Bose SoundLink Home review: Big sound from a sleek little Bluetooth speaker

The best way to describe Bose’s new products sound link home ($219) wireless speaker is the company’s spiritual successor. sound link mini 2 This speaker was quietly discontinued at the end of 2018. Available in two color options, SoundLink Home is a portable Bluetooth speaker with up to 9 hours of battery life, but it’s designed for indoor use, has an aluminum chassis, and isn’t water resistant. . In other words, it’s portable, but it’s not the kind of speaker you’d take to the beach or on a camping trip.

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Apart from its attractive design, SoundLink Home’s big strength is its sound quality. Equipped with Bluetooth 5.3 and weighing just over 2 pounds, it produces an impressive amount of bass for its compact size and also offers decent clarity. Overall, it sounds great for a mini Bluetooth speaker, with a larger, slightly richer sound than the SoundLink Flex ($150).

However, like any small speaker, the sound has its limitations. Turning up the volume on more complex tracks can make certain frequencies sound a little subdued, as digital processing prevents distortion. It is also more suitable for small to medium sized rooms. I filled my bedroom and home office with sound, and while it was fine for creating background music, it felt a little too small for my living room.

Note that this is a mono speaker that uses digital processing tricks to widen the soundstage and make the sound more spacious. That’s fine, but if you combine two of these speakers and use them as a stereo pair, you’ll get significantly better sound. You can also connect the speaker directly to your computer, smartphone, or tablet using a USB-C cable for wired sound. As you might expect, the SoundLink Home sounds slightly cleaner and more detailed in wired USB-C mode.

Other than the built-in microphone, there are no additional features that allow you to use the speaker as a personal speakerphone. And it works well in that capacity. Callers said they could hear me clearly and that background noise was reduced.

More importantly, SoundLink Home is a bit pricey and doesn’t link to the Bose companion app for headphones or other Bluetooth speakers. This is a bit strange and there is no way to fine-tune the sound profile with the equalizer settings. I didn’t feel a strong urge to adjust the sound profile, but just pointed it out for anyone who wants to play around with the speaker’s sound settings.

Bose SoundLink Home and SoundLink Flex

The big question for many people is whether to choose Bose’s cheaper version. sound link flex speaker or this model. Bose recently released 2nd generation flex This includes new shortcut buttons, Bose app compatibility (you can now use the equalizer to fine-tune your sound profile, or create a SimpleSync connection with another compatible Bose product) , several new features have been added, including support for AAC and AptX audio codecs. These aren’t huge upgrades, but they make a nice portable Bluetooth speaker a little better.

In the end, it’s all about how you use these mini wireless speakers, and why you should look for speakers with more rugged designs that offer much better sound for their size (and last more than 3 hours). Your choice depends on whether you need Flex). (battery life), or use less robust speakers, which improve sound quality by about 30%. You will notice that some tracks have better sound quality than others. For example, if you’re playing a simple ballad or acoustic track that doesn’t emphasize too much bass, the gap won’t be as noticeable. All of these compact speakers tend to have different sound quality, depending on the quality of the recording and the type of tracks you play.

Please note that SoundLink Home currently supports SBC and AAC audio codecs, but not AptX. This omission isn’t a big deal, especially considering you get USB-C audio with SoundLink Home.

As much as I’d like to tell you to prioritize one speaker over the other, it’s not that simple. However, if you plan on using the speaker primarily indoors, such as in your home office, bedroom, or kitchen, and occasionally heading out to the patio, SoundLink Home is probably a better choice. Remove excess dough. Of course, ideally you’d be able to link SoundLink Home to SoundLink Flex, but that option isn’t currently available, and who knows if it ever will be.

When it comes to other competitors, there are obviously a lot of compact Bluetooth speakers out there. JBL, Klipsch, and Marshall have tabletop wireless speakers (marshall acton 3 and kilburn 2For example, they are advertised as home Bluetooth speakers (some even offer Wi-Fi streaming), but they tend to be larger and not all are portable. I JBL Authentics 300However, it is much larger than this Bose speaker and costs significantly more. There’s also Sonos Roam 2. It’s a little smaller than the Bose, but in addition to being a portable Bluetooth speaker, it’s designed to connect to your home’s Sonos Wi-Fi system. However, the Bose Soundlink Home delivers better sound than the Roam 2.

At the end of the day, Bose’s SoundLink Flex and SoundLink Home are both great small Bluetooth speakers. But if sound is your priority, SoundLink Home is the way to go.

Main specifications of Bose SoundLink Home

Dimensions: 4.33 x 8.50 x 2.34 inches Weight: 2.046 lbs Bluetooth 5.3 (30 ft range) Battery life: Up to 9 hours USB-C charging at medium volume level (4 hours to full charge, charger not included) (No) Built-in USB-C audio wired mode – Built-in microphone for speakerphone function Stereo mode (Requires a second Soundlink home speaker) Light silver and cool gray colors Price: $219