What's Inside $1100 Bose Acoustic Wave Music System CD-3000

[@wal]

EDIT: Please note, when I used the ohm setting on the DMM, I was testing resistance, not impedance. Very sorry for the confusion See listings of Bose Acoustic Wave Music Systems here: goo.gl/TL4g2X

[@Synthematix]

Impedance is resistance and it cannot be accurately measured like this.

[@swinde]

DC resistance will give you a ballpark estimate of the speaker's impedance. In reality the ac resistance (impedance) varies with frequency and should be plotted on a graph. The "nominal" impedance is usually the value after the bump near the lower frequencies.

[@nickya181]

Williston Audio Labs Great channel! Your videos are informative and the comments are equally entertaining! It’s quite entertaining to see some of the arguments here! I noticed most of the people who support Bose as a good product actually use facts to back up their argument. Whereas the naysayers just use insults. I love how people call Bose garbage because someone likes it! 😂 Back in 2007, my unit commander had some Bose headsets sent to us from Bose corporate for the HMMWVs we were using. They were experimenting at the time and I must say, in 2007, those were some damn good headsets. They had the ability to turn on/off outside noise, nearly completely, and provided us with crisp and clear communication. However, since it’s 2019 ... they must be garbage now! 🙄😂

[@jangounchained5279]

Bose was trying to make a plastic transmission line speaker... they FAILED hard...

[@tepansenteolt2980]

I am the designer of this speaker box . Bose stole three of my design in 1992 off of one of my flyers. Just the shape. The flier was spread in the Costa Mesa swap meet Ca. And sold 30 units.

[@vanessal7291]

98% of the people commenting have never even heard of it before and definitely never heard on in person. These things sound really good. The bass is present but not shaking the house. And they get really loud. People see the price of it and assume it's just not worth it. And in some ways I agree. But to have a plug and play non complicated HiFi system that anyone can use it is worth it. My friend's mother uses hers to play jazz music on and it sounds excellent. Not all types of music is gonna sound good playing on it. Smooth jazz sound great on it though.

[@PaciSandy]

You guys are all knocking it but I own one I’ve been using for over 20 years and I’m very happy with it. The simplicity of getting high quality sound from an all-in-one unit really works for me.

[@mikehawk120]

I’m just happy mimes works good still, and still is like new, pretty good for still being somewhat modern. I bought mine in 14 or 15 new.

[@vintagestereobuff7005]

When I was about 10, my dad bought an old upright console radio/record player. Sounded good. After it conked out I took it apart before my dad got rid of it. It had an "acoustical labyrinth". It was a Stromberg Carlson. Also back in the late 30's or early 40's some european makers were making transmission line enclosures. They just didn't really catch on that well over here. A 40 hz tone has a wavelength of 28 feet, so to make a quarter wave transmission line you would make a 7 ft. labyrinth. Bose just marketed the idea of a "Waveguide" like it was their brainchild. But, I guess all companies would take advantage of the fact that most people would think it was new technology. That's marketing. I always thought their products were a little expensive for what they are, but for many people who are not "stereo buffs" or "audiophiles", or "golden ears, who buy $10,000 amps", they fit their needs and take up minimal room. There's something for everybody. I enjoyed this video, as I always wanted to see one inside. I just assumed the 2 drivers in front were the only ones and that they were connected to the labyrinth. Didn't know it was a sub.

[@wal]

+vintage stereo buff very interesting sir, thanks for sharing! Bose make a smaller sized Acoustic Wave Radio that uses only the 3" drivers with the Wave guide (and no "sub"). That one is far more popular than the one I show here

[@TheTechGuyYT]

vintage stereo buff the acoustic wave is different from a standard Tline or wave guide in the way that it uses both the back and front of the driver

[@vintagestereobuff7005]

Yes, I noticed the back porting.

[@aninjacalledshank2278]

Aside from being all port and no chamber i Would think it a sixth order bandpass. My favorite. I have built a few amazing what bass you can get from even a single 8" or i guess 4".

[@christianrivera6369]

Thank you for taking the time to show us this

[@freethinker713]

The design is a transmission line/quarter wave that's been around since like the 50s or 60s that's why is called the "wave radio" the speaker basically sits at one end of a long port with around the same area as the woofer cone. You take the speed of sound at sea level and divide it by the fs of the sub and you take that number and divide it by 4 and you get your 1/4 wave in feet. Usually a low QTS SUB WITH .4 or lower is used for the flattest response and shallow rolloff, and other little twist but that's about it. The longer the line area the lower the tuning and the shorter the higher the tuning. That's why they have two different length wave guides for this radio, so they can get a wider frequency response. You can stuff it to extend the wave guide line if not enough room, kinda the same as stuffing a sealed box to slow the waves down and make box seem bigger which lowers tuning

[@maximumcat]

Wow... extremely low quality mid/high drivers for an $1100 system. Looks like a system worth perhaps $200, which was marketed well, and probably had a huge profit margin.

[@wal]

+MaximumCat I paid around 200 for mine used and pretty happy at that price

[@K03sport]

MaximumCat... Yes, bose is mostly marketing and the use Soundwave properties to fool listeners...they've built quite a name and are now considered premium, but are far from it...sadly this has trickled into the car audio market and now cars come with highly proprietary stuff that doesn't sound premium and doesn't play well with other equipment from other brands when swapping components

[@nexushexus4365]

$200 worth of parts? More like $40.

[@redbugg99]

You pay for technology and quality parts not for what is worth ... my test cost me $50.00 on PVC pipes. And I tested the 4-2 and the 8-4 low frequency drivers only. " Bass speakers".

[@redbugg99]

@@K03sport You got it ... A $60K caddy with a optional Bose system will cost you an additional $6k AND they will keep the one you are replacing.

