This
radio is the coolest thing since
absolute zero. While I would never spend this much on a
clock radio, I got this $500 radio for free by accident.
My father has been wanting a Bose Wave Radio for several years now, and my mother figured that it would be a perfect gift. Until she noticed the price tag. $500 for a radio? How ridiculous is that! The idea was abandoned.
Two years ago, My Zeyde (Grandfather, for all of you that for some reason can't speak yiddish) remaried. The person he married worked for Levinger's, a mail order catalog specializing in book accessories, but also selling random other items like Bose Wave Radios. She got a 50% discount on anything that they sell. A $500 radio suddenly would only cost us $250. My mom, of course, bought it for my fathers birthday.
Several weeks after we received the radio, another box came in the mail. It was, you guessed it, another radio. Being honest, we called Bose and told them what occurred. The lady said we were lying, and it couldn't have happened, then hung up the phone. We called back and asked to talk to the manager. The manager was just a bit incredulous. Not that it was so incredibly unusual for them to screw up, but that we called them (twice) to ask about it. He told us that they really didn't provide for honest people in their stocking and return system, so we could either return it for a $500 credit (don't even ask what we'd spend a $500 Bose credit on,) or keep it.
I now have a Bose Wave Radio.
This Radio is incredible. The reception and sound quality are obviously great, but it's the little things that make the radio special.
It has two alarms, so I don't have to fiddle with resetting it on the weekend, and you can pick which station, and the volume it should go to. When the alarm turns on in the morning, the volume cascades up to where you set it, so I can wake up with the opening music for NPR in the morning at 6:00, and have the volume hit the set volume just when they announce the top of the news.
The brightness of the LED is adjustable, and can have 2 settings, one for when there is light in the room, and one for when there is not. It is incredibly nice to have the LED dim once you turn off the light, so as not to be a (comparatively) brght light on in the room at night.
There is a jack for auxilary speakers, so I can get INCREDIBLE sound on my CD's, and it's incredible easy to put CD's in. Basically, this is the best free radio I have ever owned (and if you have the money, even worth the $500 that you might spend on it.)