The Bottom Line: As said before, if you're looking for flush mounted speakers for your home theatre, there are much better alternatives, otherwise these will be fine as normal stereo speakers.

Having worked in a audio visual retailer in the past, I have had encountered many people looking for in-wall (flush) mounted speakers, especially as surround speakers for home theatres where normal satellites or bookshelf speakers are impractical or even as main speakers. Now Bose has come up (for some time it has to be said) with the 191 Speakers which will be reviewed here.

The 191 speaker is an attractively designed pair of flush mounting speakers which is covered with either rectangular or circular grills depending on which you feel fits in better to your home. The speakers are quite well constructed and feels durable which I suppose all speakers should feel nevertheless.

Bose intended the 191 to be used as part of your home theatre so I expected that the sound quality would be at least as good if not better than Bose's own Cube Arrays (not that these are superb), but I was to be disappointed by it. I have heard other flush mounted speakers by Boston Acoustics and SpeakerCraft which do a much better job in a home theatre setup. The 191 lacks the bass responses of the competition and it is also not capable of being turned up loud as it begins to hint distortion which deems it near useless in the case of a surround speaker. It is also not as clear and defined as the other brands.

This is not saying that the 191 speakers are all bad though, just not what it claims to be. What the 191 speakers excel in though is its use as ambient speakers for uses in restaurants and so on where the music is produced for atmosphere or to fill in the background. This is due to Bose's Stereo Everywhere Speaker Design (better known as Direct/Reflecting) where sounds are 'directly' heard as well as the sounds 'reflecting' off the walls giving good stereo sound anywhere in the room. It also gives a more spacious sound but sometimes at the cost of some clarity and definition at higher volumes. This is why, in my personal opinion it is best used as background speakers and is superior for that use.

While the 191s are good, it must be said though that in this price range, many other speakers do the same job better but the 191s still deserve an audition.