Customer Reviews

Bose SoundLink Wireless Music System

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

"I was excited for this product to come out and hoped it would work with my iPhone "remote" application which it does nicely. I had the wireless key plugged into my macbook pro and everything works flawlessly as long as your wireless computer network is not on. When it is the Bose Soundlink can't cope and the music cuts in and out and is useless (the troubleshooting guide even acknowledges this!). It seems that you can either listen to your wireless music with the Soundlink OR surf the internet but not both at the same time. If you need to do both simultaneously do not get this product.

Instead get an Airport Express and the Bose Companion 3 speakers to set up a wireless music system through iTunes and AirTunes. You'll also save about $200 this way.

The Bose Soundlink is way too expensive not to have this wireless glitch resolved. Until Bose fixes this, beware of this potentially fabulous product."

Pros:

-No need for the included dongle: just tote around the SoundLink, your phone, and you're done! - successfully pairs or connects to any A2DP enabled devices like cell phones, etc. through Bluetooth!

-System fills room easily with rich sound but travels better when placed in a corner or against a wall for enhanced acoustics

-Quick, no-fuss setup whether using included dongle or not. As long as your device has a USB port, music to be played, and is a computer, you'll be set up in less than a minute.

-No other device I've researched makes such an attractive unit that:
cuts out the input cords to your audio device
AND
cuts out the speaker's power cord too

-Battery life, 5 hours at low to moderate level. 3 hours as advertised if you're blasting loud music at full volume or using heavy bass

-Auxiliary cord if you want to hook up a device directly to unit, should a computer or Bluetooth connection not be available

-Plays whatever your iPod or iPhone does. Wanna play a game? Play Pandora? Music Videos, etc. Well, ANY of them will play out of this Bose unit after pairing.


Cons:

-Expensive. Could stand to be $100 cheaper - the price is so high likely due to: inclusion of Bluetooth (this would be a $149 add-on accessory for the SoundDock 10), portability, and likely a 'Bose tax'

-Sound quality was good but left an 8/10 impression on me


UPDATE - 12/07/09: Added Bluetooth Pairing Instructions within this Review's comments for any of you curious folks out there. Enjoy!

This compact little system is simply amazing. The clarity and depth makes my music come alive. It is exactly what you would expect from Bose. Sure it is expensive, but you get what you pay for. I compared it with Sony (S-Air wireless system) - Sony is slightly cheaper but doesn't really match up to the Bose quality.

The setup couldn't be much easier either - just plug it into the wall, plug the USB key into your laptop and its all set! Another reviewer has complained about interference with existing wireless systems. I found no such issues. I am able to surf the web, use my cordless handset and play wireless music simultaneously without any interference.

OK, in the interests of full disclosure, I also own the Bose QC2 & QC3 headphones, the Sounddock Portable, and the V20 Home Theater System. I was attracted to the concept of broadcasting my computer to a remote location. I use Sirius Satellite Radio and Pandora, and of course I have iTunes on my computers. I was very lucky to be browsing Amazon in the middle of the night and saw the Soundlink at a ridiculously low (by Bose standards) price through an Amazon sub-vendor. So low that I couldn't hit 'checkout' fast enough. Once I received it, I found, like many other reviewers, that hooking it up was simple. The USB dongle was a cinch. Sirius Classic Vinyl came streaming through the Soundlink and the sound quality was absolutely brilliant. Considering it's a wireless device, I am even more impressed. Deep, rich, full sound - identical to the quality of the Sounddock. Additionally, as many of you already know, bluetooth is built in, albiet unadvertised. I successfully paired my BlackBerry Storm via bluetooth (Thanks to Angelo DePaolo for the directions). The sound quality from the BlackBerry was mediocre (not Bose's fault). I paced the perimeter of my house and yards and found that the connection began to cut out at around a 65-70 foot radius. I have used it on my pool deck in the backyard and the unit fills the whole area with high-quality sound. Even at a healthy volume, the sound quality is stunning; classical music at normal volume is incredible! I have found that I am using the Sounddock Portable less. A note to Sounddock Portable owners: the power cord is interchagable with the Soundlink, so you can leave it in the outlet and charge either unit. The remote works well, especially with iTunes and Pandora, where the directional buttons skip tracks forward and backward; no such luck with Sirius. I even used it while watching a bluray movie (JJ Abrams Star Trek) and the sound quality was stunning! Bottom line: If you can get past the high price, and you want portablility and independence from your computer, Soundlink is a home run. It has easily exceeded my expectations and I would recommend it wholeheartedly.

