Getting the most out of Bose 301 Speakers

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Originally Posted by blackraven

Not to rain on the parade but I just don't get it with the 301's. I have heard them a few times in store when I was looking to buy speakers for my teenage daughter about 10 years ago. I thought that they were terrible in every way, they lacked musicality and sounded thin, lifeless and flat. We ended up buying a pair of Infinity Primus 160's which sounded much better and at 1/2 the price. We were able to do an AB comparison in store with the infinity's and a couple of other lower priced speakers that sounded better.

Maybe it was the placement of the 301's that made them sound terrible. However, I am glad that you like them and maybe I just need to hear them properly set up!

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I have been an audio lover since I was 13 (I'm 48) and I've never heard a speaker perform so fine at only 350 bucks (Remember... They worth only $350.00). In all this time I've own several speaker systems on the $150.00 to $1000.00 price range, and I keep saying that you have to make a considerable investment to beat the 301. You need to remember that you own Magnepan Brand speakers and I can bet they outperforms the 301 by the "classical mile"; you also posses Monitor Audio Loudspeakers. For those audio lovers on a budget like myself, a 301 is a steal; they have limitations YES, but at less than $400.00 you can not ask for more!! Perhaps the electronic and cables used on the store, affect the performance of the speakers. When I bought mine, they've sounded awful on the store, but they were attached to the wall, with an old receiver, cheap interconnects and speaker wires. When I get home and hook em up to my system I was blown away by their very good performance. If you buy them on an authorized Bose dealer they give the chance to audition them at your home then you can make a final judgement since you have awesome electronics!

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Originally Posted by luvvintage

I have been an audio lover since I was 13 (I'm 48) and I've never heard a speaker perform so fine at only 350 bucks (Remember... They worth only $350.00). In all this time I've own several speaker systems on the $150.00 to $1000.00 price range, and I keep saying that you have to make a considerable investment to beat the 301. You need to remember that you own Magnepan Brand speakers and I can bet they outperforms the 301 by the "classical mile"; you also posses Monitor Audio Loudspeakers. For those audio lovers on a budget like myself, a 301 is a steal; they have limitations YES, but at less than $400.00 you can not ask for more!! ...

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So that's the thing, really: you can get more for $400. Check out speakers from PSB, Paradigm, NHT, Polk, Monitor Audio, etc. How many of these did you checkout in a meaningful way?

Don't expect much sympathy for your Bose decision when you speak from a position of ignorance.

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Originally Posted by Feanor

So that's the thing, really: you can get more for $400. Check out speakers from PSB, Paradigm, NHT, Polk, Monitor Audio, etc. How many of these did you checkout in a meaningful way?

Don't expect much sympathy for your Bose decision when you speak from a position of ignorance.

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I understand there are lots of Bose haters out there. Your comment confirms that. I'm not going to argue with any bashers! I have own or at least audition several brands you have mentioned on your thread like Paradigm, Polk, PSB, and many more you forgot to include.

You can buy a pair of PSB B6's B-stock for about $400, Wharfedale Diamond 10.1's for $349 AND THE 10.2'S for $449 that would out perform those. But with that being said, I am not a bose hater, it's just the 301's that I heard did not impress me for the price. But thats what makes the world go round, we all have different likes and dislikes. I use to like the old Bose 901's when properly set up and equalized

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Originally Posted by blackraven

You can buy a pair of PSB B6's B-stock for about $400, Wharfedale Diamond 10.1's for $349 AND THE 10.2'S for $449 that would out perform those. But with that being said, I am not a bose hater, it's just the 301's that I heard did not impress me for the price. But thats what makes the world go round, we all have different likes and dislikes. I use to like the old Bose 901's when properly set up and equalized

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I understand that there are great speakers and those you have mention are very good examples. Lets put it this way, The 301 are very good speaker for their price and I'm having fun setting them on my room, perhaps they mate my room acoustic and I feel them singing. Lets say that the 301 are in that group of fine speakers you can grab for little money and put away the exaggeration. It is true that you can not underestimate the excellent performance of those speakers you have mention, they make justice to our pocket and I have owned and audition plenty of them with few or nothing negative to say. I have heard the 901 in the 80's and was impressed. I did not have a close encounter with the 301 since 1986 and that was what I was looking for (a pair of vintage 301), but sadly it is difficult to ship speaker system to PR from ebay. You have nice electronic... Regards from Puerto Rico!

