The Bottom Line: I cannot emphasize enough how imparative it is that you look elsewhere for your audio. Research from well respected sources. Not magazines or chain stores.

Lets rewind back to 1997. I was 27 years old and making money for the first time in my life. I had always had an affinity for high end stereo equipment. Having grown up in a household where Klipsch, Cambridge Soundworks, Advent, Bic Venturi and Mid 70's Yamaha (When they REALLY were GREAT speakers) were what my dad had been using during my formative years.
Being the impressionable yet rebellious young man that I was, I had decided to start building my own home theater system. Now I knew EVERYTHING about audio because I had hung out at the local Best Buy since age 16 dreaming of the day I'd have the cashola to throw down on a system.
The day finally arrived....

I had been bombarded like most consumers with BOSE advertising for many, many years. In the back of every magazine, through infomercials, through slick chain store marketing, everywhere I looked , I was told BOSE is the best thing since the resurrection of Jesus.

I bought the schpiel. I got suckered. And heres how.....

I bought the Bose 301 series IV speakers, the Bose VCS10 center channel and the Bose 141's.

When you walk into a Best Buy or Circuit City, these are the first speakers you will see when you walk into their soundroom. There's a reason.

Bose ALLOWS these companies to sell there speakers at a specific profit. Because Bose has invested Soooo much money into their marketing campaign, they now have the upper hand on the chain stores. They put their name out there, sold the average consumer on the notion that Bose Is The Best and now they hold the cards. People are convinced that they are the best, because that is what they have been bombarded with.

Now most people will get their new Bose System home, set it up, and go "Wow, doesn't that sound great?" and everyone in the room will nod their heads in unison and high fives will go around and that will be that..... Not me.

When I tested these Speakers as a rather novice consumer, I failed to notice at the time that Bose is ALWAYS hooked up to the very best receiver the store has available and sometimes, one that is not EVEN available to for purchase at these chain stores!!! The Bose Company REQUIRES this!!

The lighting is also favorable as well as the positioning of the speakers to produce favorable results when auditioning against competitors speakers..... unbelievable? Go check for yourself next time you're shopping. You'll be amazed.

O.K. so after all that, you ask.... why the hell did you buy them? I'll tell you why. I took these home, set them up, listened and went...."well, they're o.k..... for what I paid" Then spent the next days, weeks, years going through the motions of tweaking, swapping other components, swapping speaker positions and locations and ultimately rationalizing that it is what it is..... subpar.

Now I understand that this review is supposed to be about the center channel and I'll get to that in a moment. But first a couple things about Bose fanatics....

You people (the fanatics) are under the spell of a cult like global empire. No kidding. you have been duped, just like I was, into believing that you have a superior product. You most certainly have not. Bose uses shoddy materials and mass marketing hype to achieve their goal of huge profit. That can be their only claim to success, because their speakers sound absolutely horrible. With the exception of the 301's being somewhat passible. Every other speaker Bose sells has a competitor in the same price range that completely smokes Bose in terms of performance, build, and sound quality.

On to the VCS10 center channel:
4 - 2.5" speakers, no tweeters, no mid-range driver. Just these little speakers.
They take ALOT of power to make these produce sound due to very inefficient design.
They are the most lifeless, flat, muffled speakers I've heard since the days of AM transistor radio and that is absolutely NOT an exhaggeration. They are horrible.

The only saving grace of this speaker, is that if you were naieve enough to buy other Bose Speakers, you now have a dedicated albeit extremely low quality center channel with a Bose emblem on it.

I cannot express my disappointment with this system enough. I will never buy another Bose product again as long as I live.

To end the story... and you are going to love this.....
I sold my Bose system on ebay. I promptly went out and purchased a Klipsch system and I could not be happier, now I know how the blind feel when they regain their sight. Its that dramatic of a difference.

I asked my father why with his much deeper appreciation for quality audio, why he hadn't said anything or tried to convince me to wait, save or buy something else.....all he said is ...

"Bose got me one time too....you had to find out for yourself"