See my other review of these, somehow the review wound up in the VR970 area instead of the 975

Great sound imaging, Adjustable strong bass with a very strong amplifier. Very accurate speakers - especially good for classical and jazz listening. Outstanding sound for both home theatre and music listening.

Right speaker was defective out of the box. I believe it left the factory this way. Right speaker had a terrible acoustic resonance when certain frequency's were hit.
Speakers are not very well protected in the shipping boxes and are difficult to remove from the box. The sock that covers the speakers have a bad draw string design. The draw string that pulls the sock tight can easily pull out of the sock - which happened to me when inspecting the defective speaker. Speakers have a tendancy to sound very bright - even with the amplifier tone controls flat. This might not be to your liking. LFE inputs into the speakers caused a terrible rumbling which could not be corrected by any adjustment on the Denon Amplifer. I even compensated by dropping the Sub adjustment by -12db and it still caused problems. I had to put in a separate Sub for the LFE effects.

I have always liked Boston Acoustics speakers. They have a very accurate and detailed sound for the money. (The 975's only have a 125 watt amplifer - not 150 as stated in the review) I also have a Denon AVR-3300 Surround Amplifer, a Boston Acoustics VR-12 Center Channel Speaker and Boston in the ceiling rear channel speakers.
I had previously purchased the Boston VR-960's from my dealer - Audio King who allowed me the option to upgrade within a year. (A very nice option) I liked the VR-960's but was never very happy with their ability to put out bass. When the VR-975's came out I thought I would exercise this option. I happily ran to the store after packing up my 960's and brought home the 975's. It is not an easy job to pack these speakers up and unpack them. They are quite large and in my opinion are not very well protected as they come from the factory. (Especially with the irresponsible people that handle the shipments)
After listening to the 975's for a while - I kept hearing a bad resonance in the upper range of the Right speaker. I thought that this was just my imagination or perhaps it had to do with the placement of the speakers in the room. I switched the two speakers to rule this out. It was obvious - after putting my ear to the right speaker that this sound was actually there and very evident with high frequencies. I pulled the sock off of the speaker to see if there was anything evident. There sure was. A 1 inch piece of the fiber casing material next to one of the speakers was missing. This did not look like a shipping issue to me. It looked like it was shipped from the factory like this. How could a piece this small be caused by a shipping issue I thought? I would have expected to see more damage if this was the case. I couldn't isolate the sound specifically from any one speaker but if any piano music was played - the resonance was so bad I had to turn it off. (Even if the resonance wasn't there I wouldn't accept a speaker with part of the casing missing)

Don't get me wrong - these are great sounding speakers. I have since ordered another to replace the defective one. It is however, very dissapointing to me that Boston allowed a speaker like this out of the factory. It makes me wonder if their quality control is going down hill. (I have written a letter to Boston as well)

I also thought that I could eliminate my Polk Audio Subwoofer to save space. (After all, these have 10 inch subs with 12 inch passive subs and a 125 watt amplifier!)
When I ran the LFE - Sub output with a Y cable from my Amp to each speaker - I almost tore the walls down in my room when listening to a DVD. I tried to compensate with every adjustment on the Amp - I even dropped the Sub LFE settings on the Amp to -12 - (as far as it could go and still had a terrible rumble with the LFE's) I then put the Polk audio Sub back on the LFE channel - ran the settings back up to normal with a sound level meter and everything was fine again) - Go figure - perhaps there is some circutry in this speaker that is defective causing both the high resonance problem and the rumble?

What is frustrating is having to pack them up again, and having to wrestle with the upacking process all over again. You would think that maybe - the dealer might offer to deliver a replacement speaker to me considering the problems? Not a chance - especially Audio King!!!! I'd suggest buying them from the internet. You don't get any worse service and taking it to a shipper is no worse than taking it back to Audio King. In fact I have to wait for a week just to get a replacement speaker for it.

I like these speakers a lot - despite the defect. They have a very full sound with excellent imaging and bass control. However, I can't give it a high rating from my experience of the defect - sorry Boston - and I would highly recommend anyone buying a pair to make the dealer take them out of the boxes and check them for defects before you start wrestling with them on your own. The packing materials are just not very good from the factory.

Similar Products Used:

Boston Acoustics VR-960's, HD-10's.

Solid sound, as tight as you want them to be.

Needs a little help in the seismic stability department.

These speakers needed a little time to break-in. For excellent stage instrument/voice, the built in 130 watt amps need to be throttled back to about 20% of maximum, just as BA recommends. About 40% seems to be suitable only for use with home theater, and above 40% gives floor shaking, wall moving bass. BTW, these speakers WILL break windows. Have experienced NO problems with hum, auto shut-off or reliability. Placement is not exactly critical but does require consideration. The instructions provided by BA are the straighr forward, common sense type. I evaluated more speakers than I thought possible (for me). I kept coming back to the VR-970 and VR-975 and then got the deal I couldn't refuse, VR-975s, good $$ and great sound.

Had to agree with Blackie's post below.
Had to give a 5 Star rating to make up for Ted's 1 star review. It is an obvious lie.
Bose does tend to get blasted on this site, but it is no reason to give another product such a bad review.
Speaker selection is tough enough without having to sift through lies like that.
Good luck and trust your own ears...you're the one who's going to listen them.

