Bose Home Speaker 500 Speaker Review

The Bose 500 is a wired-only speaker that's meant to sit vertically. It has a very similar design to the Bose Home Speaker 300, but it's a bit bigger, and it comes with a display screen on the front. The display shows the time as well as information about the music you're listening to. It comes in two different color variants.

This speaker isn't very portable. It's wired-only, so you have to keep it plugged into a power source for it to work. It's also a bit bigger than the Bose Home Speaker 300, so you may not be able to carry it with one hand.

The Bose Home Speaker 500 has a fair build quality. It has an aluminum body with a grille to help protect the drivers, as well as a plastic top with tactile buttons. There's also a color LED screen on the front. Overall, its build feels solid and durable. However, it doesn't have any advertised rating for water resistance, so you should be careful if you plan to use it near water.

The Bose 500's controls are great. There are tactile buttons to help you adjust the volume and play/pause your audio. You can also press the AUX button to activate the input once a device is plugged into the speaker. Pressing the play/pause button twice skips ahead to the next track, and pressing it three times skips back to the previous track. There's also a 'Voice Action' button to activate the voice assistant, a Bluetooth pairing button, and six preset buttons that you can program using the app. The mic mute button stays red when it's turned on, which is handy. The color LED screen also displays volume adjustments, pairing information, and information about the track you're listening to.

• Bose Speaker 500
• Power cable
• User manual

The Bose 500 has fair frequency response accuracy. It has a fairly neutral sound profile, so vocals and lead instruments are reproduced clearly and accurately. However, they may also sound a bit dark due to the underemphasized treble range. This speaker also struggles to reproduce a thumpy low-bass. However, there are bass and treble adjustment features in the app to help you customize its sound more to your liking. If you're looking for a speaker with a more extended low-bass, consider the Denon Home 350.

The Bose Home Speaker 500 has an amazing soundstage performance. This stereo speaker has impressive directivity thanks to its 360-degree design, resulting in an open, spacious soundstage.

The Bose 500 Speaker has decent dynamics. It gets pretty loud, so it's suitable for using your speaker in a large room or at a crowded party. However, there's some compression present when you play it at max volume, especially in the bass range.

This wired-only speaker doesn't have a battery.

The Bose Home Speaker 500 has an exceptional voice assistant performance. It has built-in support for Alexa and Google Assistant, which you can activate using your voice. However, using Alexa only, you can directly make commands to other Bose smart products, Amazon Echo products, or anyone in your contacts list. The speaker can hear you clearly even if you aren't very close to it, or if you're in a noisy setting. You can also mute the microphone if you don't want it to hear you.

The Bose Music app is good. Though it doesn't have a full graphic EQ like the Ultimate Ears HYPERBOOM, there are bass and treble adjustments to help you customize its sound more to your liking. You can also use the app to pair it with other Bose Home Speakers to play audio across different rooms in your house or at a crowded party.

This speaker has an AUX port so you can wire your smartphone to the speaker. There's also a micro USB port on the bottom, but it's just for servicing the speaker.

The Bose Home Speaker 500 has great Bluetooth connectivity. 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.

This speaker is Wi-Fi compatible and it supports Apple AirPlay. It has low latency via AirPlay, making it suitable for watching videos. However, it doesn't support Google Chromecast.