Should we purchase Bose Acoustic Wave 2?

Question

Ok well at the time we do not have any Bose products in our home but have heard their wonderful sound many times and are thinking about buying one. People that live close to us have the Bose Wave CD radio and I think they have it hooked up to their tv. It sounds pretty good for such a small system but we are thinking about replacing our Sony stereo system that we have had for about 4 years. The Sony still sounds awesome but I have wanted a Bose for a long time. I don't want to get the regular wave because its not fit for our living room. I think its made for kitchens and stuff. But should we purchase the Acoustic wave 2? My grandmother has one from about 10 years a go and I'm pretty sure its an acoustic wave and it still sounds wonderful so should we buy this? Is it a good sounding and long lasting system? And can it really go up to concert volume levels? My dad LOVES to blast his old rock CDs and he has almost blown out the speakers in our Honda from listening to his music at full blast. So will this system hold up for his volume levels? I have a JBL Spot system for my ipod that I have had for about 10 months and its starting to sound a little worn out. So anyways what is your opinion on this system?

Answer 1

Buy what sounds good to your ears.

I personally like to stay away from Bose.

Answer 2

Only if you don't mind the missing bass.  A 4 year old system will still sound better than a Bose wave.  You can save the money you would spend on the system and use it to upgrade your speakers. or the Sony amp itself, if  you are still listening to it on 2 speakers you can add a complete home theatre setup.

Answer 3

You can't go wrong with a Bose. Even violin turned up all the way doesn't break up.  

Answer 4

I've posted this before, but here it is again.

As Somebody who has installed well over a hundred HT systems and I keep up to date on alot of Audio Visual forums, I can tell you that Bose is pretty much some of the WORST speakers out there. If you do a simple search on Bose in any Audio forum and you will see that Bose is disliked pretty much by every single one of them.

I suggest you check out AVSForum.com or SoundandVisionmag.com heck do a simple search on any forum and you will see how bad these speakers are.

Here is the main problem. Physics dictates that a drivers (speaker) size can achieve a certain frequency response. The human ear can hear pretty much anything between 20Hz (low bass) and 20kHz (high frequencies). Or think of it as a simple 100 points on the hearing scale.

Now because of Physics, those tiny cubes pretty much have a frequency curve of 95Hz to 13kHz and their "Bass Module" which cannot be called a subwoofer, because to be called a subwoofer it has to achieve a low frequency response of at least 35hz or lower. So the Bose Bass Module has a frequency response of 47Hz-80Hz (normal crossover point). So if we crunch the numbers we see that Bose is missing 20Hz-47Hz (27 points on 100 point scale). It is also missing 80Hz-95Hz (15 more points) and is missing the upper frequency of 13kHz-20kHz (7 more points on the frequency curve. So if we add those missing points it comes out to missing 49 points on the 100 point frequency curve. You are essentially missing almost half of what you can hear.

So how come Bose cubes sound so good in stores? Aha this is a good question. What Bose does is they find music and demo movie scenes that basically hit upon every frequency that the Bose can handle. If you bring in your own music or movies, you will find that it sounds pretty bad.

You will also find those tint little Bose setups, where the speakers are hanging on branched arms and completely surround you. There is a reason for this. They are very close to you and don't have that much space they need to fill. With speakers all around you at a distance of four feet or less, the cubes don't have to fill that much space, because in a normal listening room, those cubes have to be cranked pretty loud and those tiny drivers will now introduce distortion into the mix.

Bose is all about marketing and a simple search in any audio video forum will confirm this.

Here are some great links.

AVSForum: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/archive/i...

and the most techincal data confirming the frequency response of the Bose speaker system.

http://www.intellexual.net/bose.html

Answer 5

I hate to say this but "No highs, no lows, must be Bose". Bose is a great advertising company. Even those who don't know squat about audio can probably identify the Bose name. But you can do better, for less money. The first thing you need to do is establish an approximate budget. Then try to audition as many of the speaker systems that fit within that budget. Brands to consider, but not exclusively, are Polk Audio, Infinity, Axiom, or JBL. If you're interested in decent volume levels, the Acoustic Wave II is probably going to be a disappointment. You'll need woofers of about 8" diameter, 10"-12" would be better. A three-way system consisting of two front speakers and a subwoofer would trample the Bose system for much less than the $1000+ Bose price tag.

For example, you could buy a Yamaha RX-397 stereo receiver w/100W per channel for $250.00. Add a Sony DVP-NS700H/B DVD/CD player for about $75.00. One possibility for speakers would be Polk Audio Monitor 30's and a Polk PSW505 12" subwoofer with built-in 300 watt amplifier for $390.00, making the total total package about $715.00. For the $300 price difference, not only would you be getting a system that's a lot better than a glorified table radio, but you'd have a lot left over for CD's and DVD's.