Bose Home Speaker 500

Looks and feels like a high-quality item ; Hefty, full-boned and dynamic sound ; Reasonably useful control app

Quite reticent where higher frequencies are concerned ; Doesn’t create that convincing a stereo image ; Display is a little remedial

Expansive stereo sound ; Sleek, attractive design ; Choice of Alexa or Google Assistant ; Easy-to-use controls ; Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and line-in options ; AirPlay 2

Expensive ; Some music services not supported ; Slightly awkward multiroom control ; No Chromecast option for Android

Powerful audio performance with rich bass and clear highs. Streams via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. Works with Alexa, and will eventually work with more voice assistants.

Expensive. Display looks a little dated. DSP thins bass out at top volumes. Some deep bass causes enclosure to rattle.

The Bose Home Speaker 500 sounds great for its size, and the bass rattling can be forgiven because it only happened on one track and wasn't actually distortion. Regardless of how rich and crisp the drivers can sound, however, the wide stereo experience...

Expansive, honest sound from an agreeably compact package ; Onboard display and user-friendly physical controls ; Recognizes voice commands even in challenging conditions ; Very broad audio codec support

Companion app can't also control Bose's own SoundTouch speakers ; Touch controls on top of the speaker aren't backlit ; Some minor bugs remain to be squashed

As happens often with newly launched networked speakers, we’ve experienced a few performance quirks. Mostly connection issues (up through the cloud and back) that stall operations for a second and/or trigger an on-screen alert. Bugs they’ll squash.

Warm and sweet sound signature;80dB maximum volume with minor distortion

EQ does little;Important Amazon Echo functions not available;Won’t work with Bose Soundtouch or other Alexa speakers for multi-room;Sporadic Wi-Fi dropouts and long reconnect times (could be NBN FTTN);Far-field mics don’t work about 70% volume or over...

The is the best home wireless and smart speaker on the market for those that want a single-speaker system. If you want to use multiple speakers at once, you may want to look at instead.