Companion 2 Series III Multimedia Speaker System

Got these over a Creative T20. I had a pair of Creative T20 speakers which I bought about 4 years ago for around £50. They had developed a nasty hiss sound (which is not uncommon on that version). I decided I needed some new speakers and my natural instinct was to get another pair of Creative T20 which have been updated to 'Series 2' since I bought my original pair. They retail for about £50-£60. I was put off by the fact that they have an energy saving feature which turns the speakers off after inactivity and there is a delay before it comes back on - they also have an LED light on the front when the unit is powered on (which I had disabled on my original T20s by opening the unit up and disconnecting something). I decided to go for the BOSE Companion speakers instead - the main differences is that these are smaller, they stay on all the time, no hiss, there is no light, there is one knob for volume which is also the power button and there is also headphone jack at the front. The downside is the £90 price which is very steep and the wires that conenct the speakers are shorter than I expected. You probably won't be able to have the PC tower or speakers very far apart from eachother. The sound that came out of these speakers initally felt very different to my T20s. Bear in mind I had the T20s for years and listened to hundreds of hours of music. The BOSE do not have controls for bass/treble - but this makes no difference as the pre-set is fine. I would say initally that these speakers felt more '3D' in that they had more depth whereas the music from the T20s whilst very clear was probably a bit 'flater'. You do get bass from the BOSE and when the volume is a bit louder it excels and definitley beats the T20s. It particular excels in live music because you can kind of feel the depth of the music. The only time where the BOSE maybe isn't quite as good is when the music is very very quite and it isn't quite as clear. OVERALL: The sound quality is very good in my opinion and these speakers fulfil all my needs - granted they are overpriced - £50-60 would have been more reasonable but worth paying the extra in my case as I use my speakers a lot and any hiss or power saving feature/LED light would have annoyed me. That said if you are happy with the looks and features of the T20 then you might not want to pay almost double for these.

These are excellent speakers that do the job they are built for perfectly. That said, I was initially slightly underwhelmed by them. I've switched between a pair of ancient JBL duet's and a Logictech Z323 for the last decade or so (preferring the clarity of the JBL's but the bass of the Z323s, not being able to mix and match them due to incompatible connections). As I'm fed up of doing this, I finally decided to invest in something more expensive and with the Bose name attached felt sure I'd be happy with my purchase. They are far better than both my previous sets. If they lack a little of the bass of the Z323's, it is barely noticeable and the level of clarity is as good if not better than the JBL's. The sound is really good! Every instrument is crystal clear and the level of bass is satisfyingly deep. I think I was initially a little disapointed as they're not quite decent bookshelf standard and as there is no way you can extend the speaker cable (the left speaker plugs into the right with a none-standard connector). When researching, I was torn between these and the Edifier R1280T's and think probably the latter would give a more hi fi sound, especially as you can put them at either end of the room with standard speaker cable. With time, though, and upon reflecting more on what I actually want to hear at my desk, I think these are just about perfect for the task and am now very happy with them. Perhaps it is as I'm so used to having the sound of music close to me (rather than at either side of the room), when I'm at my PC, that I don't think I'd really connect to it in the same way? I love the powerful, room-filling, wide open sound of my main hi fi, but think I do actually prefer a closeness to my music when I'm working or playing PC games. They would also work very well with a TV, so long as you only expect a really good sounding TV and not full cinema surround sound. As for gaming, I mainly play strategy and simulation games with music playing in the background anyway. I did test them out with Doom, though, and they totally rocked!! One problem I had was that they initially didn't work. I eventually realized it was as I needed to set them as the speakers, which I'd never had to do previously, in my Realtek HD Audio Manager settings (that had managed to automatically open, when I attached the speakers, but had become hidden behind my music playing software whilst I was beneath my desk faffing around with the cables. Grrrrrrrrrrrrgh!!!!

