Summary

Engineering varies enormously from one CD to another, and more importantly, EARS vary from one person to another. I don't like too much bass, and much modern engineering over-emphasizes bass. As I get older I will be losing some of my ability to hear the higher frequencies, and the Bose wave audio system doesn't allow me to do what every cheap boombox on the market (and Bose's own car systems, which I have) would permit -- alter the "tone" characteristics. I can't imagine anyone who takes classical music seriously (I know there aren't many of us left!) not having a problem with it. The only way I can think of to account for the alleged lack of complaints is that they are using the product just as a clock radio, and for their "real listening" they use something else. I wanted to use this for "real" listening because it looks great, takes up little room, and has otherwise good sound.

Strength

looks great, small footprint, good sound if you are satisfied with the engineering of the original CD and are under 40

Weakness

It never occurred to me to ask the salesperson, and why should it? -- that while there are all kinds of options for time (which I don't need), clock radio functions (which I don't need) and random playing of tracks (which I may use twice a year)... there is no bass/treble control for CDs. What genius made this decision?

Summary

well, I bought one of these when I didn't know any better. When I was in 7th or 8th grade, I thought that Bose produced the best sound around. I will not get into what I currently think of Bose Corporation in this review. A guy at my church showed me his Wave Radio because I wanted something small that sounded good, and I was taken back by the sound, granted. This radio sounds much bigger than it looks. The booming, one notish bass and piercing highs grabbing you at first listen. Bose uses a well known smoke and mirrors trick that boosts the bass and highs to make their products sound more pleasing at first to the ear, but it gets fatiguing quickly. It never dawned on me why I would love the sound at first, but shut the radio off after about 15 minutes of sitting and listening to it because I had a headache. I admit my hearing it sensitive, but vocals aren't supposed to be spitty if cleanly recorded. Violins and Harps took on a hard, metallic quality that was not pleasing to listen to. Everything that had high frequency content to it became edgy and artificially compresed, causing the fatigue. It sounded like the response in the treble was like a roller coaster, and quite louder than the midrange. TYPICAL BOSE. The bass is just as bad, really tubby. It doesn't sound like there is any control. If you listen to a well recorded stand up bass, such as Diana Krall's Love Scenes, the bass lags behind everything else. To say the least, this is not at all how something of this price ($350) should perform. Bose tries to get a driver that is too small to produce bass by pumping up midbass level. This creates a booming effect, and makes the Wave Radio easily outperformed by its competitors. One of them being the Soundworks Radio. I now own the Soundworks Radio in grey. As far as using the radio, it really does not get any easier. Everything is right there and up on the top. I like the remote, and Bose sent me some velcro so I could attach the remote to something so I wouldn't lose it. However, at that price they better load up on features. It is funny that the Soundworks Radio has a very similar remote to the Wave, with less buttons. Soundworks wins again, offering even more features than Bose for a little more than half of the price. I loved the alarm ramp up feature on the volume, so it wouldnt blast you out in the morning, as well as the dual alarms. And truth be told, it really is beautiful. But, bottom like, the sound BLOSE!!!!!! ESPECIALLY given the fact that you paid $350 for nothing more than a clock radio! The Soundworks Radio simply sounds MUCH better, has tone adjustments, AN ACTUAL WOOFER, and is LOTS cheaper to boot!!! It still has the dual alarms as well, and they are easier to set. Soundworks Radio 730 is $199 740CD is $299 for $200, Onkyo has a shelf system that will beat the pants off of both of these systems, and even has a CD plaver built in, with 2 way speakers built out of real wood. I have heard this as well, and it is exquisite. You don't get the alarms, just a straight up music system. Onkyo CS-210 I wrote a review of the Wave Radio a few years ago on another website before I became educated on it. I have since prevented someone that has an Acoustimass home theater system from buying one, and has instead purchased a Paradigm Monitor 7 based home theatre system

Strength

beautiful design, striking in black, heavy, auto dimming clock, ramping alarm, bose name

Weakness

clipped highs, terrible bass, PRICE , you cant control anything about the sound, bose name

Summary

I am extreamly disapointed in the quality of the remote control of Bose Wave Radio/CD player.

Strength

Small in size , excelent sound quality, and simple to use. My wife loves it.

Weakness

The remote control is junk. The coating underneath of the overlay flakes off with heavy use and fouls the volume control contacts. This makes the remote control useless, leaving you with no ability to turn the unit up or down.

Summary

Here I am again reviewing something new I got. I am reviewing the newest Bose Wave Music System, with the infront loading cd player. All I can say is WOW for a little tiny thing like this it performs very very well. It will never beat my stereo or surroundsound system, but that is not why I got this Bose, I got it because of the easy to use features. One thing is for sure that this is the best clock radio on the planet as far as sound. Excellent audio performance and it only uses two 2 inch drivers, so it's amazing in every way.

Strength

Looks Power Sound Reliability

Weakness

Looks very simple

Summary

Purchased a Wave Radio with CD for our kitchen. This one is the Wave II and apparently the sound is much improved. Slot loading CD is slick and works flawlessly. Entire unit runs off remote control. People complain that the remote unit is too small and can be lost. I find that odd because it is not that flat and it's not that small. The remote is very user friendly and works well at all angles and distances. This radio does will not replace a full featured stereo system. Anybody that thinks this can be accomplished by ANYBODY is a fool. What it WILL do however is provide truly remarkable sound in an area where you simply do not want a large system. The last thing we wanted in our kitched was a large, imposing, grey or black stereo system. The tuner, particularly the FM is very strong. We live north of Toronto and all radio stations came in clear and in full stereo. The AM side is another matter. The tuner is very weak on AM and the sound is like...well..any tabletop radio. The AM side is VERY disappointing. Some songs on some FM stations sound spectacular, some don't sound that good. There are times where I look at the unit and say "wow!" and there are times where I say "doesn't sound that good". There appears to be no rhyme or reason as to why one sounds better than the other. Same with CD's - some sound terrific - others do not. The absence of bass/treble adjustments is baffling. I guess the sound would severely distort otherwise?

