Audio Systems: Bose SoundDock, bose sounddock, speaker company

Question
Hi again!

Thanks for the information.  I read enough of the article on Bose
to get an idea of the company and quality.  I'd love to get your
recommendations on what to buy.  Here's what I'm looking for:

A single module speaker for my iPod.  It would be good if it were
fairly compact.  It's just for personal use in my apartment.  Right
now I have no speaker system at all.  I listen to all types of
music, from rock to classical to musical theatre.

I would love to know what my best option would be for $100 or
less, although I was ready to go as high as $300 when I was
thinking about the Bose item.  So if there is something
exponentially better when you jump to the 200-300 range, I'd
like to know that as well.

Thanks so much for your help!

Julia

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Followup To

Question -
Hi there,

I am contemplating buying a Bose SoundDock for my iPod.  I
currently have no home speaker system.  First of all, could you
make an educated guess about whether it may drop in price
(currently $299) any time in the foreseeable future.  Second, do
you think that it's worth the money to go for the Bose product,
as opposed to something in the $80-100 range.  That is, is the
higher level of quality adequately comparable to the higher
price?

Thanks!
Julia

Answer -
Oh boy,,,, well for information on bose you've come to the right
place!!  or maybe the wrong place depending on what you want
to hear.
Lets start with what I believe to be the truth about bose.  Bose is
a marketing company, not a speaker company.  They rely on
their marketing to sell their speakers.  If you walk into any high
end audio shop I can pretty much gaurntee you that they wont
have any bose equipment becuase the stuff is just overpriced
smoke and mirrors basically.  
Take an hour to read this highly detailed, unbiased review by an
auto enthusiast about bose.  he goes into theory, taking the
units apart, performaing real world measurments and
comparisons on sound quality and price. etc.

http://www.intellexual.net/bose.html

If there's any part of this that doesnt make any sense at all
please feel free to ask.  I would also be happy to make any
recomendations for alternatives but  I need to know your "needs"
like music types, portability, space considerations, price, room
size, room acoustics, listening prefrence, etc.

If I'm being too detailed I apologize.  Take a read on that
document though and let me know what you think!

Answer
darn, I wrote a whole bunch to you and the computer crashed when I was like 90% done!!  oh well to summ up what I was saying,
you can replace the functions of the bose sound dock by simply plugging the ipod in for power, attaching a headphone adapter to a reciever and having a decent set of speakers on that reciever. in fact a reciever and a set of speakers is the foundation for a home theater.  you may already have these but if not, you can get them and not only have a great set of speakers for your ipod but also for your TV, VCR, DVD etc since a reciever can acomodate more inputs than just one thing.  It will be more expensive than 300 bucks but it will have ALOT better sound and ALOT more features and be more usefull.  If you want me to make some sugestions for this type of setup let me know your listening needs and the equipment you already own that would pertain here (dvd, type of tv, etc)
If that's overkill and you really just want sound from your ipod then I would sugest something like this:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=10682

fantasic sound for about 100 bucks!  just plug them into your ipods headphone jack and away you go!  I GARUNTEE better sound from this than that blose system could ever put out.
The company that makes this also make soundock like products like this one:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=21560

But in all honesty just because of the design I would say the blose sound dock would sound better than this thing.  I would go with the reciever and speakers if your budget can afford,  if you just want something small and clear for the ipod then go with the first link there for the Logitech Z-2300.

GOOD LUCK!!! let me know what you do and how it goes!!