GQ or CS? GQ or CS? ::flips coin::
My girlfriend has one of these, an older 1998-vintage incarnation thereof.
She’s been saying lately she wants to sell it on eBay and replace it with one of these for the sake of more shelf space. (We’re in a small studio apartment, size counts).
I’m worried that she may be letting herself in for disappointment in the sound quality, but I don’t really know. Seems like there must be some advantage to the original tall version, and my assumption is “more room = more space for more varied or bigger more responsive speakers”.
Is there is significant dropoff in sound quality between the Acoustic Wave and the little Wave?
Is there a discernable dropoff in sound quality?
We don’t crank it up loud. It’s a city apartment. We do tend to put music on and expect to be able to listen and enjoy it from anywhere in the apartment, and the Acoustic Wave suffices nicely for that.
I and a few other Dopers have worked at Bose headquarters here is Massachusetts. Just as a nitpick, you want a true audiophile responding to this thread about as much as you want a flat earth creationist teaching your kids science class. Real audiophiles are an unusual breed and bad news in general although the do keep the Monster speaker cable in business.
At any rate, Bose is almost exactly analogous to Apple computer in that they make easy to use components that automatically take care of the confusing points for the user and then use technology to make it all come together. I hate them for personal reasons but the R&D they do is unbelievable and the results are very real. Dr. Bose was an MIT professor until a few years ago and he is a billionaire. I only say this stuff because some people have the idea that Bose products are at the infomercial quality level and that isn’t true in the least.
One thing about working at their headquarters is that Bose wants you to use their products. You can have one sound system at your desk and they have a library of them to take home. I chose the Wave radio for my desk because it is small and it sounded great. However, I checked out an Acoustic Wave for a party once and hooked it up. My wife, who knows nothing about music, walked in and was instantly blown away. I was too and I love the Acoustic Waves as the ultimate portable stereo. You won’t get the same projection effect from the Wave but it can fill a room with nice background music.
No, no - bad analogy.
More like an utterly fanatical PhD level expert on snails teaching nothing but snails for 3/4 of the school year. You’ll learn a heck of a lot about snails, but it will be a rather narrow education :D. And he may dismiss some basic principle outside his field if it conflicts with his own biases.
Audiophiles ( and I’m not one, not being a zealot ) do know quite a bit about their hobbies. I imagine you are just a bit snippy as audiophiles largely loathe Bose, but at least the smarter ones can articulate that they just find them over-priced relative to sound quality. As opposed to those who just spout catchphrases like “Bose blows.”
Nonsense. Clueless wannabes with too much cash buying equipment at Best Buy keeps Monster Cable in business.
Audiophiles keep FAR more pretentious cable companies like Cardas and Audioquest in business :p.
Greetings, fellow former Mountaineer!
Yeah, as an employer, Bose sucks, but the actual acoustical research they do is incredible. If only they didn’t charge so damn much for it.
I was working there in the early 1990s when the CD Acousic Wave was being prepared for market. The larger size of the older model is due to the fact of its having a convoluted interior space that acts as a resonator, giving it a richer sound for its size. Some magic thing about it as well makes it so that in a small space, it gives you a sense of stereo imaging anywhere in the room, even though it’s essentially a point source of sound. This was demo’d to me while I was there and my jaw dropped.
The Wave Radio (precursor to the current Wave System) was not on the horizon yet, at least not in my department, during my tenure there. Obviously, they could not fill it with the same size resonating space, but I wouldn’t put it past them to have come up with an acceptable alternative.
I would see if you could find a store that will play both for you in a comparatively small enclosure. The Wave technology was not meant for open air or large showroom floors.
I don’t think the OP is really calling for an audiophile, but simply using the term to describe someone who can tell a reasonable difference between closely related products.
Speaking as a hardcase audiophile who once divided his home theater along the axial resonances of the room by 11ths (and much to the dismay of everyone that also used that room during the process), Bose makes a pretty good product for what it’s designed to do, but it by no means measures up to high end audio.
I don’t know if you’re committed to the Bose, but there are some similar products made by other companies these days. Tivoli audio makes a similar all-in-one system, even pricier at $600 (link) I haven’t heard it myself but they have them at Tweeter stores. Cambridge Soundworks has some cheaper models, $400 with a CD player and $300 (link - also check the outlet store for refurbs). CSW gives a 45-day trial. I haven’t heard either of them, but the Tivoli and the CSW both have a built-in mini subwoofer so they might have better bass and more volume. I think they’re a little bigger than the Wave Radio but not as big as the music system.
For something much cheaper, I like the sound of the Philips MCM760 minisystem. There are smaller ones that might also sound good, the MCD702 and MCD708. The MCD703 also has a small subwoofer. I don’t know how big those are, but the speakers are separate so you don’t have to have it as one monolith.
It’s pretty common these days for small systems to have processing that widens the stereo image or fakes surround-sound. Lots (most?) of TVs have it. Of course, some versions of it will work better than others. It all started in the 80’s with the Hughes Sound Retrieval System.
IMO, you need to decide what you wish of the soundsystem. We have both versions. Tho I find the sound from both fine, the taller unit definitely gives more oomph. In contrast, the smaller unit is essentially a very nice sounding clock/radio.
Here’s an example. The main floor of our home has 4 rooms arranged in essentially a square pattern. Once you enter the front door, in front of you is the family room and the living room is to your right. You can go straight ahead to the family room, turn right into the kitchen, pass through the kitchen to the dining room, turn right and the living room is before you, turn right and you are back where you started. Got the picture?
We have the larger Bose in the living room, and the smaller Bose in the kitchen. If I wanted to hear music in either the family or dining rooms, I would definitely turn on the unit in the living room, rather than the smaller kitchen radio.
So if you find your current unit provides more sound than you need/use, you could probably get away with the smaller unit. Depends on how small your studio apartment is, and how you listen to music.
Hope this helps.