# Best Sound Quality for Bose Wave Radio Aux



## NYY96 (Nov 23, 2011)

I have always received great advice on the Home Theatre Shack, thank you all in advance for your help. Last year I put together a great main room audio setup with PSB speakers, and an NAD receiver based on advice from this forum. 

In our home office, I was looking to add an adapter to our Bose Wave Radio to be able to stream music. In my experience, using the iPad 3.5mm jack to the Bose Aux In produces terrible sound quality. Last year I purchased the Cambridge Audio ID100 DAC, but found that this produced a negligible benefit for the price point of $300, and send the device back. A few years ago, I had an Apple Airport Express setup, but I took issue with the router being plugged in and sucking power 100% of the time for the small minority of time I used it to stream music (I did not use if for it's routing capabilities). I recently visited the Bose store and auditioned the Airlink Speaker, but found this speaker to pale in comparison to the Wave Radio in terms of sound quality. 

I am wondering if there are any adapters out there which work well with the Bose Wave Radio in this regard. Would I be better off finding a system that connects in via the audio components as opposed to the 3.5mm jack on the Bose? Would a Bluetooth adapter be a sufficient substitute for the Airport Express and Airplay? 

From a sound perspective, what is the best sound quality I can expect to achieve without using a dedicated DAC? If I use an Airport Express, where is the sound being converted to an audio signal (Is it done before transmission to the Airport, in the Airport, or in the Bose Radio?)? 

I look forward to any insight you would be willing to impart. Thank you for your help.


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## hjones4841 (Jan 21, 2009)

Bluetooth may work OK, but in my limited experience in streaming Pandora from a Blackberry to a Blackberry stereo music Bluetooth adapter, I found the sound to be lifeless and further compressed. It was even noticeable in the car stereo system. For me, hardwired has always been the best.

Are you sure that your source does not have EQ on?


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## NYY96 (Nov 23, 2011)

Thank you for your prompt reply and great insight! When connecting through the Aux In on the Bose, I am using a regular 3.5mm wire into my iPad. I don't have the iPad EQ turned on and I generally keep the Volume on the iPad either at the top or a few notches below. 

Still, I need to turn the volume on the Bose nearly all the way to top (Which can be nuts when I forget to turn it down!) to get anything decent out of it, and the quality suffers. Plus, when music isn't playing there is a great deal of whine over the channel. 

The Cambridge device (mentioned above) improved this by acting as a standalone DAC between the iPad and the Bose, but it doesn't even come close to the sound quality when playing a CD through the Bose Wave Radio. Given it's $300 price tag I returned it. I'm willing to accept less than CD quality, but am left to believe there must be a better way to deal with this. 

My question above deals mainly with enabling the Wave Radio for streaming - While I do want to do this what I am after is a "better way" to get music onto the device. If I could find a more ideal wired setup i would gladly accept it (especially if the price was right). Right now, however, I am finding the 3.5mm iPad Out to 3.5mm Bose Aux In to be wanting.


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## hjones4841 (Jan 21, 2009)

If you are playing MP3s from the iPad, what bit rate were they encoded with? If 128k or less perhaps that is what you are hearing.

Not sure what the whining noise is, unless it is noise from the iPad itself. Do you have a CD player that you can temporarily hook up to the Aux in of the Bose to see if the connection is the problem or the iPad?


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