Bose Wave Music System – Platinum White

5 comments

1. 

   R. C. Walker on December 25, 2009 at 1:42 pm

   In fine, the Bose Wave music system is a little wonder.

   Reading reviews here and there, it’s clear that people who don’t like this system expect things it wasn’t meant to do. Some complain that it doesn’t do what a multi-thousand dollar multi-speaker room-filling bunch of equipment will do. What sort of fool expects a compact stereo system to do that? Others don’t like AM reception. Who wants AM reception? There’s no music on AM, just a bunch of pseudo-musical noise, a lot of neo-fascist talk radio, and too much blatant superstition (“religion”). Some want bass/treble controls. We’ll get into that later.

   The Bose is primarily designed for music on FM. There’s precious little music there, either. Again, mostly noise, superstitious nonsense, and Hitler-worshipping Republicans. But there is also REAL music – you know: Scarlatti, Soler, Schubert, Schumann, Strauss (J), Strauss (R), Scharwenka, Sousa, Spohr, St.Saëns, Suk, Sullivan, Stravinsky, Schmidt, Schmitt, Sibelius, Stanord, Surinach, Shostakovich, Sondheim, Schickele … that bunch. For other stuff, you don’t need good sound – a couple of tinny $5 speakers just fine. Get off the net and go to Good Will.

   The Bose is also designed for the music lover who doesn’t have a lot of space for hardware. Space is for CDs, scores, the Grove dictionary … not to mention opera DVDs. This little wonder is designed to deliver great sound, but not multi-thousand $ sound.

   I have 2 Boses (bedroom, kitchen) and am getting a 3rd (office). Like it? I’ll say!! The Bose has unusually rich sound, mostly because it has a very fine bass response. Sometimes it’s a little more than strictly necessary, but it’s often revealingly effective. It’s great for things such as the organ in St.Saëns’ 3rd Symphony. Yes: no bass/treble controls, and I know that there are people who like to fiddle with such things … often endlessly. It’s a habit, like channel surfing. My hearing is not so utterly precious that I need to make micro-adjustments in sound, in the hope that it will meet my ultra-refined senses of perfect pitch and perfect mix.

   There are, strictly speaking, no controls on the radio at all. Everything that can be done must be done with the remote. The really good news is that you get a second identical remote with the CD player add-on. The remote is quite small, but it’s very easy to see what’s on the buttons.

   The radio also takes 1 CD. The add-on takes 3, for a total of 4. That covers pretty much every opera and Mahler symphony known to Man. The add-on is hooked up with 2 very short connectors, so you don’t have excess wiring hanging about. The add-on comes with a CD that programs it, so basically this is a plug-and-play system that requires no fiddling. Apparently you can also hook the whole thing into a larger sound system, your computer, and maybe even your brain if you’re into digital prosthetics.

   The radio’s display is clear and distinct … no backlit stuff that requires extreme magnification to make out. The display also wonderfully adjusts itself to the ambient light level, so that at night it’s not intrusive. The CD add-on has 3 little lights, one for each occupied slot. These are orange, changing to lemon-lime for the currently active CD. These do not dim, alas, and some people may find them annoying. I play the bedroom system all night (good for the brain) and did in fact quickly adjust to the CD lights.

   One nice feature is that the CDs are played in sequence and the system goes back to the first CD when it’s finished with the last. You can also program different sequences with the remote. Another excellent feature is that the system will retain all settings for 48 hours if it’s unplugged or there’s a power failure.

   The user manuals are thorough and full-sized (8 ½ x 11), so that you can actually not only see the print, you can read it.

   The sound, as I’ve said, is remarkable for such a small piece of equipment. Amazingly, even turned down very low, the sound will fill a good-sized room. I haven’t turned the set up to its highest volume, but I’ve had it fairly high and encountered no distortion.

   Reception: Bose sells a dipole FM antenna that helps with the stations with actual music but not much power. Our local station, XLNC, used to be only 1000 watts, hard to pick up on some equipment, but came in fine on the Bose (no antenna). Now it’s 7500 watts and will drown out any nearby crud. The Bose usually picks up KUSC, 100-odd miles to the north, very clearly. But of course I’d guess they have enough watts to run the State electric chair, if we had one. We use needles. Nobody has to share.

   This is spiffy equipment. It doesn’t work miracles, nor walk on water, nor raise the dead, nor kill the undead. It doesn’t make the bed and definitely doesn’t do windows. Or Windows. What it does is give you sound that equals more expensive equipment (not a lot more, but more) and does it from a modest corner of your bookshelf. It comes in ivory or charcoal. As to stereo separation: what do you want from speakers 18 inches apart??? Do the math, people. Still, separation is better than you would expect.

   If you don’t want to spend the money, get a boom box. You can enjoy complaining about your inability to microadjust bass and treble on that as well. If you want huge sound so that Wagner will cause your walls to tremble and crumble, spend a bunchabucks for 50 speakers and a receiver a yard long and 26 inches high. Go wild. But don’t send $500 to do $5000’s job.
   

2. 

   Carlos500 on December 25, 2009 at 3:36 pm

   Este es mi primer producto BOSE. Siempre lo pensaba dos veces por su costo. Realmente he quedado impresionado, el sonido es espectacular para una caja de sonido tan pequeña. Ademas que el diseño es realmente hermoso. Es todo un lujo. Si usted puede darselo, no lo piense dos veces, dese gusto.

3. 

   William Russell on December 25, 2009 at 6:27 pm

   This was a Christmas gift for the wife… its what she wanted. Its just another radio to me with a high price. I can not tell the good part..yet..must be my ears. I hope it works good and last a long time but only time will tell. It did get here fast.

4. 

   J. Hills on December 25, 2009 at 7:22 pm

   I saw the bose wave In the local mall, thought it would make better sense buying it from amazon? The checkout was quick and the product was shipped just as fast. Then came the tons of e-mail confirmations of order status, shipping status, etc. Total I have received 14 e-mails about this product? Four weeks later I am still dealing with this order. The product is great, amazon sucks….. I should have bought it at the mall for the same price and been done with it on thanksgiving! Amazon GET A CLUE! Keep it simple

5. 

   Teapot Tales on December 25, 2009 at 9:36 pm

   I had an opportunity to listen to one of these units for a couple of hours.
   
   Let me tell you something first: WHEN YOU SEE A COMMERCIAL AND IT DOES NOT TELL YOU THE PRICE RIGHT AWAY, EXPECT THE ADVERTISED PRODUCT TO BE GROSSLY OVERPRICED AND NOT ANY GOOD AT ALL.
   
   This music system is nicely built for a $40 boom-box. It sounds decent for its all-plastic design and a pair of mid-range speakers.
   
   It does not in no way sounds “big”. There is no magic here: if it is not built big, with large enough speakers, good amp and so on, it WILL NOT produce an opera house-like sound.
   
   For even a good boom-box it is grossly overpriced, just like all other Bose products. Any nice mini-system with shelf speakers can give you FAR superior results. For the price of this Bose system, you can afford something that comes with really good wooden speakers, CD/DVD changer, XM or HiDef tuner and then some! You can own a compact, but capable real high-end system, and save some money for a music collection.
   
   One thing about many 5-star reviews here: they all sound like pre-paid commercials. I do not think that the actual customers left them.