I recently inherited a Bose Wave Radio / CD player.
Since the device has an AUX IN, I can measure L & R speakers separately and their combined response. I’ve always heard good things about the Bose Wave System from people who own them. This will be an interesting experiment for several reasons. First of all, this will be by far the smallest stereo “PA” I’ve measured to date. Secondly, if the device sounds great and measures great, it will mean that I can use it as a reference for my studio mixes. If it measures well but sounds terrible or if it measures poorly but sounds great, that will be interesting to try to understand. Does the Wave System produce good sounding bass that is time aligned with the rest of the audio? Since the audio comes out the front but the bass is mecahnically ported out the back, maybe they are severely out of time.
Bose Wave System related Google Patent page
Bose Wave Radio / CD official webpage
Sadly the official owners guide provides almost zero information about the device itself. What is the frequency response? Phase response? What size are the drivers? Sensitivity?
Combing the 31 page user manual, the following screen shot is the only piece of information I found regarding the design of the device regarding it’s sound generating mechanics.
Here is a cad drawing of the bass chamber:
Here is a image from the Bose website showing how the rear of the two drivers creates ported low end that mixes together and comes out the rear of the device:
Stay tuned for the measurement results…