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      01-19-2013, 09:26 AM   #1
335d Rocco
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Purchase advice plz

Just looking for a bit of help please, I'm looking to buy a Bose sounddock 10 Bluetooth music system, has anybody got one of these?? Just looking to see if its worth the extra money over the standard Bose sounddock??

It's the Bluetooth capability that's got me looking to get it, but it's £300 more than the standard sounddock, which seems quite a hike for Bluetooth

Thanks for any help
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      01-19-2013, 11:13 AM   #2
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Does it HAVE to be bluetooth? The B&W Zepplin Air uses Apples Airplay so will stream off PC's, macs and many new phones.

MUCH better than any Bose dock I have seen, and not to harshly priced.
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      01-19-2013, 11:31 AM   #3
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Does it have to be a dock if you want to connect by bluetooth?

You could buy a qed uplay and plug that into your AV sockets in your hi-fi.

Bluetooth wise you could do worse than the JBL xtreme onstage which was on sale quite a few places recently.
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      01-19-2013, 11:48 AM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by xs2man View Post
Does it HAVE to be bluetooth? The B&W Zepplin Air uses Apples Airplay so will stream off PC's, macs and many new phones.

MUCH better than any Bose dock I have seen, and not to harshly priced.
Bluetooth isn't something that I originally wanted, but like the idea of it for the convenience of it. But that B&W Zepplin does look interesting, will have to try and get to a shop and have a look at one, same price as the Bose, so will have a compare and see how it goes, thanks for the idea.
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      01-19-2013, 11:54 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kerr View Post
Does it have to be a dock if you want to connect by bluetooth?

You could buy a qed uplay and plug that into your AV sockets in your hi-fi.

Bluetooth wise you could do worse than the JBL xtreme onstage which was on sale quite a few places recently.
That JBL unit also looks like another option, we were only looking at Bose as we have a current Bose sound dock which we were just looking to upgrade.

I was ready to order the Bluetooth Bose sounddock online today, looks like I'll wait and check your ideas out next weekend in John Lewis, thanks guys
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      01-19-2013, 12:19 PM   #6
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I've been here before.

I was in the market for about a £400 dock a couple of years ago just before the Zeppelin Air came out. I trialed the Bose SD 10 and the Zeppelin and while on first listen, I thought the Bose sounded great, after listening to a variety of music, the Bose got tiring very quickly. I couldn't get to grips with the bluetooth thing either. Seemed to sap my battery like nothing else and not sound anything as good.

As for the Zepp, it want the Air version so didn't have the wireless facility but to be honest, I was buying for the kitchen so didn't really need to be able to stream music from my iphone in the lounge to the dock in the kitchen.

Sound wise, after a period of listening, I just found the Zepp much more musical and a pleasure to listen to. If I were to buy again, I'd buy the Zepp again and again. Obviously there is the Zepp Air now so you get the advantage of Airplay but bear in mind that they are apparently a bit of a faff to connect to your wifi. Once connected, they're meant to be fine. Also, if you're buying new, this shouldn't really be a problem as the firmware was changed in reaction to these issues. If not, you can always flash the firmware really easy through the app and usb port.

Another thing is that when the Air came out, it wasn't just adding airplay; B&W changed the whole innards and drivers of the unit, making it sound better yet. It's now a fully discrete bi-amped system! I'm not sure what updates the Bose has had in it's lifespan since I was looking at it a fair few years ago, if any.

Finally, the Zepp just looks so much sexier in my opinion!

Have you looked at the Arcam Cube? Not the prettiest, but meant to be the best dock out there at that sort of money.
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      01-19-2013, 12:21 PM   #7
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Oh, forgot to mention.. I asked B&W about support for the lightning connector for iphone 5, new ipod etc and they said they were working on it. Interestingly, they said that they were keen to get an upgrade kit out for Zepp Airs to convert them to lightning connectors. Sadly, no such plans for the original Zepp so I'm stuck with the dock adapter - which isn't that bad actually.

