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Thank You Amar Bose, John Rutan And Kimber Kable!...The Bose 301-V Revisited!Jan 29 '10 (Updated Mar 28 '10) Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Use your new Bose 301 Series V speaker system in the right room with quality amplification and Kimber Kable and your listening enjoyment will last a lifetime and never wane!
The key to putting together a top notch system {at any price} is to find a balance. Here is a great story about a wonderful balancing act... I've been made aware more and more in recent days of the importance of room, speaker, amplifier and yes...cable matching when selecting a serious music system for a given room. In my forty plus years of hi-fi experience I have learned to keep an open mind and yet even more importantly...an open ear to boot. Because of various room influences and acoustical properties a given speaker and associted equipment can sound significantly different from one room to the next. This was never more evident than when I recently moved out of my home to another humble abode that sports yet larger listening rooms and full wall-to-wall heavy thick carpeting. For those that are familiar with my reviews know full well that I absolutely love the the sound and looks of my cherry red Polk R-30's! However...after transporting the gems and their associated equipment from the corners of the former 9' x 12' computer room of the old place to the new open 11' x 20' living room that requires them to be pulled a good three feet away from the rear wall that features a new 32" flat screen high definition 1080i tv...the sound became considerably less full-bodied and rich...much to my surprise and chagrin. But hark...alas...do not worry as they fit and sound quite comfortably in the dining room which is very similar to the old place's pc room where they lived and played cheerfully for years. You see...it was my dream that when I moved into the new place...there would be music in every room! Yes...each room in the house would have its own poor man's sound system. It was also my intent not to duplicate or zone a given system. Now I will write about the Polks in their new dwelling in the days ahead but right now I wish to speak not even of the tv room but the special "Reference Room" I dreamt of for quite some time. My actual dream included the legendary Amar Bose showing me how good his speaker system would sound for reasonable cost in a place fairly high above ground yet of humble dimensions. That was more than a few years back but when I first looked at the new place...imagine my shock and amazement as I opened the door to what is now my "Poor Man's Reference Sound Room"!!! When opening the door to the 11' x 12' x 10' listening area for the first time...I immediately envisioned the components that now serve to entertain not only myself but anyone else who happens to be visiting. The wall on one side is solid and bare making the Bose 301 Series V speaker system perfect for the room with its direct/reflecting properties! Driving the 301-V's is a nice warm-sounding dark rosewood finished Yamaha R-500 stereo receiver that I cleaned up through & through with CRC QD electrical cleaner. The receiver lacks only the Stanley 28 volt 1 amp green dial light that at the moment seems to be so elusive as far as finding a suitable replacement. The very conservatively rated forty watts per channel is perfect for the 301 speakers and was saved from the proverbial trash can by yours truly when an auctioneer some years ago sold the abandoned child to me for next to nothing! Completing the system is a brand new IView multimedia player and a Pioneer Pl-518 fitted with Shure M97xE moving magnet audiophile phono cartridge. The turntable is now with new feet partly designed by yours truly. More on that later {in another review}. The pio is yet another classic I have written about and will follow up with more detail all in good time my dears! The fact is that although I already have written a review on the Bose 301 Series V... http://www.epinions.com/review/pr-Bose_301_Series_V_Main_Stereo_Speaker/content_153271701124 I hadn't owned it until recently but had heavily auditioned the loudspeaker through the local shop. I have owned Series II and IV but had to give them away to family and friends as they so deserved them! Don't worry...the current pair is a keeper but let me explain how my purchase occurred. I needed to fill the room with sound but at reasonable cost. I remembered how easy and painless it was years ago to order through the Bose website. So off to http://www.bose.com I go! Lo and behold...Bose was offering the 301-V for about $328 with FREE SHIPPING! The optional silver and black pedestals were just under $90 and I opted for them also. I chose the light cherry finish for the speakers themselves. The real clincher was that Bose.Com allowed for twelve monthly payments with absolutely no interest and my debit card would automatically be charged monthly. So for just under $35 a month...the fantastic 301's were mine again and I would be able to review the