Best sounding Bose stereo speakers
Written: Dec 13 '02 (Updated Jan 23 '03)
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Pros: Sweet spot is throughout the room, best bass for it's size.
Cons: Mixed feeling about the looks.
The Bottom Line: I have two friends who are sound professionals, they work in a studio editing recordings. They have bought Bose 601's for their own home use, that says a lot!
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| audionut's Full Review: Bose 601 Main / Stereo Speaker |
Summary:
Background:The new Bose 601 IV speakers were introduced in October '01. They feature two 6 1/2" woofers and a 2" tweeter in a waveguide (transmission line) enclosure. These replace the old 401 and 501 speakers and feature improved sound and cabinet construction compared the these older designs.
I have been an audio hobbyist for about 15 yrs., and have designed, built, and sold a few speakers over the years. I am not opposed to buying speakers, however, if I can get good sound for a reasonable price, since they should (in theory) be designed and tested to a higher level than what an amateur can achieve.
Some of my favorite speakers have been transmission line design (a long folded tube with damping material), because they seem to have a natural bass quality to them. I also like the sound of bipolar design speakers (front-and-rear radiation design made popular by Mirage and Definite Technology) because they have an open, "out of the box" sound. I was initially attracted to the 601 IV's because they have both of these design features (I can't think of another that does).
In looking at other speakers in the price range, I found most of them only had a single woofer in a ported enclosure, which, when I compared them to the 601's on dynamic material, usually resulted in port noise or audible compression of bass notes, especially drum whacks (such as the big Telarc drum used by Eric Kunzel/Cincinnati Pops). I found this to be true even on the expensive B&W's. The reason why the Bose performs well in comparison is probably the transmission line with its huge port; 3" x 7 1/2", which is an area more than half that of the woofers. The port area on typical ported speakers is 10-15% of the woofer area, by comparison. This was a big factor in choosing these speakers.
The second factor was the bipolar design, with its open sound quality. The sound seems to come from not just the plane of the speakers, but all the way back to the wall and even beyond the wall. When I stand up and walk around the room, the soundstage is still there across the back wall. I can listen almost anywhere in the room and get a balanced sound. These are not "sweetspot" speakers by any means. I like that.
I get a little frustrated when I read a review that says "I listened to these at Best Buy/Circuit City/Wherever, and they didn't sound good." Well, no wonder. You have to stand-up, generally too close to the speakers, and the sound is too dull/ imaging is poor under those conditions. Bose curves their speakers to be flat in real rooms, they should be evaluated under those conditions. Some other manufacturers tilt-up the treble of their products so they will sound good in the typical retail environment (at least that is the only explanation I can think of), although this practice is less prevalent now than it was years ago. It used to be that only the largest manufacturers could afford the measurement technology that allowed them to achieve flat response in a real room. Given the power of computers and measuring software available now to even the smallest speaker manufacturers, is seems as though speakers from different manufacturers are sounding more alike, as if they were gravitating toward a consensus of what sounds right. In any case, shopping for speakers is often a hit-or-miss proposition, because there is no industry standard for measuring speakers or rating their power handling, and things like imaging and spaciousness will always be subjective and influenced by whatever speaker one is most used to hearing.
I listened quite a bit against the B&W CDM-7 SE's, which are 3 times the price. These have a very nice finish and an excellent tweeter. A lot of attention has gone into reducing cabinet colorations and resonances, and in these areas they are better than the 601's, but they are definitely "sweetspot" speakers. In comparison, the Bose speakers have better bass reproduction, more midbass and lower treble detail, and more sense of space.
I have these speakers set up along the long wall of an 18 x 15' room, 2' out from the back wall, connected to a Sony SE CD player and 200W amp. (the CD player connects directly to the amp). I find that they have a very flat response and terrific bass without the need for any bass boost at all. These are definitely the class leaders for bass among passive floorstanding speakers. I can also listen almost anywhere in the room without getting the sense that I am "out of the beam". I credit both the tweeter radiation pattern and the biploar woofers for this. They sound natural to me, and about the only fault I can find is a very slight dark coloration to the sound which may be due to the bare walls inside the cabinet. It is only a very slight coloration (and should be correctable-see below) that is only heard in comparison with very expensive speakers. I'm kind of stretching here, these are $600 speakers after all.
Being a speaker hobbyist, I couldn't resist the temptation to see if I could modify them for better sound. Having built transmission line speakers before, I know the quality of the bass can be adjusted by the amount of stuffing in the line. To see, I removed the rear woofers and looked inside. There was a small amount of polyester fill inside, just above the port outlet. My wife has some of the same stuff that she uses to stuff pillows, so I added a handfull more, not quite doubling the amount that was there. Sure enough, the bass got tighter and deeper, though slightly less loud. I like a tighter bass anyway, so I left them like that. In the future, I will experiment with upgrading the wire inside the cabinet and adding acoustic foam to the area right behind the woofers. Incidentally, I noticed that the rear woofers were at different heights on the left and right speakers. This must have been done to randomize some resonance or for some other reason, I get the impression that Bose must have done a lot of computer modelling to optimize the design of these speakers.
I highly recommend these speakers for use in a medium to large room where they may be placed at least 18" out from the wall. They would also be good for home theater use- midrange clarity is very good, sound effects must be awesome. Try to get a demonstration in the store with a little bit of space around them- many retailers crowd all the floorstanding speakers together, these need room to breathe!
Strengths:
Bipolar radiation with front & rear radiating woofers, large port area, high efficiency, will play loud cleanly.
Weaknesses:
So-so styling (don't like the grilles but they can be removed)
Similar Products Used:
Listened to similar models from Polk, Infinity, BA, Linn. Did a lot of listening against the B&W CDM-7 SE ($1800).
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 600.
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audionut
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