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Bose Wave owners.

32 posts & 25 voices | Started 5 months ago by redted | Latest reply from charlierevell

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redted - Member

Had hankering for one of these for a while and feel like treating myself.
We have a dab radio that is on pretty much permanently, but is about to die. I think I want the tall one (the room it will live in is about 30-40 feet long?) I want a dab module and the thing to plug my ipod into.

The price is making me squirm a bit and I dont really want the 5 stack cd freebie they are offering.

In a nutshell, any owners out there happy with them or is there something else out there thats better value?

Also, I know there is an outlet shop in York (or there used to be), is this where they sell off any of the returned 30 day trial stuff? or has anybody successfully negociated a discount in any of their stores.

Any help/advice gratefully accepted.

Posted 5 months ago #
TurnerGuy - Member

Anything is better value than a Bose...

Posted 5 months ago #
TurnerGuy - Member

Look here for some dodgy reviews:

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews-all-6226.html

Bose tend to play tricks with the sound to make it sound impressive - imo.

Have a look at the VitaAudio stuff:

http://www.vitaaudio.com/

they were/are the same people as Ruark loudspeakers, which were always quite respectable.

Posted 5 months ago #
staralfur - Member

Always LOVED my on ear Bose headphones but after buying a set of B&W P5's the difference is night and day, the P5's blow them completely out of the water. I'd give the Bose unit a miss if I was you.

Posted 5 months ago #
theupsetter - Member

I've got one of the Vita systems - it's great. Had a wee problem with it after the warranty ran out.
Send it to them to get sorted - was back fixed in less than 48hrs and no charge.

Sound is great I've got the dab radio/iPod version.

Posted 5 months ago #
Bimbler - Member

My parents in law have one, it's quite unbelievably bad. For the money it's almost criminal.

Posted 5 months ago #
TurnerGuy - Member

My parents in law have one, it's quite unbelievably bad

assume that's the Bose???

Plus the Vita is a british company...

Posted 5 months ago #
Mr_Mojo - Member

The Bose outlet store is still at McArthur Glen near York. Never bought anything myself from there so can't comment on any extra discounts they may give. Depends how desperate they are to sell!

Another thumbs up for Vita Audio though, I've got a R4 and it's great. If you go to their website they do discounted returned systems. I got mine direct and saved about £150.

Vita is British but made in China.

Posted 5 months ago #
bobbyg81 - Member

Bose are really overpriced. Do a little googling to see where all the m oney goes that you pay.

How about one of these? Add a wee set of speakers and youre off.

http://www.whathifi.com/review/marantz-m-cr603

Easy to pick one up for £400. They recommend Dali Zensor 1 speakers which would come in at the same price as the Bose.

Other options here

http://exceptional-av.co.uk/index.php?search_terms=marantz+mcr&search_submit.x=0&search_submit.y=0

This will blow the Bose away in terms of sound, build quality, and IMHO. Looks.

For even cheaper how about this?

http://exceptional-av.co.uk/product.php?fdProductId=794&gclid=COyAjcv_76wCFVQLfAodW30iMg

Not as good as the Marantz but cracking nonetheless.

Posted 5 months ago #
Gary_M - Member

I've got a vita r2i and it's a fantastic bit of kit.

theupsetter your wee problme wasn't the on/off button not working by any chance?

Posted 5 months ago #
nedrapier - Member

I just treated myself to a Denon dm38dab and a pair of Q acoustic 2010 speakers. £290 the lot. USB input, Aux line in, DAB, CD.

Both have a shed load of awards for being amazing at the price point, which was good enough for me to pick them up without a listen and I'm very happy. The speakers come in a high gloss and there were a pair of white gloves in the box for a fingerprint free placement.

Posted 5 months ago #
mefty - Member

I've had a Bose Wave radio for a long time (15years), it is pretty good not earth shattering and was very expensive for what is a clock/radio. Would I buy another, probably not.

Posted 5 months ago #
Taff - Member

Got a Bose companion 5 and 321 GS in my house, both very impressive sound quality but you can get a similiar sound from a cheaper unit although it won't look as good

Posted 5 months ago #
mefty - Member

In my view, the Wave radios don't look good, some of their other products do.

Posted 5 months ago #
vorlich - Member

Sonos Play 3 or 5?

Will stream radio off internet, sounds decent.

Posted 5 months ago #
t_i_m - Member

wow. That Bose stuff is incredibly expensive for what it is. And very fugly.
Good advice above.

Posted 5 months ago #
Torminalis - Member

B&O and Bose are the most criminally overpriced audio kit you can buy.

Look elsewhere.

Posted 5 months ago #
Bimbler - Member

My parents in law have one, it's quite unbelievably bad

assume that's the Bose???

Plus the Vita is a british company...

Yeah the Bose, Vita stuff is lush, although tbf I've never actually heard it but it certainly looks the part.