speakers with ownership this time. The fact that Bose allows you to return the speakers {within 30 days} for full refund of your hard earned cash should you decide they are not worth their reflecting salt is a real plus also! No problem here...they're not leaving the premises...ever!!! Although Bose.Com sent me an email stating the speakers and stands could take up to a month to ship...both arrived within ten days. This all was via UPS Ground shipping . Apparently Bose felt that the pedestals were on back order and would hold things up. The Bose sound is different from all other speaker makers. It is a sound you'll either love or hate. I love it not only for what it accomplishes but what it doesn't do. I noticed that one reviewer commented that the USA engineered made in Mexico cabinetry smelled cheap when opening the carton containing the mirror imaged pairs. I found just the opposite to be true. The wood mdf enclosures are well made boasting beautiful finish with that great new furniture scent that is seductive in its own rite and makes my sound room smell like a nice high end showroom! The black and silver pedestals are much better than I imagined while the two foot tall construction serves to position the 301-V's at perfect height. I also found it interesting that the Bose's silvery Acoustic Lens tweeters match the uprights perfectly! The darkened top and bottoms of the two pedestals match the 301's front grills wonderfully while the light cherry cabinets with their smooth contoured lines brighten and compliment the white room with beige carpeting. The accompanying well written owner's manual is packed neatly in a clear plastic bag along with a letter from the Bose Corporation which states..."We take great pride in designing each of our products with the goal of providing the highest accuracy musical performance possible in the price range of that product. We strive to reproduce the musical sounds as closely as possible to those of the original performance. And we strive to avoid flashy sounds such as those associated with accenuated bass and/or treble frequencies. While those sounds may be initially attractive to the novice, they are not real and enduring. In addition, we use only the highest quality parts and the latest assembly and quality control techniques to ensure the reliability and long life of our products. Our reputation rests on our steadfast pursuit of this policy in sound systems for the home, the automobile, and businesses. At Bose we reinvest 100% of our earnings back into the company. This enables us to support research that continually gives rise to new technologies for improving sound reproduction. When you purchase any product from Bose, we encourage you to compare it, as we do, to competitive products for musical accuracy. We believe that this process will enhance your appreciation of the product you select. With best wishes from all of us at Bose for many years of enjoyable listening." One can best bet that this is from the desk of Amar Bose himself. The owner's manual itself is devoted to not only the 301 but also to the 201 which sports a similar design but take it from me is quite short of the 301 performance. The manual itself is very well written with detailed illustration but left me wishing that it devoted itself soley to the speaker system I purchased...the 301. The booklet is written in eight different languages...English, Danish, Dutch, Spanish, French, Italian, Netherlands and Swedish and opens up with this statement... "Your 201 or 301 Series V Direct/Reflecting speakers recreate a natural balance of reflected and direct sound energy for an open, spacious performance. They are designed by Bose to bring you high quality listening pleasure. These speakers are significantly different from conventional speakers, so be sure to read this owner's guide. It will help you set up and use your speakers properly, for the greatest enjoyment." That is oh so true! The sound is different from all other competitors indeed. It is a rich, honest, faithful, impactful dynamic and clearly transparent sound that belies the 301's size and price. But it is fully realized only when one keeps the surrounding walls relatively clear. However...it must be duly noted at this point in the review that because of the different configuration of the drivers in the series v...you do not have to keep the rear wall as clear of heavy drapes as in the past with the 301-V's predecessors. You can even have windows and curtains behind these newer models because the rear tweeters are now angled more toward the side walls and because the lovely wide dispersing front stereo targeting tweeters with their acoustic lenses allow you to sit anywhere in the room while enjoying stereo sound. Anyone who remembers the Allison Four loudspeaker will note the great similarity of the two models. All this is possible while following proper orientation of "Left" and "Right" mirror imaged speakers as per Amar's instructions while connecting the Boses to warm sweet wide bandwidth amplification the likes of my classic Yamaha R-500 with the best