Bose CD Wave Radio

First of all, I would like to thank all the people who have written a review on the Bose CD Wave Radio. Their reviews prompted me to go ahead and make the purchase!

At first, the thought of spending $500 on what I called a "glorified" CD clock radio horrified me. It was almost out of principle that there was no way I would spend $500 on a CD clock radio. I felt that that money was better spent on a real decent "bookshelf" system. There are tons of them out there in the $500 range. Some cost even much less than that.

Luckily for me, I had accumulated so many "points" from Diner's Club that I was able to use points to pay for this CD clock radio. Although I was pretty impressed with the sound from this CD Radio before while demo-ing them at a Bose store or in the mall, the $500 retail cost really prevented me from making the purchase. Doing the reverse calculation of what the dollar value of the points were, I figured that I was paying about $340 for the Bose CD Wave Radio. This isn't a bad deal at all considering that I've never seen any Bose products ever go on sale. Since the first time that I've seen this CD Wave Radio, the price has always been $499.99. Based on this cost and the ePinion reviews, I made the "points" purchase!

The box was very well packaged. It was quite impressive, actually. But for $500, it better be. The unit came with a demonstration CD that pretty much went over the whole sound capabilities of the CD Wave Radio. Like before, I was pretty impressed. But wait! There's more!

Now I know why Bose has that "30 day" guarantee. After listening to the radio for a few weeks now, I can honestly say that I cannot live without it. Had I purchased this radio for $500, I would seriously find it more and more difficult to return it. I would say that by the 30 day mark, I would probably be more inclined to promote it to my friends and relatives.

So anyway, the sound is really, really good. You know when you turn up the volume all the way up on a radio? The sound starts to break up from the speakers, right? In this case it doesn't. The speakers seem to be perfectly matched to the built-in amplifier. It almost seems like there's a special circuit that prevents the speakers from breaking up on high volume. Now, I don't claim myself to be an audiophile, but I do tell you this... I am a real picky bastard and self-proclaimed audiophiles have told me that I have a surprisingly good set of ears. Having said that, I think this CD radio sounds great. It sounds especially even better considering that it's a clock radio! But at the same time, I would not be ashamed to use this radio as something other than a clock radio. I find the bass not as "boomy" as some reviewers would say. The treble is also good. When my uncle asked me how would jazz music sound on this, I said, "absolutely great." "If anything, it would be great for that," I said. I think it's a perfectly balanced and well matched system (amplifier to speaker, that is).

There are other nice features I noticed. The display varies in brightness depending on the room lighting. It's brighter when the room is brighter. It dims in the dark. The alarm volume starts low and gradually gets louder.

So what do I not like about this radio? Well, for the money I think it should have a few other simple features. For instance, where's the SCAN button? I can't believe that this radio does not have a station SCAN button. Also, some of the features are not as intuitive as some reviewers would lead you to believe. Instead of having dedicated buttons for certain features, Bose decided to use different keys as "shift" keys. i.e. - you need to press that key and something else as a combination to activate a feature. Also, I would have liked a headphone jack built in. Why not? Oh, and lastly, although the remote is nice and slim, it would have been great if it were illuminated.