Mr. Daily, I think you're deliberately ignoring the issue. It's rather like
defending Thomas Kinkaid's wretchedly awful paintings by saying you like his
brushwork.

The issue is not so much the sound quality of the Wave radio, but the way
Bose promotes it. I assure you, if Bose did not advertise the Wave radio the
way it does -- with gross misrepresentations and outright lies -- we would
not be discussing it here. The Wave would simply be one other overpriced
mediocrity.

If a business misrepresents or lies about its products or services, those
who know better have an obligation to speak the truth. Bose has no special
right to be protected from criticism.

As I've said before, most people are ignorant, not cloth-eared. Give them a
choice between mediocre sound and good sound, and they'll generally choose
the latter. (I know, because I've seen it. *) Bose's advertising and
marketing is designed to reduce the probability the customer will ever make
such a comparison.

The dealers are guilty, too. They're not allowed to discount Bose, and
they're obliged to demonstrate Bose products in a way that complements the
customer's prejudice to buy Bose. When you make a guaranteed 40% (I assume)
on each sale, and you need to turn a profit to stay in business, the
temptation to carry mediocre products from a lying manufacturer must be
overwhelming. **

I believe Bose's product design and marketing are directed at women. Women
don't like hardware in "their" living rooms. The smaller the product, the
better. And women seem to have a strange inability to operate any kind of
mechanical or electronic device. So the Bose's simple remote control is
appealing. ***

Hell, man, I ain't buying _nothin'_ that was designed for a _woman_.

The Wave probably has better drivers than those in most all-in-one
portables. But they don't work well, because they should be mounted on the
top of the radio. You can demonstrate this for yourself simply by tilting up
the radio a few inches. You should hear a big reduction in overall
coloration. If Bose is so knowledgable about audio, why wasn't this obvious
flaw caught and corrected?

Sorry, no. BOSE LIES. And that needs to be repeated over and over.


It's only problem was that it was a bit iffy at playing CDs, due to a worn
laser, which was literally 5 minutes work to replace, due to the simple
and
serviceman-friendly construction that is employed. It looked as though it
had given stirling [sic] service over a number of years to its owner,
judging
by the amount of dust in it. There was no indication that the owner was
in any way displeased with the way that the unit worked, or sounded.

You mean it hadn't been thrown against a concrete wall in a fit of rage when
the owner realized he'd spent too much for too little?

* 40+ years ago I bought a KLH Model 11 FM portable stereo. My parents had a
Westinghouse fruitwood console. (My father worked for Westinghouse and the
console was one of a number of gifts he received for selling a lot of
refrigerators.) It wasn't bad-sounding, but hardly hi-fi. They _immediately_
commented on the superior sound of the KLH, which had a lower retail price,
and used a single 3" driver on each channel. The KLH was _extremely_
difficult to set up -- you had to attach the power cord and connect the
speakers, an effort requiring a near-genius IQ.
Another example... A few years ago a friend asked me to help him pick out a
hi-fi system. He'd just bought a discontinued Adcom power amp, which had
(and still has) a good reputation. I decided the best approach was not to
tell him what to buy, but what _not_ to buy. That way, he'd get something he
liked, and I wouldn't have to talk him into something that didn't really
appeal to him. Well... He wound up with a discontinued Krell preamp -- and
Martin-Logan electrostatic speakers. It wasn't an expensive system (even if
he'd paid full price for the electronics, which he didn't), but it sounded
_good_. It was one of those rare combinations of "pleasing" and "accurate".
It was an excellent choice, and he made it all by himself.

** When I worked at Barclay Recording & Electronics 30 years ago, the owner
told us we could carry any product line we wanted, if we thought we could
sell it. As a result, we took on several manufacturers whose products we
were enthusiastic about, and could honestly promote.

*** Almost 50 years ago, Poplular Electronics published an construction
project for a device that would turn on an amplifier when the turntable was
turned on. (There have been commercial versions of such products.) The
author admitted he designed it because his wife (or mother -- I forget
which) was incapable of remembering that, in order to play a record, you
also had to turn on the amplifier.