possible cable at the best price...and that...my poor friends...is Kimber Kable's Kwik 12 speaker wire that at about a buck per foot is so popular amongst professional installers and us po' folk alike...and with good reason!! This superb high end speaker interconnect manufacturer clearly states..."Today's higher quality distributed sound and custom home theater installations need no longer be compromised by ordinary 'contractor type' speaker cable. Using our OSCaR*{Objective Subjective Correlation and Results} engineering process, Kimber Kable has engineered the KWIK to be audibly superior to all other custom install speaker cables. Keeping in mind the needs of in-wall and in-ceiling speakers, Kimber has designed the Kwik 16 and Kwik 12 to have incredible midrange clarity with tight and substantial mid-bass response. This is achieved through a unique dual-gauge strand configuration and our special recipe PE dielectric. A slippery off-white PVC outer jacket and convenient foot labeling have made the {UL} CL2 rated KWIK a huge success with custom installers. Our 12 awg x 2 conductor speaker cable contains two white and two yellow conductors which must be be combined in like colors to achieve the specified gauge and performance that was engineered into our KWIK." I wish the one reviewer on http://www.audioreview.com was a bit more careful to read this before deciding to twist one yellow and one white wire together as this defeats the design while jeopardizing the associated electronics! I decided to use the two yellow wires as red/hot or positive leads while the two white wires are used as the black/negative connection. Thank God these two companies rely on subjective listening tests rather than just stupid meaningless frequency response specifications. The human ear can only hear frequencies from 50 Hertz to 15 Kilohertz, Beyond these marks one can only sense or feel the frequencies. I have felt bass notes on many recordings with this combo. The Bose 301-V system together with the Kimber Kable most assuredly and easily goes beyond these points but what is truly audible separates the two from the rest. Although Bose only mentions thicker 14 gauge wire in the manual for fifty foot runs, the 301's large red and black spring-loaded speaker terminals took to the very thick KWIK-12 cable's leads easily! On the other end...the Yammy's rear spring-loaded terminals are a bit smaller than those on the back of the 301's but nevertheless I was able to make it all work by simply stripping the wires at slightly different points and wrapping one around the base of the other...then inserting only the exposed bare end of the one wire. I also placed some electrical tape around the base part of the wires that were twisted together and still exposed to prevent accidental shorting. I suppose you could solder the wires together in similar fashion. Now Bose needs to desperately make a bigger deal about using a higher quality interconnect!!! At any rate...these Kimbers were introduced to me by my personal audio consultant...the one and only John Rutan of the world famous Audio Connection of Verona, NJ about five years ago and we decided that two eight foot lengths were perfect for my former pc room's installation at that time. He rounded the price out to fifteen bucks at that time and I will never ever forget the attention he gave me when I stated my humble audiophile needs! I kept the interconnects coiled up lovingly and found the eight foot lengths perfect for my Bose 301-V installation. Although these high end esoteric cables were originally designed to accommodate professional installers and in-wall/in-ceiling applications...I found them to be absolutely wonderful and perfect for my needs. The smooth thick rounded white cable blends in nicely with baseboards as most are white or off white themselves in color. Routing the cables through the Bose FS-01 Flloor Stands was easy enough. Using a few RG-59 cable guide/holders commonly found at the dollar store or Radio Shack and tacking them in place to the white baseboard with the Kimber KWIK-12 kept the installation professional, neat and sweet!!! The end result was a sweet warm luxuriously rich full soundstage that literally transforms the rear and side walls of the reference listening room into a live concert concert hall...naturally. The "Excerpts From Phantom Of The Opera-The Original Broadway Cast" CD sounds terrific with spine tingling accuracy and presence! The bass is amazing and full while going really deep. Unlike all other speakers by others in this price range...they only reproduce bass when it is truly present. In other words...you are not connstantly aware or reminded of bass when there is none. I find this fact to be one of the 301-V's charms indeed! The burn-in break-in period is coming along nicely and famously with the sound stage widening, heightening and becoming warmer deeper and more detailed as the hours upon hours of listening enjoyment pile up. Alice Cooper never sounded more bone chilling and rich with comical genius!! Two albums that are very near and dear to me..."Welcome