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This speaker has a fairly neutral sound profile out-of-the-box, with a balanced mid-range that reproduces clear vocals and lead instruments, though they can sound a bit dull. It also lacks a thumpy low-bass, which can be disappointing if you love bass-heavy genres like EDM. Fortunately, there are bass and treble adjustments in the Bose Music app to help you adjust its sound more to your liking. Check out the Bose SoundLink Color II. This compact stereo speaker is shaped like a square and comes in many fun colors, so you can choose one that suits your style. It's rated IPX4 for water resistance, so while you can't float it around the pool with you, it's still certified to withstand small splashes of water like from some light rain. It has a balanced mid-range, ensuring vocals and lead instruments sound clear and present in the mix, though they can also sound dull or dark.
It sounds really good, with a strong bass response and pleasant treble. When I play Anti-Hero by Taylor Swift through the speaker, the bass sounds punchy and loud while not drowning out the oscillating synth, and Swift’s voice comes through clearly throughout the whole track. The bass might be a little bit loud for some by default, but the Bose Music app lets you adjust it or treble, which I find really handy when I want to avoid irritating my neighbors.
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Once we'd found the most sonorous, we played music through each from every possible source, including over WiFi, via Bluetooth, and through audio cables to identify any user-friendliness issues. And for the speakers that support syncing within a multi-speaker system, we used them as such in multiple configurations. We also used each speaker in numerous homes and various rooms to get a sense of how well the sound carries in different environments. Unfortunately, unlike the Bose SoundLink Revolve II, you can't tweak its sound to your liking.
I could command both without moving or shouting at a normal 6-foot distance while the speakers were situated at eye level. While it doesn't support multi-device pairing, it has low latency with both Android and iOS devices, making it suitable for watching videos and movies. However, some apps compensate for latency differently, so your real-world experience may vary.
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It also has Google Assistant and Alexa built-in and does an excellent job of understanding your commands from far and in noisier environments. However, the Yahama has can get louder than the Bose, with less compression at max volume, resulting in cleaner audio during louder listening sessions. It's also more customizable thanks to the graphic EQ and presets featured in its companion app.
Our expert industry analysis and practical solutions help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology. Thankfully, the high-mids and highs retain their crisp presence, with bright brass, strings, and vocals commanding most of the attention. Bose estimates the Portable Home Speaker's battery life to be roughly 12 hours, but your results will vary with your volume levels.
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Callahan's baritone vocals also get plenty of low-mid richness added in—thankfully, the high-mids and highs are dialed up and sculpted as well, keeping things crisp and bright. You only have to pair it with your smartphone via Bluetooth, and you are good to go. Once you download the Bose Music Companion app, it is simple to enable voice assistants like Alexa or Google Assistant. If you want to log into other music services like Amazin Music or Pandora, it might take some time to figure it out, but nothing that can’t solve a quick tutorial search. One of the major players in the innovative home game is Bose, a company that probably everyone has heard about since it is one of the most preferred brands when it comes to audio devices.
So the Home Speaker 500 sounds generally powerful and clear, but never once did I notice anything like a wide stereo image. There's nothing wrong with Bose trying, but this speaker is not going to trick you into believing you're listening to two stereo speakers placed far away from each other. The speaker can connect with other Bose speakers to create an ecosystem in your house. This way you can use your voice assistant in multiple rooms, play music in different rooms, and enjoy your own smart home setup. The Bose Home Speaker 450 will take your breath away with the extensive range of sounds and the fantastic way of delivering stereo sounds. So if you want excellent sound quality within a compact speaker that can be very loud, it is not that difficult to decide to go with Bose 450.
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Orchestral tracks, like the opening scene from John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary, have a rich, clear presence through the Home Speaker 500. The lower register instrumentation is pushed forward in the mix slightly, while the higher register brass, strings, and vocals own the spotlight. Things sound less sculpted on orchestral and jazz music than they do on other genres, probably because there are fewer intense frequencies for the DSP to limit. On Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild," the kick drum loop receives the ideal amount of high-mid presence, allowing its attack to retain its punchiness. The vocals are delivered cleanly and clearly without any added sibilance. It's easy to see how picking vocal commands out of a potentially noisy environment would be a strength for Bose, considering its aviation gear and NFL coaching headsets.
Despite the limitations of the form, the Bose SoundLink Revolve+ II still provides a solid audio experience, whether at home or on the go. If you want a speaker to be brought throughout your house and on the go while still maximizing sound quality, the Bose SoundLink Revolve+ II is the ideal. The lightest speaker we tested, we were consistently impressed by its excellent sound design, which was never sacrificed at the altar of portability.
If you do own one of these products, Sonos is offering a trade-in program where you can send in your older products and get a 30% discount on their upgraded versions. Additionally, all products made from here on out will only work with the S2 app and thus will not connect with the oldest, non-S2 compatible products. The Bose speakers we've tested don't offer a room correction feature, so your audio sounds different depending on the room you're listening in. The touch controls on the Bose Home Speaker 500 are quick and responsive, and there are six buttons on the touch panel for presets, so you can quickly play your favorite playlist or song at any time. On Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild," the kick drum loop receives plenty of high-mid presence, allowing it to retain its punchy attack, while the loop also gets plenty of added bass depth. The sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat are delivered without the serious depth they can possess through subwoofers—here, we get some of the lows, but we mostly hear the top, raspy notes.
Its battery also doesn't last as long as the Revolve II, lasting only around seven hours in our tests, so you have to recharge it if you're using it for a full day outdoors. It also has a touch more compression present at max volume that affects your audio quality when you blast your music. Its soundstage doesn't sound as wide and spacious-sounding, though this can vary depending on how you place the speaker. That said, it's lightweight and easy to bring with you outside, with an IP55 rating for dust and water resistance to help protect it against some light exposure to rain. You can pair your phone over Bluetooth to enjoy your favorite tunes, and if your phone supports Siri or Google Assistant, you can use those voice assistants to control it with your voice. There's a centrally located play/pause button, and dedicated volume plus/minus buttons on either side of the playback control.
The display shows the time as well as information about the music you're listening to. I played a Dance Hits playlist on medium volume for 3 hours and found that the battery life dropped about 5% every hour. On a brand-new battery, I would expect close to 20 hours of nonstop tunes. That's twice the time you can get out of Sonos Move, which lasted 10 hours on battery power in our tests.
It also supports Siri and Google Assistant through your paired smartphone, and it's great at registering your commands from far and in noisier settings. You can pair it to other compatible speakers when you want to create a stereo pair too, or when you want to amplify your audio across a large space. Somewhere between mid and max volumes, there are minor problems with this track.
Having an app that can communicate with your speaker also allows for more customization of settings. Its large size and powerful drivers allowed it to get uncomfortably loud in our testing room without sacrificing any sound quality. Clustered below, the Bose Home Speaker 500, the Sonos Move, and the Marshall Stanmore II all received comparable scores in our volume testing. All of these speakers easily filled our large testing room with sound, even when there were a lot of sound-absorbing bodies hanging out. We highly doubt any of these speakers will leave anyone wanting for volume. Maximum volume probably won't be a serious consideration for the majority of speaker shoppers.
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