My first "real" system was a Sony stack system from the late 90's hooked up to Bose 201, series 4. I went to the store a few month's ago to listen to a few of their products. After comparing the 301 and the 201 series 5's, I like the 201's better. However the series 4 201's still sounded better than the series 5. If my math is correct, 30 square meters is a pretty large room. I personally love Bose and their products, but even I admit they have limits. It could also be that your receiver is under powered. How many watts does your receiver pump out? Personally, I think the problem with the 301's, is that they have two tweeters. To me, I think this sends out too much tone, and not enough bass. I'd suggest bringing them back and buying an older series of the 201's on eBay, or another place. If you cannot bring them back, adjust your receivers tonal, mid range, and bass levels (assuming the receiver has them)

Best of luck

For anyone just reading this thread... i just bought the 301's at a pawn shop and to my ears they are sweet. they are "old school" meaning they do best as just a regular stereo set up listening to older music. I am a classical musician and listen to all mediums, lp's cd's even cassettes when needed. They produce a sound that i am very familiar with. I have them hooked to a yamaha Rv-365, which would love to do a lot of fancy encoding, but i have the setting on "straight" and my Creative zx soundcard on no encoder, but with Crystal effect on and I use the Creative equalizer. Whenever possible I play hi def, flac music files. I also have a JVC, old sub woofer which takes me right into the concert hall. With these speakers it is all about placement, placement and the manual is very specific about how to do this. I did order the speaker wall mounts directly from Bose. they are still available and work great. The ONLY thing that for me is a negative is that because of my set up (and because i don't want people walking into them) in order to achieve proper placement in regards to the distance from each other, the TV, etc. they are too high on the wall. I wish they could be closer to eye level - it would be that much more of a "present" sound. When I stand up and stand eye level in front of them i do notice that difference but they are such good speakers that they still sound awesome.

Welcome to AR and glad you are enjoying your gear. That's what it's all about regardless of what type of gear you have. I to enjoy old school sound too. I still have my old Technic's integrated amp from 1977.


Larry

i know this is an older thread, a common thing for AR. ayway, these are my current ramblings about the product:

say John Michael,

the original 301s (if that is what you are referring to) don't need the wall for reflections. they have a vane that you adjust for the image. in that case, they can sound very good alone but of course, need a subwoofer for full range sound. using the wall confuses the image. they can be best adjusted by not following the manual but arrange them tweeter up and angle them towards the listening area. adjust the vane until the "image" appears in space between the speakers. used this way, the 301 is likely bose' best speaker.

later models seem not to have the vane for image adjustment. too bad.

This is the wrong audio forum to hope to ask about Bose products and get a straight answer, brings out the Bose bashers and internet audio engineers.

Keep experimenting with placement including the non-obvious positionings, you will eventually find the sweet spot.

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Originally Posted by luvvintage

I have been an audio lover since I was 13 (I'm 48) and I've never heard a speaker perform so fine at only 350 bucks (Remember... They worth only $350.00). In all this time I've own several speaker systems on the $150.00 to $1000.00 price range, and I keep saying that you have to make a considerable investment to beat the 301. You need to remember that you own Magnepan Brand speakers and I can bet they outperforms the 301 by the "classical mile"; you also posses Monitor Audio Loudspeakers. For those audio lovers on a budget like myself, a 301 is a steal; they have limitations YES, but at less than $400.00 you can not ask for more!! Perhaps the electronic and cables used on the store, affect the performance of the speakers. When I bought mine, they've sounded awful on the store, but they were attached to the wall, with an old receiver, cheap interconnects and speaker wires. When I get home and hook em up to my system I was blown away by their very good performance. If you buy them on an authorized Bose dealer they give the chance to audition them at your home then you can make a final judgement since you have awesome electronics!

