Customer Ratings & Reviews

I am really enjoying my music heard through these speakers.

I don't know what I was thinking. These are just too expensive and the sound quality is just atrocious for the price paid. Had to return them.

I was a bit disappointed in the sound quality considering it’s manufactured by Bose. The only reason I’m keeping it is because the colors matches my iMac perfectly.

For the money I spent on these I expected more bass. I guess not having a subwoofer makes the difference. In my opinion, the speakers were not worth what I paid for them.

these speakers worked great for 1 week and the powersupply burnt up and i was not able to turn these speakers on. i did everything the bose website said and no good had to return these back to Best Buy.

This is the worse Bose I ever bought I have to return is as fast as I bought is because the sound really bad and the higher u go the worse it sound

The sound is ok. But after coming from the companion 5 with the seprate subwoofer. This doesn't come close. The bass will Loos it's tone after 80% volume.

Expensive but great speakers could be better for the money

I own a Companion 2 before purchasing this one. However, I did not think it is worth to pay nearly $150 more to get this one.

Over priced speakers. Sound quality is not lacking bass

I bought the Bose Companion 20 in the store earlier this evening. Read every review posted on this website while in the store. I listen to the set at different volumes from different angles. At home, for aesthetics, I put the speakers inside a 1941 model Philo radio in my living room. They are sitting directly on a wood floor, with a sheet rock wall behind them, the wood of the radio cabinet on the sides, and wood and cloth of the same in front. I connected the speakers to a portable CD player and listened to, Paul Simon’s Rhythm of the Saints (Brazilian percussion , circa 1990), Surprise (A mix of folk with Brian Eno electronica, circa 2004), the first few tracks off the Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory Soundtrack (1971), and as I type I’m listening to the soundtrack to Schindler’s List (1993). I walked around the living room, the kitchen, other rooms, and the floor below. Bass? Plenty of bass. I’m sitting eight feet away on a sofa, four feet off center, and I’m feeling the bass from a cello, an actual bass, and the low notes on a clarinet. I’m not feeling it vibrate off the floor (my feet are up) I’m feeling it through the air. On the Paul Simon songs, and even Willy Wonka, if I lived in an apartment the downstairs neighbors would be calling be right now saying, “That’s great that you’ve got a golden ticket, but turn it down wild man.” It is plenty loud for my needs. If anything I would like a little less bass. Not enough bass for some reviewers? Well I guess if you are one of those members of society who, when six cars behind me at a stop light wants to make sure everyone knows just how much you like the song your listening to, and you have it up so loud that I can feel the bass from your car stereo in my teeth, then maybe for you this isn’t enough bass. Run on sentence? The treble is fine. I can hear when Itzhak Perlman (violinist) leans towards the microphone and when he drifts back. If I wanted to throw the rugs into the fireplace and clear the floor to dance, 52 Girls and Planet Z would still rock the house. I have no EQ or amp, just straight from the grandchild of a Sony Walkman plugged into the back of the speakers. Better compression rate than MP3 but still nothing to tweak. Also, remember, I don’t have these at desk level or ear level. They are on the floor and muted a bit because they are in the radio cabinet. Now I’m listening to Nocturno played by John Williams (Not the same John Williams from Schindler’s List). It’s Spanish/classical guitar. No other instruments and no vocals. I dialed back the volume and I’m still getting bass at all the right spots. The rest of the work is clean. By that I mean it’s not like some systems where everything is polluted with bass (Note to self: It would be great to play just one song as well as John Williams. Just one). So now that we’ve spent the evening together, what would you like to listen to next? Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, you say? Yes, of course. Let’s start with a Taste of Honey. While I’m up would you like something to drink? Maybe Blue Raspberry soda from Kroger or Swedish sparkling apple juice from Ikea? No? Okay well maybe there something in your kitchen you’ll like. I’m on track 4, Bittersweet Samba. Sounds good. No escaping the bass. My feet are on the floor and I can feel it. I when outside to the far end of the back porch (It isn’t that far) and yes, the bass tracked me down and smacked me with its fins (Bass the fish. Fish have fins. A pun, get it?). So what else do you want to know? The volume controller is nice. It has a white light about the size of a pinhole that shines when the speakers are on. This will help you find it in the dark. The volume dial is nice and smooth. It can turn down to a whisper and into several degrees of silence. No numbers on the dial. No way to know how loud the sound will be when turning it on. Turning it on doesn’t require any turning. It requires lightly pressing the top of the controller. FYI – if you’re having a bad day, listen to some Herb Albert. It’s like wearing plaid pants. You can’t have a band time if you’re wearing plaid paints and you can’t have a bad time listening to Herb Albert. Well, I guess that’s it. Final thoughts? People who say it doesn’t have enough bass never say WHAT they are listening to so it really doesn’t matter. If you listen to the albums I mentioned, and I would be surprised to learn that anyone reading this has the same tastes, but if you do have plenty of bass. Is it worth the price? Sounds great in the store and the Bose people are smart enough to set up their display next to speakers by other manufactures that sink. Either that or, like the store I was in tonight, Boss was only display working. I couldn’t listen to the speakers that were $100 less. Okay I’ve said enough. I’ve been playing music for an hour and 45 minutes and I could keep playing music for another hour and 45 minutes. I’m not proud or tired. But enough with the Arlo Guthrie references that no one understands. I haven’t checked any of this for spelling or grammar errors, but I’m living on the wild side tonight and using my real name so this review it’s going on my permitted digital record. You will never get the time back that it took you to read this review.

