Other measurements...

Bose Wave Radio...and how to make it sound good!

Impedance R and L driver.	Right ch voltage response.	Left ch voltage response.	Midrange distortion 250hz in.
Woofer distortion 160hz in.	For reference...a Vifa 4"	External amplifier	External speakers
Left and right driver.	Disassembled

To any audiophile, Bose is nothing more than a toy and not a very good one at that.   The little Wave Radio has it's merits however.   It's built pretty well and has some pretty nice features.   It's not really stereo however, instead it is a two way system with an active cross-over.   The left speaker is the woofer with a peak above 10 khz to give just a hint of stereo and the right speaker is the midrange tweeter.   You can see this from the voltage response to each speaker above. 

I don't know what to say about the distortion.  At first I thought something was wrong and I was clipping the microphone or pre-amp or something but the control test using the Vifa proved this not to be the case.  They just really are that bad!  

It seems like Bose put a lot of thought into the Wave Radio.  I found it interesting that they included the 3 Khz dip.   This is a theory of Psychoacoustics.   It seems strange to go to such detail on a device that is for lack of a more polite way of putting it...so bad. 

I use the Wave Radio as an alarm clock connected to an external amplifier I found in Singapore for under $100US.   The amp uses the LM1875 op-amp and can produce about 20 watts/ch.  This drives the Altec A7-500 Voice of the Theatre system to levels capable of waking the dead with ease.   In this configuration the Wave Radio sounds pretty good.  If you don't mind over paying for the thing and you realize and don't mind that it is useless without the addition of an external amplifier and speakers then it's a pretty nice little device to have around.  

Equally...well maybe not quite equally bad sounding, the Bose "Quiet Comfort" headphones also have their merits.  Those long flights to Asia are a lot less stressful while wearing these.  I tried others but these seem to be the best for comfort and overall noise reduction.  I just wish they sounded better but, bad as they are, I won't get on a plane without them.   If you travel, get them, you'll be glad you did.  Just make sure you take along some decent headphones for listening to music in the hotel room after you arrive where noise cancellation isn't required.

Bad as I hate to, I have to recommend these two Bose products.

 Wave radio midrange parameters:

Wave Radio Woofer parameters: