[ajzepp]

I live in a small apartment and I couldn't live with myself if I had vandersteens boxed up so I could listen to a Bose wave radio. I'd be climbing up the walls.

I'm building a full system in my apartment, moving up from about Bose level myself. Just landed on some Maggies and never looking back.

Maggies are GREAT apartment speakers. The sound doesn't travel through the floor/walls anywhere near to the same degree as box/dynamic speakers. I can listen to my Maggies with a movie pretty loud, and the neighbors downstairs can't hear a thing.

http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/778/movieroom1.jpg

[fredgarvin]

I understand the concept of simplicity in your post, but that Bose player isn't even stereo...it would be hard for me to give up the 2-channel audio effect. We did have one in our office, it made good background music.

[Rclark]

You're right about the Maggie's. I've gone back to my monitors for the last week, just because I barely got to use them before my MMG's and I have a lot of thoughts on that. Im  going to review them in the GR forum in a week or so. But yeah, they are energizing the walls and the place far more than the Maggie's.

[Wayner]

Get a pair of Advent Model 3 speakers. They are 10" wide, 16" high and 6 1/2" deep with a 6 1/2" woofer and a funny looking "am" radio type tweeter. They will sound awesome connected to any of the small wattage, vintage Marantz receivers, like 2230 or something like that. Your table will plug right into it, you have am/fm with the receiver and there is an aux. position for CD player.

I'm pretty sure you could get this system for $300. Small, cheap and awesome.

Wayner

[ajzepp]

You're right about the Maggie's. I've gone back to my monitors for the last week, just because I barely got to use them before my MMG's and I have a lot of thoughts on that. Im  going to review them in the GR forum in a week or so. But yeah, they are energizing the walls and the place far more than the Maggie's.

It's especially helpful here, cause I have my 3.6s biamped and I like to play them a  bit loud with movies...people are amazed when I take them outside the apartment into the hallway and all of a sudden you can't hardly hear anything. On top of that, I use a little Outlaw Audio subwoofer for the .1 channel with movies, and that SubDude thing does a fantastic job isolating it. So it can get really intense in here at times, but I'm 100% confident that the neighbors are not being disturbed at all. 

[Rclark]

Right now I have my sub sitting on an ottoman. Best I could do for now. Eventually OB. What's a subdude??

 I always liked subs up off the floor and away from the wall.

[charmerci]

So it can get really intense in here at times, but I'm 100% confident that the neighbors are not being disturbed at all. 

My dear, late "Turn that music down!" Dad would have loved that system! 

[ajzepp]

Right now I have my sub sitting on an ottoman. Best I could do for now. Eventually OB. What's a subdude??

 I always liked subs up off the floor and away from the wall.

Here ya go http://www.auralex.com/sound_isolation_subdude/subdude.asp

[ajzepp]

My dear, late "Turn that music down!" Dad would have loved that system! 

lol, yes...yes he would have

[grsimmon]

I say to the OP, good for you, sometimes simple is just really nice.   I have a second system consisting of Paradigm Active 20 speakers,  and a Sony ES 5 disk cd changer w/ volume control.   That's it.  Total cost was around $850 used and I really enjoy it.   

[techgal421]

I managed to buy the $1,000+ Bose Acoustic Wave music system at a street sale for $90.  This is the larger system, but still compact and very stylish.   I had great hopes for this bargain, but after extended listening I couldn't stand how bloated/boomy the bass was and I ended up selling it on craigslist for $300.  Not a bad profit and it made someone else happy.

[jrtrent]

I haven't visited this forum for a while, so sorry about not seeing the additional posts this past November.  Several months on, I find myself still quite happy with my cheap Denon/Bose system.

I understand the concept of simplicity in your post, but that Bose player isn't even stereo...it would be hard for me to give up the 2-channel audio effect. We did have one in our office, it made good background music.

Actually, the Bose is a stereo player, but, of course, given how close the speakers are to each in its small box, once you get your head more than a couple feet away from it, the stereo effect is about nil; Bose rightly recommends placing the unit across the room from the listening position, so it's effectively monophonic in presentation.  The stereo effect is something that hasn't often been a big concern to me, however.  For a few years I listened quite happily to a mono system (Linn LP12, conrad-johnson preamp, McIntosh power amp, and a single Klipsch La Scala speaker), and when I had an all-Linn system with Sara speakers, my favorite listening position was reclining on the couch with one ear pressed against a pillow--not exactly the position for best stereo effect (nor was the Linn system noted for its soundstaging/imaging qualities, anyway). 

With music, I'm more attuned to things like melody, rhythm, harmony, tempo, and dynamics, all of which are surprisingly evident even in this small, simple system.  One change from last September is that I've even come to enjoy larger symphonic works over the Bose.  I think I found its smaller presentation of this form of music a bit off-putting at first, but, of late, I have not been disappointed when pulling out the symphonies of Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, etc.

I say to the OP, good for you, sometimes simple is just really nice.   I have a second system consisting of Paradigm Active 20 speakers,  and a Sony ES 5 disk cd changer w/ volume control.   That's it.  Total cost was around $850 used and I really enjoy it.

Thanks, and yes, simple is nice.  I really don't give a thought to how the system sounds anymore.  I don't worry about how it could be better or consider trifling things like imaging, tonal balance, frequency extension, detail, etc.  I just put something on, and whether it be movies, music, ball games, radio shows, or whatever, I'm able to appreciate and enjoy what I'm hearing.

