Customer Reviews

Bose® 201® Direct/Reflecting® Speaker System

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

 

 

You read a lot of technical jargon in these things. Listen, if you want a good stereo sound at a decent price - these SOUND good. They are full and responsive to almost every type of music you play through them. If you are looking for super Bass response you need a subwoofer but these suffice fine without one. Cheap but sound awesome. 301s are even better and 501s are better yet but these are great.

These speakers are truly amazing. The sound is so crystal clear and really makes it feel like the concert is in your living room. The vocals really come to life. These speakers are a great buy.

Bought the Bose 201 Series IV a year ago, they are the predecessor to the current model, Bose 201 Series V. If you are experienced in home audio, its obvious that just picking up one of these 201's feel much lighter in weight than your typical higher-end bookshelf speakers, of comparable or even smaller size. Cheap construction, the cabinet was only partially laminated, leaving exposed fiberboard. When you connect your wires, you'll notice Spring loaded terminals, lacking the Binding posts found in higher quality, comparably priced brands. I removed the grille and inspected further, the tweeter and woofer cones are all made of paper. Just for fun, I unscrewed the 6 1/2" main Driver and inspected the inside. There were no connectors on the end of the wires, instead I find that the wires are hand tied to the woofer's terminals (See for yourself!)

I connected the Bose 201's to my Denon AVR-1706 7.1 Channel receiver in Stereo Mode. These speakers have no enjoyable high nor low frequencies. There is no improvement in sound quality between the Bose and my HDTV's internal speakers. These speakers seem to augment the sound in an unnatural manner, and the direct-reflecting feature is bogus. I proceeded to connect my Klipsch SB-1's bookshelfs and ran an A/B test through my receiver on a variety of movies music and games. The Klipsch's blew away the Bose's. Dont be suckered into any of Bose's products. If youre looking to break into high end audio, go for Infinity, Polk Audio, JBL, Boston Acoustics, Klipsch, which can be had for much less than comparable Bose models. The only thing Bose should get credit for, is their world class marketing strategy.

Great sound from small bookshelf. Being hard of hearing, my previous speakers sounded a bit muffled. Maybe it wasn't just a result of my hearing. With the Bose, the dialogue is 100% clearer. The highs are now very crisp, but if you expect booming bass, forget it.
I would have given the speakers five stars, but the case construction if cheap. I don't thing Bose even went as far as using particle board- anyhow, it sure doesn't seem like it.

I have had a pair of these for about 7 years. I use them everyday and they are great. Don't believe the BS that the anti-bose crowd spews (also look into the other speakers etc. that the nay-sayers recommend, usually the products are 2 and 3 times more $$$$$). These are well-made, small, powerful. They are designed to be used in a bookshelf etc. They don't work as intended if they are not set up properly (read the instructions.....easy to set up but you need to follow the makers recommendations). The reproduce sound in a Flat-Frequency type of manner (i.e. no "bass boost" "dynamic sound enhancement" BS. All of that stuff is a bunch of garbage. These reproduce the sounds without distorting them etc. Use these with a receiver that puts out at least 80watts per channel. Great value, durable, well built. I am so glad I bought these, you will be too.

I was really dissapointed in the Bose 201 IV. They seemed to be built really cheap. Within the first several months of purchasing these speakers, the laminate started to peel off and leave the particle board exposed on 20% of the speaker. The sound quality is also not very good.