Customer Reviews

Bose 141 Pair Fullrange Bookshelf Speakers

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've owned a pair of these for years. They are hooked-up to a sub woofer, and they sound better than the $1000. speakers that are being sold today. You will not be sorry you bought them.

I got these speakers a while back.....i love them. They have excelent treble and perfect midrange but have almost no bass whatsoever. They would be good for listening to operas not watching tv or rap or that such.

I bought these speakers for my father as a gift from my brother and I for Christmas. He had talked about them having heard them in an actual store, and really liked them. These went in our living room where we'll play music on occasion. We were very satisfied with the speakers: they are very clear and have a great range of sound. They replaced an older set of speakers that my father had owned for years. These were a great replacement for what we had.

In the world of Bose, I believe they have a mix of superior products, inferior products, and average products. The Bose 141 speaker series is a small bookshelf speaker that delivers okay sound, but certainly not superior sound that will trounce a $1000 speaker from another reputable audio company. I had these in my closet for many years, and decided to hook them up to my Sony shelf system, and compare them to the Sony speakers that came with the system. The truth is, the Bose only sounded slightly better than the Sony speakers. In this case, the Sony speakers are by no means considered high end, and the Bose, I would expect it to deliver much higher fidelity, which it did not. If you are looking to upgrade your small bookshelf speakers, I would at least trial at your nearest audio outlet, some Polk Audio, Onkyo, and Boston acoustics, as an alternative, without having to dive into expensive B+W shelf speakers, which on all accounts is a superior speaker on another level. I'm not saying these Bose 141's are junk, but I believe there are better sounding speakers in this class for less.

I bought these to subpliment my surround sound speakers and they fit in my entertainment stand. They provide good sound and weren't that expensive. Not the greatest sound but definitely enough for my needs.

I do my listening at home via our (small) living room home theater type rig and a while back I realized how unsatisfying my Infinity 5-way system was to me - specifically the two front speakers for regular stereo. I upgraded my receiver to a decent Sony unit and replaced the Infinity spkrs with a pair of 141's. I am fairly knowledgeable about electronics and audio products and I'm aware of the drawbacks to some Bose products such as the weak construct of some of their overpriced NR headphones and the inherent flaw in the direct/reflecting speaker theory. [Reflecting off what? A flat wall on one side and a heavy fabric curtain on the other? Result: unbalanced sound, unless one designs the room around the speakers.]

These are budget speakers. However, instead of a 3rd rate tweeter/woofer config, Bose opted for a single 4.5" fullrange driver in the 141 and that's the beauty - and the limitation - to this speaker. The mids and highs are abundant and crisp, with even frequency response from lower mids on up, and a particular intangible smoothness, that "Bose sound" that one expects from speakers costing a great deal more.

OK, what about the bass? As stand-alone bookshelf speakers these might do quite well provided you have a graphic EQ either in the hardware of your rig or in your playback software (Winamp, etc) - I can't report since I haven't used them in that function. However with a subwoofer (passive Infinity) the overall sound is, above all, pleasing. I listen to music and great deal more than I used to and every time I play a track I notice how much I enjoy the flavor of the sound. Movies, TV and other video are also enhanced and sooner or later I'll need a 3rd unit to use as my center speaker (where the hell am I gonna find a single Bose 141?).

One negative reviewer points out that these are no match for a $1000 set of speakers from a reputable manufacturer. To that, I can add: the sun will rise in the east tomorrow. I will note that the price I'm seeing online new - $199 at Amazon - is a bit nuts for such a basic speaker. I bought these used off Craigs for a ridiculously low price, but I'd recommend them in the $75-$100 range which is easy to find.

I listen more. I'm listening now. Isn't that what it's all about?

I run these with a Harmon Kardon Receiver, the HK3390 model, with 80 RMS watts per channel, along with a Polk PSW10 subwoofer. And frankly, they just sound great. You can't beat Bose speakers, period. Just make sure you feed them enough power and be sure to include some kind of sub woofer for the low end. And Voila! You get a great high fidelity sound. No doubt about it. You can surely pay more, but you won't get a better sound. It's not about size, it's about a great name, Bose. And you can take that to the bank.

If I purchased this item with original price then I would be felt like "it's pretty expensive". I got this item with good price so I think it's just fine.