They sound wonderful

Break in period

I auditioned a pair of both the 965's and 975's last night, the 965's are far superior - what a sound stage! Here is my question to you guys, where can I get a good/great deal on a pair of these? No dealer in my town. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Similar Products Used:

Klipsch, JBL

Very tight and loud bass, crips highs, and warm mid

Sock grill

I ordered these speakers from a guy on ebay, who owns an audio store in Utah. They were floor models, and he was getting rid of the Boston line. I got the 2 speakers, good condition, but I found that the 10 inch sub on the right speaker is blown, so I have to send it to Boston with my warranty. I have found that because the subs are side-firing, even a couple inches in positioning of the speakers can make a huge difference. I have mine angled at a 45 degree angle, to achieve maximum bass.

Similar Products Used:

None

Everything bass mid and highs are incredible. Amazing Sound from such a thin speaker

None

These are probabley one of the best sounding speakers i have heard especially for the price. They handle any and everything i can throw at them the only bummer with mine is that with neighbors so close i can't crank it up all that loud. The bass responce is simply amazing it is soooo deeep when it needs to be. It's like re discovering all the songs you have heard before espcially the high's Boston has figured out the Tweeter in there Lynnfield Series.

IF you get a chance listen to them you won't be dissapointed........

Similar Products Used:

Polk Audio

Incredible bass, POWERED SUB, all around great speaker.

None that I have found yet.

I just got these babies a couple of weeks ago and WOW! They really do pump out the bass. This is one of the few times that I was more impressed with an electronics item at home than at the store. These speakers made my whole system sound better than I ever thought possible. I am using them with a Boston Center Channel VR910 and some old Boston HD 5's for the rear channels on a Pioneer Elite 27tx receiver. Finally I have some speakers that will bring out the bass in STEREO music. I highly recommend these to anyone in the market for some high end speakers. I was actually planning on buying the VR 965's but when they offered me these at $800.00 FOR THE PAIR, I couldn't say no.

Similar Products Used:

Boston T-830, Boston T-1000

Everything so far

Have not found any.

Went to Audio King in MN, was going to buy the Def. Tech 2002TL speakers. I saw the BA 975's and thought they looked like clones. Gave them a try. I was suprised to hear in a side by side comp. the Boston Acoustics were much more defined and clear in the mids and highs. The Def tech offered a stronger low and more muffled mid I had not heard until compaired to the 975's. Got a price of $1440. Called around and bought from the Rosedale store for $1350 from Brian in car audio... yes I know, but for a cheaper price who cares who you deal with right? Got them home and the wife went crazy. Set them up and cranked them up. Wife loves them more than me now. Don't know how she will get them in the bed.. I must be good for something. Break in period needed. Still out of the box they sounded very good, a little harsh in the high end but after a few hours on them they are already smoothing out. Much richer sound.
Ted Staigl> The DVD player you are using is sub par for the equpment your testing. You spent $300 on a DVD player and $4950 on speakers? Right, sure you did. I also noticed you forgot to review the receiver and DVD player, makes me wonder if you bought them at all. IF you did, try upgrading your cables and get rid of the junk DVD player. Buy the Pioneer DV37, much better.
I am using
Denon AVR-4800
POA-5200 125 watt side powers the front speakers
Pioneer DV37 Elite DVD player
JBL 15" sub. 350 watts. Turned way down now.
Straight wire Rapsody II cables
Wharfdale Mod Center, to be replace by BA Center in a few weeks.
4 Misc rears
Sony 35" TV
These speakers can not be bi-wired. They have 2 posts for a left and right input. Then one RCA input for the sub. Spend the extra on good cables and RCA in. Placement is critical, moving them a few degrees in or out a little will greatly affect the image and sound quality. I Put them 18" from the wall and toed about 12 degrees in. Still playing with that, once they break in will redo the setup.

Similar Products Used:

Wharfdale Shaphire 89's, Klipsch, JBL

Incredible and brilliant highs, but not overdone. Deep, punchy bass from the integrated subwoofers. True, natural midrange unlike anything else I have heard in this price range.

The base of this speaker does not sit well on extremely plush carpets. Cloth sock make it hard to move speakers around.

After extensively auditioning speakers over a 3 month time span, I have come to the conclusion that the VR 975's are the best speakers in their price range ($1000-$2500). I auditioned B&W's, PSB's, Infinity's, Polk Audio's, Definitive Technology's, and Boston Acoustics.

I thought I had listened to the speaker I would eventually buy when I heard the B&W 604 s2. I even listened to the B&W 605 s2. But the Boston Acoustics VR 975's were just a little bit better, and less than the 605's to boot. True, the B&W's are visually stunning, but the 975's are not too hard to take either. The new Santana CD, "Supernatural", is amazing when heard through these speakers. As for home theatre, the 975's produce all the deep bass you could ever want and then some. I never enjoyed watching DVD movies so much.

For music and home theatre, you can't go wrong with the BA 975's.

Similar Products Used:

Polk Audio