Unassuming and petite, the Bose Companion 3 speakers are very cute and great for those with very little spare desk space. They will fit into almost any area and are fairly loud sound considering their size. Unfortunately, in an attempt to make something pretty and miniaturised Bose have neglected audio quality and the speakers have quite a few issues. For the average listener they will be fine but the average listener doesn't spend hundreds of dollars on a 2.1 PC speaker set up. For the price Bose is charging for these speakers, you'd expect much more.

We tested the how well the speakers produce treble and found that they tended to truncate higher pitched treble sounds. This means that instruments like violins and screeching trumpets ended up sounding rather flat. On their own, strings sounded reasonable but when mixed with some trumpet and bass they got lost in the ambience showing poor audio element separation.

The Bass gets a little muddy when attempting low rumbles and the bass volume distorts about half way between the quarter and half volume levels. This is rather poor as it leaves so much bass volume unusable to the average listener. Once the distortion sets in the vibration is so distracting that you are forced to turn it down. The audio in general is fairly messy and the extra clutter from the bass is unfortunate and undesirable.

In the mid tones, the Companion 3 speakers do a fairly average job. They don't sound too bad, but also don't sound too good either; they plateau on the borderline of mediocrity and never really wow the listener. The lack of depth makes all the sound feel detached from the listener and comes off as somewhat superficial.

These speakers are in serious need of some nice tweeters or at the very least a sub-woofer that doesn't suffer at such a low volume. From a design standpoint the speakers are quite attractive and the breakout box that controls volume and mute functions is rather flashy. It has a rubberized shuttle for volume control and a touch sensitive plate for mute. Just tap the plate and the volume is muted.

In the end, if you are willing to spend this kind of money for a 2.1 speaker system you are better off getting a set of quality speakers as these wont be sufficient for anyone who values excellent quality in their sound set up. As it stands, we can really only recommend these speakers to someone who values style over substance because from a style standpoint, these speakers are exceptional.