Bose

I bought this (WAVE 4) about 2 months ago, and it took an inordinately long time to arrive.

Upon receiving it, I noticed that it wasn't showing up when I did bluetooth discovery on my phone. After researching how to connect it to Bluetooth, I tried again to no avail. I then contacted Bose to help me with trouble shooting. Bose then informed me that the device does not have integrated Bluetooth technology, and that I'd need to purchase their Wave Soundtouch ($390 to $510 +tax), or Wave bluetooth adapter ($250.00 + tax). YES YOU HEARD THAT RIGHT PEOPLE! IT WILL COST YOU A MINIMUM OF $420.00 ON TOP OF THE $500.00 YOU PROBABLY JUST PAID FOR YOUR WAVE TO PLAY THE MUSIC YOU WANT TO HEAR!

As if ALL OFF THAT ISN'T BAD ENOUGH, THEY DON'T EVEN SELL THESE PRODUCTS ANYMORE! The representative told me to go to Amazon or eBay to find one, and that it should be fairly inexpensive. When I research and found the items at the prices I just quoted you, he said "I'm sorry ma'am Bose doesn't control the prices of 3rd party Vendors". Maybe you could try buying our bluetooth Soundbar, because this (Wave 4) is really just for old people who want to still listen to their CDs. DO I need to tell you how insulting this is to say to a customer?

Fast FWD a few hours: MY husband who works in engineering) comes home and said "Honey, don't worry, I think I can fix this for you". He took a bluetooth adapter I got with my MUCH less expensive SONY Boombox, and while yes, it worked, the sound quality was AWFUL! So he said, "let me try something else". He went and retrieved a headphone equalizer that he bought over 25 years ago from Big Lots and hooked that up to it. While it improved the sound quality tremendously, it looked like a mad science experiment gone awry. The result was unsightly, and our 7 year old was drawn to pull at all of the wires (Yes, don't even get me started on the fact that I'm 50 with a 7 year old... sigh...)

He then suggested we try to purchase a different bluetooth adapter and upgraded cables from Amazon to try to streamline things further, while attempting to improve the sound quality. Fifty additional dollars later, and nothing came close to producing a reasonably pleasant sound experience; I will say that the addition of the equalizer came pretty close though.

One more thing: This also doesn't do a great job of tuning in the radio stations all that well, so you will either need a pair of rabbit ear antennas, or a 300 Ohm FM Antenna T Shape Dipole Radio Ant with Spade Terminal for a Vintage Stereo Tuner Receiver (unsightly).

Pros about Wave IV: Sound quality when playing regular CDs.

I've said all of that to say this: DO NOT BUY THIS! IT'S A COMPLETE WASTE OF YOUR MONEY. Get your kids or grandchildren to teach you how to stream your Bach, Pavarotti, George Straight, or Salt & Peppa to a Bluetooth speaker or Sound bar and skip this all together.

Bose refused to publish the review you just read and sent the following email reply:

"Our staff has read your review and values your contribution, even though it did not meet all our website guidelines.

Your review cannot be approved because it:
- includes personally identifiable information
- mentions shipping complaints
- includes inappropriate media
- contains a URL
- is vague or needs more detail
- includes profanity

Thanks for sharing, and we hope to publish next time!"

They then disabled the edit and resubmit button and blocked my response.