Bose 301-V Stereo Loudspeakers (Pair) - Black

I have owned Polk TSI500, Definitive Technology SM45s which I have reviewed here in amazon, wanted to check out the direct reflected sound from Bose. After owning this product for a couple of months now, I can now discuss them in full.Low Points compared to the competitionHaving owned products from Polk and Definitive, I can attest that in terms of build quality the BOSE301s are bit of a let down. The maple finish is good to look at and the front plate that has the tweeter on it turns from silver to black depending on the light it gets, pretty cool. But apart from that the cabinet as the whole seems to be built a bit cheaply. this might be the only reason for me to knock a point off the product. Definitve Techs finish is impeccable and the studio monitors have a heft which suggests a well built and dampened cabinet. I still have those in my house for my bedroom.But heck, how many times have you had visitors to your home go near speakers and pick them up or go up close with a magnifying glass and check out imperfections on the wood. If you are a part of that audiophile class you wont be looking at this product anyways.My aim was to get good sound at a lower price point and this Bose delivers that in spades. the overall speaker looks great on a stand next to your TV.A quick note on Power needed to run these speakersA little less efficient than Polk or definitive but not by much. I use a Sony elite amplifier (100W per channel) to run my home theater, and where the Polks or definitives would sound mildly loud at -28 to -30db, the Bose needs to be pushed upto -25 to 28db. all this shows is the speakers are a little less efficient and need a little more power to be driven loud. And trust me they can be driven loud to ear splitting levels very easily without damaging the speakers. So the takeway here is that you do not need a professional amplifier to run these, a good HT receiver will do the job very well.On the plus side now, sound is where the BOSE 301s outshine the competition. Polks as well as Defenitives have an immediate sound to them. They place the music in front of the TV giving a forward presentation. The Bose 301s on the other hand take the other approach,a very laidback but wide soundstage. the performer is placed behind the TV or the speakers.In essence they just vanish leaving you with a room filled with beautiful music. If you do not like this kind of sound you might want to skip the product.Placement is key in gettting great sound out of these guys. I followed Bose placement rules and have them spaced out 10 feet away from each other and around 4 feet of space from each side wall. Behind them i made to sure to leave less than a foot of space, around 8 inches from the rear wall. This works great in my living room which has a 20 foot*15 foot space. If you do not have the space I would suggest the 201s instead. These use 8inch drivers and do need the space for sounding good and the rear space as well as the side walls are needed for the room enveloping sound. If your room does not have side walls or is open on one side, then these speakers might not sound good. So make sure you check your room before you buy these.My HTs auto callibration set these up as large which meant they can go low as mose floor standing speakers do. however I have a good subwoofer, so went in and manually set them up to cut off at 70Hz and this seemed to be the best point for my room and pairing of the Polk PSW505 subwoofer. Your cut off point might have to vary based on your room and the subwoofer you have.you will know the best point when there is no booming bass and the speakers kind of vanish from the sound stage.In conclusion if you enjoy music and movies and need theater like sound quality or a concert hall like enveloping experience for everyone in the room I highly recommend that you go buy these. If you want have the artist stay in front of you and play for you alone, look elsewhere.

The reviewer below identifying himself as "An Electronics Fan" obviously has a deep bias against Bose. His multiple reviews about Bose products--here and elsewhere--are transparently motivated by some animus against Bose. Was he fired by Bose? Did a member of the Bose family reject his romantic advances? Did a Bose executive accidentally run over his cat? Did he drop a Bose speaker on his foot and hurt his toe? The true motivation for this guy's negative reviews would be fun to know. In the meantime, what we do know is that he has no credibility, and his reviews (two here, others elsewhere for other Bose products; he's made maligning Bose his life's work, apparently)) should disregarded.I bought a set of black 301's several years ago to go with my Onkyo receiver. We have it hooked up to a television and DVD player for movies. These speakers are in constant use both for the DVD and for music of all types. The room in which they are placed is huge, with an 18 foot-high flat ceiling. The speakers saturate the room with exquisite sound day after day. The speakers work fine for spoken audio for DVD's; we can hear dialogue perfectly; I feel no particular need for a surround-sound system. Several times my young daughters have turned on the 100 watt amp with the volume turned all the way up or close thereto. I feared a ruptured speaker cone, but the 301's are very forgiving, no damage has been done. The cats sleep on the speakers; they clean right up and still look new after five years. These speakers keep on giving total satisfaction, and I quite simply love them.About three years ago I decided to go all out in another room and bought the highest quality stereo stuff on the market, or at least what I determined to be best after a lot of research. This included a set of the gold-series tower speakers from Monitor Audio. (The speaker cones are metallic, with some amount of gold, and gold connections, etc., etc.) These Monitor Audios have to be the best looking speakers ever made (real wood veneer cabinetry, with the gold cones and the black covers, etc.). These speakers cost well over a thousand dollars each. Well, I must confess, as awesome as the Monitor Audios sound, I can't really say they sound any better than the Bose 301's!!! They can maybe handle more power, but I assure you the Bose 301's will play loud enough to bring the cops to your doorstep in five minutes or less.So, when I recently set up my third stereo in a bedroom, I looked forward to buying a third type of speakers. I ran around and listened to what I could find on display. Well, after much contemplation, I went for a second set of the Bose 301's!!! They just couldn't be beat, and I would have gladly spent more if I had found something I liked better. But I'm not going to spend more just so I can say I spent a lot...there has to be increased performance. And, in my opinion, the 301's couldn't be out-performed by any other bookshelf speaker of any price range.My first set of 301's were black. This time I went for the cherry. Folks, these are absolutely beautiful speakers: almost as cool looking as my Monitor Audios. The black cover and the black housing fixture in the back really accentuate the cherry colored wood. No, it is not real wood, but it looks very nice. These things are simply gorgeous. The kind of "mod" or futuristic shape which Bose has designed really stands out in this lighter-colored version. And, yes, they sound just as good as my original pair. I listen to soft music (jazz, typically, or ambient) in the morning and these speakers deliver all the nuances at very low volume; I listen to hard rock at high volume on other occasions, and the 301's don't scare away or distort at all: these things would tear the house apart before they'd lose sound quality.So, yes, I recommend these highly. They'd still be the speaker of choice for me at three or four times the price.