Here is a comparison of table top radios from the January Blind Phone
Book as distributed by Phil Scovel.

kelly



From: Will Smith [log in to unmask]

ITEM #22: Subject: Bose Radio and Something Better at Less Cost?



Hello all,



Since blind ad aims to provide information for making intelligent choices

on competing products of interest I'm forwarding a very interesting

article in Slate magazine last month about a radio at slightly over half

the price of the Bose that the author seems to like better.  I hope others

find this worthwhile reading!



Seasons' best to all,



Will

[log in to unmask]





Shopping Why Buy Bose? A tabletop radio review. By Fred Kaplan



You've seen the ads. =93The Bose Wave Radio is no ordinary radio.=94 It=92s=

=93a sonic

marvel,=94 a =93genuine breakthrough.=94 Such a little thing=97barely the s=

ize

of a shoe box=97yet it puts out the =93full, rich sound=94 of a =93primary =

music

system.=94 It costs $349, startlingly high for a clock radio but not

unreasonable if the claims are not overstated. Are the claims

overstated? Come on. How could they not be? Not that the Bose is bad. In

fact, it may be the second-best tabletop radio out there. But just this

month, what may be the best tabletop radio hit the market. It=92s the

Cambridge SoundWorks Model 88 and, at $199, it=92s very nearly everything

the Bose Wave claims to be=97at a little over half the price. The

Cambridge delivers a smoother, more coherent, more rhythmic, more

dynamic, more tonally true picture of the music. For example, on a

Vladimir Horowitz piano solo, the keys sounded clangy, a bit metallic,

on the Bose; they were warmer, but no less hammered, on the Cambridge.

When the quartet Anonymous 4 sang a medieval chant, I wasn=92t sure on the

Bose if there were four singers (were there three? five?)=97there was no

doubt at all on the Cambridge. When the Heath Brothers played a hard-bop

jazz tune, the hi-hat cymbal sounded smeared on the Bose. I couldn=92t

hear the accent on the beat. On the Cambridge, I got the percussive

thwack as well as the shimmering whoosh all around it. And though the

Bose hit the low octaves of the acoustic bass, the Cambridge caught the

finger-pluckings of the bass strings. The differences weren=92t night and

day. But they were of the sort that, over time, make you feel at ease or

slightly tense=97and which, in a moment of leisure, make you want to stop

and really listen or move on to something else. After a while, I hooked

up each unit to a compact disc player. (Both radios sport input jacks in

the back for plugging in a CD player, computer, tape deck, television,

or VCR.) I used not some humdrum portable but the Discovery/Pentagon

CD-70, a top-of-the-line machine that retails for $5,000. And I pulled

out two of my most sonically demanding discs=97Henryk Gorecki=92s Third

Symphony, by the London Symphony Orchestra, on Nonesuch; and Kendra

Shank=92s Afterglow, a chanteuse-plus-jazz-trio session, on Mapleshade.

Those familiar with the Gorecki know that, on some full-size (if not

very good) stereo systems, the first minute or so=97bass violins growling

quietly=97comes off as a vague rumble, its melody barely audible. Both the

Bose and the Cambridge navigate this passage clearly. However, the

Cambridge gets more of the bowing on the basses, more of their rhythmic

inflections. When a second, louder bass line starts in about a minute

into the piece, the Bose cracks up for a second. The Cambridge doesn=92t

exactly keep everything straight (teeny speakers and teenier amplifiers

can do only so much), but it keeps going=97it doesn=92t lose the thread. On

the Shank disc, when she modulates her voice, accenting a certain word

or dipping another to a whisper, the Bose makes it sound as if the

engineer is sharply turning up or down the volume. The Cambridge gets

the subtleties right. How do these radios eke such relatively big sounds

out of such small boxes? The Bose isn=92t exactly a technical

=93breakthrough,=94 but it is clever. In the back of the speakers is a 7

foot tube that has been folded into a thin, tight maze to fit inside the

radio box. The frequency of a sound wave is defined by its length: The

longer the wave, the deeper the bass. Such a long tube gives sound waves

lots of room to enlarge. Each speaker is also powered by an amplifier

equipped with circuits that boost the bass as you turn up the volume.

However, once the speakers get to the middle and upper octaves, their

limitations become more apparent; hence, the steely pianos, smeared

cymbals, ungainly dynamics, and the rest. The Cambridge SoundWorks 88,

half an inch taller but otherwise the same size as the Bose, takes a

different approach. Its bass comes from a 4 1/2 inch woofer cone, which

takes up two-thirds of the radio=92s internal space and is powered by its

own amplifier. The two smaller main speakers, each of which has its own

amp, are freed up to focus their energies on the less burdensome middle

and treble octaves. (The 88 also has a separate volume knob for the

woofer, so you can adjust the bass level, which would otherwise depend

greatly on room placement.) The 88 is designed by Henry Kloss, a hi-fi

legend who made his mark (with the KLH speakers of the 1950s and the

Advents of the =9260s) by figuring out how to manipulate electronics so

that a speaker sounds smooth from octave to octave. He applied 47 years

of experience with this art to the rather skimpy components of the Model

88, which explains how he gets such a smooth, coherent sound from not

only a small box but also a cheap one. Bose is the property of Amar

Bose, a man long regarded as hi-fi=92s most brilliant marketer but whose

products tend to be built around a technical fad. His Bose 901

loudspeakers, the company=92s premium line for 30 years, have nine speaker

cones, positioned all over the cabinet, so that the sound bounces around

your room =93just like in a concert hall.=94 One problem, among many, is

that most people=92s living rooms aren=92t Carnegie Hall; as a result, the

music just sounds muddy. His methods also encourage high prices: The

901s cost $1,400 a pair (some companies make $300 speakers that sound

better) because nine cones cost more than two or three; the Wave radio

costs $350 because that 7 foot tube was a bear to design. The Wave is

one of Bose=92s better devices. But he stretched too far, in his price tag

and his claims, and now Kloss=92 Cambridge has delivered his comeuppance.

(Both radios are sold through mail-order, the Bose from [800] 681-BOSE,

the Cambridge SoundWorks from [800] FOR-HIFI.) Here=92s the Bose home

page, on which the Bose Wave Radio always seems to have a mug of coffee,

a newspaper, a pair of glasses, and an Oriental rug near it

(www.waveradio.bose.com/). The page also has a section titled =93Critical

Acclaim,=94 which lists all the company=92s good press

(waveradio.bose.com/waveradio/acclaim.html). And in a fascinating

development, after years of advertising in The New Yorker, the Bose Wave

Radio now has a TV commercial that you can view online

(waveradio.bose.com/waveradio/commercial.html). The Cambridge SoundWorks

home page (www.cambridgesoundworks.com/) is a touch less pretentious, as

is its description of the Model 88

(www.cambridgesoundworks.com/model88.htm). Frank Beecham=92s =93Questioning

Technology=94 page has an interview with Henry Kloss, who created the

Model 88 (www.beacham.com/henry_kloss_907.html). In this interview,

Kloss claims, =93[A] new radio doesn=92t have to cost as much as the Bose

Wave Radio to be very good,=94 which is probably as close as you=92re going

to get to trash talking in the high-end FM radio world. Fred Kaplan is

the New York bureau chief for the Boston Globe and a contributing editor

at Fi: The Magazine of Music & Sound.







From: Juanita Fischer [log in to unmask]


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