Customer Ratings & Reviews

These are great little speakers if you don't have a big space. I put them on top of my entertainment center in my living room and hooked them up to a Marantz CR510 receiver so I could AirPlay my iTunes music. You get a great sound out of these little guys and they aren't your typical bookshelf speakers. Yes, they might cost twice as much as other brands but the sound is outstanding. And the size is probably about half the size of the regular speakers you might purchase. They are made by Bose you know you're getting what you pay for. You can't go wrong with them. It comes with a wall mount kit if that's what you want to do. They also include some little rubber feet to keep the speakers stable if you decide to put them on top of some furniture instead. Don't forget to pick up some speaker wire if you don't have any! I am running 16 gauge on my pair instead of 18.

These speakers did not perform as I expected. Highs are not as crisp or defined.

For the price, these speakers are fantastic. Great value, good appearance, for the size, great bass. Makes deep sound affects well. Hard to make these speakers distort. Fairly easy to set up, but you do have to wire them. Pretty good build quality. Great sound coverage. Speakers get very loud. In some electronic bass pop songs, the bass is sometimes weak. Consider getting a sub woofer with it. Overall, these speakers are a great value for the sound quality. Great for music.

If you want top-notch, immersive sound but you don't have the space or the budget for a state-of-the-art, high-end home theater system, pick up a pair of these babies and you will be amazed at the results. Simply using them as the left and right channels for our basic stereo TV has enhanced our entertainment experience 1000%. They are an ideal, affordable option for any would-be audio connoisseur, and they are more than adequate for almost anything the average user might want them for. Best of all, if you have ambitions for growing into a more elaborate system, these are an excellent entry-level choice, because they are fully capable of delivering outstanding audio on their own and are still integratable into a larger, more complex home theater later on. There are less expensive speakers out there, but come on- these are BOSE! And if you're going to buy some nice speakers, why not do it right? The best value for your money, without doubt!

I have own Bose speakers for years. I had 901s now have double cubes in the living room. Put 161s in my bedroom with sony 32 inch lcd and apple tv great sound and good power for a 10 by 12 room their great. I didnt know they came with the wall mounts nice touch and they are very easy to install. Alot speaker for 140 bucks.

I didn't get this item. And I didn't see it. I hope that they will reimburse it back to my account.

Like it says above, find a better for less. Not just sound, but looks, size, and power. Compared to speakers within the same price range, these sounded the best to me after listening to the Polk Bookshelves, Klipsch, and even the greatly rated Pioneers. They have great output from any receiver I have and after breaking in for a few weeks they sound excellent for $75 a piece.

Tested out this speakers as front speakers at home. Contenders were Bose 201 series V and Definitive Pro Monitor 800. The speaker sounded as good as the other two supposedly superior products. I connected the speakers to a high current receiver, set the speakers to large to allow full range sounds to be passed to the speakers. Bose sounded more clearer than Definitive. The Bose 201 series V had more bass. I then set the speaker setting to small in the receiver. And Lo there was no difference between the two Bose. Another thing to note is the Definitive although had been rated a low bass frequency, I couldn't find any difference between settings of large and small in the receiver. This is strange because the receiver has a cut off of 100 Hz when the speaker setting is set to small. The Bose 161 like the Definitive did not have any sound difference between the receiver settings of large and small. Since Bose 161 worked similar to Defnitive, I deceided to keep it. Only issue was the shape was awkward. As surrond speakers these are great and a must for every custom configured Home theater.

These are great little speakers for the money. I normally roll with JBL. Have all Jbl speakers however Best Buy does not carry em anymore. So I gave these a shot because I wanted something small, They are my 6th and 7th speaker for crying out loud! Great purchase. Sound you expect from bose in a small speaker. They might not do the job by them selfs. but as the "extra" speakers they are awsome, my stereo is rated at 130 watts per channel and these little bad boys are rated at 100 watts. So they sound great! Not lacking power! Makes a diff., Would buy them again, no regrets. AS far as the review that bashes the mounting hardware, if you put it together right it is EASY AS PIE. You first determine where you want them. there is a left and right. Mount the speaker bracket to speaker, wall bracket to wall. Plug your speaker wire in and then hang them on the ALLREADY MOUNTED WALL BRACKETS. After you simply hang them on the wall bracket, attatch the provided screw to tighten, Cmon.

These speakers sound great. They really give a great stereo sound no matter where you are in the room. They are small speakers, but they have a big, rich sound. An excellent buy. My only criticism is the speaker hookups are a little flimsy. But otherwise a great speaker for a great price.

I realize that these units are specifically engineered to be rear and side surround satellites when interfaced with other Bose hardware; however, that comes at a high price. Since I needed to replace my receiver with an HDCP 2.2 unit, I decided to go ahead and change out my front speakers from my surround sound system with these. I also purchased a new center speaker (Polk Audio) with another sub woofer (Yamaha). My 13 year old speaker system (5.1) was included with a receiver package and I have no complaints whatsoever but these new Bose units are notably crisper, clearer and more dynamic. I left my old speakers as the 2 rear channel components. Even Bose claims that these speakers can be used for front or rear applications. That statement is certainly valid from my experience. Moreover, if they can be used for a 2.1 system, why can't they be used as front channel for surround sound? Don't get me wrong, having a $1500, or more, home theater audio system is fantastic but if you're looking for mixed and matched hardware that does the job and sounds terrific, these can be part of that system.

