Wow! Just Wow!

We are in the process of moving our extensive CD collection from the Panasonic jukebox to the computer and thence to our 30 GB iPod. We are planning a move to the other coast of America in August and a three to four week auto trip to get there. When we arrive we will be sharing a house with an older family member and our space will not really be our own for awhile. We are seriously downsizing. The stereo system is out of the question.

We bought a new Buick Lucerne for the trip and the radio has an auxiliary input for the iPod. Last weekend we had a short getaway to the Pennsylvania Amish country where we encountered a huge outlet mall and a Bose store. We found a “refinished” Bose SoundDock in white with a travel case thrown in for $249.00. We brought it home.

Bose SoundDock

For those who like short reviews, it’s a Bose. It plugs into the wall outlet, the iPod plugs into the front of the SoundDock after installing the appropriate adaptor, there are two controls for up and down volume and a remote that can turn it on, off, skip through the songs, and control the volume. From whisper to shout the sound is crisp and clear and the subtle nuances of each song ring out, maybe amazing you if you have only listened through the iPod’s supplied earphones. The summation of the lean-n-mean review portion is simple. It’s a Bose!

More for the Long-winded

Let’s start with a physical description. I think of a sweeping piece of outdoor architecture in white granite when I see the Bose Soundwave. If you like black marble, that color is also available. At 6.5" high x 12” wide x 6.5” deep and weighing in at 4.5 lb, it fits the typical Bose footprint of too small to sound great. It sits firmly on its rubber feet and the weight is mostly low giving it a very stable feel. The brick for DC power plugs into the back with a tricky proprietary plug and the brick, in turn, plugs into the wall outlet with another cord. The iPod, any iPod except the shuttle, plugs into a recess in the front center of the roundish base. Three different adaptors are provided to allow the iPod of choice to sit firmly. This is important since most of the setup is still done using the iPod’s controls.

The only controls on the SoundDock itself are small buttons to the left and right of the iPod mounting position. One has a plus, the other a minus and they adjust the sound level. There is a remote using a button battery with a few more controls. It is small and I can see it disappearing pretty easily. With the remote you can turn off the SoundDock (with the iPod still charging), pause and resume play, control the volume, skip back to the beginning of a song or to the previous song, skip forward, and fast forward or scan backward.

The Sound, oh, the sound

It is hard to believe that such a small system could move so much air and do it so faithfully. I am going to quote from a small portion of the hype on the Bose website, maybe because I’m lazy or just because I find what it says hard to improve on:

“Enjoy the songs on your iPod like never before. The SoundDock system is designed to play your favorite tracks with crisp clarity—allowing you to discover subtleties in your music that used to simmer beneath the surface. A host of proprietary technologies adds vitality and realism to your tracks. With Bose proprietary acoustic design, you enjoy a full, rich sound that’s greater than you’d expect from a system this small.”

Before I lost the hearing in one ear and had to go to a hearing aid in the other, I loved the rich, full sound of a good large, multi-speaker system that moved masses of air in faithful reproduction of the music it was playing. As an electronics specialist I understood how to make that happen. With Bose I don’t understand the principles they use, but even with impaired hearing I love to discover the subtleties in my music that just aren’t there with other systems.

From a near silent whisper to full volume there is only the sound pressure that varies. There is no distortion at any level that I could discern. Even at a whisper the subtleties come out. Even at the far reaches of the house with the sound very high all the subtlety remains.

We plugged our 30 GB iPod with video in and started a slide show with our Favorites playlist running. It was great to see pictures, although small, flitting over the screen as our favorite music wafted to us with elements we just had not heard before. The subtleties made the music so much more enjoyable. My Honey assured me the stereo separation was wonderful. With just one ear I can't really tell any more. It was great not having Honey tell me to turn it down and even greater not to have to drive it so high to get all the subtleties of the recordings to show, all with no coloring, just faithful reproduction.

The Warranty

This refurbished SoundDock comes with the same warranty as a new one. For the first thirty days there is a return privilege with no restocking charge. It must be in original packaging and condition. For the first ninety days the SoundDock can be returned to the store for replacement if there is a problem. For the remainder of the one year warranty it must be handled through more normal shipping procedures. After the year is up, there is a fixed fee for repair. This liberal warranty likely explains the stack of refurbished Bose systems at the outlet store.


For people like us who appreciate the full range of our music and have little space to set up that enjoyment, the Bose and our iPod fill the need – very well.
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Another option - the iKicker.