Bose 201-V Stereo Loudspeakers (Pair) - Black

I purchased these speakers about 4 months ago to use as stereo speakers and to eventually include in a home theater setup. I wanted to get speakers that wouldn’t break the bank because I also needed to purchase a receiver and a subwoofer, but I also wanted the speakers to be of high enough quality that I would not need to replace them anytime soon. I ended up choosing these Bose bookshelf speakers because they were cheaper than buying two decent-quality floor-standing speakers by Polk or Pioneer ($300+), and I knew these would be quality speakers because my parents bought a pair of these speakers over ten years ago and they still sound great in their living room. I currently use these in my medium-sized bedroom to listen to music as well as watch movies/TV/Netflix, and they work very well for what I need them to do. Installation When the speakers arrived from Amazon they arrived in a large Bose box, so make sure you leave a note for special delivery if you are worried about your neighbors seeing a huge box that obviously contains Bose speakers on your doorstep. Inside the box were simply the speakers and some documentation, so be sure to order some speaker wire if you don’t have any. I used Amazon brand speaker wire and got some banana plugs to make the connections easier. The banana plugs work just fine with these speakers and make connecting/disconnecting the wires much easier, which is convenient for moving them around when trying to find the best spot for them in your room. Installation of these speakers is essentially the same for any speakers, just plug in your banana plug or feed the bare wire into the inputs on the back of the speaker. Design/Audio One thing I love about these speakers is that they look great in my room. I have them located within 5 feet of my TV, and they are very aesthetically pleasing. Of course they have the coveted “Bose” logo on the front of them, which is sure to impress some people although was not a factor at all when I purchased these. The black/sliver, slightly curved design is just very easy to look at and you can tell they are high quality. Now as for the most important factor…how they sound. These speakers sound beautiful. I listened to quite a few brands of bookshelves at Best Buy and these blow the rest out of the water. I listen to a wide range of music (country, rap, rock, acoustic) and I have never been let down. Where I personally think these really excel is when I use them for watching TV/movies. I paired these speakers with a Pioneer Andrew Jones subwoofer and the result is amazing. Dialog sounds crisp, sound effects are realistic and the range is incredible. In scenes when things go from very quiet to very loud it just sounds great with these. One thing is for sure; I will never be able to use TV speakers to watch movies with again. Listening to music with these is a great experience as well; I typically use them for music while I work for a few hours every day. One thing they lack is a lot of bass, thus I paired them with a subwoofer. Other than that, these speakers handle every genre of music I throw at them very well. Overall If you are looking for a set of mid-range speakers that will last a long time, these are a great choice. My parents have had a version of these for over ten years and they still sound fantastic. I use them for listening to music as well as watching movies, and in both instances they blow me away. They do not have a ton of bass, so if that matters to you I would suggest pairing them with a subwoofer (I choose the Pioneer Andrew Jones sub and am happy with the setup). The bottom line is these speakers look great, are not terribly expensive, and sound amazing whether you’re listening to The Doors or watching Family Guy.

Hello! I find these reviews helpful in making purchases online. So I'm putting in my two cents on the 201 Bose Speakers. I finally parted with my 1980s 36" tall floor speakers. When I installed the 201's I must say I was greatly disappointed. Several reviews stated that they had very little bass. Trust me, they have very little bass. The sound was not rich and full. So I purchased subwoofer which added extra expense to the Bose purchase. I hadn't planned on purchasing anything else. So I finally made all the connections and "It's all about dat bass, bout dat bass! Absolutely, unless you like flat listening, plan on a subwoofer. Man! The sound is fantastic for a total purchase of around $350. The 201's have a crisp, clear, clean sound. The only reason I didn't give Five Stars is the lack of base. Bose may have wanted to mention that in the description. All that being said, I love them! Randy Ok! I've had my Bose for a couple months now. I had to add the extra star. They are pretty nice. The reproduction of sound is crisp and clean. Like I had stated, no bass. So plan on a sub. I'm sitting here listening to my grooves, dog sleeping at my side, and the sound is pretty nice! I listen to recorded music often. I've heard things in my music, never heard before. I'm a believer, but got to have that sub!! Great Listening.