To My Nightmare" and "Alice Cooper Goes To Hell" sound new and dynamic after thirty plus years. The devil himself struts across the room with pounding deep soulful bass on the jazzy "I'm The Coolest" from the latter album. The children sound great on "Department Of Youth" from the former CD and one can quite distinctly hear a kid not quite keeping up with everybody else toward the end of the song! The voices in particular sound gorgeously natural and I swear I can point out each kid rather than just perceive massive harmony. The system is that good! I also can plainly feel the impact of Johnny {Bee} Badanek's drums on the finger-clickin' "Some Folks". The change of tonality on the accomplished percussionist's instruments is quite hair-raising as is the album itself! By contrast in style...the 2002 recording of "The Chaplet Of Divine Mercy In Song" DMSCD o9110055 Track 4 "The Chaplet"...an eighteen minute masterpiece...the angelic voices accompanied by a gorgeous sounding piano sound so sweet, natural and full with such emotion as the piece builds. Meanwhile, you are literally lifted up {with passion} to Heaven itself! This is an involving unique speaker and cable combo indeed. In opposition to one reviewer's remarks...I find the Bose 301-V's to be quite more than an inaccurate "fun" speaker. It is of true monitor status and is absolutely the most accurate loudspeaker available for under $500 per pair w/pedestals loudspeaker on the market today and beats the pants off of the lower end speakers from B&W and others. Now that's real fun! The equally priced lower end B&W 302 monitors may sound quite neutral and natural at first but are exposed for their true colors when cranking up the volume on complex musical passages. They compress horribly! This causes a severe lack of impact and dynamism on emotional passages. Music is emotional! This deterioration of sound quality must be considered as severe speaker coloration in its nudest form. Sadly, they are not alone as a plethora of other loudspeakers are just as guilty at all price levels. The Bose speakers...on the other hand...will have none of that and even with their protection circuitry in the mix...still open up with loads of detail amidst complexity and give the impression of live musicians in the room!! You simply feel all of the emotion the recording artist and engineer alike meant you to feel. Man...are these speakers efficient! And they can handle a ton of clean undistorted power too! These speakers were most indeed crafted by passionate music lovers...Amar Bose himself as their fearless leader. Wow...can these little speakers etch! Listen to Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit In The Sky". Now for the first time I can very distinctly hear that wonderful fuzz guitar on the right gargle with unsurpassed clarity and detail to the point where I can almost count the number of gargles!!! My initial reaction was..."Oh...that's how that really sounds!" Obviously, Transient Response is absolutely outstanding! It is also interesting to note that the beautifully crafted Yamaha R-500 receiver uses "Bass" and "Treble" controls with turnover points centering around 300 Hertz and 8 Kilohertz as opposed to popular stereo and home theater receivers' 100 Hz and 10 KHz. The R-500's controls resemble Bose's "Room And Source Compensation" controls developed years ago for the flagship 901 system. These higher and lower turnover points quite effectively combat the room/speaker bass "null" commonly found at that frequency and the smearing that can occur at high treble frequencies because of a lower quality less realistic control. Incidentally, it must be stated at this point in the review that the pedestals themselves are a bargain at less than $90/Pr and are absolutely essential to the 301-V's near perfect performance. Such pedestals would easily sell for twice the price...or more...at most high end stores. Don't believe me? Go check it out for yourself. Personally...I feel that the speaker stands are absolutely the best looking types I've ever seen surpassing any Bose pedestal of yesteryear...including those sexy 901 creme, chrome or black types! Listening to any type of music is endlessly and entirely entertaining. While the three times as expensive 901's place you anywhere in the first row of a concert hall or in the orchestra itself...the 301's place you anywhere right in row ten. Ya see, the sweet spot is basically anywhere you sit rather than having to plop directly right in the middle of the two loudspeakers. Does not the same hold true for a live performance? Different loudspeakers by different designers do different things and place you at a different location of the theater. Most high quality forward radiators place you in a balcony seat smack in the middle while the direct/reflecting Boses are always in your face no matter where you sit. Yet you are most able to pick out each instrument or each singer. Speaking of "singing"...the human voice presents a major challenge to most loudspeakers. The Bose 301-V's are not only up to the challenge but handle the task