What makes Bose Wave radio sound so much better?

bose uses a proprietory technology called the 'wave guide system.' if you looked at a cutaway of a wave radio, you'll see a long and twisting chamber. that helps the speaker, which was specifically designed for that application, achieve lower frequency response. enclosure design has a huge impact on how any and every speaker will sound, and bose has spent many years designing that system. i respect bose for what they do, but i think they charge too much for their systems. i personally have one of their tri-port headphones (not the noise cancelling ones, couldn't afford 'em!) and they sound phenomenal unless you do something to block one or two of the ports. if i do that, they sound cheap and tinny! again, that's all in the enclosure design. No offense, but so much better than what? With Bose, it's generally smoke and mirrors. Bose does one thing supremely well - market their products. They are most definitely not the best on the market, nor do they give much value for the money.

Bose uses very, very cheap drivers in their speakers. They also use cheap materials with which to build the cases. The band pass designs that they use basically amplify certain frequencies over others, effectively creating a physical (and unadjustable) equalizer. You end up hearing frequencies that may sound good to you at the moment, but that don't really do any justice to the music or represent the full range of the signal.

Quite simply, there are better products that can be had for far less money. Cambridge Soundworks has long been a competitor of Bose and managed to make better products for less money; however, they don't market them as well. Their Soundworks Radio is direct compeition for the Wave Radio and has generally received far superior reviews. They're now retooling the line to be compatible with iPods, which sucks a bit since the CD version is sold out.