Onkyo apes Bose with latest iPod-friendly CD player

We tried to resist, honest, but it's just impossible to turn a blind eye to the similarities here. Onkyo's CBX-Z10 and CBX-Z20 iPod-friendly CD players do manage to include ten-watts of amplification, video output, a headphone jack, the firm's Acoustic Drive speaker technology, a CD player, and an obligatory iPod dock, but what's not listed in the specs that you still get (for better or worse) is the eerie resemblance to Bose's Wave Radio. Furthermore, the Z10 looks to come dressed in white while the Z20 dons a black motif, and aside from "improved audio quality" from the latter, they each look to be identical. Priced at ¥43,000 ($361) and ¥50,000 ($420), respectively, these two units are even priced like a Bose, but at least Onkyo bothers to tell you the frequency range of the drivers within.

[Via Impress]

[JDM Posted Aug 11th 2007 4:11AM]

I think Bose's neglect of mentioning frequency ranges is probably very deliberate. It's often more marketing than anything else. Their Wave Radio did provide pretty nice sound for the size, but if you're willing to let the size be, you can do much better. My dad had bought one of those and a Panasonic 60 CD changer sound system. The Panasonic was cheaper, sounded better and had a very large. I don't even remember if the Wave Radio in question had a single CD player, but it was before they had their 5 CD changer. Anyways, the Wave Radio went back. If you're going to buy something with paper cones, you might as well buy something that gives you more for the money than Bose offers.