An excellent speaker if: you hook them up with an equalizer. get them away from side and back walls. use the spikes as the VR950 is bottom ported and don't crank them beyond 11:30

Boston Acoustics Vr970 These speakers do quite well in every respect imaging is spot on even with the many DSP programs of my DSP A1 engaged . My only beef with these spks is the 100wpc amp that powers its sub with certain types of bass heavy music its easy to get the woofers to pop when driving hard . It would be nice if the amp had more power or had the ability to upgrade the amp lets face it for producing the big bass of todays recordings 100 wpc for a sub does not cut it luckily I have a def tech P15TL to back up the VR970s

I have seen Sinclair's message posted on the audioreview. Since I also own the DSP-A1 together with the BA VR970 speakers, I would like to share my system setup with yours and welcome all feedback or suggestion. I have just own this system for 2 months. My living room size is 15 x 14 x 8 (W x L x H) with back wall opened to the stairs. First thing I have had in mind for HT is budget which was around 5-6 K$. Second, it has to be the best system in class of mass products (separate is a little bit too complicate for me) according to the services and maintenance cost. Third, it must be upgradable for upcoming decoder (MPEG2 ,etc.) .
However, the 7.1 channel featured in DSP-A1, is the most impressive feature to me. Other components, I have chosen Pioneer "DVL-K88" as a multidisks source. Eventhough it's not the best in quality but it is the most suitable for home entertainment (Movie,Music,Karaoke). The selected speakers is Boston Acoustics (Main = VR970 , Center = VR10 , Rear Surround and Front Effect = VRS Pro) which I think it was the reasonable price/performance system I have ever auditioned (Mission 753, NHT1.2 ). The VR970 comes together with 2 built-in active subwoofers, hence the saving in my budget.
The total cost of my HT system is around 5,840 $ as the following. (Bangkok, Thailand)
1. DSP-A1 = 1,850 $
2. DVL-K88 = 1,070 $
3. BA Speakers = 2,320 $
4. Accessories = 600 $
The speakers placement for VR970 is 2 ft form the back ,3 ft from the sidewall and 9 ft between L & R. The surround and front effect speaker were hung 7 ft in height. I felt the muddy base from the sub eventhough the volume was turned to the 10 clock position.
Van den hul Clearwater speaker cable is used for all speakers , Monster Interlink II for VR970 subwoofer and M1000SV for S-VDO.
Please feel free to express your opinions.
Thanks in advance,
Worapoht J.

After 8 years of college with plenty o' loans, I wanted an accurate pair of speakers. I listened to Klipsch, Paradigm, Mirage, Polk and many others in the $ 1000 / pr range. There was much more variation to the speakers than I expected, especially when listening to different music types.

The Boston VR 950 is a superb speaker for a variety of music. I love guitar & these speakers re-created the hum & bite of Eddie Van Halen's amplifier beautifully. I heard the foot taping of Eric Clapton on "unplugged" & clearer vocals with Mariah than the Klipsh at $ 1100/pr. It was hard choosing between the 960 & 950, but the 950 better represents midrange frequencies which I think is due to a second woofer. The 960's on the other hand give clearer & more powerful bass.

My advice is to take a variety of cd's & take your time. After owning the Boston VR 950's for 7 months, I'm still in love with them!

After extensive auditions with Paradigm, NHT, PSB, Polk, Celestion, KEF, Infinity and some (very expensive) others, I auditioned a pair of Boston VR950's. Wow, they looked neat and sounded great. I purchased a pair from a local distributor here on the island for $350 a pair and consider I got a great deal on an excellent pair of speakers. They replaced a pair of 8 year old bookshelf Boston HD8's and are now the mains on my HT system. Sometimes I even forget to power up my sub, since the clean and powerful bass output is more than enough for everyday listening and even some movie viewing. The slim enclousures really fool you until you hear them play. I've got them powered by an Onkyo TX-SV646 receiver and this baby really puts the dual 5 1/4 mid-bass drivers to work so well, I think it's a great combination.
Once again, hats off to Boston for their ability to manufacture such great sounding speakers at sensible, down-to-earth prices. By the way, my center and surrounds are also Bostons and sound great. Rating is 5+ Stars.

At $700 a pair, these speakers are a truly incredible value. They have better sound than other speakers costing twice as much. Why pay more? If you're looking for new speakers and you like getting good value for your hard earned money, these are the ones to buy. Absolute 5 stars for quality and value.