[@x9moto]

My thoughts on these are mixed, i have owned the soundock 10 which used the same waveguide design but better woofer and smaller tweeters/mids, the woofer was about the same size but with a long throw suspension and appeared much more substantial than the one in this video, it also had a very large and weighty magnet which is usually the signs of a driver designed to handle high power. A large magnet usually results in better control of the driver and hence better performance, it was paper but this isnt neccasarily a deal breaker (paper is still a reasonable material for a speaker albeit somewhat dated) the tweeters/mids were smaller and angled outwards to presumably widen the soundstage and also paper with still decent magnets for the purpose. The integrated amp was endowed with the infamous dsp chip and seperate amp ics for the midrange and bass. Now the bose waveguide is a very interesting concept and many are not understanding how it works, basically a loudspeaker has a front and a rear and when it produces sound the front and rear are 180deg out of phase so if you had no enclosure most of the longer bass frequency would cancel each other out. So what a normal enclosure does is trap the rear waves inside the enclosure and the front facing waves are what you hear so its less efficient and due to the pressure against the cone from the trapped air its ability to move is restrained somewhat so frequency response in the bass department can be limited. What bose do is use a series of tubes to firstly act like a horn to boost the frequency response and secondly the reason that the rear tubes are shorter than the front is to phase correct and align the front and rear sound waves so instead of cancelling each other out when they meet they instead reinforce each other and suddenly you have a very efficient speaker which considering it is amped quite well too becomes very powerfull. Now this is only part of the story, the second part is the reason its all coiled up like that, this is because the length of the horn directly relates to how deep the bass is, and for frequencies as low as say 60hz you are looking at a horn which would be many feet long if laid out straight on the floor so bose decided to fold it up which has been done before but the use of two priciples together both the phase correction and the horn (basically a seperate horn on each side of the speaker will be tuned to different lengths to reinforce differnt frequencies. Now all the people criticising the use of plastic casing and associating this with the price are missing a fundimental bit of info, designing and tuning a true folded horn into a housing that size and for low frequencies is a work of art expecially in the days when bose invented it, they didnt have cad and 3d computer modeling it would have been trial and error and lots of complicated maths and since a folded horn carries nearly all the waves from the speaker out and away there isnt really and viabration and effect on the sound by having a plastic case not like with a traditional speaker when any movement of the enclosure causes colouration. Now to the sound, remember i had the dock10 which is more modern and had much more modern drivers than those taken from the wave in the video and to make a point i own some good hifi gear including some b&w towers and a rega amp so i didnt buy it as a hifi i mainly got one because i was fascinated with the horn design and wanted to dissasemble and hear one, guess its the electronics technician in me! The bass from the soundock was extremely powerfull and i dont mean muddy sloth bass like from a ported sony speaker i mean extremely energetic the type of bass you feel punch you in the chest and reverberate the whole room and it felt alive i have never had anything since, hifi included which could express that much energy in that particular room which was a complete void for bass normally due to its long narrow shape, but this thing nailed it To describe the bass clarity would be that it didnt go very deep probably not much lower than 60hz at a guess but it was very controlled and sharp and the bass within its narrow (but normal compromise for a horn) was some of the best i have heard from anything smaller than a 10inch BUT it couldnt go very low but the energy levels were huge and very precise. Heres where it falls apart, the mids were flat sounding and forced with hardly any soundstage even forgiving its width the beats by dre dock could do a much better job with a wider soundstage and detail, the vocals on the bose were brought forward presumably by dsp processing and didnt sound too bad i dare say better than average however the cost was pushing everything else back and losing detail, in the upper treble there was good detail but a low frequency response all those nice jingly bits on the upper end of the treble were gone and what was there did sound ok but again flat. So is it cheap drivers? Well maybe, maybe not, i have heard paper drivers sound amazing in other setups i think the main issue is the speakers are too small leaving holes in the crossover between the amazing bass and the poor mids and the use of dsp to try and fix it makes it worse and in some cases just sounds wrong, ontop of that it desperately needed proper tweeters to get those jingles back! I think if bose had hornloaded the mids too with larger drivers and installed real tweeters, that thing could have been truely amazing but it seems to be a bose thing to persist with the single upper driver which kills it. If a hornloaded midbass has the same energy as the woofer did and they do these changes i think id give them another try because horns sound amazing when done right. So there you have it an honest review based on the sound not the name. i still think the bass on the soundock will never be beaten on sheer power by anything the same size unless it has a rediculus sized amp and even then i dont think it could with a normal enclosure. But the thing to remember is although it didnt work out all that well the engineering that went into trying to acheive that type of enclosure far surpases any normal box with ports and i give them credit for trying it and thats why i suspect they are so expensive, even the mids had experimental induction horn voids which means a non driven enclosure intended to react to the viabration and tune it, its a totaly different concept to the way any other speaker works and a very interesting one they still fascinate me even though the sound quality isnt as good overall.

[@wal]

#LongestCommentEver

[@x9moto]

Your not kidding it took me two hours to write, i just felt people should know the reality of what bose is - more than marketing but horns have a destinctive sound you either love its revealing nature (in narrow bands) or you hate it but the fact remains they are the work of real engineers, any monkey can make a box in all different sizes but to make a horn in a small radio is very brave. I actually bought another soundtouch today with a smashed top panel for £100 and made a replacement out of fibreglass, they are a bargain if you buy them the right way (not new) probably worth £250 now and you would never notice the replaced part piano black and spent 3 hours making it shine like a mirror.

[@DosKumaks]

When I was in high school at open gym a kid would bring one of these and blast it while we played pickup ball. I remember it sounded pretty good in a huge gym. Now I want to hear it again to see if my memory is accurate.

[@steamsteam6607]

This costing 1100$ is an extreme insult.

[@wal]

But I'm guessing people buy them or Bose wouldn't make them

[@uncledope77]

$100 for parts & $1,000 for r and d.

[@69mkh]

yet so many dumb suckers falls for it.

[@khoocheepeng]

after watching , never i will buy, lol,

[@davidlara7459]

steam steam for a broke bitch like you

[@jamesroebuck5911]

Huge amount of research in this unit. The folded waveguide is correctly called a Tapered Pipe or transmission line. The total length of this one is about 196 cm(going on number from the video, think it was about this). This would be a quarter wavelength of 786cm 7meters! Woah, that's like 45 hertz or so. These lads at bose have managed to avoid introducing distortion and phase issues into the sound spectrum at the ears most sensitive region (900 htz through to around 2000 htz) by avoiding the use of a crossover in this critical region, and have managed to get somewhere down to 45htz from a 4 inch driver. Sure the package is $1100 and I'd personally never buy one, but this is some pretty good engineering. By using a single sound source for highs and mids, they have also managed to maintain a similar spectral balance of tone for instruments such as piano that play notes both below and above the crossover in a conventional 2 or 3 way speaker system- well piano does contain notes below 45htz, but perhaps trumpet or violin would be a better example.

[@BarrySmith-ny6ng]

@@jamesroebuck5911 what about guitar

[@blueribb99]

I can't believe the condition of that Bose CD-3000. When you think how expensive it was when new, you would think most people would really take care of it.

[@JeanKatana]

looks like $110 with two times $10 amps and the cheepest CD player i've ever seen... typical BOSE

[@allenboogaard5690]

Therefore, the woofer that measured 2.3 ohms is probably a 4 ohms and the mid/high speaker that measured 11.4 ohms is probably 16 ohms. Impedance includes the reactive nature of the voice coil.

[@66skate]

Some of these comments are laughable. I don't know why people are getting so worked up over a product that's been on the market for 33 years and Bose has made millions on. When the AWMS came out in 1984, Dr Bose thought decent sound should be as easy as a refrigerator. You plug it in and turn it on. At that time, research showed that less than 20% of people owned a system of ANY type because they were too intimidating to buy and set up. The mission of the AWMS was to fill some of that gap and did very well.

[@wal]

True and I've never seen such anger and arguing about sound equipment (yeah, right). Funny how people get mad when other people say these sound good. Who cares? What sounds good to me might not sound good to you. We all have the right to opinions. I guess many people are confused as to why Bose is still selling this unit (for $1100) with very little change/innovation to the system in over 30 years. I would assume people are still buying them or Bose would not continue to manufacture them

[@raydavies6236]

Bose bragged that he could make those paper speaker cones for under a penny each! Yet people think they are paying for quality not marketing.

[@milazzorob]

now that Bose was a master of; plug and play! What a concept! But over a thousand bucks? Please!

[@johndef5075]

66skate and thats relevant now?

[@housepumpinpc3983]

Bose, like many high end manufacturers, tried to use innovation to get people to buy their products. Make an all in one that is just plug and play. It was a hit. The price hasn't changed much since it's debut. There's not much competition because the cheap stuff sounds cheap and the other manufacturers didn't care to get into the all in one's. I prefer separates but maybe not in my garage. When another company decides to compete with a just as good/superior product or people just stop buying, Bose will either drop price, come with a different idea or get out. They make commercial systems and maybe still full size speakers. I'm a Magnepan kind of guy but whatever...

[@fixman88]

I was able to get one off eBay that was actually in decent shape and actually works correctly. I'm glad you made this video so I'll know what to expect if I have to work on mine at some point in the future. It blows my mind how someone could mistreat something so expensive; I saw a lot of Bose Acoustic Wave units on eBay that looked like someone had kicked them across the floor a dozen times. For a cheap $30 radio who cares, but those Bose units cost a grand!

[@wal]

Yeah I hated to tear it apart, but this one was gone at least the top components

[@zaneh6224]

These units cost a fortune when new, pulling it down shows how shit all the components are.

[@e.l.norton]

You just described most any product out there.

[@mida8261]

Welcome to marketing!

[@ozzfest6669]

I don’t give a shit what anyone says I’ve owned 3 models of this stereo looks uniquely awesome, the utilized every inch inside, and my cd3000 fills my whole house with music.BOSE was never intended for high volume its sound reproduction and the way the sound carries amazingly well just shows how bose puts more R & D into their stuff than their contemporaries this is no cardboard box lookin radio its beautiful and sounds awesome after 20 years to me thats a small amount for quality and ingenuity

[@wal]

I think they sound good too. Lots of hate for Bose for some reason 🤷‍♂️

[@Firealarm102]

To be fair, it’s not where the item was produced/manufactured, it’s the engineering work that went into making this entire speaker, bose does an impressive job knowing the speakers use neodymium magnets and are very small but powerful

[@carlosoliveira-rc2xt]

What is so impressive?

[@steveafanador6441]

There is nothing this size that sounds better that I've heard.

[@djbryanladd]

You haven't heard many

[@cup_and_cone]

My Grandfather was a huge HiFi fan in the 90's and got the same exact version. For sticking on a credenza and popping in an occasional CD, it sounded quite impressive (if you don't intend to crank it up and listen at moderate levels). The magic in these systems isn't necessarily the wave chamber, it's in all the digital processing that knows how to manipulate and utilize the design.

[@VegasCyclingFreak]

Interesting design. I worked for someone that had one of those in his office. Seemed like a really big sound from such a small package.

[@wal]

I’m betting 99% of the hateful comments have never heard one of these in person 🤷‍♂️

[@Mark-eu4ds]

Sad to see one get destroyed. But, this one looks beyond help. I bought mine from Goodwill in 2019. Paid $150 for it. The unit is from 1998. Sounds absolutely amazing! It lasted all these years and plays really good. How can it be bad? If I bought a new one back in 1998 for $1000 and knew it would last that long, I'd say that it was a good value!

[@wal]

I’m just showing the components used which add up to very little cost. I was curious what was inside myself

[@lunatikk1967]

No matter what .....Bose is WAYYYYY OVERPRICED!!!!

[@wal]

+lunatikk1967 they are funding education and research and some don't mind paying the "Bose Tax". I agree they are overpriced...WAY overpriced

[@chrisjones6165]

BigDWiz just like dd

[@randomvideosn0where]

Yes overpriced, but relative to other equipment Bose holds value pretty well, if you ever plan on selling.

[@RennieAsh]

$20 was a good price for my sound dock 2 :)

[@damonebates9356]

Too each their own. My Mom owned one and I always told her when I grew up, I wanted it. I still use it to this day and it works amazingly. One of my most prized possessions

[@mustang6035]

Good video. I have a pair of 901's from 1992 that I purchased from Germany while in the military, that still rocks with no speaker deformations or tears. I will never part from them.

[@tomgreen1423]

mustang6035 I'm not sure people know how much "engineering" went into the 901's. They have almost a "cult" following. Rag on Bose all you want, the 901's are pretty impressive.

[@axjohn]

mustang6035 I have 901s as part of the Lifestyle 901 system. Black lacquer.

[@axjohn]

Tom Green I have a Lifestyle 991 system with black lacquer 901s.

[@mikehawk120]

I rem the 901`s, never had them, but a buddies parents had them and they sounded pretty good if setup right. Nice to see ppl rocking some older stuff still.

[@garbinator09]

Thank you for showing us the guts of these units. I have a pre-1984 that has been going strong in my master bedroom. Ever now and then I attach my $99 Shiit DAC/AMP to the Bose and enjoy very clear pure sound. There is a bump in volume as well. I know purist slam Bose for being psycho accustic but, since I am already a frilling certified lunatic I might be in possession of the proper music machine. I paid a $1000 for it back then, I suppose knowing Bose the price is still the same. For me, Base has never been a priority for my genre of music taste. Right now, I am thinking of wireless Sonos fulfilling my upgrading wants. I would very much like to see how the newest Wave Machine has improved. In many ways I would buy again if I could be convinced WiFi could be utilized to include overall sound improvements have been made. Cheers! GB

[@mikehawk120]

I have the newr`ish one and I think the woofer went up to 5 inches, not 100. I bought it in 14 or 15 new. Still is going strong and looks Almost new.

[@TheCRCTeamcom]

Loved your commentary about what was going on. I used to have that Bose system, well it wasn't worth the $1000 plus price tag!