Not sure what Bose's plans for lightning are.
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      01-19-2013, 03:15 PM   #8
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I can vouch for the B&W. I've a zep and its fantastic, also my front speakers in the living room are B&W and sound amazing.
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      01-19-2013, 03:40 PM   #9
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Frobius, Thankyou for a very good post on the Zepplin, I've done a little research this evening and it does seem like its going to be the way to go. Im going to go and try the Zepplin out and see what I think. Judging by all the reports from you guys, it seems like I'll be impressed, hope I am because the Zepplin looks really good, a bit more presence than the Bose I was looking at.
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      01-19-2013, 04:03 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mart1000 View Post
I can vouch for the B&W. I've a zep and its fantastic, also my front speakers in the living room are B&W and sound amazing.
Me too. 685 fronts, 686 rears, M1 centre and ASW 610 sub in the living room.

685 fronts & LM1 rears (other components are wharfedale, to be upgraded to B&W when funds allow) in the cinema room.

B&W make excellent speakers.
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      01-19-2013, 04:16 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mart1000 View Post
I can vouch for the B&W. I've a zep and its fantastic, also my front speakers in the living room are B&W and sound amazing.
Thanks Mart, B&W isn't something I would have thought off, glad I asked on here now
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      01-19-2013, 09:13 PM   #12
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Have you thought about a bluetooth adapter for the regular Bose sounddock?

Something like this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bluetooth-...item2326a66743
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      01-20-2013, 02:28 AM   #13
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Without being funny, I'm not sure that the £9.79 eBay job is going to be even up to the standard of the Bose offering! That said, for less than a tenner, it might just let you keep using your old dock.

The zepp is still streets ahead tho.
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      01-20-2013, 01:55 PM   #14
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There was an article in today's Sunday Times about sound docks - in the back of the Motors section
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      01-20-2013, 05:27 PM   #15
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Have you considered some active (powered) speakers and hooking them up to an airport express?

I was trying to find several docks for my house so I could hook them all up and play music through the house in sync. I looked at tonnes of docks and whilst something like the zep or sonus do sound a lot better than the alternatives you just can't beat a pair of active speakers.

If you do want a dock, I bought a Philips dock, I think it was this http://www.amazon.co.uk/PHILIPS-DS85...724356&sr=8-15 and it has a fantastically rich, full pleasing sound for the kitchen. The mrs was very impressed and whilst I paid a bit more than current prices it was a bargain compared to some of the more expensive docks when comparing sound. Zep looks amazing tho.
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      01-20-2013, 08:29 PM   #16
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I have just purchased the B&W A5 which is the new wireless model from them. There is a A7 model which is alot more expensive but as just a simple dock I find it powerful enough for my needs. It cost me £400 but the build and look of the thing is so simple and so well built. The zeppelin air is abit more expensive but as the dock on it is sticking out and I have a iPhone5 it's pretty useless to me unless I purchase the adapter but that would defeat the beauty of the thing as it would just look wrong! Anyways I've always preferred B&W over Bose and this thing for the money is impressive.
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      01-28-2013, 12:18 PM   #17
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Thanks for the advice everybody, was really helpful and informative. We went out yesterday and checked out the suggestions, the zeppelin really is a great looking dock, we tested it out in John Lewis, the sound was great, we couldn't fault it. But in the end, the fact of no Bluetooth was the deciding factor, we all have iPhones in our house but my mrs and I aren't going to be staying with iPhones come upgrade time, our daughter has a dock of her own, I've already had the iPhone 5 and didn't like it, so I'm sticking with my iPhone 4 for now.

So off we went back to our original plan of the Bluetooth bose sounddock 10, although not as good to look at as the zeppelin, we thought there wasn't a major difference in the sound. We ended up buying one just got to find somewhere to put it.

We were going to get it from the Bose shop, but they were £50 dearer than JL and we also got a 2 year warranty from JL.

Thanks again for the help all
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