looks

bad sound, outrageous high price

What a peice of yuppie trash this is! This is a sharper image catalog reject! man, $500 for a stupid clock radio. What next? a $750 alarm clock? This thing makes noise. So what? I have a Zenith clone that does all the same thing for $69.95!!! ONE star!!!

Similar Products Used:

Clock radio, boom box that sound better and cost less

Compact size, decent sound quality

Overpriced, no controls for mono/stereo, bass, etc., cheap receiver for such an expensive product

The Bose Wave Radio delivers decent sound quality in a small space. However, it delivers little else. The radio receiver (in terms sensitivity, the ability to pick up weak signals, and selectivity, the ability to reject adjacent signals) is not a whole lot better than the one on my $100 Sony D-FJ61 walkman (and the walkman plays CDs!), which means that the Wave radio's reciever must not have cost a whole lot more than $30. I make this claim because the Sony D-FJ61 without the radio is only $9.59 cheaper than the one with the radio on amazon.com (though the list price is $29.59 different), and the reception on the Bose Wave Radio isn't a whole lot better.

Additionally, the Wave Radio also has no controls, such as mono/stereo (switching to mono makes it easier to get more radio stations) and bass/treble. The Wave Radio is an OK product, but I think a reasonable price would be about $100 (I think Bose would still make plenty of profit with that price).

If you don't mind spending lots of money and want a compact radio that has OK sound quality, and only want to listen to local radio stations, the Wave Radio is for you. If you are a picky radio listener like me and you want to get faraway radio stations, you are much better off buying one of the radios featured on FM DX web sites for a similar price.

Bottom line, if it were my own money I would NEVER buy the Bose Wave Radio.

I haven't had the opportunity to listen to the CD version, but the wave radio has a big and quality sound for such a small unit. While it sounded slightly muffled to me compared with the JVC FS-5/7000 series, the better of the two sounds was more a matter of listener preference than clear cut deficiencies. Wonderful too was the simplicity of operation. The biggest drawback off the Wave Radio in my opinion is the price. Purchase a JVC-FS7000 and add a subwoofer, or the JVC-FS8000 which comes with one and for $100 less than the Bose, you'll have a system that kicks a__, albeit with one timer instead of two alarms. If the CD version was priced at $350, where the Wave Radio debuted, it would be a serious contender for those wanting big quality sound in a discreet package.

Tells the time

No toilet paper holder

Why in God's Earth would anyone want to buy a clock radio that costs $500?
Even if it "sounds good, for a clock radio", even if its the greatests sounding "radio with a clock, ever built!!", so what?
If Bose ever decides to make a toilet paper holder with a built-in radio, and instructions to place it close to the toilet bowl to get deep booming bass, and charged $1000 for it, no doubt some people would still buy it.
Hats-off to Bose marketing. I'm in awe.

Similar Products Used:

Clock radio, toilet paper holder

none

everything

Of course everyone knows that this is a terrible sounding and horribly overpriced little system. But the thing that gets me is, it doesn't even look good! It reminds me of a Wall-Mart $15.00 vaporizer. There are plenty of much more attractive little mini-systems out there that sound much better also. If you want a clock radio, get a clock radio. If you want good sound, get a sound system. If you want both in one, buy a sound system and stick a little clock on it. If you want everyone to know that you are a brainwashed slave to clever marketing and have no type of critical ear or eye whatsoever, by all means buy the fabulous and revolutionary WAVE radio. If you want excellent sound in a very portable package, wait a few years and hope that audio manufacturers will make good use of the potential revolution of digital amplification.

Similar Products Used:

clock radios

Nothing like Bose.

Nothing like Bose?

It is shame that anyone needs to spend this much money on a clock radio to assure oneself of staus and sophistication Bose has been trying to associate its products through marketing.

It is criminal that a company rips off people on perceived value as Bose does rather than selling real value. Bose is nothing more than a success story of creating and thriving off the image it creates. It is one thing if the rich wastes their money on Bose -- it is not much loss for them. It is another for Bose to shamelessly pretend itself to be poor men's high end products with boutique and gizmo factors, entice the middle class, and engulf their hard earned money -- without providing the essence, good sound. Just like some trash high end audio gears that are nothing more than electronic furnitures.

Artificially bloated, undefined booming sounds are not acceptable for the money Bose demands for its products. Nor should it be alright to pickpocket while illusioning others with images. It is criminal. When nobody buys Bose, it will lower the price that befits the value it creates.

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Nothing like Bose!

Size and boom

No bass control and of course prise

I also own the lifestyle 12 system and love it. you hear things most systems filter out. Now the wave radio, most defently rocks the house as long as it's against a wall. I haven't found anything that sounds bad on it. I did get it for free. There is no way in hell I would pay $500 for it. It's not made of gold. $200 to $250 in more like it. If you did pay $500 for you make to much money or you smoke to much crack. I love the high end bose. They keep my house boomin. Just make sure what ever YOU get. YOU ENJOY!!!

