Bose 201 Series V Main / Stereo Speaker

Bose has had an enviable reputation over the years for building the absolute best speakers that money can buy at ALL price levels. Still, familiarity breeds contempt...as does success. Regardless of the company's dedication to bringing the consumer tremendous sounding transducers at more than reasonable prices, the too numerous to count "Bose bashers" seem to simply come out of the woodwork whenever a rave review for a Bose product is presented.

Well, the silliness all began back in 1971 when STEREOPHILE magazine's top reviewer J. Gordon Holt gave a rather lengthy detailed [with graphs and pictures that resembled a battlefield commander's blackboard I might add!] description of the woes of the world's best sounding speaker...The Bose 901. This was in contrast to STEREO REVIEW's Julian Hirsch review from 1968 stating that the Bose 901's were simply the best ever.

Another Consumer's Union reviewer gave a negative report on the speaker system and Bose took him to court around 1979. It's very interesting to note that the man turned out to be a founding father of a new competitive speaker co. which will remain nameless for the sake of all concerned! Apparently he had a more than vested interest in slandering the Bose name.

Make no mistake though...Battle lines were clearly drawn and Bose would not even be mentioned in well respected high end publications' reviews or high end shops themselves from there on. I'm telling you this so you have an idea why things are the way they are. Just beware of negativity that is not backed up by ACTUAL LISTENING TESTS.

There are even some posters on this site that use various well thought out theories such as " paper vs. composite cones", "lack of FREQUENCY RESPONSE SPECIFICATIONS", "reflecting and standing waves causing frequencies to cancel each other", "improper Bose Store presentation" and "great marketing" as a rap against Bose. Believe it or not there are a good number of reviews that DO NOT even mention an actual audition or LISTENING TEST of the product itself! HOLY MOLY...what's going on here!?????

Bose never published such FREQUENCY RESPONSE specs as it was built on the premise that they are almost meaningless and do not have the ability to portray a speaker's actual performance. Bose puts almost all of its profits right back into RESEARCH. Does that sound like MARKETING? Well they do market honestly as the co. has stated from their beginning that all the rave reviews in the world mean nothing if the listener does not perceive the greatness in sound quality him or herself.

I also notice that Bose now treats the foam surrounds on their woofers with a light coating. The foam is not only cost effecftive but allows the long excursions necessary for deep bass reproduction. As for the use of paper cones...I have many audiophile friends that will not buy anything else as they feel paper beats all! I, myself do not care what a speaker designer makes use of so long as the darn thing sounds great! I have heard polypropylene woofers such as those featured in Infinity systems that sound horrible to me!

But enough of this silliness as the Bose 201 is now in its fifth generation and offers some rather drastic improvements over its predecessors!


Bose 201 SERIES V Features and Benefits:

1. Compatible with the VCS-10? center channel speaker.
2. Direct/Reflecting? speaker technology.
3. Stereo Everywhere? speaker performance.
4. High-sensitivity 2" Stereo Targeting? tweeter.
5. Spatial Dispersion™ speaker lens.
6. High excursion 6 ?" woofer.
7. Slot port tuning Enables cleaner and deeper performance for the lower notes, particularly at high volumes.
8. Compact bookshelf design Hear high-performance sound from easy-to-place speakers that can be used almost anywhere as main, secondary or surround speakers.
9. Automatic protection circuitry Protects drivers from being overdriven, without interrupting the music.
10. Syncom? computer tested Enjoy a superior level of quality and reliability thanks to Bose comprehensive testing.

Dimensions/weight: Each speaker: 8"H x 13.75"W x 8.55"D (20.3 x 35 x 21.7 cm) 10 lbs. (4.5 kg)
Pair in carton: 17.75"H x 21.94"W x 11.5"D (45 x 56.7 x 29.2 cm) 23.2 lbs (10.6 kg)
Finished in black or cherry

The most striking difference between the new model and its predecessors is the fact that the front baffle is now curved and contoured toward a new high end look. This is no accident as there is an extremely important difference here! This design has been proven by great British manufacturers like Celestion to be extremely superior in defeating obstacles like cabinet diffractions and unwanted resonances that can severely hinder the musical portrayal by a given speaker system. THIS IS A FIRST RATE AESTHETICALLY PLEASING DESIGN!!

Equally impressive is the positioning of the high energy tweeter which allows for both direct and reflecting technologies to be taken advantage of. Each tweeter is slightly angled toward the sides of the listening room allowing some of the energy to be reflected off of sidewalls.

There are no REAR DRIVERS to deal with allowing for much easier room placement as the speakers are sold in MIRROR IMAGED PAIRS with the LEFT unit's tweeter on the outside left and the RIGHT unit's on the outer right. Each tweeter has an ACOUSTIC LENS for "in your face" natural high frequency reproduction. The grills are very transparent and allow for the ACOUSTIC LENS to be a part of the appearances.

The listening tests involved a high powered Integra receiver capable of well over 100 watts per channel and various genres of music. The deep bass was surprisingly good and solid compared to older models but still not as defined as Bose's more expensive speakers.

The immediate sense of improvement came when listening to music consisting of naturally high powered high frequency content which yielded much smoother and more pleasant results than in the past. The balance of LOWS MIDS and HIGHS is so much better than ever.

Voices sound utterly natural and the speakers only compressed when inputs higher than the receiver's 100 watt rating were fed to the 201-V's. This demonstrates the speakers' robust build quality, the advanced auto protection circuitry and the emotional DYNAMIC RANGE capability of the small transducers.

Admittedly, I am somewhat biased against larger speakers as I find their fat sounding boomy bottoms to interfere with their IMAGING. The JBL floorstanders and Bose towers are pretty good examples although Bose has done something about it in their forthcoming SERIES V 501 and 601 models. I find that even the outrageously expensive B&W NAUTILUS 801 model to suffer a compromised sound quality due to its over sized bass driver.

IMAGING is wonderful if not tops with the new Bose 201 SERIES V with a great sense of large orchestras being spread across the wall behind the speakers with excellent depth and height but with no compression at more than moderately loud levels. Unlike the low to mid priced B&W speakers this allows the relatively small Bose 201 speakers to have some soul and involve the listener to a greater degree in the performance itself!

WIDTH will be determined by how well you place the speakers on your bookshelf or pedestals and by how far apart the LEFT and RIGHT speakers are separated.


Well, as part of a high quality HOME THEATER or STEREO ONLY sound system...the new Bose 201 SERIES V does admirably well and easily gets my personal SAM-PRO AWARD for BEST NEW PRODUCT OF THE YEAR!!!! I really felt that after hearing the co.'s new 301-V that the 301 would become Bose's best seller of all time but with the introduction of the 201 SERIES V...my prediction may very well have been shattered!

There are three speakers you should audition in the $200 to $250 per pair price range...the PSB ALPHA B, the Paradigm TITAN and the Bose 201 SERIES V. All three models feature high performance 6 1/2 inch woofers and excellent tweeters. Its interesting to note that the 201-V's are the lowest priced of the three! Hmmn...Bose...overpriced eh?

When you visit some of the high end non-Bose stores just keep in mind that you are most likely to be met with a barrage of at least subtle insults when mentioning the Bose models!

NEVER let a reviewer or a highly opinionated sales person interfere with your quest to find the best and DO NOT limit yourself to one type of audio salon or another. Keep an open mind! Never make a purchase soley on the advice of someone else...even your best friend! Afterall...I myself or even any of the numerous Bose bashing addicts are not going to live with whatever you choose. YOU ARE!!!!!

I thank you for your precious time and welcome your thoughts.