Nice sound, reception dicey
Written: Aug 27 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Price, Bose comparable sound
Cons: Poor reception out of the box
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| adjensen's Full Review: Cambridge Soundworks Model 88 Mini System |
I'm working in another city from where I live and I opted not to bring any of my audio equipment with me when I left. A friend had been pushing the Bose Wave Radio, so I went to a factory outlet store to check it out.
I thought that the sound of the Bose was impressive, but the price was not. $350 for a radio seemed a little excessive, so I checked out similar offerings on the web.
I ended up with the Model 88, which I received from Cambridge Soundworks in about a week.
There are two things to keep in mind with radios -- sound and reception. Sound-wise, the radio is spectacular, every bit as good as the Bose from my hearing. The three "modes" of the radio -- mono, stereo and "wide" are simplistic methods of adjusting the sound to get what you want.
However, I was VERY disappointed with the reception quality. I'm working in a large metro area, and the radio pulls in most of the high powered stations, but it's obvious that the box has a hard time pulling in weaker stations (like the Public Radio station) and, unlike some others, it doesn't compensate for this very well.
Now, I will admit that I'm using the "built in antenna" (an unsightly white wire that hangs off the back) and if I were to buy an external antenna, I'm sure that reception would improve. But I would have hoped that the stock box would have good reception to start with.
Reception aside, I'm pretty happy with it. Tuning isn't a high point -- you can't just enter the frequency, you have to use an up and down tuner to get there, but once you've programmed the stations you want (and who really needs more than six?) it's ignorable.
Given the choice of the Bose or this, you can use the $200 you'll save by getting the Model 88 to get a pretty wicked FM antenna, which you'll likely need.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
adjensen
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Member: a.d. jensen
Location: Grand Forks, ND USA
Reviews written: 143
Trusted by: 111 members
About Me:
Now blogging reviews at http://kandsmil.blogspot.com/
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