[@scottlowell493]

Hmm... no response above 7khz. Nothing below 60hz. Bloated, murky radio vocals. 3x the cost of a superior sounding and featured Sangean.

[@NDC1115]

No highs, no lows, must be Bose!

[@BackPainGarage]

Buy Other Sound Equipment

[@wal]

+Jessie Scicolone 😜

[@Whitefox-pc7lp]

Better Off Spending Elsewhere

[@dylanverkler4552]

Oh stfu

[@cubiee-sci6190]

in germany we say bass ohne sinnvollen einsatz which roughly translates into "bass without meaningfull use

[@cubiee-sci6190]

but i have to say i use a soundlink mini on a daily basis . and i realy like the sound and the rugged construction.

[@bluelithium9808]

D11 driver has a 12 oz magnet vs roughly 10 oz with the 901HVC driver. Bose has patented "acoustic wave" technology but I never understood how this differs from a simple transmission line.

[@cboyamg]

Bluelithium the diference is how its spelled

[@mickkennedy1344]

Bass, right side, 55Hz ; Bass, left side, 185 Hz

[@joecox9958]

the wave guide 1.5/2.46M corresponding to peak of 114Hz and 70Hz, used may be 80 years ago.traditional Bose has limited BW with its tweeter so it needs expand woofer BW yet there is still a hole.

[@KingPong1234]

I have the Acoustic Wave Music System 2 and have to admit it has amazing sound for a portable system. I bought it second hand for about $200, but if it ever breaks, I'd buy a new one to replace it for sure. I hope they update the system soon too!

[@volvo09]

I used to crap on bose, but after going over my uncles house and listening to his wave quite often I ended up buying one for myself. Its certainly not for everyone, but it's got a nice clean sound and has depth at a "conversation level" listening volume. I'm surprised of the sound they got out of it with those 2 3" full range speakers or whatever they are. I also got their Bluetooth soundlink II speaker from work, I LOVE it! it has a passive radiator on the back with a weight attached to it and it blows me away how much clean bass can come out of such a tiny speaker, and it vibrates my desk like a little sub.

[@wal]

Seems to be a LOT of Bose hate in the comments, but I wonder how many people have actually heard one of these? I'm with you, I was blown away by the sound. Although I think a fun comparison will be this AWMS 2 and the Apple iPod HiFi. Those were from 2006 and originally sold for $349 and impressive as well

[@robertsteich7362]

Waaayyy in 1992, I had a personal tour of the Bose repair shop in Cambridge, MA. They had their entire speaker set up at the front desk. As I waited for my personal tour guide, I checked out where the music was coming from. I started with the right channel speakers and couldn't find the speaker producing the music. I looked at the receptionist and asked her where the music is coming from. She has a smirk on her face and she said, "Try the left side." So I did, and on top of one of the large speakers was the smaller Wave Radio. I was blown away by the fact that this little thing was producing such awesome sounding music. During my tour, the person showed me the larger version, this AWMS. He has it torn down so he could show me the inside of this thing. Being 13 years old, I was impressed.

[@IAmKAZMO]

I have 4 of these, and they're just amazing. You can plug anything into them and they don't disappoint.

[@Oystein87]

It is a 4,5" if you meassure correctly.. From screw hole to screw hole or edge to edge depending of the design.

[@razzledingle]

A bit of engineering went into making this compact unit. More than the typical boombox. And look at how many years that thing has been on the market, and how much money Bose has made selling these things, based largely on marketing. Bose is genius.

[@ArcadeDude44]

Wow, this was awesome. Although I've never really been a fan of Bose, I DO admit that the little enclosures do sound amazing, for their size! Now the "magic" has been revealed.:). Another awesome video, my friend!

[@wal]

+ArcadeDude44 here's hoping I don't get a letter to take it down 😱

[@ArcadeDude44]

Yeah, same here...

[@dr.trichome6419]

ArcadeDude44 bose is like def tech cheap speakers in highly engineered enclosures. wich is why i respect car audio more then home our mids n highs go into doors and still sound better. for music of course big difference yes.

[@johnr6168]

Fair comment. They go to some effort to provide a decent bass response in relation to the cabinet size. The problem I have with Bose is hat having designed a decent enclosure they then decide to permanently over-boost the bass electronically and make it sound 'one note' and muddy. They also try to tell people it's hifi, which it's not. In the UK they removed the expression "better than hifi systems costing much more" in the Wave Radio adverts after the advertising authority asked them to prove their claim (I was involved). The flaw in the Bose's thinking is that the radio does not even sound as good as their own 'hifi systems' which costing more (and why would it).

[@rickc2222]

I worked in an electronics store back in 1993. we had a lot of mid-priced stereo equipment. One of our Home theatre setups was the Bose Accousti-mass system (not sure if I spelled it right). Tiny little cube speakers placed at listener and also away from listener to create a bigger more immersive sound stage. At least that was the gimmick marketing copy we were supposed to regurgitate. They sounded like cheap shitty paper midranges in plastic boxes because they were. The outrageous price for this junk simply could not be defended. lots of people wanted to listen, very few ever bought. My only other experience with Bose is my Mother in law has a bose bluetooth speaker. It sounds ok. It looks nice. I could do much better for the price though.

[@alwaysopen7970]

I was in direct sales in the late 80s when those Acoustimass systems came out and some guy had just bought one and was excited as hell to demonstrate it to us. He got a Beethoven CD and told us it would blow us away. Bwa-ha-ha-ha! I was totally unimpressed. WTF? I have Akai and AR4 speakers from the 60s - big furniture quality cabs - that outperforms all of that stuff. I found the 901 system to be shit back in the 80s when I found my GF's dad had a set hooked up to a nice Marantz receiver. I was ready to be impressed and No, sir, it did not happen. I give that an F. I was given one of the smaller wave guide systems recently and found it is cool for a bedside alarm clock however the CD drives in the radio itself, as well as the separate bottom unit are total shit. I watched a YT video about correcting them and found them to be the worst engineered crap made. I learned the CD drives haven't worked in years. There are only two tiny speakers in those units and they are in an enclosed housing which sits inside the case. I tossed the useless bottom unit and placed the top unit on top of a JVC boombox to see how they compared. What I found is when both are tuned to the same radio station the Bose adds bass and mids the JVC doesn't and sound nice together. The Bose has no highs at all and the bass is boomy. There are no dynamics at all and it sounds as if someone threw a wet blanket over it. It's now my alarm clock. These didn't cost $1000 new but were more expensive than a decent pair of low end Radio Shack {Realistic} speakers. I am contemplating putting small tweeters in the Bose to liven it up. It was free so it's an experiment. I was just in the other room and it was playing; boomy bass is all it offers. No cymbals or anything. Summary? Plastic, cheap speakers, electronics and shit CD drives are overrated Meh...You can buy plastic utensils if you don't want to dirty your metal flatware.

