The Bose has nice, pleasant sound. Perfect for an elderly mother. There are probably systems that sound equally good out there for considerably less money. I had freinds that had one of the taller wave systems in their kitchen/dining room and used it for background music at meal time. Never heard anything objectionable.
My mother is 93 and when her old table radio finally gave up, I donated an old boom box (small Sony and not untasteful looking). She never listens to but one station on the radio and it sounds better than her 40 year old table radio so she is happy.
I don't believe that many of the forum members have issues with Bose sounding bad. Typically their objections are price vs. quality. Bose quality may typically be had for considerably less money. There have also been numerous issues reported in the past (haven't checked in years) about Bose quality control and customer satisfaction issues at at Consumer Reports. I don't believe I ever saw the Wave radios in these problem reports. Mainly their systems with built-in DVD players.
Bose. Good, clean sound. Easy to listen to. Easy to use. The latter often quite important for some elderly users.
