greg@olivej.UUCP (Greg Paley) (02/09/84)
I'm not trying to flame controversy, but I'm bringing this up because I'm afraid someone who's read the previous discussion might dismiss Bose without even a listen. I had a pair of Bose 601's for several years. I disposed of them in favor of Vandersteen 2C's, so I obviously wasn't satisfied. I can, however, see that they would have valid applications for some listeners. I don't think they sound terrible. The sound they produce is spacious, free of obvious distortion, and wide ranging. They are not, and don't seem to have been intended to be, a "high fidelity" speaker. They aim at a spectacular sound which has often little to do with the musical source. Some people won't care if a solo guitar sounds ten feet wide, and will even like the effect. After a while it got on my nerves. One major problem I found was that, despite the ads and reviews I've read, their peculiar radiation pattern makes them even more susceptible to room placement and materials than is usually the case with speakers. When I was living in Germany, I had them in a room with all wood floors, walls, and cieling. There they sounded rich, full, and caused little fatigue. Here in California, in an all-stucco townhouse, they sounded shrill and unpleasant. My feeling is that someone shopping for speakers in the price category should listen to them. Just be aware that the way they manage to spread the sound all over the room, effective as it seems at first, can become annoying in the long run. - Greg Paley