Technical Details
- Each 201 speaker includes a long excursion 6-1/2 woofer and a highly sensitive 2 Stereo Targeting tweeter
- Proprietary Stereo Everywhere technology combines direct and reflected sound to deluge the room with beautiful sound
- Unique port geometry for clean bass
- Compact size and horizontal for flexible placement options
- Perfect as front or rear home theater speakers, along with a BOSE VCS-10 channel & BOSE 161 surrounds ? or a second pair of 201s
Product Description
The world's best loved bookshelf speaker / Now redesigned, with even better performance / For music or home theater
Amazon.com Product Description
The trim, stylish 201-V speakers from Bose are ideal for your den, dorm room, office, or small-scale living room. Their sleek design makes them welcome in any décor. Sold in pairs, the 201-Vs work well with either your stereo components or your home theater, elegantly handling either front- or rear-channel surround sound (use 2 pairs for both).
You'll enjoy lifelike, spacious stereo sound from these compact yet versatile bookshelf speakers. In a concert hall, listeners hear a mix of direct and reflected sound arriving from different directions and at different times. Bose's proprietary Direct/Reflecting speaker technology uses the walls and flat surfaces of your room to more closely approximate the sound in a concert hall. From cutting-edge DVDs to your vintage records, you'll enjoy larger-than-life spaciousness in nearly all you listen to, thanks in part to Bose's precisely angled, 2.5-inch proprietary Stereo Targeting tweeters.
The speakers' broad-dispersion Stereo Everywhere design lets you enjoy full stereo sound throughout the listening area, no matter where you sit or stand. Instead of concentrating the stereo effects into a single "sweet spot," the 201 bookshelf speakers are engineered to deliver realistic performance almost anywhere in the room.
The speakers each use a single 6.5-inch woofer and a flared-slot port--a specially engineered design wherein woofer and port geometry complement each other to reduce air turbulence. The ports ensure clean, deep bass, particularly when you're listening at high volumes.
What's in the Box
Two speakers, self-adhesive rubber feet, a user's manual, and warranty/registration information.
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Customer Reviews
"Great" 2010-01-06By
John C. Callicutt (Fort Worth Texas)
I'm not exactly a critic but I auditioned several speakers at best buy when I looked at these. I particularly looked at some Polkaudio's that were $20 dollars less...they, in my opinion, were not in the same league as the Bose 201's. The bass in them is reasonable for the size of the speaker.
"not good" 2009-12-13By
N. Mashmoorwell, I've got those for free since the person who gave them to me had my old Paradigm monitors and let them get wet in the basement... make long story short. I love music, and music sounds better with good speakers! when I watch a movie those Bose are not too bad but I have them hooked up to an Onkyo receiver with a 12" Paradigm sub and they sound bad! what a shame. my first and LAST Bose speakers. who ever tell you on those reviews that those speakers are good, doesn't know what he/she is talking about and had never listen to a good set.
the mids are flat, the highs are pitchy and there is no bass and even with a good sub, they just rewin the music. I listen to a lot of classical and operas and the mids are very important but all that is happening is losing the good vocals. I have enough bass thanks to the sub but those Bose...comon, give me a break... buy a low end no name speakers and get more sound. one more thing: you need a lot of power to push them, much more then good speakers do.
"Disappointed really" 2008-04-24By
Ravi (Dallas, TX)
I was THIS close to ordering the 201's online, but I'm glad better sense prevailed and I went down to the local Circuit City with a few CD's of my own for a little "test-drive".
I am not a serious audiophile, and having been fed on media propaganda, I thought Bose were the ultimate. I guess I was wrong. Even to MY untrained ears, it was quite obvious that the Bose didn't sound half as good as they're cracked out to be.
Now, they're not completely worthless, of course, but hearing them side by side with similarly sized (and lower priced) speakers from Polk Audio, Boston Acoustics and Infinity, one could tell that they were a bit out of place.
Sure, they can get loud, really loud, but if loudness is all you want, I'll have my neighbours pay you a visit.. ;-). Compared to other good speakers, the Bose lacked the richness and fullness of sound. You couldnt "feel" the music. The sound was "weak", and at higher volumes, just felt out of place (think Rick Moranis jumping up and down, thumping his chest trying to scare someone.. kinda funny though), and after a while "annoying" (think Rick Moranis jumping.... get the picture?). I also tried the 161's... same result. The sound was clear and crisp, with no distortions, but just not "satisfying".
With the same CD's I also tried Polk Audio RM101, and Boston Acoustics Micro120X, half the size (and price) of the Bose 201's, and even the store associate was surprised by the difference in sound quality (before we started testing, he couldn't talk about anything but Bose.. just like me.. :P).
I finally decided upon the BA Micro120X, probably one of the "ugliest" speakers you can find... lol, but with a GREAT sound. Plus it has a great deal going on at BUY dot COM, where a PAIR (usually it is sold in eaches) is avaiable at ridiculously low prices [Can not state actual price since that is against Amazon's review policy and will get edited out, but think 85% lower than MSRP, not gonna last at those prices for very long though. So if you're looking for one, hurry.]
To be fair to Bose, if I had not heard any of the other speakers, and straight away purchased Bose, I would have been very happy with my purchase and would probably have rated them 4-stars (like I said earlier, they are NOT absolutely worthless). But when you compare them to other good speakers, they just fade away, and the fact that they are so much more costly than other better speakers makes me think they deserve no better rating than a 1-star. Probably a bit harsh, but then, so was the difference in sound quality and listening experience.
"sounds better than all-in-one-solution such as ipod hi-fi" 2007-09-08By
Gedget Enthusiastthis speaker, when combined with my sony AV receiver and my ipod as main music player, brings out the musics/songs alive and it certainly sounds much better than ipod hi-fi hype....the best part is the price! ipod hi-fi costs $350, but this bose 201 speaker costs approx. $200 and my sony AV receiver cost me $200 thus total $400 spent for much better sound! This speaker is very affordable and it will certainly beat other speakers @ it's price range!! If you look for magnet-rumbling sound quality, I'd suggest you look for yamaha's since my mom have them in my living room which certainly is bigger speaker than my bose hence better sound quality....*and hence much bigger price*
"overpriced, cheap build, poor sound" 2007-03-07By
A. Fabbri (seattle, wa USA)
We just moved into our first house, and in the last couple of months, I've purchased three brands of bookshelf speakers. In order, I've purchased a pair of Infinity Primus 150 speakers, a pair of small ($10 each on super sale) Pioneer S-HF21-LR speakers, and now I just opened a pair of Bose 201's I got with my credit card points.
The first thing I noticed about the bose 201-V speakers was the build quality: almost as good as the $10 pioneers (the pioneers don't have exposed particle board, the bose speakers do). There are no post-style connectors, just the cheap hole-and-lever type. The Infinity 150's are built out of much better materials, have gold post-and screw style contacts, removable fronts, solid wood construction, internal dampening, nice feet, and wall mounting slots.
The Bose 201-V's sound decent for their size, but they certainly don't sound as good as the Infinity 150s, which are almost half the price! Specifically, I notice certain mid-range tones are exaggerated with the bose 201's. It is almost as if the cabinets have some resonance frequency that sets off with a certain midtone. The bass response also seems a little uneven, with certain bass drum notes showing up loudly, but other (higher) bass guitar notes almost absent. The absence of certain bass notes is probably what bothers me the most. I'm running a straight amp without any EQ.
I got these speakers with my credit card points, and I'm thinking of selling them on ebay and buying something else.
Check out stereophile for more speaker information.. they had a good article on the Infiniti Primus speakers.
All Reviews
