Incredible sound from such a tiny unit.

The hype is really true; this little light-weight guy can belt out clear wide sound without distortion.

If you buy or listen to the unit and you are standing close the unit, you’ll initially be quite disappointed. For whatever reason, the sound does not project well until you are at least 10 or more feet away from the unit. When we are in other rooms or outside the house, it is very difficult to determine where the source of the music is originating from; it borders on magic. Also, the sound sweetly fills the house and outdoors but you don’t have to jack up the volume to produce this effect. It’s actually spooky -- where is the sound coming from?

On one occasion, my wife was gardening around the house and she wanted the music cranked up. The sound could have filled the Metropolitan Opera House but there was absolutely no distortion. I walked a few hundred feet away from the house and the sound was still great.

We are planning on moving to a smaller house. We currently own a fairly expensive sound surround system (each speaker costs more than the Bose) that is powered by two high end amplifiers. The problem is that the speakers are so large that it will be expensive to move and will crowd a smaller room so we decided to buy a smaller, more portable unit.
We compared the high-end sound surround system to the little Bose. In the living room, the sound surround system filled the room much more evenly but the Bose sound quality was better. Outside of the living room, the sound surround system sounded very dull compared to the Bose.

For our testing, the Bose was also located in the living room. We had two copies of the same CD and one person in the living room would switch from the Bose to the big system and the other person would be either at the other end of the living room or in another part of the house – or outside of the house with the windows open - for the evaluation.

After comparing the two units, we kept the Bose. We’re going to sell the big speakers on eBay – although I don’t know how we’re going to ship something that heavy. We haven’t decided what to do with the amplifiers yet.

The Bose accepts only one CD. Since we have a 100 CD changer, we simply plugged it into the Bose and that nicely solved that limitation.

Here’s what burns me about Bose: Those $149.99 accessories where you get one free. We got the stand where you can plug in multiple devices. What a POS! Cheap flimsy plastic and has little or no value add. And the $149.99 carrying bag? Oh, give me a break. We have a airline carry on bag that’s the right size for the Bose and costs a fraction of the price. We returned the stand (Bose paid for the return shipping) and got the battery instead (Bose paid the shipping). I’m guessing from the fairly hefty weight that the battery is a lead-acid automobile type. At least the battery has value but their $149.99 marketing strategy/ploy for all of their accessories, regardless of value, annoys me to no end.

You’d think that they would have some way of storing the remote control to the unit so that the remote doesn’t get misplaced. I put piece of Velcro to the back of the unit and now we always know where to find the remote.

What’s nice about Bose is their 30-day satisfaction guarantee with Bose paying all shipping. I now buy products only from sites that have these satisfaction guarantees even if I have to pay more. I once bought a computer monitor that was defective and I had to pay over $100 in return shipping (including insurance). Another time I bought a product that didn’t live up to the hype and I couldn’t return it whatsoever. Over $400 shot. Another time I bought a tool that had free shipping but I wasn’t satisfied with it. I was told I could return it but I would have to pay for their “free” shipping and my return shipping. Since the tool was heavy, the shipping costs (both ways) would have cost me almost as much as the tool itself so I was forced to keep it.

Conclusion: A very portable unit with incredible crystal-clear, house-filling sound. No wires to connect (except for plugging in the electrical cord). Extremely easy to operate. Does not replace a sound surround system with 4 (or more) speakers for a single room where the listener’s position relative to the speakers is important.