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Bose SoundLink Home Review
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Bose SoundLink Home Review

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    Bose SoundLink Home on a bookshelf.     Bose SoundLink Home on a bookshelf.

Credit: Future

Bose SoundLink Home features

Price: $219
Colours: Cool Grey, Light Silver
Dimension: 4.3″ H x 8.5″ W x 2.3″ D
Weight: 2 pounds
Battery life (rated): 9 hours
Connection: Bluetooth 5.3
Bluetooth range: Up to 30 feet (9 m)
Custom EQ: NO
Multiple speaker connection: Yes

When mom says something ‘looks nice’ and she tries to find ways for it to fit into her living room decor, you know it doesn’t look like traditional audio gear. In fact, there’s only one thing he’s ever done this before; a small Bluetooth speaker that is now carried around the country for various meetings. The second and newest is the Bose SoundLink Home.

I agree with my mother. I think the new SoundLink house looks great with its gray fabric panels and seamless metal band surrounding the outside. But I’m doing my best to keep it because it’s really good.

I’ve come to really appreciate the simplicity of SoundLink Home, from its sound to the way it fills a room with sound. In my opinion, it ranks easily. best Bluetooth speakers While it’s not the cheapest, it should be high on your list of Bluetooth speakers for your home.

Bose SoundLink Home: Cheat Sheet

Why? A very stylish Bluetooth speaker.

How much does it cost? $219.

For whom? Those who want a nice-looking speaker to carry around the house or leave in one place forever. Since it’s not waterproof or dustproof, it’s not something to take outside.

What do we like? How it sounds, how it looks.

What don’t we like? Lack of app support and price.

Bose SoundLink Home: Price and availability

Bose SoundLink Home on the bookshelfBose SoundLink Home on the bookshelf

Bose SoundLink Home on the bookshelf

SoundLink Home is not a cheap Bluetooth speaker. It will cost you $219, which is much more than similarly sized speakers. newly released SoundLink Flex Gen 2 It costs $149 — a full $70 less — but you don’t get the fancy design of the Home. Home also sounds better, with a richer, more mature sound signature. This doesn’t mean the House is overvalued, but it does help explain why it’s priced the way it is.

There are also more usability quirks. The speaker is only available in the US as of this writing, with no clue if it will make it across seas. Also just Available on Bose website. That’s fine, but it does mean you have to rely on a single source for your new speaker.

There’s a bundle you can buy that puts them both in the same box (and uses them connected together in stereo mode) for the same price as buying them separately. Come on Bose, if you buy two a small discount would be nice.

Bose SoundLink Home Page: Design

Bose SoundLink Home on the bookshelfBose SoundLink Home on the bookshelf

Bose SoundLink Home on the bookshelf

This is one of the most important features of SoundLink Home. A kind of retro minimalism pervades the whole thing, thanks to the seamless metal band on the outside and clean fabric overlays on both sides. It wouldn’t look out of place in a sixties office with dark wood paneling, next to reclining leather chairs and a pervasive haze of tobacco smoke.

It’s definitely a speaker not designed to be moved around a lot. At 2 pounds, he’s not particularly heavy, but you get the feeling that Bose wants you to find a place for him and let him live there for the duration of his stay in your home. There’s no carrying handle worth mentioning (though the raised metal stand can be used that way), and there’s no water or dust resistance you’d expect from something designed for outdoor use. This is purely an indoor speaker.

It wouldn’t look out of place in a sixties office with dark wood paneling, next to reclining leather chairs and a pervasive haze of tobacco smoke.

It’s a simple affair at the top too, with a row of buttons for control. There’s a power button, a pairing button, a volume key, and a smart button. This last button does a few different things. When used in conjunction with the minus volume button, you can change the language of the status sound, for example. Its main job is to connect two SoundLink Homes for stereo listening.

Beyond the lack of weatherproofing, the speaker is built like a small fabric-covered tank. The metal exudes quality and adds some weight to the speaker. The fabric grilles on the front and back have a premium feel, and the speaker goes up easily when I drop it from waist height onto the carpeted floor of my office room. The buttons click reassuringly and look so similar to their metallic surrounds that I’d bet they’re made of the same material. SoundLink Home feels worth every penny of that higher price.

