Bose Wave III : My review

[petek]

Earlier in the week the other half announces that due to a "change in programming" we stood to lose some of our Airmiles points that had been gathering dust. They were putting expiry's on them. They used to send out a brochure occasionally showing lots of household items you could redeem points for and we had taken advantage here and there. I think that's where I got my first Cuisinart Grind'n Brew coffee maker. Now it's online and the choosings were few and pretty dismal. At least we think so. The only interesting thing seemed to be the Bose Wave III and we had just enough points to score one. It was delivered yesterday.
Like most people we've seen the infomercial a million times as well as the gushing demo's on the shopping channel. I was always skeptical and there was no way in hell I'd pay $499 for a gussied up clock radio.
I already have a really really good sounding JVC micro-stereo that I bought for less than $200 years ago.. It's always impressed me.

So we set up the new Bose and sure it sounds good but it doesn't even come close to "room filling sound" It's really no better than a better sounding clock radio like I thought it would be. For comparison sake I had the JVC set up as well..
No comparison whatsoever. The little JVC blows it outta da water.

So I give it a big thumbs down for the lacklustre sound quality with the huge price tag.

 

[rp2813]

Waves = Breakers

These systems are widely known to be failure-prone.  As a result, Bose has a fairly generous trade-in allowance on putting failed items toward the purchase of new ones.  I'm surprised there's still a market for this unreliable and over-rated product.  Much smaller MP3 players sound far superior and come closer to providing the "room filling" results Bose falsely claims.  You were wise to spend your points on one instead of cash.

 

[kb0nes]

"better sounding clock radio"

That is what it is, a decent sounding clock radio for $350-$500, with a TON of marketing hype to try sell them. It goes along with my rule that "pretty much anything sold in an infomercial is not worth buying".

Bose has been largely about marketing since the 70's, the days when the 901's would give full-range HiFi fidelity from nine 4" cones. As Paul Klipsch said "There is no such thing as a miniature 32 foot wavelength". Although with a lot of electronic EQ and a big power amp the 901's sounded OK is rooms that suited them.

The Wave Radio is a solid well made product, but not a great value. It may not have been a bad way to blow your use-it-or-lose-it Airmiles though.

 

[whirlcool]

These Bose wave radios are also very popular amongst the welfare set, the people who can least afford them. Just like huge flat screen HDtv's!

I think they do sound good for what they are, but certainly not any better than say an original KLH Model 8 did. And I agree with Peter they are definitely not worth the money by a long shot.

 

[wayupnorth]

I dont know about the new Bose, but my Bose Interaudio SA1000's will rattle my neighbors windows after 30 plus years on less than half volumn and I have a pair of KLH Model 6 speakers in my downstairs "Rec room" that can do the same. I honestly dont think the newer, smaller somehat, better stuff can do what the old stuff does perfect, if it is either maintained or brought back. Be it appliances, speakers or whatever. I think we are all here because we feel older it is better and we all try to keep everything that is vintage to us going as long as we can.

 

[tolivac]

I have a Bose clock radio and an older Acoustic wave system-the Bose "Boombox"The Acoustic wave box does better than the clock radio.However neither of them will match up to a full size Hi-fi as Bose claims.The only good sounding 901 speakers I heard were those in a record store in Downtown DC in the 70's.They had the Bose Equalizer for the 901's-and the Bose power amp designed for the Bose speakers-that system did sound nice.Many people were playing the records they bought over it.Otherwise 901 speakers sound like Bogen "sound Column" PA speakers if amp they are connected to isn't using the Bose 901 equalizer-only situation where an equalizer makes a system better.The best system I heard in a store was an all McIntosh system that had Mc3500 350W monoblock tubed amps.Was at a McGuires Hi-Fi store in DC-again sometime in the 70's.