The CR9s sound beautiful. For about $400 a pair, they give you excellent soundstage width, detailed treble, and tight, deep bass.

The Boston CR9 bookshelf speakers provide a marvelous speaker for those of us on limited budgets. I use them in a home theatre situation and they provide very resounding bass and marvelous imaging. Additionally, the metal front grill is 'cat' proof.

After auditioning quite a few speakers (most more expensive than the CR9s) I bought a pair. I've had them in my system for about 3 weeks now and am quite happy. They replaced an old pair of DCM TF500 (a 6" 2 way transmission line design from the early '80s) speakers. Compared to the TF500s they have a much more detailed treble range and a much smoother lower mid bass (~100-200Hz).
Frank Sinatra's voice sounds natural, not chesty or excessively deep. Imaging is very solid, although it does not have the width that the DCMs have. The DCM speakers, in essentially the same position in the room, have a soundstage which clearly extends beyond the speakers. However, they are not as sharp and drift free in the central image as the Bostons, which are very good at this. Both the Bostons and the DCMs provide good depth to the soundstage.

The other speakers I listened to before buying these were: Monitor Audio Silver 7 (hated it), NHT SuperOne, VT2, 2.9i, KEF (they sucked), B&W DM602(?), Phase Technology (pretty good sounding but beamy resulting in a narrow sweet spot) and B&W CDM7 (which were great, but getting the matching center and surronds made things pretty damn expensive).

Overally these pups were good performers and since I already had Boston surrounds they made financial sense also.

--John

Clear, strong highs. Defined midrange. Not at all muddled, good sound stage. Not too large.

Do not go low enough, a sub is needed. Need a significant amount of "break-in" time.

Great pair of speakers for only $400. Once you've taken the time to break in the tweeter you will find that they output great defined highs at even low volumes, and have a fantatistically detailed soundstage. They're small enough for an apartment, but better than any of my friend's floorstanding speakers. Bass is good, but not good enough. Of course, I really like a lot of bass with music and movies, so a sub was a definite.
They sound great.

tight bass, crystal clear sound

none so far

I got these speakers at tweeter at an incredible price. I was impressed with the amount of bass these speakers put out. The room I have them in is relatively small and they fill the room well enough that I do not need a subwoofer. I also have a boston micro 90 center channel. My JVC 8000 receiver with these speakers makes watching DVDs an addicting pleasure.

Clean sound; tight bass

none

These speakers give you the best bang for your buck! For both small and larger rooms, these speakers will fill out the room with crisp sound and exceptional bass - considering the size.

Excellent response, price

Connecting posts are hard to get at!

I have been looking for a smaller speaker to replace my aging, fairly large (but beloved) Boston A-100's. Listened to above competitors and just thought the CR9's sounded so true and natural. To be sure, I have been a Boston fan for almost 20 years, but still I am amazed at the reproduction capabilities of these small bookshelf units. I also disagree about them lacking in bass, the frequency response is there, and I actually find them extremely well balanced. I dare say it would be nearly impossible to find a better set of speakers for twice the money! What can I say, I am impressed!

Similar Products Used:

JBL S38, Klipsch SB-3

Well rounded performer, excellent value

Zero

After totally falling in love with my first pair of CR-9's, I bought another pair yesterday. The price was simply to good to pass up. I also bought a pair of CR-8's, and now have the dilemma of deciding which to use for rears. These speakers represent one of the best values on the market. After comparing my aging Boston A-100's to the CR-9's it became painfully apparent that the A-100's had to go. It absolutely amazes me how Boston gets such a large soundstage out of these very small speakers. At the very least one should give the CR-9's a serious listen! Sure, you can spent 5 to 10 times the money, but the rule of diminishing returns will bite you hard - unless you have a large room or listen at very high volume levels. Keep up the good work Boston Acoustics!


My current setup:

Panasonic 32" monitor
Panasonic Hi-Fi VCR
NAD 761 80wpc receiver
NAD 550 DVD
Boston VR912 center channel
Boston CR-9 - front
Boston CR-9/8 - rear

Tight bass, smooth mids & crisp highs. A great value.

Bass could be a tad deeper, nevertheless my sub more than makes up for it.

Great speakers for $400.00! Actually, I traded in my CR8s + 60 bucks for them. Well worth it! They are well made and have decent binding posts.

Similar Products Used:

Boston Acoustics CR8, HD5, A-60 & Genesis 1+

Suprisingly Tight, rythmic bass with detailed mid's and highs with incredible imagine, on and off axis response for a speaker that costs less than hald it's competition

Would be a better main speaker if its frequency response slumped into the mid 30's, where most floor standings usually begin

I have shopped for speakers for more than a year, listning to everything between 380 to 640 in price. I was marvled when i heard the bostons, give them some time to breakthe tewater in and man you will be hearing dialogue and crystlyne highs that before seemed absent. so try and take the brand name out of it and just listen to them, and compare them to other brands that are hundreds more and hundreds less. you will be surprised at what you hear. everyong has their own flavors, but these should suit just about anyone, just be sure you use high quality speaker wire and interlink rca's and juice them with clean power froma high current or upper end concential receiver, because that is where you begin to notice differences.

Similar Products Used:

B&W Dm 601, 602 (Gave better clarity but no where as near as much base)
Monitor Audio Silver Seven (Again, better clarity but no bass)
JBL, Infinity, Energy, Polk ans Paradigm
All excelent but fell short in a catigory that the bostons held strong in.