This is the first time I have trusted my cash to Bose. I've seen the marketing for years and always assumed that they would be overpriced tat. Having been impressed by the power (if not the transparency) of the Creative Gigaworks T20 speakers I was all set to upgrade to the T40s when I started reading the reviews for these Boses. I liked the idea of having the power and the price bracket of the T40s with a more neutral, transparent sound so I took the plunge. I work a lot with sound in my regular job and occasionally freelance as a sound recordist/dubbing mixer using a variety of professional studio monitors costing many hundreds of pounds so I know that "neutral" is slightly subjective, but I have always maintained that with the correct filtering and engineering it is possible to get a flat - if limited - frequency response from cheaper domestic speakers. Bose seem to be striving for the apotheosis of this ideal. The units that I received are slightly smaller than even the Gigaworks T20s and considerably less impressive to look at. Everything has been pared down to an absolute minimum so they aren't flashy at all, which is an approach that appeals to me. The clip-on 3-pin power adapter seems worryingly flimsy and the provided audio cable cheap but adequate. I get the impression of cheapest possible materials being utilised intelligently for a superior sound. Played at quiet levels - I prefer to listen to things at a modest volume to keep my ears attuned and unfatigued - the bass does gently swathe and slightly dominate the higher frequencies but the mid and treble details still come through clearly like lights through a faint mist. I think this is a result of using the internal acoustics of the speakers to accentuate the weaker bass response of the budget speaker cones. It works but at the slight expense of accurate bass detail. Turned up to a level that can be heard across the room the lower mid tones start to dominate slightly. The higher frequencies are still present but not impressively detailed. These are not speakers you would buy for critical clarity but it would be optimistic to expect that level of perfection from a pair of 2.0 desktop speakers in this price range. For this sort of product they are not bad. Bose have not achieved entirely neutral sound but they have squeezed the best that they can from the cheap components that I suspect they use. I have read fairly recent articles by people who have dismantled their Bose speakers to find single-driver paper cones doing all of the work. If they could tame that slightly amateurish mid-frequency hump I would be more impressed. I am not sure that these speakers are entirely worthy of their price tag as I definitely found my old T20s to be just as enjoyable to listen to in spite of their exaggerated bass response however - and this is worth paying attention to - the full sound spectrum definitely carries more completely over distance and to other rooms with the Boses due to their comparative neutrality. The niggling minor mid-range hump may well mellow over time as the speakers are burned in and I can create my own corrective EQ filter in VLC (free media player) in the interim. If they were about £15 cheaper I'd give these 5 stars. A respectable sound from such a compact pair of 2.0 desktop speakers so a solid 4 stars.

First of all i have never had a bose set of speakers until now. I only wish i had got some sooner. I bought these for my gaming PC to replace some Logitech Z333 2.1 speakers that went faulty. I decided to go all in and pay more for some better quality speakers. Having heard for years the reputation of Bose i decided it was going to be these or a pair of Razer Nommo speakers. In the end i preffered the look of Bose and went for them.... and i am glad i did. The speakers look sleek. They aren't gamery in any way at all. They are actually pretty small i was surprised when i opened them. They were easy to set up and soon as i plugged them in my PC detected the speakers had been connected and off i went. First game i booted up was Doom Eternal (as i was mid way through and the sound effects of the enemies, gunshots and Rip n Tear music i couldn't of thought of a better example). I was immediately grinning ear to ear. It sounded SO much better than the Logitech and it was very very loud. These are tiny speakers but they shout big volumes. They sounded great. The bass wasn't too heavy but it was there. Just right for me. Which is actually the only negative i can say is there are NO BASS controls on the speakers. It is volume only. So this was a big win that they sound just right. I haven't cranked them up very high at all but these speakers can fill a large room EASILY. Played some music through them, tried some other games and everything sound great. I couldn't be happier. If you are unsure on them then i would say take the plunge and give them a go. 5* despite no bass controls.

absolutely brilliant. I am blown away by the quality and clearness of the sound. I am using these on a computer and when I watch movies or listen to music, I cannot believe that they are so tiny. The sound fills the room and I don't need them turned up high to hear anything. Yes they are expensive compared to "normal" computer speakers, but you definitely get your money's worth from them. They do increase the bass, so can be a bit boomy. Especially when used with beats hi=fi which is inbuilt on my HP computer. However turn off beats and turn bass in beats setting to low and you get good, clear, crisp easy to listen to music and background sound. Watching action movies with loud bangs and explosions is like being in the cinema with surround sound. You also easily hear all the normally missed quiet background sounds. They are also absolutely brilliant for classical music. I have a large collection of classical music and with these speakers, the quiet parts come to life and you don't need to increase the volume and then get deafened by the loud parts. One note of warning if you have cats or dogs. The sound is so realistic that my cat keeps looking for the bird when I was watching a nature program on BBC Iplayer through the computer. She had never done that with other speakers or through the tv

