Home > Consumer Reviews > BOSE 201-V Stereo Loudspeakers (Pair) - Cherry

Bought a pair of these to replace an old 1980's pair of inexpensive Radio Shack speakers. Work just fine in the 16 x 20 room I placed them in. At the 50watts/channel I supply them with, (I rarely pass volume setting 2 on a 1-10 scale), they have more than sufficient bass and enough treble to satisfy my easy listening preferences and sound like speakers 2x their size. They are solid, well made, attractive speakers and they come with a 5 year warranty from Bose which I doubt I'll ever need.

Bose has made a name for itself through agressive advertising at the expense of quality audio technology. Simply put, there are dozens of audio loudspeakers on the market that outperform Bose at a fraction of the price. This has been a well known fact in the audio industry and among audio buffs for at least twenty five years.

Unfortunately the mass of consumers isn't aware of the quality problems with Bose as compared to other speakers on the market. A few years ago Consumer Reports gave an honest appraisal of Bose speakers- ranking them very low. Bose sued and lost. Now all reputable audio magazines such as Stereophile or Absolute Sound stay far away from Bose products.

If you are really interested in sound performance and you'd like to stay on amazon.com try JBL, Polk, Wharfedale or Cambridge Audio. While not cutting edge audio, they'll deliver a MUCH BETTER sound performance than Bose could ever aspire to.

Bose is over rated in the mind of consumers due to their aggresive marketing stretegy. Ask any audiophiles what they think of Bose. There are other companies that make better spaekers like:

Wharfedale diamond series with kevlar cones
Paradigm
Psb
Tannoy mx-series
Polk Rt-series
MB Quart
Niles audio

Go with one of those, and you will be pleasantly surprised...
Happy listening to you all...