Can anyone comment on use of this or its predecessor model please? This one has CD and radio, costs £599.95. I asked the call centre if it would take external speakers and was told, "No, you don't need them." Among other things, that would imply no stereo balancing problems.
What is "Wave" sound anyway, if not marketing mumbo jumbo?
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A few years since I sampled one - I don't know what incarnation it would have been?
Surprisingly decent sound from a compact package, but way, way overpriced. You can do better for the money.
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I haven't heard the latest models, but based on the versions they have been producing for years the sound is pleasant enough - but not, to me, to be confused with hifi or to merit the prices. Next to no stereo effect. Poor value, to me.
If I was in the market for that sort of thing I think I'd try to find something like this to listen to -
(Roberts Sound 100) www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00842FEHU
Again I wouldn't be expecting noticeable stereo effect, or hifi, but I'd hope it would be reasonably pleasant to listen to and a lot cheaper.
I have a Roberts 83i Stream radio that is OK (but again not hifi) I like it for the DAB/internet radio and I can control it via wifi with an iphone app, as well as the remote. It will also stream via wifi from the iphone No CD though. I paid £120 on Amazon so I assume they can be had cheaper than the current Amazon price somewhere.
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002VEN10O
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The Ruark Audio all-in-ones are beautiful things too. I was amazed by the sub-£300 R2i; there's also an R4i with a CD player, which is still cheaper than the Bose.
I was pleasantly surprised recently by Bose's little Soundlink Mini, so perhaps Bose isn't the audio demon I've always suspected, but all these one-boxers suffer from the same problem: that the sound too clearly emanates from one spot. The small audio device that's impressed me most is the £170 Sonos Play:1. The catch is that you need two - £340 - but once you have them you can link them as a stereo pair, in which form they sound fantastic. No CD player, though - but does anyone still play CDs on a secondary system?
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I still play CDs on older kit and it sounds lurvely. And the TV runs through external Bose speakers and it sounds, well...er...lurvely.
I'm not in the market for this, but the puff sounds interesting..."innovative technology" "whole new way" "360 degree sound" "directionless" and so on and on, you get the idea.
The Spaced360. Might wander down to John Lewis at some point and have a listen just out of nosiness.
www.johnlewis.com/spaced360-bluetooth-portable-speaker/p1422416?colour=Grey
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No quarrel with CDs or older players, Cranks. I still enjoy mine on the 20-year-old Naim player in the living room. But all the other systems are now fed by iThings or directly from the NAS-based library that feeds those. I'm even thinking that the Naim's eventual replacement will be a network streamer rather than a new CD player.
As for '360° sound', Spaced isn't the only maker to make the claim - I've seen similar from Revo and Logitech-UE. But even supposing I wanted to put the speaker in the centre of the room, where I'd trip over the cable if not the unit itself - all the 360° feature brings me is the same one-point sound wherever I am in the room. This has merit - the Roberts unit in my kitchen sounds rather box-bound off axis and only really sounds right from dead ahead - but it's no substitute fur proper stereo imaging. That's what impressed me so much about the Sonos pair: they really can put a miniature orchestra on top of the chest of drawers in the bedroom.
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>>hat's what impressed me so much about the
>> Sonos pair: they really can put a miniature orchestra on top of the chest of
>> drawers in the bedroom.
Don't bend over in front of the violin section tho.
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Don't bend over in front of the violin section
That'll be why they put the trombones right at the back.
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I might have another peer at the Sonos stuff. Last time I looked it was a bit eye watering, but it's always fun poking about the market.
We have a 5.1 setup in the lounge for the TV and Mrs C narrows her eyes with suspicion every time I look at it, as it took many years to get her over the proliferation of wires for, to her ears, no benefit worth putting up with the look of it, even though it's awfully discreet.
I haven't dared breathe that the upcoming "standard" for home cinema is 11.1...she'll have a blue fit. Or if we were to look in a year or two at Ultra HD Tv, then the sound for that is a rather worrying 22.2.
There'd be more speaker than lounge.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Wed 10 Sep 14 at 14:36
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There is a bit of smoke and mirrors with these Bose Soundwave systems... there needs to be at close on £700 for a portable CD/radio. There is no doubt somehow they have managed to trick the ears into hearing a bigger system than there is and they were the best portable thing I'd heard by a mile until...
The other week I bought one of these lumps (it's 70cm wide)... i40.tinypic.com/6qh8wh.jpg
A rather hefty £6 in a probate auction even containing possibly the last CD the owner ever played... Roger Whittaker's greatest hits. Put it on a table in the corner of our 12'x12' heavily damped (from a sonic perspective) conservatory, plugged in and Durham Town started to play. Roger Whittaker was up from France out of retirement and in our house with a mellow room filling sound.
Something about the room acoustics & corner placement added to excellent sound for its type created the Bose effect much nearer my favoured budget.
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>>The other week I bought one of these lumps (it's 70cm wide)
I mean, £6 is cheap and all that, but is there still any market in selling things that play cassette tapes?
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Not sure what you're getting at, MM. It wouldn't have been £6 new, and you wouldn't find one like it new today.
But good-quality amplification and speakers with perform well with any source. I think that was FL's reason for mentioning it. If it's got a line-in, as many ghetto blasters did, he could feed it from a smartphone, even a bluetooth adaptor.
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>>Not sure what you're getting at, MM.
Fenlander I believe makes a living from buying and selling second-hand hifi. I'm surprised that after postage there would be any value in something that is dedicated to playing cassette tapes. (Unless this thing would have been hundreds of pounds when new; maybe it was?)