Roberts do something equivalent to the Wave too as do Tivoli

Posted 5 months ago #
TurnerGuy - Member

I love the Tivoli stuff - with the extra speaker and sub it approaches a proper hifi.

But they are lacking in their DAB support.

I will never buy Roberts again after I bought my mother an expensive radio/alarm and the transformer in it buzzed so much she couldn't sleep with it in the room.

Roberts just said that it was normal.

I could have argued the toss but my mother had been a bit brutal with it as she had got so angry with it and it didn't look pristine enough to send back anymore

Posted 5 months ago #
Clobber - Member

I much prefer the similar yamaha systems to the bose, never mind the massive price difference

Posted 5 months ago #
julianwilson - Member

With regards to B&O and Bose, I lump them in with any other spangly 'best quality' product of any description that you only see advertised in the back of Sunday supplements where they don't tell you how much it costs. Like the Oreck vacuum cleaner of the hifi world.

My mum's mate has got one. It sounds quite good, but just 'ok' for even half of the money she paid for it.

Posted 5 months ago #
teamhurtmore - Member

Are Bose to music what Apple are to computing and marmite to foodies?

Posted 5 months ago #
Cougar - Member

I'd like to register my objection to the inclusion of Marmite in that comparison.

Posted 5 months ago #
Clong - Member

Pretty much what julian said above. I have a problem with stuff that who's main selling pitch is "yours for just 24 monthly installments of £...."

Posted 5 months ago #
bobbyg81 - Member

Bang & Olusen are in a different league to Bose. Bose are poorly made. B&O are among some of the best made/designed hifi in the world. Can you get better sound for the money? Yes. You wont get better built or looking though. Or the legendary customer service.

Posted 5 months ago #
leffeboy - Member

I know that Bose always get the piss ripped out of them on the pro-audio forums. The one Bose system I use has a special preamp which if you open it is just a special filter to compensate for that particular speaker.. Nothing wrong with that of course, you are just paying quite a lot for it. Depends on your cash of course

Posted 5 months ago #
TurnerGuy - Member

yep - Bose do that with some of their 'pro' monitors, although they still sound average.

Apple stuff is well designed and fairly leading edge in terms of OS, etc. I don't think Bose can be compared to them.

Posted 5 months ago #
2unfit2ride - Member

I think you'll find Bose are a 'life style' product, & if it fits what you want & the wife is happy then why not. I can live with it in non critical stuff (like the Music Monitor PC speakers I own, stupid money for what the are but they are small & look nice), but I couldn't have those awful Acoustimass cinema systems, all woolly base & fizzy treble with non existent midrange, that would drive me nuts!

Cheers.

Posted 5 months ago #
Top Dog - Member

Have a look at this

Posted 5 months ago #
NZCol - Member

I've got a Qute and a full Uniti. Awesome, Uniti runs through some Rega RS5's and the Qute is paired with some Dreamcatchers. Both sound superb in different ways. The Dreamcatchers have taken a lot of running in but now amaze me with depth and precision considering their size. The RS5's are lush. As you can see I am a hifi whore.....DAB radio, well in NZ you see we've only just got FM DAB is a wee way off although occasionally I get streams from RNZ as I suspect they are trialing it. I usualy iRadio stream stuff through both units, generally BBC R6 or R2.
Edit: In my defence I worked in the back of a hifi shop and got them really cheap - at rrp i woudln;t have even been allowed one never mind 2

Posted 5 months ago #
Bikingcatastrophe - Member

This my not be the most popular or shared view on this forum but we have Wave system. Got the singe CD player / Radio jobbie with the DAB unit. And to be honest, for the size and for what we use it for it sounds very good. Is it perfect? No, it isn't, but when I was looking around there was nothing that came close. The Denon had recently been released and the snobby hi fi dealers were claiming it was the dogs dangly bits and awesome sound quality. I listened to it and it was utter gash. And it was the same price as the Bose. And it's all very well pointing out the Qute but that's 3 times the price of the Bose and doesn't even come wth any speakers. For me, I wanted a compact unit for the kitchen where needed radio and CD. Although the Wave was a bit pricy, it fitted the bill and sounds very good - way better than anything ese listened to at the time. Would definitely gree with criticisms of their home cinema kit though. Not impressed with that.

However, if you are wanting something that is for your main listening room and it is a decent size I wouldn't bother with a Wave but get decent separates system with decent speakers. Notwithstanding what I have said above I would expect a separates system of modest quality to sound much better than the Wave in that bigger space.

Posted 5 months ago #
charlierevell - Member

Loving my b+w zeppelin at the moment... Got the air so no need for cables. Works well with iTunes, iPad and iPhones so far.
Use the shared library on my laptop, thru iPad and AirPlay it to the speaker.

Posted 5 months ago #

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