Great speakers for connecting to my bedroom receiver. I did have some challenges with the wall mounting brackets, specifically with the screw that secures the wall bracket to the speaker bracket. When the screw is tightened enough to secure the two brackets and prevent the speaker from flopping down it is virtually impossible to loosen the screw. This happened on both speakers. Not looking forward to the day I need to remove speakers from the wall.

I picked up a pair of these to use as rear surround speakers. These speakers, although larger than the cheap "cube" surround speakers you'll find in some surround kits, are made to be configured as "small" speakers (confirmed by the manual). Take this note as a forewarning...you're not going to get a load of bass out of these speakers. Mids and highs? Absolutely, and they're crystal clear. Cranked to uncomfortable levels I've not been able to cause them to distort. Highs are clear without being tinny. Overall a very solid platform, and the design allows for broader broadcast of the sound across the room. The included brackets are well thought out, but be aware that they only pivot in two directions (if mounted horizontally, they'll pivot up and down). If you need more articulation than that, you'll need to buy a different set of brackets. These brackets are sturdy, and once adjusted to the desired angle, they can be locked into place via Phillips head screw. BEAR THAT IN MIND WHEN MOUNTING! If you place the speaker too close to the wall, you could leave yourself no room to insert and tighten the screw. As far as speakers go, you'd be hard pressed to find a better set for the money, or even double the money. I'm no Bose fan boy...I've always leaned more towards Polk and Klipsch for home audio, but these two have made a believer out of me. If you're expecting these to rattle the windows, you'll be disappointed. If you're looking for a solid speaker with great range and excellent clarity to use for surround speakers, you'll be impressed.

Got these to augment my Denon AVR-1912, Bose 301's, Klipsch center, and Pioneer sub. Mounted these on my back wall at about 10' high. Since in the rear, I reversed the L & R, so the "R" speaker is actually the L Rear. My autosetup mic detected these were out-of-phase, so I reversed the + & - wiring; worked like a charm afterward. These bring a nice, mid-to-high-end touch to my system. These were the clearist speakers in the store and sound great at home. I am now a huge fan of Denon's auto-setup to calibrate your system. Great that they included the mounting brackets; essential as these are not very good free-standing. Best of all, very inexpensive at apx. $ 160.

These speakers sound excellent. I use them as my rear speakers in my surround system and they work awesome for that. The sound is clear and well defined. I would not realy use these for anything other than a surround set however. They lack the power and bass responce, as you could probably guess from the low profile and small driver. They mount easily on a wall or celing with the provided mounts. I have had these speakers for several years now and they are rock solid, they will last. They are a great high end lower cost choice for a set of rears.

Bose continues to impress with these speakers. While a little weak in the bass area as it sounds sort of muffled, that could just very well be the poor quality speaker wires I have. Yet, when I lower the bass, I hear pristine clear quality music. I have not yet hooked up my receiver to my television to hear the sounds of a movie. The only complaint I have besides the muffled bass is that the speaker wires tend to come out a lot and I have to keep putting them back in. Once again, this could just be the poor quality speaker wires I have. Once I purchase better ones, I will update my review as to whether the bass is improved or not. Overall, a very good speaker, but until I purchase the new speaker wires, I cannot upgrade the quality of the Bose 161's.

My wife and I bought these as we were redoing our living room and we decided to get rid of our aging LG floor tower speakers. We bought these as front speakers and were amazed at the sound quality and how they looked mounted under our new 60" sharpe TV. We used them for a week and decided to up grade the other speakers. So we bought 2 more sets. For the rears and the center. Yes we used two speakers for the center and have to say it works amazing. We love the way they look and love the way they sound. They are just the right size and everyone that comes over is just impressed with them.

I needed a small speaker for the rear set and these are the perfect size. I have the Bose 201 as my front speakers hooked up to a Pioneer VSX-918 so they match up pretty good. I have my system in my bedroom so I don't need loud booming sounds as the room is too small for that. These are clear sounding at a low level or a bit louder. If you want something that is small but good sounding, I would say to buy these.

Im currently using these as my rear channel speakers (currently matched with Bose 301's as the front channel) and they sound awesome. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get that much volume out of them due to their size, but I can crank up the volume pretty high and they handle the output just fine ( I have set the bass management settings for these speakers to "small" in my Sony high end receiver). I have rewatched all of my Bluray movies over again as I can really appreciate the surround effect from these speakers.

Purchase to replace old Sony speakers. You can't go wrong with this brand. Sounds great, very crisp and clear. A major improvement in my home theater system. Totally worth the money. Very happy with my decision.