I managed to buy the $1,000+ Bose Acoustic Wave music system at a street sale for $90.  This is the larger system, but still compact and very stylish.   I had great hopes for this bargain, but after extended listening I couldn't stand how bloated/boomy the bass was and I ended up selling it on craigslist for $300.  Not a bad profit and it made someone else happy.

A friend of mine uses the Acoustic Wave, and I bought an Acoustic Wave II last June to compare against the smaller Wave music system.  In my small apartment, the larger size and greater output capability of the larger unit wasn't needed, and from both an operational and sound quality standpoint, I actually preferred the smaller model.  One of the nice things about buying new is that there was no trouble giving it an extended trial at home and returning it for a full and hassle-free refund.  I'm surprised you found it bloated/boomy, but not every speaker system works well in every environment.  I've found the Bose radios to require just as much care and experimentation in placement as any other speaker system I've owned, and I was fortunate to find what seems an ideal location for the Wave music system to drive my room.  Nice you could make a profit, though.

[JLM]

Those Paradigm Active 20's are the real deal (but have quality build issues).

The whole point to stereo is imaging.  If you can't set up to get a 3D image, you're just buying more channels of gear.

[Delta Wave]

Classic (made of solid wood, steel and aluminum, no plastic) Pioneer compact integrated amp, $60; NOS Infinity Beta 10 (they rock!) speakers, $50; obsolete DVD player as a CDP that was lying around & an Ipod or Iphone(you probably already have).

- My basement/garage/shop system. It's enough to have my wife call from two levels up in my loft to "turn it down or lower the bass"; all for less than $200 and it sounds great as well as being engaging.

How do these Bose commercials keep sneaking in here?

[jrtrent]

The whole point to stereo is imaging.  If you can't set up to get a 3D image, you're just buying more channels of gear.

I understand your point, but at this point in time there seems to be a dearth of affordable, single-channel gear.  So even if you don't want or need two channels, you might be stuck taking them anyway.

How do these Bose commercials keep sneaking in here?

Sounds like your basement system works really well for you.  I've never owned an iPod or an iPhone, but I do enjoy audio entertainment sent from my computer.  How does the DVD player work out as a CD player?  When I've tried that, the frustrating part is not having it hooked up to a television, which most DVD players seem to depend on to make it possible to navigate the files on the CD, especially when that CD is filled up with MP3 files in various subdirectories.

For me, a large part of the impetus behind buying the table radio was its small footprint--I really needed the extra space that my component system was taking up.  Instead of losing practically a whole wall of living room space to component furniture, speakers, and stands, everything sits and works well on a compact rack that's just 19 inches in width.  Wall-mounting components or speakers was not a possibility according to the rental agreement I signed for my apartment.

Not sure what you mean by your reference to "Bose commercials."  Does saying something positive about the products we buy constitute a commercial?  Should we only start threads to talk about what we don't like? 

My reason for starting the thread was enthusiasm over the pleasure that my small, simple, low-cost system proved capable of delivering.  Instead of a bulky system costing over $6000, a "cheap and cheerful" system of less than $1000 and with a very tiny footprint is bringing me a great deal of satisfaction (and not just the Bose, but the Denon turntable, also).  I thought that this kind of "affordable musical experience" was what this circle was all about, at least according to the "Welcome to Cheap & Cheerful HiFi!" sticky.

[Delta Wave]

It's a mono table radio with extra inputs, nothing more... it's not a system.

[jrtrent]

It's a mono table radio with extra inputs, nothing more... it's not a system.

Sorry for the confusion; I find myself lapsing into referring to the Bose Wave music system that I use as a "table radio," though I suppose that even a table radio is a system of sorts.  The Collins English Dictionary has a definition of "system" specific to electronics:  "(Electronics) any assembly of electronic, electrical, or mechanical components with interdependent functions, usually forming a self-contained unit."  Taken by itself, I suppose the Bose is a form of what Wikipedia calls an integrated music center:

"A very popular type of system for reproducing music from the 1970s onwards was the integrated music centre which combined phonograph, radio tuner, tape player, preamp and power amplifier in one package, often sold with its own separate, detachable or integrated speakers. These systems advertised their simplicity; the consumer did not have to select and assemble the individual components."

Of course, integrated systems were popular long before the '70's.  Here's a link to a picture I found of exactly the same machine I grew up listening to, though ours sat on a matching record storage unit designed to keep the player at a useable height:
http://www.retroaudiolab.com/pictures/silvertone.JPG

I agree with you, though, and tend to think of collections of things as properly being a system.  Though they're input devices rather than speakers, I think of what I use as a system because it's not just the Bose unit I use, but also the soundlink adapter send/receive units along with the turntable.  I could say I have another Wave music system in the bedroom, to which I've attached the output from a DVD/VHS player and a cassette deck, but that might be construed as another commercial.

[JLM]

Nothing wrong with mono.

Mono "done right" IMO is much preferred to stereo "done wrong".

My only "dream car" was a Saab 99 (yes I'm a poor boy).  The stock model had no radio and no place to mount it.  In 1978 it cost me $65 to replace a piece of the under dash with a place to hold a radio.  So I bought a Blaupunkt AM/FM mono and one Radio Shack Minimus 7 2-way speaker. 

I went that route as imaging is impossible in a car, road noise/etc. makes serious listening a laugh, it lessoned FM noise, and a mono system might discourage thieves (previous car had been broken into to get to an average radio).  Mounted the speaker in back window directly behind driver's head, worked great.