better than any other speaker even remotely close to its asking price! Earlier versions although very good had a distinct wee bit of hollow honk sound in the lower voice range. If you listen to Track 2 on Disc One of the two disc Atlantic set..."Aretha Franklin 30 Greatest Hits"...the song is her biggest hit..."Respect". Both Aretha's voice and the sax on that track had just a wee bit of honk hollow nasal quality on Series I, II and III 301's. In Series IV...this was corrected somewhat but is totally absent in the Series V model. Don't believe me all you former 301 owners? Check it out for yourself! Anyone who thinks that there might have been a drop in quality is sadly mistaken in this case. I do quite a bit of listening to Jazz 88.3 {WBGO-FM} in Newark, New Jersey and I must say that I've never heard a saxophone more realistically reproduced...or a brushed cymbal...or a kick drum...or a tubular bell...or tom tom...or kettle drum....or any other instrument you can think of for that matter and no...I haven't forgotten about strings or wind instruments or electric guitars for that matter. Tympani gut punchers very much present on Telarc recordings explode through the little 301! Only the 901 does a better job. My inexpensive test CD..."Atmospheres-Celtic Voices" proves beyond a shadow of doubt to me that the Boses are second to none when it comes to accuracy of musical timbre. The bass is never boomy sounding like with the Infinity so-called monitors and most others...and the tweeters are never overdone or bright sounding like the Sonys. These trends in loudspeaker design will lead to headachy-breaky listening fatigue in no time and Bose is right on the money when they claim that these traits are not enduring. And to me they are simply not endearing...at all! Bass and treble sounds should only be present when they are truly in the music and not falsified in any way. Believe me..you are going to find out that when listening to the 301-V or the 901-VI that many recordings you thought had great bass simply don't and some you thought didn't...do! These Boses are no less honest at the extreme highs either. All the clicks and pops on your vinyl recordings will come through also...it is a Bose trademark. Subtleties and nuances abound and are heard for the first time on great classics like Love's "Forever Changes". Other oldies are gonna surprise ya too! Classical music never sounded more convincing with the orchestra spread out before you. "The Great Gates Of Kiev" from Mussorgsky's "Pictures At An Exhibition" is gonna bring out all your emotions. You know...it is absolutely frustrating to piece together a modern day stereo only music system with what is generally available to the public via home theater types. In general most modern receivers just suck so badly! Their constricted restricted over fu$$ing inflated specs ruin any chance of a well built warm dynamic lovely sounding loudspeaker like the Bose 301 Series V performing correctly. To boot...most places like Best Buy just do not have them setup properly either. Ya just can't have a pair of 301's sitting out in the middle of nowhere and expect them to perform! 6th Ave Electronics on the other hand does give them a decent showroom but nothing is going to duplicate listening to the Boses in your own home. The Onkyo TX Series and Yamaha stereo only receivers may be the only reasonably priced modern types that will do them justice and you may be able to get the 301-V's at a slightly better price than what was offered to me from Bose.Com. Be well assured this is my dream system and you are not likely to find me reviewing larger more expensive types {above $500} any time soon. Just beware of unauthorized phony Bose and Kimber Kable dealers and make sure that regardless of wherever you purchased your gems...to register your speakers on line at the Bose website. In the words of the lovely Linda Ronstadt..."It's so easy!" The dual ported design in the rear is ingenius and so reminiscent of the award winning 601 Series II of yesteryear and clearly beats out the former 301 vented systems while the eight inch woofer and two two inch stereo targeting tweeters are just plain top notch. I don't care about the paper woofer with treated foam edge being perceived by others in the field as being too outdated or yesteryear. They hold up very well and still sound better than most composite types with rubber surrounds. Everything I stated in my original report on this speaker system years ago still holds true but now even more so. The Bose 301-V is a beautifully wonderfully balanced system throughout the musical spectrum. I stated a few years ago on this site that I would no longer review speakers costing above $500. With money being really tight these days...I most assuredly will tell you not to bother with the expensive elite models. I can tell you beyond certainty that these Bose 301 Series V speakers are the true bench mark for all others costing under five-hundred bucks! You are not going to find a better competitor at that price point or less...not from Polk...not from B&W...not from