Minus 1 star for price.

Similar Products Used:

many different clock radios

None that I heard

Way too pricey

OK I admit I do not nor will I own one of these things. Bose is a funny company, my Audi A6 has 8 Bose speakers and sub and it rocks, but my uncle has one of these and to put it plainly, it is thin sounding at best and whoever said it looks like a Wal Mart vaporizor is spot on. Bose and bass tones never really have meshed well. Read acoustimass reviews and see what I am talking about. I was considering buying one, but after hearing the sound and the price - I was scared off. But let me give you all a $500-600 suggestion that kicks butt. It IS a different form factor I know but the sound is AWESOME and the size is perfect. The New Sony Home theater in a box- DAV-S300 is the most incredible small thing ever made. For $599 (less at Huppins if you buy 2 or more- we bought 5 and got them for $470 a system!!
You get 5 speakers, subwoofer and one piece DVD, CD, Clock Radio, remote, presets, DTS, 5.1, Dolby Digital the works- in one slim, silver, sleek package. Yes there are wires and front channel, rear and all that crap. But you can also just stack the speakers up next to the unit( I have noticed many here wiring subs and other components to the Bose so you have wires and perpherals anyway) and even the speakers are small cubes so they are very unobtrusive and easy to stack. - or even hook it up to your TV for the DVD (with VERY GOOD playback) like it's supposed to be and you wont be sorry. The sound is not perfect either but is night and day different than this Bose and will satisfy all but the most discerning- but for $500 and change what do you expect??. The main unit is stout with great build quality. For those that are not into Sony- this is not those piece of Crap recievers they have been passing off on us the last couple of years at Best Buys. And the Silver with Green tint looks so cool you will like it for that reason alone!.

If you have to have tiny- get you a clock radio. If you want small with great sound at a great price that does EVERYTHING VERY WELL get the new Sony DAV-S300 system . Look at the review in the July Home Theater mag for their review if you don't want to take my word for it.
For a second home theater system (bedroom-playroom etc) - or your first on a tight budget- you will not go wrong. I dont work for them and think their WEGA TV's suck (but their Digital 8 cameras rule) Just thought I would list my credentials.

Similar Products Used:

Sony system described here

cute, very cute

-that'll be how much ??
-doesn't actually sound very good at all

First off, I'd like to make one thing clear: I am the target market for this baby. Bang on the nose. I am a shallow urban designer with more money than sense. I am NOT an 'audiophile', music is very important to me but I just cannot be bothered with getting all obsessive about my audio equipment. Because of the above I decided to give the Wave CD Radio a try (30 days free trial) and was willing to pay up if I liked it, and I really did want to like it. I still believe there is nothing out there which aims to deliver on the same criteria as the Wave Radio, i.e. acceptable sound in a very compact and unobtrusive unit. I mainly wanted to use it in my office as a desktop unit, which I could also plug my PC into.
Initially I was pleasantly surprised by the 'amount' of sound something this size could produce, but became very disappointed as soon as I tried to use it to actually listen to anything. It actually sounds quite unpleasant, mainly due to the 'amazing' bass response, which gets really, really irritating very quickly. The bass is really ill-defined and one dimensional, and you have absolutely NO control over it. Overall the sound is really hollow and strangely unsatisfying (a bit like smoking low tar cigarettes). Incidentally, I have since noticed these characteristics to be present, if less noticable, in other higher end Bose products.
The final verdict is: Close, but no cigar. I tried to like it, but I really, really can't. I might have considered keeping it if it cost a hell of a lot less, but for $600 it had to go back.
Finally; does anybody out there have any recommendations as to a system which will deliver what I'm looking for (small, discreet, reasonably noisy). I've tried a load of PC speakers with a seperate CD player but haven't been bowled over by any of them. (And they're all so UGLY!). And has anybody else noticed that Bose systems don't actually sound that good if you stop to listen to them? Or is that just me?

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nothing out there like it, as far as I can tell.

no tone control

I finally succumbed to Bose's claims of acoustic superiority and bought the Wave CD for my bedroom. The bass is way too heavy. I guess Bose wanted to give it a big sound, so they boosted the bass response - permanently. It causes an ordinary male voice talking on the radio to come out boom, boom, boom.... When I complained to a Bose sales person, he said that the broadcasters are at fault, that they put in the heavy bass. My reply is that if that's the case, why didn't Bose give the listener the ability to tone it down? In other words, why didn't they put in tone controls? If you like every sound that comes out your radio to have a heavy bass throb, then the Bose Wave is for you. If you want realistic sound, look elsewhere. I returned the Bose thing 2 days after it arrived.