Review - Bose SoundDock

My not so cheap iPod speaker solution crapped out last week. Feeling spendy, I trotted down to the Apple store and picked up a Bose SoundDock Portable. I got the portable one so I can put it on my shoulder and roller skate down the bike path to P Funk, old school.

This is my first Bose product. I thought about a Wave Radio for a long time, but never pulled the trigger because I am just not enough of an audiophile. I have 3700 songs in my iTunes library, but I rarely listen to music. I don't spend enough time making interesting playlists, but when I put it on shuffle, the algorithm seems partial to my Mandarin lessons.

What finally pushed me to make the purchase was Pandora. F* the iTunes playlists. Dinner party with Mexican food? Cool....that will be the Mariachi channel. Chilling? Flamenco channel. Holiday time? Yeah, there's a channel for that. Polka time? Of course.

I have an old iPod Touch that is the perfect companion to the Bose. The price was steep at $400, but the sound quality is remarkable. My old $100 solution really struggled with any volume, but the Bose pumps it out loud and clear. This weekend I pulled the plug and brought it outside for a BBQ. It played for 4 hours before I turned the music off, so battery life is fine.

The remote is designed for iTunes, and probably works well with it....I have really only used the Bose for Pandora at a couple of parties. It would also do well for NPR in the morning via their iPhone app.....but I can't listen to NPR anymore after seeing this - http://bit.ly/c63kxT.

I have not heard music out of some of the other high end speaker products, so I don't have a frame of reference, but for its size, the Bose's audio was clear and impressive. The price may hurt, but you will not be disappointed with the sound.