From reading the other reviews and now having experienced the soundlink for myself its clear that there are 2 different reasons for buying this product and its really only suitable for one of them.

(1) Looking to augment an existing home stereo set-up and get music into a particular area that existing speakers dont/cant reach. Want control over all speakers with the option of moving round the house, listening to music, controlling zones and applying music to certain zones etc etc.
This product does NOT suit this purpose. This doesnt compliment another system this is THE system.

(2) If your looking for this speaker to be the source of your music in a single location then this is very much for you.


I have a large music collection on my PC, far larger than is ever going to fit on my phone or an MP3 player. Rather than mess around creating playlists on my phone and then using this in my garden I wanted a method of having access to 100% of my music library in the garden.

This product works perfectly for this purpose. Yes you have to plug in the USB key when you want to use it but thats a small inconvenience for my purpose. If you leave the USB key in your pc then you cannot utilize your PC speakers the sound is ONLY available via the soundlink speaker.

Added bonus is that iphone connects via bluetooth. if i'm really feeling that lazy that i cant be bothered to go upstairs to plug in the USb then I can still access all the music on my phone.

The speaker is smaller than i expected. It looks great and the sound as you'd expect is simply fantastic.

No one would ever dream of spending [...] on a portable external speaker to take on vacation but you now have one with amazing sound if
you want to ever use it for that purpose.

People have complained about wireless network interferance but not had any trouble with this. However my soundlink is connected to my PC which is hard wire connected to my broadband router. the wireless aspect only kicks in if my laptop is being connected. So even when i'm listening to internet radio on my soundlink the input isn't accross the PC's wireless just the soundlinks wireless.

Cons. the remote is very basic. i;ve gotten around this by using the 'remote' app from iTunes, gives you same control as if you were sitting at your PC. To use internet radio stations and the remote app, simply drag your stations into a playlist so you can control them.

All in all very happy, suits my purpose perfectly, looks even nicer than i expected and sound is amazing.

If I had to make suggestions for improvement (1) holder on back of unit to store remote (2) dock station so could charge iPhone.

I bought this hoping it would work with my iPhone/iPod Touch "REMOTE" application and IT DOES!!!!!!!! The sound is what you'd expect from Bose, which is great for the size & portability of the unit. It's pricy, but for me --- worth it! The tricky part is the USB dongle; it doesn't plug into an apple keyboard, so you either need to use the back of an iMac or USB hub. I have it plugged into my 13" MacBook Pro without issues.

Let me start my review with the two only drawbacks I've seen so far after playing music for about 10 hrs with it.

MINOR DRAWBACKS

Small drawback #1 - Price
This sound system is expensive! I know this is a BOSE system but still I considered the current price tag about $540.00 plus taxes, big. Starting price at $490 or maybe $499.00 would make it more appeal to tight budgets, in especial during this thought times and economy. I am making the comment anyway because not sure if BOSE people read reviews :-) but giving the case of the BOSE sound quality and reputation, a small drop in price could create a bigger and better market without making it too cheap or affecting marketing (in my opinion). But well ... I paid the price tag and other people will do. So as long as people continue playing the high price, BOSE is not going to drop the it any time soon.

Small drawback #2 - cut in and out on sound with wifi
Like other person here commented, there are some times that the track continuity is affected if your laptop or computer is on wifi and you start browsing or doing stuff with your wireless network like downloading files. I am still investigating and will try to change or modify the wifi frequency and see what happen (I have ATT&T UVERSE with wifi, of course) I am an IT guy so I know what I'm talking about ;-) ... ATT&t router is open via web (internally with a password) so once connected you can alter some settings and if I recall well, wifi frequency is one of them. I will play a bit and see what happen.


THE GOOD AND WHAT I LIKE

The setup
...is incredible simple: turn the system and plug the USB adapter. After pressing the sync button it will automatically connect, that's it! And it works! I AM RUNNING UBUNTU LINUX AND WORKS THERE AS WELL! Only thing is that I had to change audio output via GUI; on Ubuntu Jaunty you must go to Preferences>Sound and change it to BOSE SoundLink Audio USB (OSS) Maybe you will also have to close your media player (Exaile on my case) and after that, enjoy your music.

The sound quality
... is a BOSE! YES!... if this is your 1st time getting one, you should know that BOSE creates the standard on sound
quality, same for CANON for photography and HP for printers and computers ;-) My mazdaspeed6 has a BOSE system and the sound quality is still the same after 3 years of continue use! They truly create good sound speakers and sound quality via electronic circuits.

