Bose Wave Radio Proves Limited For Listening to PC-Based Music
By WALTER S. MOSSBERG
NAPSTER HAS BEEN eviscerated, but the digital-music revolution is undaunted. Millions of people are still converting songs to MP3 files on their PCs. They are playing them back using the PC sound system, or burning them onto CDs for playback on regular CD players, or loading them onto portable digital-music players.
Traditional audio companies have been scrambling to catch this wave. Sony, Philips, RCA, Kenwood and others are all bringing out audio gear that plays MP3 files either from an internal hard disk or from a CD.
Now Bose, the Massachusetts maker of the famed Wave table-top radios, has joined the digital-music arena. The company has just introduced the Wave/PC System, a radio that you connect to your PC for playback of MP3s and other digital-music files, as well as Internet-based radio stations and CDs you place in the computer.
The Wave/PC looks just like a normal Wave radio. It incorporates a regular AM/FM tuner and the very good internal Bose speakers. The Wave/PC even comes with the classic, thin Bose remote control. Like a normal Wave radio, it's also costly -- $450 direct from the company.
THIS UNIT IS more than a fancy speaker system. The radio and PC are actually electronically connected, so one can control the other. For instance, you can use special Bose software on your PC to tune in the AM and FM stations received on the radio. And you can use the remote control to play back, through the radio, PC-based Internet radio stations, CDs and stored-music files.
Bose Wave/PC
In my tests, the Bose Wave/PC largely worked as advertised. But I can't recommend it. It's really a technology in search of a purpose, and hardly justifies its hefty price tag. It's too much to pay for better speakers and too limited to really provide a satisfactory way of listening to PC-based music while away from the PC.
Installation was easy enough. You must install special Bose software on the PC and plug the radio into the computer's sound card and into the serial port. My main gripe about this is that Bose should have used the simpler USB connector and left the serial port open for Palm Pilots. Also, the installation program makes it too hard to opt out of product registration.
The software is OK, and it does perform the unusual task of tuning in AM and FM stations on the radio. There are even preset station buttons you can program. But it's a mystery to me why you'd want to tune AM and FM stations from the PC. The cord connecting the PC and the radio is only 15 feet long, so the radio will be close enough when you're sitting at the PC to control it as usual via the remote.
As for the software's ability to play stored music files and Internet radio stations, I didn't think it was as good as the most popular jukebox programs, MusicMatch and RealJukebox, which almost everybody with an extensive MP3 collection already uses.
The sound produced by the Wave/PC was much better than the typical cheap speakers that come with PCs. But it actually was inferior to the sound yielded by a set of Altec Lansing speakers and subwoofer that I bought for under $100.
As for using the Wave/PC as a way to access PC music or Internet radio stations without sitting in front of the PC, I was underwhelmed. First of all, the thick, 15-foot cord doesn't let you get too far way from the PC. Second, neither the remote nor the screen on the radio has an interface capable of selecting songs or Net radio stations from a large array of choices on the PC. You can only hear what has been set up in advance in the software, except for six preset buttons to which you can assign specific songs or stations.
BOSE WOULD HAVE been smarter to produce a unit that could be networked wirelessly to a PC from a distant part of the house. Or the company should merely have modified the CD-player version of the Wave radio so it could play MP3s that have been burned onto a CD. But this Wave/PC product makes very little sense.
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