Strength

Beautiful styling and shape. The Cambridge unit sells for much less, but let's face it - it's ugly as hell. If you require a small, stylish unit and wish to have a quality sound then the Bose Wave is the way to go. It's gorgeous to look at, compact in every sense, and does product pretty darn good sound.

Weakness

I find the price to be high, however it is the design that you are paying for. Let's face another reality here: Bose is selling Wave Radios! My problem with this unit is the inconsistency of the quality of sound and nothing more.

Summary

This review is actually for the Bose radio without CD. I think the threads got merged. Well, when my mother took to listening to her talk radio shows on el cheap-0 trasister radios in the middle of the living room the static and noise from the semi-tuned channels and such became a bit of a problem. My Dad decided to get her a "good" radio for her to use. Bose was in the midst of one of thier seemingly perpetual ad blitzes and the Bose radio somehow became the specified part. It was ordered and given on Christmas circa late 1990's. The Bose radio worked when it was plugged in and still works to this day without incident. It sounds good for talk radio shows and handles the deep resonant "radio voices" nicely. My mom has all the presets set to KGO NEWSTALK 81 and that is the way she likes it. I told her that it defeats the whole purpose of presets to have them set to the same station and she replied, "Whose radio is this?" So there the Bose radio sits spewing news, weather, sports and Paul Harvey. I have listened to music with it on occation and it sounds okay. An external FM antenna would likely help but since it isn't needed for KGO, none is attached. I hooked up a CD player to the AUX in RCA connections once and was surprised how low and muffled it sounded. Either Bose expected a higher input signal (voltage) than this CD player provided or something because it had a very low output for any volume setting vis-a-vis the internal tuner. I also have one of the Cambridge Soundworks radios that was created and marketed to compete with the Bose radio. It sounds a little better on music but the built in "subwoofer" is a bit overpowering, even turned down, for talk radio. Also it lack the style and clock of the Bose.

Strength

-Great test case for Marketing 101 students. -Stylish exterior and thoughtful design touches. Such as auto dimmer for clock display and detachable cord. -Sounds pretty darn good for having two 3-inch speakers in a plastic case. Must be that Wave technology. -Still works over five years after purchase.

Weakness

-Price. Three hundred and fifty bucks for a clock radio is a lot. -AUX input in not sensitive enough. Output sound should be consistant between internal tuner and external source at the same volume setting. -No AM antenna input means the whole unit must be turned for tuning out AM noise.

Summary

I bought the Wave Radio Cd in 2002 and I remember the day I first got it. The first thing my mom asked was why it cost 500 dollars. My dad wanted to know if it came w/ cd changer. My younger brother just wanted to experienced all the hype. So anyway I popped in a U2 cd The Best Of 1980-1990. So we all just sat there and listenend, I expected sound to start taking off but what I heard was clear, no bass and just plain clear sound. From what I understood at the time, was that it was suppossed to reproduce sound like a true system,at least. Nonetheless it didn't perform like a 499 dollar unit. I played all my cd collection for the rest of the night. I kept cranking up and down, played different cd's and still could not get the desired result. listen to rock and roll quite a bit. The problem I had with it was the tiny sound since the speakers are so small you can't expect big sound. Even though it's loud it can't compare to a real system or a compact system. The sound even though is tiny is kind of a full sound for the size of the thing. But if you turn it up loud you probably get annoyed by it. So even though it can get high and loud it wasn't intended for those volume levels its best at 70-77. But my real problem with this was that I was really looking for a music system, this wasn't cutting it so I bought the Acoustic Wave Music system and it's doing the job for now. Problably later i'll have to buy the Lifestyle to get that fuller sound since the Acoustic Wave is lacking that.But it does the job that wave radio couldn't.

Strength

Rich sound,excellent detail sound, crystal clear

Weakness

Tiny sound from tiny speakers even though its loud. It doesnt sound nothing close to a minisystem.

Summary

While the speaker system itself sounds great, the radio tuner is absolutely junk. If you want to listen to AM radio, the only way to "tune" the radio antenna is to spin the radio around in circles until you can get a signal. Everthing you do interferes with reception: lights, microwaves, a TV, anything. If you want the news, weather or sports or information from your local AM stations, get another radio, pronto. I use the auxiliary channel for connection to the satellite dish and play music through it, although the amplification for the aouxiliary mode is poor. I play some of the music at 70-80 on the volume setting, while 40-50 works fine on most radio stations...go figure. I happen to own more than one Bose Radio and i would not recommend them to anyone, unless they listen just to CD's and don't listen to the AM radio. I really is a very poor tuner. I have spent far less money for much better radios. Bose, for some reason, though the radio does not matter. I called them about this and talked about it with a guy at Bose. He told me that the Bose Wave Radio and the Bose Wave CD were "Old technology" and that the tunders were better on the newer sytems. Do you think I would spend more money on a Bose system to find out if that were true? Forget about it! As an enthusiastic owner of a Bose Acoustimass system with a Denon surround system, take my advice. When it comes to Bose, stick to the speakers. End of Story.

Strength

Speaker Sound

Weakness

Worst Radio Tuner I ever owned, poor amplification on Auxiliary mode