So far I've played Opera music, salsa, rock, pop, dance, techno, all rhythms sound great! Be aware of that depending of your media player you should change the equalizer a bit so you can get the most of your bass and treble depending of the kind of music you are playing. In other words, if the song sounds funny or not too good, do not blame BOSE but get another media player for your operating system or play a bit with the equalizer.

The power
... I live in a 2000 sq/ft house, not apartment and boy ... I can hear this baby from anywhere. I can say without doubt that you will NOT need any other sound system on your house or apt for a party if you get this one. Power is good enough to enjoy in a party or play it loud alone without distortion (that's what I like it most, not distortion at max volume). I see no reason why someone would like more output than this, unless you want your neighbors call police.

Final comments,
Regardless of the small cut in and cut out, you should get this sound system if you want sound quality and decent power. After all, if you get this sound system is for a party or just listening music outdoor or any place at home, not as a high end-expensive speaker for your office and computer. So, is kind of silly when people say they can not browse the Internet and play the music at same time, I would NOT get this system for that.

It is often that devices are advertised as a plug and play gadget just to be hours later entangled with drivers and big windows of advanced settings. Is not the case with Soundlink. I have read various users warnings about wireless routers conflict and internet surfing through wifi but I have tried both scenarios within the first 30 minutes after received and worked very well indeed. I'm happy as a previous Bose Acoustimass owner for about ten years now and I'm keeping confident with its quality.

My Bose Soundlink will not play without a constant, annoying clicking noise. After troubleshooting with a Bose rep over the phone I returned my unit and they immediately sent a replacement. But the 2nd unit makes the same noise! The unit is pretty much useless with the noise. It is not just from internet music. I've turned off my router, and pretty much every other source of noise or interference - and the clicking continues, even when playing a music CD.

I would be interested in any similar problems from other buyers and if they were able to overcome them. It doesn't sound like Bose knows what's going on.

This is an expensive unit, so the decision to purchase it was not undertaken lightly. But now that I have the Bose SoundLink, I feel it could be as transformational as the first time i got an iPod.

Why did I buy the unit, and why do I love it so? I love music, and my wife hates clutter. So over the years, my 1000s of CDs have been converted to 100+ gigabytes of music on iTunes. Without CDs, which you can carry from room to room, I struggled to find an elegant way to listen to my collection without lugging a laptop or iPod around, with the attendant cords dangling everywhere. I need a unit that allows me to listen to music from my PC wherever I want it, with good sound quality, and with no cluttery wires.

Some options I considered:

1. The Bose SoundLink
2. The SoundDock II (for iPod)
3. Harmon Kardon or Bose Speakers, with an Apple AirTunes wireless.

I decided on the SoundLink because it seemed to be the simplest, most elegant solution. The ability to carry around the speaker seemed a (small) plus.

So why do I LOVE it now?

1. The sound is amazing. As others note, you either love or hate the Bose sound, but this sounds much more balanced to me than my waves. It sounds good at soft or loud volumes, and it can fill a large living room with ease. The bass is rich and (where appropriate) punchy.
2. The portability is no longer a nice to have. Instead of cranking music in the living room to hear it in the kitchen, I can just bring the speaker into the kitchen, then up to the bedroom, wherever - without interrupting the flow of whatever set I am listening to.
3. The ease of use is... easy. I had a blip in setting the unit up, but I called tech support who answered in under 10 seconds and helped me in under a minute (tip: if your PC doesn't detect the wireless key, then go to your settings and select the headphones output device)
4. I now have my entire collection on demand. Between this and the iTunes remote on an iPhone, I can access my full collection wherever I want.
5. Clean. There are no wires other than the plug to charge it. Wife happy!
6. Bonus: Bluetooth! You're sitting outside and decide you want to stream Pandora off the iPhone, just hook up to the speaker and you are grooving to your custom station
7. Bonus 2, for the musicians: I plugged a guitar amp emulator into the unit with the Aux input and had my own set of amplifiers... without the clutter and expense of a separate guitar amp.

For the first time, I don't feel I have to compromise between sound quality, listening location, and quantity of available music. I love the fact that I can tee up a playlist or radio station, and listen uninterrupted wherever in the house I go. You get a genius playlist that you like, and you don't have to recreate it or find your last location. And of course, my wife is happy to have a clean setup with no clutter!

I have yet to discover a downside. Some other tidbits I learned: Getting a multi-country adapter is inexpensive: $4 from Bose. A new wireless key (should your 3 year old decide to break it) is only $50 from Bose.

Go for it, you will be content, whether you prioritize a clean house or instant access to all of your music... or need to balance both.