The speakers arrived in good shape. No scratches or marks that would be noticeable. Sound is good and clear, much better then the TV speakers. Works with an receiver amplifier.

I've looked for a pair of good-sounding loudspeakers for desktop music listening. Although there are already several acoustically well-designed speakers (e.g. studio monitors from Adam and Focals), they often sound not very good without dedicated stands and careful placements. Smaller speakers generally allow more flexible placement on the desktop, but their acoustic performance is limited in my opinion. For these reasons, I cannot help giving up Adam A3X, PSB Alpha B1, and Edifier E10. In fact, I ended up with Bose 201V. Here are a few of my thoughts so far. 1. Bose intentionally make 201's twitter axis toward differently from woofer's one. Combined with 201V's unique waveguides, I could obtain good quality of spatial perception and stereo imaging. Radiation range is wider than expected. Overall, 201V's sound was robust enough for desktop use. 2. Tonal balance of 201V is clearly colored. Both my listening and measurement showed that they don't have very flat quasi-anechoic response. But to my ear, they are very musical. They are quite lenient toward low-quality recordings, too. They may not be recommendable for studio use, but this is hardly a weakness IMO. 3. Regardless of 6.5 inch woofer and ported design, 201V lack bass. I overcame this weakness by pairing them with a subwoofer.

Oldies but goodies!

My JBL Control 5 monitors bought the farm and I needed replacements. I once owned a set of Bose 501 floor speakers—have good memories of it—but choose the Bose 201 Direct/Reflecting speaker due to space limitations. INSTALLATION: I bought the 201 with the WB-3 wall mount bundle. My old JBL swivel and tilt speaker mounts were still on the wall but incompatible with the 201 due to a lack of bolt holes. However, the holes on the JBL wall mount aligned with the holes on the WB-3 plate, so I mounted the WB-3 on the JBL speaker mounts (rather than the wall). I drilled two holes in each speaker, attached the WB-3 plates and locked the speakers onto the plate on the JBL swivel mount. Works perfectly: gravity keeps the interlocking tabs securely in place. Plus, I can quickly position the speakers at an ideal angle for listening. My only complaint is the WB-3 plates are too tall for the 201 speaker and protrude above the top—unsightly. SOUND: I plugged in my flat pin terminated speaker wires—banana plugs won’t fit the tiny spring clips—into the 201 and cranked up my Denon receiver. Sounded thin and harsh but with poor bass response. Tweaking needed! I drove into the Denon menu, setting the right and left speakers to “full sized” rather than “small,” thereby allowing a full range of frequencies to flow into each speaker. Now fuller in the bass and lower midrange, but the lower highs were still harsh. I figured it might break in and sound better in a few days and, indeed, a week and many hours later brightness mellowed and I was greeted with a wonderful and easy on the ears sound. Classical and jazz guitar tones were well reproduced and Baroque chamber orchestras were nicely rendered as well. The 201 is king of the midrange. However, bass heavy styles are are soft and muffled on the lowest tones: a subwoofer is desperately needed for music with plentiful bass. I set the crossover on my subwoofer to 80 Hz and bass heavy styles suddenly sounded full and balanced with the 201. In fact, sounded really really good. APPEARANCE & CONSTRUCTION: Build quality and cosmetics are where the Bose 201 falls short. The cabinets are made from low density particleboard (I know because I drilled them to mount the WB-3) and covered with cheap black vinyl. The back edges of the cabinet are rough and look like budget speakers from the 1980s. Bose also cut corners on the speaker connectors: flimsy spring loaded affairs with tiny holes that only work with bare wire or small pins. Finally, the speaker cones appear to be untreated paper with foam surrounds on the woofer (foam tends to wear out quickly) and a cheesy silver plastic sound guide (tuned funnel) on the tweeter. Really wish the tweeter was black… Yes, 201 materials and build are on the cheap side but somehow it sounds surprisingly good, especially with a subwoofer: warm pleasant sound, slightly diffuse, plenty of volume from a 105 watts a side receiver and a giganormous sweet spot for listening. If you want pinpoint imaging these are not for you, but having speakers that sound good all over the room (the direct/reflecting design at work) makes them ideal for doing chores around the house and entertaining. The main question is how long will the foam surrounds last?