Having read through all the Amazon reviews here I was a little concerned if these would be any good or not as the odd review mentioned them not being that good... Thankfully they turned out to be superb! I needed to buy these as a workaround for an iMac 21.5 (late 2013, running macOS Mojave 10.14.5) where the right speaker was no longer working and also the headphone socket wasn't either. As such, I also had to buy a Sabrent Aluminium USB External Audio Adapter (AU-EMCB) - also available here on Amazon for just £6.99 - so I could plug these new speakers into one of the iMac's USB ports. The sound quality of these speakers through the Sabrent USB adapter sounds superb to me, much better than the built in iMac speakers. The sound quality is so good I would also say it sounds better than the old Creative 7.1 surround system I have for my PC! The sound scape from only two speakers is very convincing, general sound appears to be coming directly from in front of you whilst left/right sound effects are very clearly separated/sourced. I also specifically wanted a stereo speaker pair without a subwoofer to minimise on wire clutter (which drives me mental these days). One word of caution though: When I first plugged in the speakers I could immediately hear a buzzing sound which I thought might be some sort of software problem or feedback issue. After messing about with software settings for ages I had to give up with trying to fix things that way. Instead, I unplugged the USB adapter completely, plugged it back in again then made sure I pushed the speaker audio cable fully into the USB adapter. This fixed the buzzing issue and it's been fine ever since. These speakers do sound awesome. I would definitely recommend them. It's the first Bose product I've ever bought as most are well out of my price range, but these are quite reasonably priced for what sounds like real quality audio.

Update - compared to a pair of Kanto Yu2 and these are now on the way back to Amazon. The Kanto, though more expensive, do deliver a cleaner and crispier sound. Original review - What's with people complaining about lack of bass (it's bass by the way, not base)? These speakers if anything have too much bass - or to be precise, mid-bass (around the 100-200Hz range), which sadly makes the overall sound a little muffled and "boomy" - to use a highly technical term... Luckily I listen almost exclusively through Spotify, so I can lower the 150Hz with the EQ, which makes it better. But it is still a little too resonant - I can actually feel the vibration in my wooden floor at high volume. They (obviously) blow my £20 pair of Majority PC speakers out of the water, so while I was ecstatic after the first listen, I am now a little underwhelmed. Soundstage and overall quality is good, but they do colour the sound a little too much, which makes it tiring in the long run. And, as someone else said, they seem to be slightly louder on the right channel, which is sadly something that cannot be corrected apart from moving the speaker further away. I guess you get what you pay for - now bought a pair of Kanto Yu2, will compare and see which one to keep and which to return.

I bought these 2.0's to replace my 2.1 Logitechs after one of the speakers decided to die on me a few weeks after I bought it, and then the sound began fading in & out randomly a few months later. These are fantastic - super simple to connect (ports are labelled on the back, don't need instructions), elegant & simple design, good heavy weight with rubber feet so they don't move, and less fuss with wires means less stuff should go wrong (fingers crossed). The range and 'wideness' of the sound is great for vids watching on the PC from the couch 3m away (we don't own a TV). We don't have to constantly change the volume like we did with the old set because it seems to equalize the sound a lot better, and it creates a nice cinematic feel with the 'wide' sound seemingly coming from the whole wall. There is no thumping bass, while these do have small bass speakers within them they don't kick like a 2.1 (with a subwoofer). I think that's what disappoints people the most with these, but for vids watching there's enough bass to keep it on equal footing with the tweeters. If you're going to use these for parties/barbecues/music listening, and you like a bit of kick, I'd suggest sticking with 2.1's. 'Creativ' are a decent brand for that if you're looking for cheap 2.1's that won't die on you. The audio controller/dial controls any headphones you have plugged into them too - bonus! The audio cable connecting PC to the speakers is very short, about a meter long. Buy your own, or buy an extension like I did.