$500 mini system suggestions, Bose need not apply


Hello all. A friend of mine is a Speech Pathologist. She works with children and adults with mental and physical disabilities. Recently, she attended a conference on Music Therapy. The main speaker adamantly suggested using the Bose Wave radio/CD and "nothing" else. Upon hearing this, I immediately talked her out of it; reasons why need not be expanded upon here at the 'gon. Anyhow, I'm not too familiar with the currently available mini systems, but recall that Denon, JVC, etc, have produced good ones in the past. The key here is clean sound. A lot of her patients are autistic. She warned me that distorted sound can sometimes upset these special patients. Her main request is for clean, full sonics. I was thinking a decent frequency response would be nice as well (40hz or 50hz - 20khz), perhaps a sat/sub type system, source only needing to be CD playback. Her office therapy room is about 15' x 7'. Since she was originally willing to spend $500 on the Wave, please try to keep suggestions in/under that price range. Also, she needs receipts and a warranty for business purposes, so please suggest equipment she can purchase new. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your support.
creeper
Harman Kardon receiver $188 at www.harmanaudio.com and some Ascend Acoustics CBM-170 for $328. This will beat mini systems.
Denon is dead sounding without PRAT but is calming. Same for JVS FS-7000 $300 at Tweeters, better PRAT.
Get the Denon mini system (forget which model) or the Teac Reference series. Both look classy and sound great. Forget about Bose.
The Denon is pretty good and looks good. Yamaha Pianocraft looks very nice and sounds good. There are also a couple of Onkyo minisystems that sound good, one mentioned by John Marks in his Stereophile column a few months ago. Those are the three brands that I would look at now. I have some of the TEAC's and they are very good, but I'm not sure they are still available, and you should avoid their 3 cd changer. Minisystems don't really go down to 40 or 50hz, but the good ones with loudness contours do give a satisfying bass response for what they are.
I have two thoughts.

1) I seriously think she should spend more than $500 if this equipment she is getting is part of her therapy repertoire. A minisystem just won't do. The distortion and bumped frequency range inherent in minisystemss will not be suitable.

2) The Bose might not sound that great, but I don't think you need a high resolution hifi here either. You just need a system with a full and relaxing/smooth sound plus ease of use. The lack of resolution actually works in favor of the Bose for therapeutic purposes as well. I can see where the musical therapy speaker is coming from.

The last thing you want is a system that sounds "hifi" since hifi=analytical=anti-relaxation=anti-therapeutic.