| Ever since I started rising at 5 a m "" an hour I'd till then seen perhaps less than a dozen times in my whole life "" to thwack across a net 16 feathers welded together into a cork or wallop a small black rubber ball filled with ever-heating air in a room with a fibreglass door, I've wanted a clock radio to wake me up. |
| One such gizmo I was gifted some months ago runs on half of India's 220V supply; a situation I haven't had time to rectify yet. |
| So, it was with joy that I received an email from the folks at Bose Corporation's India office last month. They wanted to know if I'd be interested in reviewing the "Bose Wave Radio/CD". Sure thing! |
| Bose products have been in India for a few years. Although, they have been rather premium-priced, their quality has been top-notch compared to its peers; in India, at least. The fact that Bose speakers come in small packages makes the sound it belts out all the more awesome. |
| True to its DNA, the Bose Wave Radio/CD comes in a sleek and stylish shape. It is smaller than a four-slice toaster and looks hell of a lot better. |
| In front are a display and two grilles with horizontal slits that help channel the speakers' output. The beast hidden in this pint-sized form factor can be unleashed using a credit card-like remote control or through an intuitively-designed panel of button on the top. |
| The system also features a couple of analogue inputs and outputs at the back and a jack for an antenna. |
| The performance of Bose products is impressive, though I'd rate other international speaker brands like B&W, Infinity, Klipsh and JBL higher. Given that "bias", I'd give a rating of 7.5 on 10 for the Bose Wave Radio/CD only because I listened this summer to a comparable box from Cambridge SoundWorks (CSW ) that belted out, if I may, a superior quality of music. |
| But for that experience (mind you, CSW wares are not available in India), I'd have given the Bose Wave Radio/CD a higher rating. |
| First, the cribs. The Bose Wave Radio/CD does not deliver its expected top-of-the-line performance when you play the radio channels; even with the antenna. |
| This could be a problem of the quality of radio transmission or perhaps because I didn't rig up the antenna cable properly, but I'd say the quality could be better. The quality of sound is particularly irritating at high volume. |
| That said, the quality of music when playing a CD was superb. The frequency response of the system was smooth even if you pumped the volume to the maximum. |
| Listening to Giuseppe Verdi's choruses performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra was an absolute pleasure at four-fifths the maximum volume. So too, waking up to Handel's "Arrival of the Queen of Sheba". The Bose Wave Radio/CD did justice to Miles Davis to M S Subbalakshmi to the revered members of the Buena Vista Social Club to chants of the most Spartan of South Alpine monks. The exception was rock: Metallica or Ramstein sounded better on even not very expensive stereo players. |
| I also got a chance to wire up the Bose Wave Radio/CD to the television output. Even plain old HBO sounded "" and, it felt, looked "" better, though I don't see the technical soundness of that experience. |
| The DVDs I played on my TV also sounded good though again I'm not sure of the technicality of this given that DVDs are supposed to be encoded for six to eight (5.1 or 7.1) speakers. Unfortunately, I couldn't rig up my computer to play MP3s or other music on it on the Bose Wave Radio/CD. I am sure it would have been as good. |
| A few suggestions for Bose: one, the Bose Wave Radio/CD could use an USB port or two to pipe music into it from a computer or home hard disk. Two, given that it is portable, its value to a music lover would be even more if there was an option to run it on a battery; like, for instance, with a car battery on a picnic. Three, a no-brainer: reduce the price. At |
| Rs 32,900 plus tax (anything between 10 and 15 per cent) this is a gizmo even the plastic-happy yuppie would hesitate a bit before buying. A sub-Rs 20,000 price would be decent value for money. |
| But, hey, for a week, I've had the softest landing from deep unconsciousness to battle-ready alertness thanks to the Bose Wave Radio/CD. And, maybe it explains why I've been winning more badminton and squash games than ever before. |
| Josey Puliyenthuruthel can be reached at josey@vsnl.net |
Disclaimer: These are personal views of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion of www.business-standard.com or the Business Standard newspaper