I upgraded to my BA950s from a pair of B&W 302s for $620 Canadian about 1 1/2 years ago. (The BAs were going for $950/pair.) Quite a deal for a great speaker. I auditioned B&W 601s, 602, 603s, PSB 600i, Mirage 895i and of course the BA 950. I found the 601's tweeter to be quite tinny sounding, it drew my attention a lot and ruined female voices. At high volume, it was a pain to listen to them. Curiously enough, the 602s and 603s had a less noticible tweeter. The 603 was the only one that had considerable punch without excessive boominess. I then moved on to the PSB 600i which sounded muffled compared to the 302s I had and thus lost a lot of detailled imaging. I gave the 895s a shot yet didn't really like the bi-polar reflected sound. Music seemed to lose detail, although the soundstage was far beyond any of the other speakers I listened to.
When I listened to the 950s, I was initially impressed how the tweeter did not sound tinny/metallic. It had more presence than the 302's tweeter yet it did not seem to attract my attention that much, even while listening to it at high levels for 10 minutes or more. In retrospect, the 302 has incredible imaging and the 950 was the only speaker that could match it that I listened to. What really impressed me was the tightness of the bass. No matter what I listened to, the 950 never sounded boomy what-so-ever. I practically flipped out when I found out that it was a ported design! I really loved the way it handled bass. I could make the drivers clip, but only at very high levels, where the tweeter would start to sound harsh (more on this later). Satisfied, I bought the 950s and hooked em up at home in my relatively small room (18x13) to my Yamaha rx-v592 & Marantz CC-65 Cd player and listened to them till now b4 writing my review. :)

Well after all this time, I can't say anything negative about them other than at extremely high volume while playing Mozart's Requiem, rare passages with continual female chorus singing & violins playing, the tweeters would suddenly break up in a rasping sound. I simply lowered the volume a tad and it disappeared completely. I consider this not a fault of the 950s simply because I don't and can't listen to music that loud over a long period of time. :) I think it would have happened with other speakers as well (and it did with my 302s at a lower volume). Perhaps with speakers that cost well over $2000 I wouldn't have that problem, but for the amazing price I got the 950s for, I'm very pleased. They handle a range of music, from classical, jazz to Rammstein effortlessly. I don't miss any details to the music what so ever. One day, a friend and I were listening to Children (Dream version) by Robert Miles (that she introduced me to) at a moderate volume level and she asks "Is that rain at the beginning of the song?" She never heard the rain before, despite having the same receiver and B&W 302s and listening to that song a lot too. :) IMO, that's testament that the 950s offer unsurpassed audio detail. :)

I've got a Mirage BPS-150i (2x 8" bipolar, sealed encl) subwoofer hooked up to augment the deep bass that the 950s can't handle (hey, 4x 5 1/4 drivers can only move 87 cubic inches of air) and the best thing is that they fit together seamlessly in bringing controlled and tight, non-boomy bass to my ears.
If tight bass with detailled imagery is what you want in inexpensive speakers, give the Boston Acoustics VR-950s a serious listen. I was and am still impressed by them. I'll be hard-pressed to upgrade these in the future without shelling out a lot of cash. :)

I started out with a sub-sat system since the small footprint appealed to me.However, I found the sound quality to be lacking. I was impressed by the
950's in the dealer soundroom and decided to give them a try. After 3 weeks,
I could not be more pleased with these speakers. The sound clarity and accuracy
make them a joy to listen to. Though more costly than advertized value
speakers, I consider the $700 to be very well spent. Not only that, the slim
profile is very accomodating and they look good to boot.

I got these speakers recently. Initial impressions include a loose but well
extended bass and stunning treble clarity. They show a slight indifference to
sudden dynamic pieces. They manage in absolute terms, but seem to handle them
with some indifference.

To improve bass, I keep them well away from walls. Make sure the spikes are
firmly grounded . A distance of more than 2.5 meters improves seperation and
imaging is greatly improved by toeing in.

With their specifications, they are easy to drive. Overall, they look great
and classy. The tweeter is fabulous and the sound, though smooth, is still
likable.

They are best for stuff like Ace of Base and Third Eye Blind. However, having
had them for only a week, I daresay they will improve with time.

The acid test would be a Prodigy album which I intend to do in the near
future.

These are great looking slim, black floorstanders.

The tweeter is fantastic while the 2 woofers manage pretty good extension, but
the bass could be tighter. For improving the bass, keep well away from walls
and give the spikes something hard to grind into.

Also, leave at least 2.5 meters of space in between to help seperation and
imaging greatly improves with toeing in.

They seem to be kinda slow and indifferent to sudden changes in tempo. It's
not that they can't manage, but they are distinctly indifferent.

The music comes out smooth, but those looking for bite should look
elsewhere.