Alternatives to Antique Radios: Crosley Vintage-Style Radios

There is something nice about a radio that looks like furniture and fits into the overall decor of a living room or bedroom.  Many people want music to contribute to a soothing ambience of a living space and find that the typical black plastic stereo with dancing LED lights doesn't fit their tastes.

Old Radio Set at the museum Terug in de Tijd, Horn, The Netherlands - Photo By Alf van Beem (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

Serious radio hobbyists hunt down vintage radios and restore them.  However, that takes a familiarity with electronics and the safe restoration of vintage electronics.  Unfortunately, it's not for the faint of heart.  It's also another hobby that is really best conducted with access to a garage, a work bench, and a well ventilated area.

An alternative to restoring an old radio is to by a new radio with retro styling.  Over the years, I've found that the Crosley company makes some really nice retro radios.  I've listened to many of them at Target and my father has a nice Crosley retro unit with a CD and a record player built in.  Modern users will be glad to note that it does have an auxiliary input jack to allow music streaming devices to be attached.


The Crosley CR31-WA has a traditional cathedral cabinet and a powerful speaker.  It consistently gets 4 out of 5 stars in over 180 Amazon reviews.


The radio stands about 11 inches high and is 9 inches wide.  The cabinet is five inches deep.  That makes it ideal for use on a bookshelf or on top of a dresser or night stand.  However, modern users may be put off by the lack of a external input jack for connections to external devices such as cell phones, tablets, laptops and other streaming music sources.





Either of these radios might make a great Father's Day gift. 

Alternatives to the Bose Wave Radio System

Every year, someone in America thinks that getting an aging parent a nice radio is a great gift idea.  If that someone has plenty of money, they simply buy a Bose Wave radio system off of a television shopping network and call it a day. But, as of 2025, we're too late. Bose has discontinued them. Fortunately, there are alternatives.

Bose Wave Radio - photo by Guide22, CC BY-SA 2.5 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5>, via Wikimedia Commons

Now that they are rare, the Bose Wave Music System has become even more expensive. While it sounds great, it isn't affordable for most of us. That's where this Dirt Cheap Audio blog comes in. There has to be an alternative.

The Aiwa Exos Home Sound System (Amazon Photo)

As of this November 2025 update, one premium alternative that replicates the Bose Wave Radio functionality is this Aiwa Exos Home Speaker, 30W RMS Sound System system (shown above). It has Bluetooth, a CD Player, and FM radio in form factor that comes quite close to the Bose systems that we've seen so often. The system is compared to the old Bose by many reviewers and gets 4.2 stars overall. It is praised for its sound quality and simplicity. However, some reviewers note that you shouldn't lose the remote. You can get it here at my Amazon affiliate link!