 1976 when I bought a new Crown DC300A. This is an extremely clean power amp with around 200w per at 8ohm. It's just old now and my son hopes to revive it. I use two Sony ES amps now that I have bridged to create 300w per side. Plenty of power but I think they are too shrill. Maybe it's the CD's but I'm replacing with Parasound 2200Mk II. Has A high damping factor and 250 a side which should help the bass. Wish I could afford the Crown Studio Reference. Anyway, so much for my wish list.

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There aren't any.

Fantastic allround sound, and very good with live music..

You have to use a lot of time to get them positioned in order to sound right.

I bought an old pair of 901´s from 83 and I´ve just had new speaker units put in. I´ve played them in with a Rotel 971 pre and two effect amps and they sound fantastic! It does take some time to place them so that they get the sound you want, the right amount of bass and so on! To all those Bose bashers, I only have one thing to say! Rule number 1,its your own ears that decide what speakers are good or bad!

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Bose AM3/5 bose 401 2 pairs..

All I remember in the Audio Show of Tokyo in late 70s is 901 demonstration. It was that much impressive. when I went into one of hotel room, the demo room of Bose, there was a short hallway before the room as normal hotel room. I could see the 901s on top of the famous monitor JBL 4344s in line facing toward right. In the room, chairs were facing to the speakers. I sat in front of the left speakers toward back. Eventually the room was filled with audience. We listened 4344 first, and the spokesman from Bose asked who could listen in stereo. Only the people who sat in the middle of speakers raised their hands. Of course. Then he changed from 4344 to 901. Guess what I saw. Right. I saw the stage in front of me in stereo. The stage was not only in stereo, but in the huge depth. Then the spokesman asked the same question again. I saw all people raised their hands. Even the people who were in the hallway, completely on the side of speakers. The image of the singer stepped back a little but became sharper and the players spreaded far behind her, about 10 to 12 feet. The Bose equalizer was set to the material of the wall behind the speakers and can be set for a sheet of newspaper to reflect the sound from the back of the speakers, they said. If you use nice tube amplifier to drive or solid state one that can reproduce the beautiful sound, I think the sound will be amazing with depth. And also you can listen from anywhere in the room. I think that's why 901 is still in the line.

bullet proof, manufacturer support, cool looking port tubes.

high end

I traded in a pair of old 901 series 4 that I bought at a garage sale. Good deal from Bose they give you a new pair when you trade in an old pair. When I got the new speakers I was disapointed they sounded flat and muffled. I thought how am I going to get rid of these things. As time went by they broke in changing the reflective surface made them turn into a great speaker. I am still not impressed by the high end and have them bi-amped with a set of ribbon tweeters but the rest is great. I am driving them with a 300 watt power amp in a home theater and they are great. I found it is important to have the reflective surface i.e. the walls to be dense not 1/4 dry wall or panalling but concrete of plaster and lathe. I wonder if these are such bad speakers why are still making them. I can count the number of speaker maufactures that are still in business after 30 years on my hand. Bose is still around and backs up what they sell, not many can say that.

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Klipsch, EV, Infinity

Sound tremendous when setup correctly and powered by more than tinkertoy amp.

need to be setup correctly

My brother picked up a set in military in 83. I have always enjoyed hearing them at his place so when he offered to sell me his old stereo I bought it. When you set them up you have to follow certain criteria no doubt about it. I run these Series III's with a 500W Soundcraftsman amp. In my opinion you need a LOT of power to get the best sound from them. Some times the old technology is just as good if not better than this new digital stuff.

They're not seen much on the used market. Like a lemon of a car, one would have to hate passing on one's problems to the next guy. Most of the people favoring them have heard only Infinity, Cambridge Audo, Cerwin Vega, the mass-marketed fluff.

The best example of Capitalism gone awry, and Dr. Bose preceded Enron by forty years.

Egg on your face for the fellows in the last several reviews. These speakers are awful. There's no stereo image. Voices and instruments flit about the room vicariously. These speakers were even bad in the '60s. They don't image, have no bass and are soft and flatulent. They have no dynamic range and sound better, as any Bose employee would attest, when the listener is in a different room. These speakers were designed as a lark by Dr. Bose to prove that you could make a fairly good speaker for almost nothing by using only a mediocre midrange. His company has been fleecing the public ever since. I've heard flatulence that delivered better than the bass than these speakers. In fact, you can purchase a Fart Machine for $10, which was promoted by Howard Stern, no less, which sounds better than these speakers.

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The aforementioned device, an auditorium PA system.

tight bass , looks and natural sound

none

A very good speaker for the money,i have paired it with yamaha rx1000 for my home theater and this setup is rocking. i even have another old model bose901 III which i use fo two channel along with my carver power and pres. Those bose bashers dont know what is the quality in bose since they dont have these speakers.

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bose 501

Impresses people and want to be audiophiles who think Bose is the ultimate in speakers.

Design, imaging, highs, lows, muddy. (Yes even set up correctly. If you think otherwise please go listen to some reference monitors.)

Bad imaging and muddy sound (even set up correctly). What's all the hype about artificial sound that is supposed to be natural. The music you are listening to wasn't mixed on gear that operates like the 901s. Instead of selling high quality drivers in a high quality package you are buying tubes and reflections of what the music was before is bounced all over your 'perfect?' room. I do not deny that they can sound ok for some things and for moments a passage may sound excellent but overall sound is crap. You can pick up a pair of nearfield studio monitors cheaper than even newer Bose systems and will be much happier with the sound 'unless you are deaf'. Don't defend these speakers because they are supposed to be a classic. They aren't. For a few hundred dollars you could be listening to Event's or Alesis monitors and for the price of most Bose you could be listening to Genelec and Tannoys.

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Only Bose products sound like Bose products. I must say, they do have a unique sound...though tis not satisfying.