Bose Wave Radio has lasted years

Author's Rating:

Pros: Reliability, Sound Reproduction, Quality and Craftsmanship, Transportability and Size, Life Time Value

Cons: High Gain Low Frequency response, Unlit Buttons, Low Alarm Volume level after using Sleep feature

The Bottom Line: 
Bottom Line, Excellent Value considering life cost of radio, substitutes for larger home stereos, boom boxes in an Alarm clock Size, awesome audio fidelity

Author's Review
The first time I knew about this radio, was when I was invited to hear the radio at a local hotel, where they gave a demonstration of the capabilities of the Wave Radio. I'm not the type of person that falls for Sales pitches, but after hearing the sound quality and amplitude of such a small unit, I was sold.

To say "big things come in small packages", didn't do this radio justice at the time. Nothing else on the market even came close back in the early 90s. Yes, I still have this original radio for I believe over 10 years now. The frequency response and true audible accuracy of this radio for a "alarm clock" are incomparable and are a major reason for paying the price for this Stereo/Dig. Clock.

Combine this with a size just slightly bigger then an average alarm clock and the ability for it to produce a sound level equal to any large boom box is impressive. Most simple alarm clocks last a long time, and this unit has not lost a step in the time I've had it. The outer finish of the radio has kept its color and has not degraded in shine or functionality whatsoever.

You can tell a good design when you see one, and from every aspect of this unit, you can see that quality components and superior craftsmanship were a hallmark of its design. In addition, over all these years, this unit has held its value and has not depreciated like 99.9% of every other electronic device out there. Kudos to Amar Bose and his company on a superior quality product that has retained its value so much more then the 250-300 dollars or so that was originally spent. This is certainly the Mercedes Benz of audible technology.

Another interesting sidenote, I remember writing a "theoretical invention" for school when I was a kid back in the 80s for school... This invention was a "remote control" for an alarm clock. Wink wink, here I finally found one with it. Notable benefit with this remote, I have YET to change the battery in this remote! Wow, even with low energy draw, can you believe the life of any battery these days lasting that long. Attach a piece of velcro to the back of it and you can place the small remote pretty well wherever you like for easy access to control the radio.

The one drawback with this radio is the low end frequency response. While the Wave Radio can reproduce the lows of most bass, it struggles with having enough juice to handle the power required to deliver booming sounds in the sub 100HZ range. Well, don't expect this out of such a small device. Buy a dedicated subwoofer for such requirements. Update: Bose has upgraded the Wave Radio, with a dual wave guide design that supposedly creates richer bass sounds. This according to their site, so that's certainly something to consider.

There are some other minor issues, such as FM reception sometimes not bringing in the local stations as it should, although this could be chalked up to external factors as well. The other thing I noticed is with the programming of the Sleep and Snooze functions. So, let's say you go to bed, and you want a nice low volume to relax and fall asleep to. Fine, if you want a nice loud Volume for your Alarm in the morning.... Well, the Wave Radio uses the volume that you last had on your unit when you had it on. Yes, the low volume you used while you fell asleep using the "Sleep" function. A simple programming change to allow a different volume for the Alarms would be a very nice upgrade.

Backlit buttons on the unit would be another nice added benefit. All in all, I can't say enough good things about the Wave Radio. Although it doesn't have a CD player, you can now buy one with that as well. Even without a CD player, using the Aux Inputs you can easily hook up most anything you like. In addition Bose also was nice enough to put AUX OUTPUTS as well, for inputting into your home stereo or your computer.