These are very impressive bookshelves. I have quite a few speakers and love to make them go head to head (switching A/B on a vintage receiver). I often have to switch back and forth a few times to declare a winner, but these speakers won every matchup almost immediately, beating similar speakers from JBL, advent, b&w, and even another set of Bostons (a70). The bass is excellent for the size, and I even matched it up against a couple pairs of smaller floor speakers (newer Polk and a pair of Bose 401s) and it beat their low end too. But where these speakers really shine is with the more subtle stuff. The looped background vocals in a song suddenly stand out as separate entities rather than blending into the melody. On one track, I discovered an odd layer of the track was not a synth as I’d always assumed, but a vocal track that had been edited and looped. It was a song I had listened to many times, but the CR9s showed some something new on the track, and that is the hallmark of an excellent speaker.

Really hard to make a call on this one. I don’t really see more a person could expect from a bookshelf speaker.

Hi fidelity sound. Easy on the eyes. Multidimensional speakers. Whether the wife and I are snuggling up to some smooth jazz by Sade or my bro comes over and we crank some vintage Iron Maiden. These little brown boxes deliver what I'm demanding from them. Of course they cannot play gangster rap or country. They sit dead silent. Weird. Found mine a couple years back at goodwill for $10 each. I had to stop what I was doing, go to the checkout and put them in my truck. Before someone started stalking me in the store, which has happened before when I picked up my Polk RT55 Bookshelves for $10 each. So I learned my lesson. 😊

The grills, although very durable, can get a bit wonky and if a grandchild bends them, it's game over....FOR THE GRANDCHILD! 😆

I have been a very particular listener, and even owned an FM station because of my serious love of music. We recently downsized and wife won't let me use these big bookshelves anymore, and am struggling to sell them. I've built JBL speakers, had very large Infinity towers (great speakers my musician son now has), and listened to everything before buying the my Boston Accoustics CR6's. Although I've usually had a subwoofer with them, they hardly need any help. Every time I power up for some focused listening, I simply smile inside with enjoyment.

I have been second hand speaker shopping for a couple months. I've heard speakers by Mirage,
NHT, energy and Infinity. Then I heard these boston acoustics cr9 speakers. Even though they were not even close to properly set up, the moment the music started, I knew I had found the sound I was looking for. Clear, balanced, and open with a great soundstage. They are in great shape, and I only paid $200 cdn.So happy with my find!

I have just picked up a pair of CR 9's for 100$ and was wondering how they would perform as rears in a basic 6.1 system?

I am not an an audiophile..so my comments are from a novice...

I have bought a Kenwood KA127 Integrated Stereo Ampifier (with surround sound) with a pair of CR-9 speakers all in mint condition..The user an old couple hardly used the systen; this gifted by their son, an engineer working in San Diego...they always found the system to blast off when they turned on the volume and were afraid to use this system..they lovingly used their DVD setup to listen to all their music and decided to sell of this system...A real bargain price, I got the whole system for USD100. On looking at the pair of speakers, I found them to be the CR-9...Incredibly clear Bass and mid range though I didn't find the high freq. cracking as such....

do you think this was a good bargain ????

Value, over all performance, durability, quality

none worth commenting on. Tough to find a pair now?

I must concure with the other reviews I ahve read. I am currently selling equipment and upgrading my system. The Boston CR-9 are the only ellement I can't let go of. They are simply the best speakers I have ever owned and for the money, unbeatable. I also demo'd evrything for Klipsch, Infinity, B & W, polk, you name it. The CR-9 was the winner! Though the rest of my system is going I don't think I could improve upon the Boston CR-9.

Similar Products Used:

Klipsch, Polk Audio

Nice clear sound. Can handle high volumes, but sound great at low volumes.

I can't find them again for the same price I paid.

I don't have the money to be an audiophile, but I owned (and abused) these speakers throughout college. They were in my dorm room, then they were the main speakers in my house. We had parties constantly, and I cranked these suckers up to insane volumes. People often commented on how nice they sounded. I was happy to tell them that I got them for 250 at The Good Guys, I was even able to bargan some free monster cable and one of their expensive warantees. However, during one particularly loud party, I had the bass up on my crappy kenwood reciever, and the speaker bounced itself off of our large mantel over the fireplace, breaking the speaker box. I was devistated. Unfortunately, the box was not covered by the warantee. I tried to fix it myself by dismanteling it and using plywood and glue, but it didn't work. There was some leakage around the woofer. Granted, I'm not much of a handyman. Anyway, I have some infinity rs5 hand-me-downs, and the bass is better on those. But the Boston's sounded so much clearer. If you can find them used, or get a good deal on them, I reccomend doing so.

Similar Products Used:

infinity rs5 (decent, but i'm still running a crappy amp). Some crappy sony stuff.

Price, quality, performance, tonality, durability.

Lacks just a touch of presence, and not ideally suited to some classical music.

Grossly underrated reference speaker with amazing overall performance, excellent for mains and rear surrounds. Best when used in all four positions. I spent countless hours listening intently to an endless parade of towers and reference speakers while building a medium sized, inexpensive HT system for my first home several years ago. Music was a first consideration, and my cd collection is very diverse, requiring speakers with good efficiency, excellent bass handling, clear but not excessive treble, and adequately detailed midrange without being honky. The CR9 is an unbeatable choice, great for harder rock/metal to jazz and some classical. While they cannot approach the brilliant tonality, smoothness and warmth of their only real competitor (B&W) in the large reference class for classical music reproduction, the somewhat overly smooth B&Ws, on the other hand, simply aren't as well suited to more aggressive styles of music or to movie sound effects, nor are they typically as clear as the Boston Acoustics at higher volumes, so the CR9 gets the overall nod for its do-it-all excellence. Brilliant design, sound and construction blows away substantially costlier towers of all varieties. Unbeatable compromise and suitable for applications all the way up to larger venues. Pleaseant and flexible performers you won't outgrow, but small enough for your private "apartment theater" too.

Similar Products Used:

Klipsch, B&W, Paradigm, NHT, P/A

-Great stereo speakers for the money paid -Have full range sound. Sound better than some inexpensive tower speakers, but yet are fairly managable bookshelf speakers

-Are somewhat bulky for bookshelf speakers, but you are getting tower speaker sound -The tweeter could be an aluminum dome. My center channel is the Boston Micro 90c which has an aluminum dome tweeter and has somewhat more defined highs, however, the center speaker lacks greatly in bass due to it''''s small size

I use the Boston CR9 speakers for my main channels in my home theater set up. For the price they are some of the best speakers money can buy. They have sharp, crisp highs and tight, clean bass if speaker is positioned properly. That is try to position them in a corner where the rear port is firing directly into the corner. They still need a sub to make up for deep bass, below 40 Hz, and for home theater application.

Similar Products Used:

Boston Micro 90c center channel 2 old sony''''s for surrounds (will replace them soon) Yamaha 100 x 5 receiver Yamaha sw305 subwoofer (200 watts) new Zenith 5-disc DVD changer