These speakers sound amazing in the store demo with all acoustic music but they lack any bass. I'd suggest getting the Bose 2.1 set unless you just want mids and highs.

The sound was not what I expected from Bose. I would avoid.

they are fine, but i was expecting bose to blow my skirt up..

My first pair one of the speakers didn't work and the sound was Tinny. I bought the Klipsh with a sub woofer for a hundred dollars less and the sound was better. I'm usually happy with BOSE, but not this time. Save your money.

Value for price, these speakers are a good value. I've listened to some highly touted desktop speakers like Audioengine A5's for example, and the Bose C20's blow them away. The Audioengine A5's are $325 a pair in basic black, so much for value, Bose C20's win. Sound quality, highs and mids are excellent, well dispersed and clear respectively. Bass is always a problem for small speakers, and the C20's preform well above average in this area. For rock, pop, country and most program material their bass is just fine. However, for material like ambient music: Biosphere, Solar Fields, Brian Eno to name a few, the C20's while pretty good, won't out preform or equal a good floor standing speaker with dual eight inch woofers. However, one can listen to material with really deep bass and have a good experience. These speakers have very good dynamics for their size and produce room filling sound. Compatibility, no issues here, they will work with anything. Appearance, they look great Over all, like I said, very good speakers, highly recomend, glad I bought them.

Wasn't has happy with the bass in these speakers as I have been with Bose computer speakers in the past.

My favorite Logitech speakers finally broke, so I tried another more robust Logitech speakers, which, unfortunately, ended up sounding distorted, no matter what I did. So, I wanted to try again with these higher priced speakers. I must say, I've been playing music off of them and they sound incredibly amazing for the price! Try and preview them at a local store or even a local Bose store! My MacBook Pro sounds amazing! The bass on these speakers sound fine for what these speakers are. I do not miss my Logitech subwoofer at all! These sound amazing!

I've been a Bose fan for decades - had 901s back in the 70s and many of their other speakers thereafter - and still like the company's products. These Companion 20s are a worthy choice for any computer setup. In my case, they are replacing a pair of older Companion 2s that were working just fine. I got a new computer recently and thought I'd upgrade the speakers too, so I went ahead and got these. They sound quite good for their size - listen to Sissal's rendition of Oh Shenandoah or Bernstein conducting Beethoven's Sixth and you'll see what I mean. While I'm content with the sound quality, I'm not certain that they are worth a $100 more than a new set of Companion 2s. There is a bit more bass with this new, slightly bigger model, but the overall sound quality and range is, to my mind, only modestly better than what I had. And one downside for me is the extra cable that goes with the 20s. The outboard volume control adds an additional line to the other cables that typically come with hard-wired computer speakers. In sum, these really are fine speakers if you have the money. Buy them and I'm confidant you'll be pleased. If you're on a budget or don't care for a bit of extra bass, I'd consider going with the less-expensive, but still good-sounding Companion 2 set. And if money is no object, you might audition a set of Audio Engine HD 3 speakers ($350) that connect to your computer via Bluetooth.

I LOVE MUSIC. I was surprised with the sound quality. I have tons of albums CDs that I converted to MP3. Listening to some old Classic Rock, At the end of one of my favorite track, by "Alan Parsons" I heard some peoples talking, loud and clear So I back-up the track a bit and at the end of the track I heard the same peoples again. I never heard this before.. And no I'm not on funny tobacco either. Since then I've been listening to a lot of my favorite albums, and discovering sounds I never heard before. Anyone had a chance to listen to the Bose Wave Radio? Well each of those speakers has a wave chamber built into them. And to me they sound better then the wave radio. The highs are crisp, the mids are alright could use a little improvements, and the base is just right. Not a boomy base that you get from a PC subwoofer. But CLEAN to the low hz. All I can say is They are really impressive speakers. And they fit very nicely in my laptop bag, with my Asus G75.