[@JiveDadson]

Bose learned. At some outlets they build custom listening theaters that seated maybe 20 people. On stage, a -snake oil- sound system salesman would pitch the product. They later came up with tiny pre-fab listening pods. Those had a clear plastic dome at the top, but otherwise open Step in and push the button. The music was pre-programmed, and of course it avoided the huge suckout Accoustimass has in the mid 200 Hz range Outlets were instructed not to demonstrate Bose alongside competing brands.

[@johnr6168]

That's the thing with Bose. People pay a lot of money for equipment made from cheap materials such as speaker drivers with 1 1/2" paper cones. They rant on about the research they do, but the research sould tell them to use better quality components.

[@peterkay2406]

you never cease to amaze me bud, always stay interested in what you do lol

[@hobbitgottit]

Thanks for the teardown. I always wanted to gut one of these and have a look inside. Now I know. thanks

[@wal]

+Jeffrey Niederle 👍

[@vartansako1]

This speaker is expensive youbrocked it down it just to educate people You are the real you tuber

[@AluminumHaste]

Amazing, 1100$ for 50$ worth of material. And subpar components.

[@wal]

Now you see what company Apple models their profit margins from.....lol

[@catsbyondrepair]

BigDWiz apple software is the best to bad the moron Tim cook is ditching most of the ports

[@lunchie80]

How is this different from almost any electronics manufacturer? Even very high end HiFi speakers use $50 vifa tweeters half the time.

[@bodyshotjake7475]

For the time this thing sounded incredible for the size

[@Mark-eu4ds]

I actually have one of these. I didn't pay over $1000 for it. I bought mine from Goodwill. It's from 1998, 24 years old!! Got it in 2019, sounds amazing! Still does. The parts do LOOK spartan, I'll give you that. But, they sound really good. Those parts are 24 years old and still work well. Was this thing worth $1000? If they last a quarter century, they most certainly are. I can't say that parts that are that old are bad in any sense! I can definitely appreciate your stance on this though.

[@AtomkeySinclair]

If I had that wave-guide up close and personal I would draft it out in Blender or something similar... breaking it down into manageable sections that could be 3d printed. From there I might try scaling it to fit a different form factor. I've always wondered what it looked like inside. Thanks for your time with this breakdown.

[@pewpro941]

Put it on the amp dyno see if it does rated. Lol

[@angelrueda2993]

C

[@papermaker85]

I approve of this message!

[@adamchristiansen3548]

so its a... dual ported a-symmetrical t-line with fill range 2 way drivers. props to bose for marketing this so well. you can do amazing things with low end drivers in high end enclosures.

[@manfredschield9745]

BACK IN 2008 I BUILT A BOX FOR 4 15"s MIMICKING THE BOSE DESIGN : THE BASS I WAS PRODUCING WAS UNBELIEVABLE!

[@CactusJack252]

Manfred Schield how where you able to tune the box?

[@alwaysopen7970]

I am a bassist and in the 70s used an 18" folded horn cab with 250W amp. It was killer at 3. Lows? all night long.

[@andrewc1036]

Was it the size of a room?

[@johnger850305]

Fabulous video, so fun to see people teardown classic expensive stereos.

[@reemo6990]

Bose. Last years tech at tomorrows prices.

[@alandicken8961]

Apple. Last 2 years of tech. At next decades prices. Sry just had to say it

[@69mkh]

No you are dead wrong, its stone age tech at space age prices.

[@JiveDadson]

It was never any year's tech. At the time, you could get a much better sounding tabletop radio style system for $300.

[@pjimmbojimmbo1990]

I remember reading something decades ago about taking a Tube, cutting it at 1/3 its length, putting Speaker on the end of one section, then putting the remaining section, on the other side of the Speaker. This pretty much what BOSE did in this thing. I almost bought one, but it, unlike me, wasn't cheap...

[@raydavies6236]

These did not sound that bad, better than the 100 dollar boomboxes of the day, but not as good as some of the 250 dollar ones. Thing is it cost $1,000. and used cheap parts.

[@wal]

The video I'm releasing tonight has a quick sound comparison between the AWMS and a Cambridge Soundworks Model Twelve transportable system. It's interesting....

[@JiveDadson]

@@wal I had a Model Twelve in my office, and I sometimes took it on trips. Not bad at all. Far superior to the Bose, and originally half the price. As I write this, there are several on ebay listed at less than $300. There are also some Henry Kloss Model 88's which Cambridge Soundworks introduced as a Bose Accoustic Wave killer. Those are selling for under $100.

[@redbugg99]

Tech ingredients, channel said that 1/3 is the sweet spot in object for the best resonance on a speaker..... Takd a PVC pipe and place a speaker at 1/3 in this Bose setup is actually 60 inches long and that 4 inch was place at 20 inches. My test did produce great sound just make sure that the port is equal on both side and used 1/2 of the size of the rating size .... a 4 inch cone with a 2 inch port, both sides ... or 6 and 3 ... 8 and 4 ...10 and 5 ... etc.

[@rickjames6647]

These things sound so good. I thought Bose was full of crap until I heard one in person.

[@wal]

+Rick James I must agree with this statement

[@burthuffman2802]

I totally agree with you, the best sound ever!

[@hsharma3933]

They’re tricks and equalization.

[@BabluBab-gt6un]

@@burthuffman2802 That's a Big Statement...."Best Sound Ever" !!!!😂😂😂 Looks like u got fooled and Want to fool Others.... Bose speakers are of Cheap Drivers with Shiny Looking skin from the outside. A Highly priced Well marketed Product. Surely will never let you say It's a Crap.... Talk sense

[@burthuffman2802]

@@BabluBab-gt6un Sounds like you are on a mission of hate against Bose. You don't know what I heard or anyone else or what the unit looked like. You are entitled to your opinion.

[@chasevineland1508]

interesting the sub is 2 ohms and the mid/his are 11 ohms. it makes sense though. higher impendance is more sensisitive in general. the sub driver is small enough that it probably covers bass as high as 300hz. pretty cool wave guides.

[@Evan420]

I have this, mine has a cassette player instead of CD and it works perfectly.

[@chrispeters1020]

They used those same 4" subs in the front door speakers of the 97 Cadillac seville's i have 2 of them sitting in my garage from the old caddy i tore apart years ago.

