Bose Wave Radio II

When I think of an alarm clock, $20 comes to my mind as the limit. When radio capability is added? $100. CD capability? OK, maybe, $250.

Bose Wave CD/Radio costs $500! Is it worth the money? Yes, if you get to use it often enough, like every morning to get up and listen to radio or CD while you prepare to go out. And time to time, listen during the day or night in your bedroom without having a second stereo system just for your bedroom. What I like about this Bose:

BATTERY BACKUP. When I used to have some very important reason to get up at a certain time, I used to use one extra alarm clock that doesn't rely on AC power. Obviously, I was worried about a blackout in the middle of the night and my AC alarm clock synchronizing with Moscow time zone. Battery backup sure gives me a peace of mind.

RAMP-UP ALARM. Do you have mini-heart-attacks every morning? This Bose gradually ramps up its alarm sound, and, in about 10-15 seconds, the full sound asks you to get up. I love the way it starts very quietly. This is my first alarm clock with this feature.

ALARM OPTIONS. You can set the two separate alarms, not only at different times, but with different sounds and different volume levels. Want to get up with your favorite radio station? No problem. How about with the CD sound? No problem. And then, there is that "dreaded" alarm sound.

ONE TOUCH CONTROL. With six preset buttons for your favorite radio stations, one touch will start that particular station. If heard that same station the last time, you can also, of course, press the "On" button. To start CD? Press the CD button. "Off" stops radio or CD or alarm. Very simple, intuitive control buttons, all placed on top of the unit. I can't imagine anyone slipping their fingers over these buttons; Bose made these with rubber-like material that has soft, quality feel to them.

TIME SETTING. Have you ever tried to set, for example, 7 o'clock and inadvertently pass it by 5 or 10 minutes? Now you have to go around another 12 hours to get to 7 o'clock? Bose lets you go backwards. And this time setting gradually speeds up too, so that you don't have to keep pressing the same button and wonder "am I there yet?"

REMOTE CONTROL. How many alarm clocks come with a remote control? Not too many I am sure. The remote capability allows you to place the Bose unit far away from your bed, if you wish. Being not much bigger or thicker than, say, 3 or 4 credit-cards stacked together, I wish you good luck finding a correct button to press while you are half asleep. I personally don't use the remote control.

SOUND QUALITY. I don't think I need to say much about the rich sound of Bose. This little unit sounds just as nice as some of the much larger stereo systems. Radio reception is pretty good compared to other radios I've had. But on some days, some station sounds come with irritable static noise.

INPUT & OUTPUT JACKS. Input jacks (one left and one right, both RCA type) are provided so that you can listen to other unit's sound through this Bose unit. Output jacks are provided so that you can record the Bose's output into a mini-disc player, for example.

DISPLAY BRIGHTNESS. Depending on the degree of brightness of the surrounding, the display self adjusts. I am not sure how useful this feature is except to lengthen the life of the display mechanism by dimming it overnight.

MY WISH. Why can't a company like Bose make alarm clocks with some intelligence to automatically turn on and off alarm based on weekday or weekend information (And of course, with a manual override feature for a few special occasions). For most of us, we have a cycle – 5 days of weekday and 2 days of weekend. The clock should turn the alarm OFF every 6th and 7th day of the week (counting from Monday), so that we don't get up at 6am on Saturday, and ruin my beauty sleep, just because I forgot to turn the alarm off the night before. Likewise, I don't want to get up at 10:30am on Monday morning and get into a panic attack just because I forgot to turn the alarm back on the night before.