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Are monstrous light-flashing music systems history? Catch the new trend.

By Shailesh Dobhal

Getting smaller

Monstrous light-flashing music systems, the big things that were kept prominently in living rooms for guests to notice, could find themselves passing into history. Well, if the population of discerning music buffs outgrows that of status symbol seekers, that is.

The real music listener, with an ear trained to pick up actual sound quality (rather than loudness and noise), is gravitating towards the compact little music systems being marketed by such players as Bose.

Also termed as 'Micros' in industry parlance, these single deck no-nonsense systems score not just on actual sound parameters, but on aesthetics as well. At least as far as discerning customers go. These constitute just 1 per cent of the estimated Rs 1,000-crore audio systems market in the country, but could set the trend for cheaper systems in the time to come.

Remember, what the connoisseurs do today, the mass market will do tomorrow. At the moment, there are just about four-to-five players in this segment. There's Philips, Sony, Thomson -- and at the higher end, Bose, the image leader.

Philips offers two systems in the price range of Rs 12,990 to Rs 22,900, both of which look rather sleek and sound good. On sound fidelity, though, it's hard to match the two Bose systems available in the market: the Acoustic Wave Music System and the Wave Radio CD.

The top-end Bose Acoustic Wave Music System bears a price-tag of Rs 62,900 (taxes extra), and at first glance, it looks like something you could slip into a briefcase. But wait till you turn it on. Equipped with a CD player and high-performance stereo tuner with 5 AM and 5 FM presets, controlling the system is a snap. The credit card-size remote operates most functions of the system, so you barely lift a finger. External sources such as TVs or VCRs can also be added to the music system. Still better, the system can be converted into a portable unit so that you can also take it outdoors.

Building on the plain Wave Radio, Bose has added a full-function CD player to plain Wave Radio, to give you the Wave Radio CD, which features a stereo tuner, 6 AM and 6 FM presets, and a CD player with skip, scan, random, repeat and programming functions. There's another feature in the Wave Radio CD you won't notice by just looking at the system -- integrated signal processing, which automatically adjusts tonal balance so you hear natural sound at all volume levels. No longer will you have to make all those troublesome adjustments. Only one thing. This Wave Radio CD system will set you back by around Rs 32,900 -- plus taxes.

Feel up to it? Try it out at a Bose showroom. Take your favourite CD along. But do remember that your house won't have the same indoor acoustics as the showroom.

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