[@wal]

Yes, Bose used 4” speakers for almost everything

[@iNeverHadMercy]

9:30 The guts......the glory 👍

[@jondoe6618]

i have a bose 3 2 1 system in my little 10x10 room with the woofer behind my recliner and yea it sounds amazing. sounds as good as a 12 in woofer in a car.Pretty amazing for a tiny woofer.

[@Soknik01]

I think we had one of those inside a Porta potty on a construction site I worked on years ago and it sounded like shit. Until now I never fully appreciated the irony.....

[@mtiphotography]

Whats the model of that Japanese MiniDisc Bose unit? I'd love to play around with that system.

[@mrlee3527]

Yeah I ordered one years ago and kept it for 20 days and sent it back. The music was uninspiring to say the least. Went out and bought a Yamaha stereo amp instead. A friend had given me a set of floor standing KEF 103/3 speakers that I have still.

[@sumanthbhat1041]

Same IC specifications inside acoustic wave system II? 45W for subwoofer and 26W for speakers?

[@ravenlorans]

Bose Owns ACDelco. We had a ACDelco System in our 92 Grand AM. that Fucker Pumped. People thought we had a Sub in it. Nope, Stock 6x9's. AcDelco are the Same as Bose just Lower Wattage.

[@adaboy4z]

ravenlorans AC Delco 6x9s with 90 watt amp beat hard in my first car in college.

[@steveducell2158]

"wave guide" is another name for the 1950's Acoustic Labyrinth Speaker Cabinet. Briefly mentioned in the now out of print book , How To Build Speaker Enclosures, Alexis Badmaieff and Don Davis search amazon

[@bdc211]

$1100 alarm clock

[@wal]

+b. c. But it doesn’t have a clock built in...that’s the smaller Bose Wave Machine

[@funkmasterblaster5921]

Ahhh Haaa...too funny..

[@WarpFactor999]

You measure the coil impedance at 1Kz. Not DC Ohms.

[@pauljmeyer1]

Considering the low cost of the components the AWS gave an impressive performance, disregarding the price to the consumer.

[@unglaubiger5645]

You measured the DC Resistance. That is always lower than the Impedance. With 2,3 Ohms DC Resistance the Woofer could be a 3 Ohms type. The two smaller ones are probably 16 Ohme Speakers. Keep in mind, that the lowest point over 20Hz can be 20% under the Impedance. For example, it is not unusual that a 8 Ohm speaker has about 5-7 Ohms DC resistance and a Minimum Impedance of 7,2 Ohms above 20Hz.

[@timschutte8310]

, love them or hate them. people like Bose because of the simplicity and relatively good sound. not a lot of buttons and adjustments. this is what makes them appealing to a lot of people. I have owned a lot of different Bose products over the years and although not the best, they certainly do theyer homework on producing good sound with small drivers and automated electronics. it is what it is, the end.

[@timothyhinton5665]

I have never seen someone spell their..theyre ., congratulations sir

[@HifiVega]

The 2 different length ports are interesting. Cool tear down I'm sure quite a few people wondered what was going on inside of these.

[@wal]

+hifivega I'm thinking not many people would tear an $1100 Stereo into pieces. It's cool a busted one was donated so I could do just this! I'm hoping other folks think it's cool too 😎

[@HifiVega]

Big D ain't afraid tho!

[@DJDynablend]

That thing would of sounded sweet back in the day!

[@wal]

+DJ Dynablend I have a newer model I picked up used. Sounds pretty impressive for its size

[@haroldhprittjr7007]

Is that a 120 volt ac transformer down to 24volts ac? That is what I found when taking apart 32123 acustamass unit with it running 100 attacks x3 two wall/surround and the bass subwoofer box all was in it but had a console control box just woundering if that one is 24 volts ac

[@TheTechGuyYT]

people can hate on Bose as much as they want . But there innovations and ideas are things we take for granted now . I'm quite a fan of Bose and own a fair few Bose products including the CD10 lifestyle system there first ever lifestyle system and I must say its impressive . also the reason the waveguides are different lengths is for tuning .

[@wal]

I gained a lot of respect for the company after doing research. It is interesting though how they can be so innovative, yet stagnant in many ways. This Acoustic Wave Music System hasn't changed much at all since 1984....just the ability to play CD's and remote operation. They may have changed the amp chips, but I'm not tearing apart my near mint AW-1 to find out

[@TheTechGuyYT]

BigDWiz it hasn't changed at all. same with acoustimass . until the AM300 from last year . people who straight out hate Bose have no idea what they have done for the very thing we love Music . they also fund MIT as Amar Bose pretty much gave Bose to them but the company still runs as its own . look up his first attempt at a speaker 2205 I think it was called pre dating the 901 .

[@TheTechGuyYT]

also Awesome video as always BigD . I always look forward to your videos and my wife likes them to lol . I do wish you played and gave your opinion on the sound of the acoustic wave . you would have to use a external amp but I'm sure people are curious .

[@wal]

Yep, 10-4 on all the above. Those first speakers looked really funny. I also liked the reason why they never posted system specs....Dr. Bose bought his first stereo system based on specs and was not happy with how it sounded. I agree people can get too tied up in specs, I do this myself. All that really matters is the sound and how it makes you feel. Many of their products excel in these areas, these units included

[@TheTechGuyYT]

BigDWiz audio and how it will sound to your ears is something No specs can tell you . sound is subjective what one person likes someone else may not and Bose's idea was for people to use there ears and not read some specs on paper .a Noble idea

[@redbugg99]

At least this guy told you what you needed to know. 2 amps at 40 watts each, 1 for the mids and highs and the other bridge for bass. 20L, 20R, 40 bass on a 60 inch long pipe by 2 inch PVC pipe. Add a camber to hold the base driver at 1/3 of the length.

[@Nothingtoya]

Bose just isnt worth what they ask for it. They sould come with mids, highs, and lows. All the speakers should be made out of quality materials, not garbage paper. People will learn, one day.

[@wal]

+Josh B agreed 🤘

[@alwaysopen7970]

Nothing wrong with paper; all of my guitar/bass amps have them and they didn't cost $1000 apiece.

[@johnr6168]

@@alwaysopen7970 Yes, but paper cones help produce part of the characteistic sound of instrument amps so firms tend to stick with them. They're also much thicker and durable than the cones on small Bose drive units. Polymer material for cones are very much preferred for ordinary listening speakers and especially those on hi-fi equipment.

[@quadflopper1012]

so the bose acoustic wave system is just a half ass'd adaptation of a t-line base system or was the bose system the inspiration for what we know now as the t-line sub system ???

[@EdgyNumber1]

Bose EQ the hell out of everything as well as use various psychoacoustic tricks. You never get the pure sound. Great for pop music in a small room. Pretty lousy for classical or jazz in a standard lounge.