Speakers sound great! I wouldn't recommend buying these if you intend to use them to push a lot bass though them. Most of us know the capabilities of Bose speakers when it comes to full sound from their drivers, but these don't quite put out that sound. I use them with a powered sub to support them, so they only see mids and highs, therefore I have a very clear and crisp sound to any music I put on to play, even at high volumes where my previous speakers couldn't. I have them mounted to the wall because they simply took up too much room to sit on the shelf. Height and width is fine but the depth is more than I expected it to be. I also use these speakers as the front surround speakers so mounting them on the wall helped fill in the empty space around the TV while allowing my component shelf to remain small.

I recently installed the Bose 201 speakers in the TV room with a receiver that delivers 100 W per channel. They have a great bass quality, decent mid and high range, but still sound a little flat as compared with the BOSE 301. When listened to at a lower volume or combined with additional speakers as part of a 2.1 to 7.1 system they sound great and provide far more depth than the Bose 161 speakers. They are also very appropriate as a secondary set for an additional room where high volume is not a requirement. Otherwise it is worth spending a little more for the 301 speakers especially if you have an amp with decent power for each channel. Great speakers for the price! I would recommend the Bose 201 speakers as outlined above.

En cours de reconstruction complète de ma chaine HiFi avecun caisson de basse, les deux enceintes Bose 210 donnent le meilleur d'elles mêmes. Le positionnement des tweeters "arrose" correctement l'espace sonore, et c'est un véritable enchantement. Le couplage avec le caisson de basses, et le réglage de l'ampli aident au résultat. Je conseille pour cet excellent rapport qualité prix. L'emballage est correct et protège vraiment bien l'ensemble. Soyez chez vous lors de la livraison, le carton indique très fortement le contenu, à ne pas laisser sur le pas de la porte...

I have connected this speaker with Onkyo 9011, Teac R650, Sony Receiver, But sounds very strange-very dark. Then I have imported Bose amplifier(used) from Japan but it does not match-It gives very unclear strange sound. Now I am using this speaker with Kenwood mini(KA-S10), also imported from Japan (Amazon co. jp). Now sound OK, but I can feel that missing more power (Punch) and more clear sound. Now I have connect this speaker set to my old Panasonic then, explosive sound appears. crystal clear and dynamic sound.

思い切って買ってみました、クリアな音と音の広がりがとても良いですね。今まではっきりと聞こえていなかったＢＡＳＳ音等が良く聞こえます、バンドをやってるのでオリジナルのＢＡＳＳ ＬＩＮＥが良く分かってとても満足しています。

PROBE COMO 10 MARCAS DIFERENTES DE ALTAVOCES Y NINGUNO ME DIO LA PUREZA DE SONIDO QUE YO ESPERABA COMPRE 2 PARES,DE ESTOS ALTAVOCES, LOS RECIBÍ EN EL TIEMPO ACORDADO A DEMÁS ES UN PRODUCTO NUEVO Y CON GARANTÍA , LOS CONECTE A UN RECEPTOR MARCA ONKYO TX-8140 DE 80 WATS Y AGREGUE UN SUBWOOFER JBL, EL SONIDO QUE PRODUCE ES DE LUJO. GRACIAS

Perfect size bookshelf speakers. Satisfying full range response, especially considering their size. Would recommend to anyone looking for straightforward, clean stereo listening in a small to medium room environment. Before purchasing these speakers I compared the sound (store demo speakers) to other similarly sized and priced units from other manufacturers but the Bose 201-V units delivered (to my ear anyway) clearly superior sound. The units are of very solid build, well finished and are obviously of high quality.