Let me say right off the bat: these speakers are terrible. They were the first "real" speakers that I ever purchased. I bought them because I completely bought into the hype and the Bose stereo in my parent's car sounded pretty good (on reflection, anything probably would have sounded better than my crappy Delco). It also didn't hurt that an acquaintance's father worked at Bose. I was a student at the time and space was always at a premium. Moreover, I didn't have much experience listening to different speakers; what experience I did have was limited to boomboxes.

After buying the speaker and squeezing them into my 8' x 10' bedroom, I thought they sounded, at best, O.K. However, I always felt that they didn't fill the room like I had hoped. I could always tell they were coming out of the two little satellites and never reached that point where I was immersed in the sound. As hard as I tried, I could never get over the fact that they just didn't sound that good. At the time I couldn't place my finger on why.

As soon as I started comparing them to other speakers, I was pretty heartbroken that I had spent so much for the Boses. My friend's JBL's that he got in high school ('86-'90) killed me because they sounded so much better. To add insult to injury, his JBL's still sound better and the rubber molding is falling apart on them! Moreover, I bought my parents Sony's little mini stereo CM-EX1 (or something, it has the vertically playing CD) for X-mas and they destroyed the Bose speakers. I couldn't tell where those little speakers were in the room. They sounded great, relatively speaking. All in all, I was getting sick and tired of hearing all these much better sounding cheapo speakers and came to realize how bad Bose speakers are (I've heard 'em all, I've even visited their goofy store in Maine on a road trip).

Specifically, the bass unit stinks (its not a subwoofer, tell your friends to stop calling it that). It's neat to feel the air shooting out of it, but other than that, the sound is horrible. It's as if all the bass was reduced to one sound with no variations. For example, with my OLD JVC box, if I unplugged the "satellites," the bass unit would make sounds that I could discern as being part of the song I was listening to. With the Bose, it was just a constant bass burp that was pretty bland and unconvincing. Whether it was music or movies, all the low frequency sounds made the same noise: muddy burping.

Furthermore, I just want to dispel one big fat illusion that people have: you cannot put the bass unit anywhere. It is an enormous lie that makes me crazy everytime somebody passes it on. Depending on the location, the sound changes DRASTICALLY. For everyone who owns these speakers, just rotate the bass unit. If you can't hear the difference, then I hope you don't review any speakers. Now, imagine how much of a difference it makes when you move the bass unit around the room behind furniture, near a wall, what have you. While it may be true that the human ear has a hard time localizing low frequencies, frankly, the garbage coming out of the bass unit doesn't get all that low.

To put it in perspective, last night I bought a pair of B&W 603 S2's (Fabulous, but that's for another review) to FINALLY replace the Boses (I didn't have the money previously). The 603's biggest weakness is that the bass doesn't go all that low according to the specs (plenty good, just not meant to replace the subwoofer). While watching television last night, an ad I have seen hundreds of times about shopping for cars online came on (it has the vehicles that flip through the floor). Well, when those cars flipped, I heard sounds I had never heard before. Not better than before, mind you, but never before heard. It was incredible and made me appreciate even more how terrible the bass response is from the Boses.

However, while the satellites aren't terrible, there is a huge midrange area that the Bose unit just doesn't seem to cover effectively at all. People praise Boses as being "clear," like, "Bose is so clear," "my, my those Bose are awfully clear aren't they," "gosh, these Boses are clear," etc. Well, those little satellites are BRIGHT. They handle the high end adequately (not as well as my 603's, but they cost twice as much), but there is no midrange to speak of and ZERO warmth to these things. So people hear a crispness and call it clear. I see it everytime somebody hears my old speakers. The same story, they put their hand over the bass unit to feel the air, and then they say the speakers sound clear. I on the otherhand just shake my head.

As for imaging: forget it. The only time you lose where the speakers sit in the room is when you crank up the volume to the point where it's hard to make any distinctions at all.

Overall, one could say I'm pretty disappointed with the Bose's sound. That person would also have a penchant for understatement. But, I must admit that they fit very nicely into all my previous apartments that were very small. Now that I have a bit 'o money and can afford space, space efficiency isn't much of a concern.

That's why I bought the B&W 603's. Woo hoo!!

I would recommend these speakers for a college student who doesn't know any better, has no space, and has a tendency to throw money out the window. Or maybe somebody who likes the sound of the word "Bose," will never listen to sound from other speakers, and has a tendency to throw money out the window. Or somebody you don't like.

For anybody in the market for these satellite/bass unit combos, go after the Cambridge Soundworks ones. I've listened to them a number of times and they sound much better than the Boses and you'll save enough to buy dinner and get some overpriced cables.

If I stopped one person from buying Bose speakers, my work has not been in vain.