[@richardgates7479]

It has even come to the extent that music is now mastered for this type of sound. It's now speaker bar fidelity that we're living with. Hey! Sounds better than the crappy 2" speakers in the TV.

[@TheDabbinDave]

For some reason, this thing does not like to read all CDs. A buddy got one from Goodwill, it’s in decent condition, built in 2001. There were a few CDs they I tried to play, but it wouldn’t. They were not burned CDs or “enhanced” CDs. Is there any way to adjust tone (base, treble, midrange)?

[@brad4792]

4:45 Those amplifier chips are so cheap! They're used in car head units! GAAAH! Bose is so overpriced! I could buy a cd changer, power amp, and speakers for half the price and they would get louder, sound better...

[@fatboy19831]

B Rad could they run on 10 d cells for 10 hours? Or put out 0ver 97 db @ 1 watt? Or last 10 years? Would it be so easy to operate a 5 year old could use it? Would it be smaller than the acoustic wave? Good luck with that.

[@brad4792]

Bose speakers should be thought of as toys. They seem like the real deal, but they're actually made of plastic and construction paper. Get an amp and any old cerwin vegas, and you will really enjoy what you hear, and it will cost 1/4 even.

[@fatboy19831]

Cerwin Vagas speakers wont last 2 years. Very efficient but easy to blow. Only the professional CV's hold up. Their consumer stuff is crap. Car and home. CV's NEVER sound natural and they have that everlasting continuos sloppy bass.

[@brad4792]

couldn't be further from the truth. I got an old CV pair from the 90s still working and I've played them way over their ratings and with continuous clipping which would kill most speakers. they have a tweeter protection circuit breaker built in as well. I got a the xls 215 which has the most satisfying bass without a subwoofer I have heard.

[@fatboy19831]

B Rad I use to sale Cv automotive subs in the early 1990's. Gain turned almost all the way down on high power quality American sub amps and I lost 30% of cv subs to failures. Never lost one Rockford , kicker or Orion sub. Stoped offering them after 6 months. They were loud and clean if not realistic bass.

[@ronshaw80]

The DC resistance of the voice coil is not the same as the rated impedance. A VC that measures 11 ohms DC is probably a 16 ohm driver. The woofer, at about 2.5 ohms DC is most likely a 4 ohm driver.

[@wal]

Yessir, i goofed and updated video description to explain better. No way to update video to include this info, thanks KZbin...

[@timschutte8310]

, he didn't want to "Break" the enclosure with the rubber mallet but he sawzalled the damn thing in half !!!!?? "YOU BIG DUMMY !!!!

[@wal]

👌😜👍

[@bigd835]

Just bought one used. i have a LOT of stereo gear. Mid grade stuff like JBL Klipsch and Elac when I put this Bose on i was blown away by the high quality of the sound. It sounds TERRIFFIC. great bass. the pricing on these things was a joke. maybe if they werent so greedy they could have sold many more. these are gone now, no longer made. incredible sound for something made in the late 90s'. very impressed.

[@cboyamg]

no highs, no lows, must be bose

[@TemujinScott80]

Cody Hodgson not true

[@cboyamg]

Fred Doe i wasnt going to reply till you said their car systems are nice. im a pro installer for over 15 years and their mobile audio is the same as it was in the 80's. it doesnt sound good at all.

[@cboyamg]

Fred Doe if you like it who am i to tell you your wrong. maybe someday you will hear a system that truly sounds amazing. then youll know what i mean

[@TemujinScott80]

Fred Doe I love mine too! There are products that cater to audiophiles and then there are products that gear towards music lovers who don't care for all of the technical stuff. If they knew the history and back story of the creator Amar Bose and why these products are simple and sound good, they'd have a better understanding. Bose products cater to the "plug and play" consumer not the technical audiophile. Nothing wrong with either... just a matter of preference. It's a reach to say these systems don't have highs / lows...that's incorrect

[@michaelledford4751]

+Temujin Scott I'm very aware of the back story of Dr Bose because in the early 1970's his company made extremely high quality amplifiers & preamplifiers to power his junk Bose 901 series speakers ,Bose stopped making high quality amps & preamps because it's expensive to make quality audio equipment ,Bose opted to take the gimmick route to the extreme with their premium 901 speaker eq combo that's filled with 9 $5 midrange speakers . The back story of Dr Bose is that he was an audio engineer who's 1801 flagship amplifier was as high quality & expensive as a like class A/B 300 watt McIntosh amplifier ,instead of allowing his brand time to gather a loyal following who bought life time equipment he decided to cater to the yuppie consumer base that knew more about being trendy than selecting high quality components ,via a mass marketing campaign that flooded television ,radio & print advertising Bose used seudo science to trick the generally ignorant consumer base . Dr Bose 2nd gimmick was to open a Bose store in every trendy mall in America, he built special rooms to display his 901 premium series systems that appeared to be powered by his cheap components ,instead the Bose listening rooms were powered by very sophisticated tri amplified electronics with studio quality DBX room correction EQ all hidden from the public's view,the cheap plastic Bose unit made to appear to be creating a lush sound was nothing more than the final gain/volume control in a series of expensive hidden hardware ,the Bose listening rooms were also designed to eliminate standing waves ,bass bloat or overload in corner areas ,even the ceilings in the Bose listening/demo rooms had a purpose in their design to cool the consumer into thinking the Bose equipment would sound that way in a home living environment, which it dosent . I know all of this because I've been building my own audio gear since heathkit ,I still own the 1801 amplifier & 1802 preamplifiers, which are the only 2 quality components Bose ever made ,I also built nearly 50 Bose stores audition rooms in malls all over America. The back story of Bose is a story of seudo science, gimmicks ,saturation advertising designed to prey on trendy yuppies & convince them that plastic speakers containing 49 cent upper midranges, along with a plastic box containing 2 $5 low midrange drivers in a 5th order bandpass configuration was high quality audio ,Dr Bose single handedly destroyed the American audio equipment buyers understanding of what a full range audio system should sound like . Bose makes extremely overpriced junk for people who are too lazy to learn how to read specifications of components,then assemble a high quality audio system for half the cost of a plastic Bose system.

[@tupregunta]

I have an acoustic wave CD 3000 series III. Wow..... It took me 30 years to realize I have a cheap radio. The bass has a sound distortion. Anyone knows how to fix if this problem? I also need a remote.control .