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>> >>The other week I bought one of these lumps (it's 70cm wide)
>>
>> I mean, £6 is cheap and all that, but is there still any market in
>> selling things that play cassette tapes?
I'd appreciate a twin deck tape player just to access some of the stuff stored in the loft at full range with Hi-Fi. Had hoped to 'rescue' one of the pair of JVC units we used in my last job to record the QANGO's monthly meetings. Made lif easier for those taking minutes and allowed a full transcript where they misguided themselves into writing/editing publications 'on the hoof'.
As it happened, parent department had an ongoing use for them errr recording meetings.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Fri 19 Sep 14 at 19:46
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>>The Ruark Audio all-in-ones are beautiful things too. I was amazed by the sub-£300 R2i; there's also an R4i with a CD player, which is still cheaper than the Bose.
The R4i seems to have the same price as the Bose. Which is likely to have he best sound quality? I don't need fancy facilities such as iPod docking.
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Yes, another vote for the Ruarks. Great sound for such a small box.
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...same price as the Bose. Which is likely to have the best sound quality?
I suspect that will come down to personal preference. What impressed me about the Ruark (the smaller R2i, remember) was that it sounded properly musical, which comes from a natural-sounding midrange and enough control in the bass to keep rhythms and textures intact. I've not heard the Bose but I'm suspicious of anything that claims to defy the laws of physics. Devices claiming big sound from a small box can be superficially impressive but become wearing as the tricks become apparent. (All these little Bluetooth speakers that claim 'powerful bass' are a case in point.) But I don't know whether this applies to the Bose machine.
Does John Lewis sell Bose? It has Ruark and Roberts (and Pure, which also makes some decent kit) and you can let your ears decide.
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Manatee
I was amused to read from your link that the first commenter had bought one to replace a Bose Wave radio! I have some friends with the Roberts box and it sounds very nice. If you don't mind a bit of wire, there are some good 'computer' sound systems with the amp in a bass unit and two satellite speakers. We have several around the house and just plug in anything with a headphone socket - these days usually a phone, but sometimes a portable CD player.
These punch above their weight:
www.acoustic-energy.co.uk/#!aego/cgnd
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There is now a Roberts Stream 64i at £350. It is the same as the 63i but has DAB+ and can stream music via LastFM (one month's free trial). I will try to get a demonstration.
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If you like the basic machine, why not look for a 63i at a better price? DAB+ has been touted for years as essential futureproofing, but it's a future that seems unlikely ever to arrive before all varieties of DAB are eclipsed by online services. I certainly wouldn't pay extra for it.
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Well written article here about the shortcomings of DAB in the UK. Still not convinced that even moving from MP2 (DAB) to AAC (DAB+) will really solve the fundamental sound quality problem, because there'll always be commercial pressure to offer more stations in any given bandwidth. If all you want is sport and speech, it'll do, but R3 on DAB is rock salt to Roquefort next to the 384K stream, or even dear old FM - and that's the best-quality DAB station.
m.techradar.com/news/car-tech/why-dab-radio-in-the-uk-is-broken-and-how-to-fix-it-1217586
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>> Well written article here about the shortcomings of DAB in the UK. Still not convinced
>> that even moving from MP2 (DAB) to AAC (DAB+) will really solve the fundamental sound
>> quality problem, because there'll always be commercial pressure to offer more stations in any given
>> bandwidth. If all you want is sport and speech, it'll do, but R3 on DAB
>> is rock salt to Roquefort next to the 384K stream, or even dear old FM
>> - and that's the best-quality DAB station.
>> m.techradar.com/news/car-tech/why-dab-radio-in-the-uk-is-broken-and-how-to-fix-it-1217586
DAB has been a complete cockup in the UK. Coverage is bad, Quality is bad, the financials don't work for commercial broadcasters, no-one in power has had the balls to turn off FM (not surprising given the quality and coverage problems)
But still, I'm sure its the EU's fault.
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I came across the Yamaha MCR042RD rival today but didn't have time to investigate. Its speakers are detachable. It costs £167 from Amazon. Does any poster have one or has heard it?
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Don't know where the A got into my posting by that's £167 sterling - yet I now see it costs only £150 from Tesco. Maybe this part of a closing-down sale?
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Music centre
I decided on the Yamaha MCR-042 and installed mine today. It performed very well on Hi-Fi News test disc HFN003 although music tracks are all classical, with the reception of a drum track. Its recording of a slamming garage door was realistic enough to bring my wife into the room to see what had happened.
Of its facilities, the only ones I need are its CD player and 4 stations on its FM radio, Radio 3, Radio 4, Classic FM and Heart - the latter only for use in times of burst mains and other local emergencies. I am using only the little screw-on indoor aerial for the moment but all of these exhibit strong stereo signals. (I need to find a matching screw-on connecter for my outdoor aerial).
I tried the DAB facility and it does not seem to offer anything extra, in fact the bass seems a bit too boom-y compared to FM. iPods iPhones and iPad are all catered for but the iPod dock needs a model-specific adaptor. (I don’t possess any of these). There is no internet or WiFi facility.
Stereo separation is good and the bass is extraordinary for 4†speakers, coming though the organ track at a high volume setting without distortion. Similarly the high sopranos of the Hildegard of Bingen track. The spoken word is much clearer than that on my much-lamented, now-departed hi-fi. Overall it is more analytical and I am looking forward to some quality time with it.
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Bose Wave music system III - ToMoCo