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I Heard them on the store and they sounded very good for the bucks. I bought them and listen to them for several days. The mid-ranges turned out irritating and I could not stand more than 10 minutes listening to this speakers. I end up selling them on eBay. I couldn't make them sound good in any way I've placed the in my listening room. I don't know it could be my audio room, but as time went, this pair sounded terrible. I did a review too early about this 301; I do not blame the speakers at all my audio room is small perhaps they need more space.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Feanor

So that's the thing, really: you can get more for $400. Check out speakers from PSB, Paradigm, NHT, Polk, Monitor Audio, etc. How many of these did you checkout in a meaningful way?

Don't expect much sympathy for your Bose decision when you speak from a position of ignorance.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by luvvintage

I have been an audio lover since I was 13 (I'm 48) and I've never heard a speaker perform so fine at only 350 bucks (Remember... They worth only $350.00). In all this time I've own several speaker systems on the $150.00 to $1000.00 price range, and I keep saying that you have to make a considerable investment to beat the 301. You need to remember that you own Magnepan Brand speakers and I can bet they outperforms the 301 by the "classical mile"; you also posses Monitor Audio Loudspeakers. For those audio lovers on a budget like myself, a 301 is a steal; they have limitations YES, but at less than $400.00 you can not ask for more!! Perhaps the electronic and cables used on the store, affect the performance of the speakers. When I bought mine, they've sounded awful on the store, but they were attached to the wall, with an old receiver, cheap interconnects and speaker wires. When I get home and hook em up to my system I was blown away by their very good performance. If you buy them on an authorized Bose dealer they give the chance to audition them at your home then you can make a final judgement since you have awesome electronics!

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I Heard them on the store and they sounded very good for the bucks. I bought them and listen to them for several days. The mid-ranges turned out irritating and I could not stand more than 10 minutes listening to this speakers. I end up selling them on eBay. I couldn't make them sound good in any way I've placed the in my listening room. I don't know it could be my audio room, but as time went, this pair sounded terrible. I did a review too early about this 301; I do not blame the speakers at all my audio room is small perhaps they need more space.

It just took you a little longer to notice what some hear right away.

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Originally Posted by JoeE SP9

It just took you a little longer to notice what some hear right away.

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It took me few days to notice the issue dear friend. That's the reason I stated that I made a review too early of the 301's. It has been a long time I did not enter this site to let the forum know!:smilewinkgrin:

Cheers buddy!

Rotel RB 1090 Power Amp
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Analysis Plus Solo Crystal Interconnects
Analysis Plus Oval 9 Speaker Cables

i said in a prvious post that the 301s are the best ones made by bose and whereas that may be true, unless you get them at about a tenth of their list price, they are not worth the effort.

NOW for the list price on amzon of $229 deliverer are the ELAC B5s and are far and aWAAAAY better than any speaker with the bose nametag! i don't need speakers but i may just have to buy a pair for the satisfaction of it all.

https://www.amazon.com/Debut-Bookshe.../dp/B014GSER6O

I heard ELAC at the show, crazy good for the money, I don't know how they did it.

were you aware of the pioneer bs22 which andrew jones also designed for them before he left for ELAC (after quite a few years with pio designing their pro monitors)? you can just google andrew and pioneer bs22 much as you can elac and andrew for youtube displays regarding each.

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Originally Posted by hifitommy

were you aware of the pioneer bs22 which andrew jones also designed for them before he left for ELAC (after quite a few years with pio designing their pro monitors)? you can just google andrew and pioneer bs22 much as you can elac and andrew for youtube displays regarding each.

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I grabbed a pair of the pioneer bs22 and believe me,it is not the ultimate authority in sound, but Jeez for the money, they sound excellent.The mix of midbass and highs are very good...Very musical this little speakers. Do not have any experience with the Elac, but a friend told me they're awesome. Merry Xmas my people!

i agree, the bs22 isn't the top of the heap but for a starter, WOW.

I have a pair of the BS-21's (bedroom system). My brother has a pair of the FS-52's and a neighbor in the next block has a pair of ELAC's (not sure if they're F5 or F6). They are all IMO very good sounding, especially for the money.

The ELAC's sound the best with the FS-52's a close second. However, I'm quite satisfied with the BS-21's in my bedroom. Adding an 8" powered sub woofer makes a very audible difference and takes them close to the FS-52's.