[@bjtaudio]

Cheap plastic construction, basic components, with a unusually complex front and back transmission line loaded sub woofer. Instead of gong to all that trouble with the enclosure design using bigger and better drivers would have given better results. Bose also seem to have an obsession with using extremely small paper cone drivers, where their efforts would have been better spent with using larger and better quality drivers, and a better power amplifier. Acoustic wave is just marketing? Transmission line and port loaded speaker enclosures is nothing new, and its not exclusive Bose technology either.

[@waugy370z8]

It is surprising the amount of low frequency bass they get from these small enclosures. Thats crazy they got almost 4 feet of port length just on the front side of that 4 inch driver. Pretty cool to see it though, great video.

[@wal]

Thanks for watching and commenting!

[@danielmoraes9637]

Thanks! The acustic desing is the best of the product! 10% thd lol. Cheers

[@PeteVanDemark]

Looks like the sub-woofer is 2 ohms to impedance match it with the TDA7396.

[@camelazo]

I know what´s inside the bose acoustic wave, the hi-fi illusion!

[@wal]

Honestly it makes me wonder how this would sound with quality speakers? I've demo'd one to friends and family and they all seem to like the sound. It is quite impressively "big" sound to be in such a small enclosure. Granted, not the best balance, but honestly sounds better (to my ears) than most people's comments about Bose would suggest.

[@TimpBizkit]

I was expecting a fairly high displacement 4-5" woofer on the bass range, rather than what looks like a PA mid-bass driver. Although the 6th order version of the transmission line is interesting. It doesn't look like $1100 worth of stuff though unless casting that bass pipe was really expensive.

[@Brant_Channel]

very interesting!

[@adamsaint2890]

Interesting video but please note that AC impedance is not the same as DC resistance, which is what you're measuring with the multimeter.

[@wal]

Thanks for watching and commenting. I know the difference, unfortunately I’m unable to edit the video to include updated information. I’ve put additional info in the video description

[@deairreoh]

this video made me take a shower after

[@wal]

+deairreo hill you and me both

[@joseduranjr3152]

Please show the tear down of the Japanese version Bose virtual imaging array. I found 2 for sale on eBay and bought one for $400. I’m curious. So curious

[@wal]

Those are so cool!

[@ianaintsaying1625]

4" subwoofer? Leave it to Bose to use what the rest of the audio industry uses strictly as a mid-range driver as a "subwoofer". What a joke!

[@MEQUPWER]

have you ever heard a bose system? its top of the line

[@icanfartloud]

Yep, too many dummies who dont have a clue about what Bose has done especially when it came to their direct reflecting speakers. I mean, how many companies tell you how far a speaker has to be from a wall ro be properly "heard". Listen to these high class systems and you'll find out why it blows your mind when you hear the music coming from the walls across from where the speakers are at and not from the actual speajer. Yes you heard me right. Your ears hear the music as it's being bounved off walls so the sound waves dont cross as many times before getting to your ears. They have superior soind separation which allows for greater clarity and volume with no distortion at high levels.

[@meyer097able]

🤔, think you BOTH should broaden your horizons and get out more, it isn't the 60's anymore. Bose isn't anywhere " Top Of The Line" nor have "Superior Soind" like it's price point might suggest. That's why you see MANY other speakers/systems coming out that sound better* for much cheaper... Not saying Bose is junk, there not,should be half the price but there sound reproduction is good I'd say,have a pair of there ear buds, there decent, What Bose was able to do when it first came out was Amazing,, FOR THE TIME, the sound it was able to produced from such a small foot print set them miles apart from everything esle on the market and, Can't knock um though, there still riding the waVe (pun intended).

[@peterluck3154]

flappy188 hahahahahahahahaha !!!.... Wait.. wait..... Hahahahhahahahahahahahahahah!!!

[@hakont.4960]

I have heard a Bose speaker system in a Mazda 6 I test drove a couple years ago, it was quite underwhelming. The subwoofer had decent sound pressure, but wasn't exactly punchy and I couldn't seem to get much treble from the tweeters even when messing with the equalizer. Had I bought that car I would most likely have replaced the speakers with Hertz brand speakers.

[@alfa7108]

Wasn't Bose one of the first to incorporate the t-line speaker box design ?

[@Pistonstrokes]

why am I here?

[@wal]

+Manuel Bou cause you wanna watch some cool vids 😜

[@STEVSGONE]

Because KZbin went and recommended it to you.

[@indopleaser]

Always wanted to know what was inside, even more after learned acoustic wave means transmission line

[@johnr6168]

Transmission Line loading has been around for many years and works well in IMF, TDL and PMC designs. Bose's version of it uses a much shorter line/duct but the maths doesn't really work the same way and the sounds is nothing like as good as a dedicated transmission line hifi speaker. Using plastic for the line doesn't help but I suppose there's little choice in that type of product. Boosting the bass electronically just makes the whole sound less clear.

[@Mr.AndreQuintal]

verry good

[@raphaelmonteiro9373]

Main aunt. You here

[@gavincurtis]

We have their wave radio unit and I will say it is built very well and sound is fantastic..... for a $350 clock radio. Price is very reasonable for the quality of the item.... including all FR4 circuit board construction inside. Now the other Bose stuff being price/performance reasonable...... I would buy a pair of Vandersteen or Snell speakers any day over similarly priced Bose speakers.

[@supermrmotorhead7239]

It probably sounds ok but WAY over priced and kind of a Chinese built look to it

[@supermrmotorhead7239]

NoFakesHere Made in China looks cheap and flimsy

[@revoxjazz8317]

For me, Bose only had half a dozen products that pleased me: The 901 hi-fi system and the 301 system, which was reasonably effective. The original 802 system in the professional scope, not accompanied by the original 802 subwoofers, which only played reasonably if the system controller was modified. As a rule, I used the 502 BP subwoofer, which turned out better than the original. And the Wave Cannon, which sounded good in permanent installations. I saw and heard the LT system in operation but I did not get to live with it so I can’t pronounce it. Of course dr. Amar G. Bose was very knowledgeable about electroacoustics and took the Wave concept to a good level but I wondered why so much technology was never as successful as the company claimed. Overall, at the price paid at the time for these systems there were more practical solutions to the same effect. And I never realized why the company was so concerned about not clearly indicating which permissible powers, and that condemned many systems that failed miserably. Honestly, I'm sorry but there is work to do and you can not compromise with companies like that. In these days I do not know - nor do I want to know - if there is any product that could be used with confidence. I don't think so.

[@x9moto]

I think the reason they didnt publish specs on the wave gear is because it would be like comparing apples and oranges, the sound output of hornloaded style speakers is huge compared to the watts required to drive them. If you told everyone that your speaker was 5w and cost huge amounts of money you would never sell one, the public arent engineers they would never have understood that you only need tiny watts to get a huge sound from that type of enclosure.