PSB...not Axiom...not JBL...not Paradigm...not AR...not Magnepan...not Sony...not Epos...not anyone...PERIOD!! Follow the guide in the owner's manual for proper placement...on the two foot high stands keeping a few feet distance from the side walls and no more than eighteen inches from the rear of the speakers to the wall behind them and they will perform admirably giving the impression of a much larger system indeed! The relatively small 301-V's compare quite favorably to the long time favorite of mine Vandersteen 1C's at $900/Pr or the entry level Maggies at about $500/Pr. But below that price tag...they simply have no peer! They even dare challenge my larger-than-life room favorites...the Vandersteen 2CE Signature, B&W 802 Nautillus and Bose 901 Series IV through VI. If you unlike myself have an unlimited bankroll and extremely deep pockets...please make sure you purchase the wonderfully beautifully crafted Belles tube amp with top-rated Kimber Kable to drive these gem masters properly. I thought before present ownership that a few other competing models {including my $111/Pr reference Polk R-30's} had caught up to or surpassed the performance level of the Bose 301 Series V speakers but I was wrong! In my present Reference Room setup with my reference KImber Kable KWIK-12...and at their asking price...they are exemplary! Oh...and by the way...no amount of successful mass-marketing could alone account for the fact that the Bose 301 loudspeaker is now the number one all-time best seller. The masses have spoken! There is no magic or hokus pokus here...just well thought out and ingenius bold design that defies the so-called industry norms. You are not going to find a better speaker at twice the asking price...period!! Bose does not believe in frequency response specs but instead places emphasis on POWER RESPONSE. Once you've experienced their sound to the fullest...you'll understand just what that means. But only you as a Bose owner will know this. The 301-V's are tight enough and fast too! When the music stops...so does the speaker. There is no sonic or bass overhang....no wading-through-molasses effect either. The bass although deeper than previous models cannot quite reach down into the very lowest registers like the 901 speakers as evidenced on Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells". Right at the four and a half minute mark there are two sustained deep bass notes. The 301-V hits the first one nicely but peters out on the second lower note. The 901 reproduces both fundamentals easily and effortlessly. Still...what bass is reproduced on the 301-V is outstanding and involving while being very discrete. I'd rather accept this error of omission than hear the notes grossly misrepresented! Given the 301-V's size and price...I really find it easy to forgive Bose on this one. The Sound is a coherent one that reproduces subtleties in music effortlessly! Listen to good recordings of brushed drums and cymbals or the deep thud of a conductor at the podium. How 'bout a musician turning a page or any plucked strings and clicking or tapping noises that are so easily masked by other models??? Like the 901's...they never sound the same from one recording to the next. Excellent high quality recordings like those from Rhino Records ... "The Very Best Of Spinners"..."Nancy Sinatra-The Hit Years" sound great while bad recordings are immediately and mercilessly exposed for what they are. Any faultiness in the mastering process is completely exposed...so beware when some of your favorite records or CD's sound thin or distorted...or you suddenly hear uneven tape hiss and fluttering! There are many speakers to choose from in the under $500/Pr range...none of them even approach the Bose 301 Series V's sound quality and accuracy. For me personally...nothing else will do! This is...and will most likely remain so for the rest of my time...My Poor Man's Reference Speaker System. Mids are superb! Give much credit to the Kimber Kable also. When switching between lampchord or Mirasonic's OFC wire or Knuconceptz Karma cable and the Kimber...there is a very noticeable difference. Kimber far surpasses any of them. The rim shots by the Ventures on "Walk Don't Run" from "Classic Instrumentals-The Sixties" are spectacular as is the bass on the String-A-Longs "Wheels" from the same Rhino CD. These Series V's are absolutely and positively the best 301's ever! Together...the Bose 301-V's and Kimber Kwik-12 speaker wire represent an ideally wonderfully crafted musical marriage...and let no man put assunder...at any price! With the speakers placed on the metallic black and silver Bose pedestals...they are absolutely stunning to the ear and eye alike and I know of no speaker system past or present that looks better at any price! Bose is best! The transition between the drivers is stunningly seamless and you never feel like you are listening to woofers, tweeters and crossovers. Rather...you simply feel and hear the music the way it is intended. Good listening to all po' folk!...PJS Series II  |
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