Bose SoundLink Home: Connection

Bose SoundLink Home on the bookshelfBose SoundLink Home on the bookshelf

Bose SoundLink Home on the bookshelf

  • Bluetooth only, no Wi-Fi

  • USB-C audio connection

This is where some people might get upset with SoundLink Home. The only way to connect to the speaker Bluetooth 5.3and it doesn’t connect to the Bose app like the SoundLink Flex 2. This isn’t a deal breaker in my opinion, but it does raise an interesting question about the speaker itself.

As I said before, SoundLink Home feels like a speaker designed to sit around the house and play music to you from its own permanent home. He won’t be able to find his way outside, and if he does, it can only be when the weather is nice. The lack of Wi-Fi feels odd, especially considering its presence on other Bose Bluetooth speakers.

I’m personally not too bothered by the Bluetooth connection alone and the lack of apps. There’s an element of simplicity that comes with a Bluetooth dedicated speaker, and given that it’s a small audio device, you won’t be able to enjoy many of the sound quality benefits that come with a W-Fi connection.

If you really want extra quality, you can use the USB-C audio mode and play your music over the cable. This brings some audio extras, but not enough to make you want Wi-Fi connectivity. Yes, it’s more limited, but in my testing I never found myself wanting more.

Bose SoundLink Home: Features

Bose SoundLink Home on the bookshelfBose SoundLink Home on the bookshelf

Bose SoundLink Home on the bookshelf

As I mentioned before, you can connect two SoundLink Home units together for stereo sound. You start it with the top button and then enjoy a wider soundstage than a single speaker can provide.

There’s not much beyond that. There’s no customizable EQ, no sound modes, and nothing that the SoundLink Flex 2 gets. Still, I never found myself missing these throughout my testing, but if these are things that bother you, you’ll want the more portable Bose option.

Bose SoundLink Home: Sound

Bose SoundLink Home on the bookshelfBose SoundLink Home on the bookshelf

Bose SoundLink Home on the bookshelf

For such a small speaker, SoundLink Home does an excellent job of filling a room with sound. While it’s a mono-only speaker, like almost every model this size, there are some clever audio tricks to make it look much larger. It’s also capable of sending out thick, chunky lows, enough to rumble the bottom of my couch in my small test area. I found it better to listen from a distance. When you’re too close to it, like on a table next to you, the lower notes can be overwhelming. When you move a suitable distance away, the chance to breathe increases and the music expands.

Porter Robinson’s dance rhythms Shelter It’s punchy and deep, with plenty of mid-bass punch. The synthesized vocal line ebbs and flows among the layered soundscape, but the compression in the digital drum line is immediately apparent. As you’d expect from something designed for the home, it’s a relaxed rather than lively performance, but it’s still pleasing.

Bose SoundLink Home on the bookshelfBose SoundLink Home on the bookshelf

Bose SoundLink Home on the bookshelf

Caligula’s Horse and The World Breathes With Me Manage a sufficiently broad and proggy experience. The speaker doesn’t have the highest dynamic range, so quieter parts are largely at the same volume as loud parts, but it’s still a pleasant listen. Vocal lines stand out here, with great clarity in the sung parts of the track. The dancing bass guitar is also great fun, but when the volume is turned up almost It happens too much.

Finally, window licker Aphex Twin brings listeners an altogether wilder time. Sub-bass punch is very much present here, while sound effects sit safely on top of the modulated synths. It’s certainly a lot of fun and highlights the speaker’s ability to produce bigger sound than its frame suggests.

Bose SoundLink Home: Battery life

Battery life needs to be stronger and that’s the main issue I have with the Bose SoundLink home. This only gives you 9 hours of listening on a charge, and I figured this out while listening throughout a workday. Considering it will be in and around the house it is unlikely to be too far from an outlet, but it should last more than 9 hours. The similarly sized SoundLink Flex 2 takes up to 12 hours to charge, so it’s odd that this doesn’t happen. This is my biggest mark against the speaker.

Bose SoundLink Home: Verdict

Bose SoundLink Home on the bookshelfBose SoundLink Home on the bookshelf

Bose SoundLink Home on the bookshelf

The Bose SoundLink Home is an excellent speaker, make no mistake about it. It looks great sitting in your living room, and if you buy two you’ll have a solid small home audio solution. But there are a few things I can’t ignore that prevent it from getting the full five stars.

It’s quite expensive, and gets even more expensive when you buy two for stereo mode. If you want a similar experience but don’t want to spend too much, you should consider the SoundLink Flex 2. Battery life is also not at the same level because 9 hours is not enough power in 2024. In my opinion, these are minor issues with an excellent Bluetooth speaker.