Bose Home Speaker 500: Smart Bluetooth Speaker with Voice Control Built-in and WiFi connectivity, Superior Voice Pick up and 6 Preset Buttons, Black

It's not a chargeable... Plug and play

I am real excited to get my hands on Bose Home Speaker 500. I like listening to music a lot (you could call me an audiophile) and I really wanted a premium bookshelf smart speaker in my bedroom which could deliver a pure, clean, detailed and a crisp audio. Bose Home Speaker 500 does live upto that expectation. It’s punchy but not as crisp as I would like it to be. The sound stage and instrument separation could have been better. Nonetheless, it does a fantastic job. It sounds brilliant! In the smart speaker department, it does a phenomenal job. It looks and feels better than any other smart speaker in the market.I make the following assessment after extensively using it [edit] for 15 months now.A. Audio QualityThe true mark of a premium audio device is the proficiency with which it handles Lows (Bass), Mids & Highs (Treble). Each have their own distinct space and should confine itself to those spaces to give a detailed audio. Bose Home Speaker 500 packs a punch. Sometimes the Bass is all over the spectrum and the Treble is not crisp enough. The Bass is superb even without a subwoofer and twitter. Genres like EDM, Deep House, etc will not be heavenly if your music is Treble heavy, but if your music is Bass heavy – you’re in for a treat. (Keep in mind that I've set extremely high standard for this speaker and trebles are not so bad). Rock music sounds well, so does Country and Alternative. (Potheads will enjoy listening to Trance)YES, you can adjust Bass and Treble (not mids) from the Bose Music App to your satisfaction. But, I would rather have preset EQs. I keep my Bass at +40and Treble at +20.B. Bose Software & AlexaBose Music app is updated for India. Amazon Music is now supported in Bose Music app. You can now set presets 1-6, add your favourite playlist, TuneIn station, or curated playlists on Amazon Music. Use Bose music app to set the function. Alexa rarely runs into issues, but Bluetooth 4.2 isn’t as reliable a connection. You can play music directly on the speakers via Amazon Music, Savaan, Bollywood Hungama, Gaana, AirPlay and it works with a superb accuracy. Say “Alexa” and it recognises your voice and Indian accent or language instantaneously. You can talk to Alexa in vernacular languages as well. The voice assistance is phenomenal. Bose HS 500 supports AirPlay 2 as well, so connectivity is not an issue across platforms, Android or iOS. Although I do encounter issues while connecting it with my iPhone and iPad more often than I would like. After I restart my iPhone the issue gets resolved.C. Built Material QualityIt looks beautiful and it feels premium. I have bought the grey colour and I have not seen a better looking speakers in this range. It will certainly add character to wherever you put it. It’s an eye-catcher. Best in market.Overall: It’s a good speaker to have. It sounds good, has a good bass. It’s a good speaker, better than most you find in the market at a higher price point, although the treble could have been slightly better.

Everything looked good.. except for connecting through iPhone .. it took ages and then I connected easily through android phone to set up Alexa and Bose App.Bose App for iPhone seems not having updated to new ios versions.

The media could not be loaded.

After long wait, I decided to go for a Bose system in place of other speaker, some of which I had already tried and I can say that Home speaker 500 output is amazing.However when it comes to aligning the speaker with Alexa it is hell of a job. I am still unable to give commands, though Alexa is aligned in Bose Music App. Now I need to refer to video guides to guide me getting Alexa running.A suggestion, with such heavy price Band and prime market leade, at installation , Bose should provide the facility for aligning with these addtional feauters. May be they are not reading customers feedback.Further despite trying several ways, I am not sure how to use Aux option available in the speaker.

Bose home 500 is no doubt a competent smart sound device from Bose, but incorporating Alexa would require further programming development to facilitate playing YouTube playlist or accessing contacts, messages from any smart phone etc. given the pricing; which even echo dot( amazon’s flagship budget smart sound device) does effortlessly.When it comes to functionality Alexa might have problems in interpreting speech or intonation accurately specifically in the Indian region, even though I understand this technology is just at a nascent stage, and only asking Alexa for weather, volume or some basic general knowledge facts doesn’t suffice, it should be capable of doing far more like switching Bluetooth on and off/ turning off the device etc. Furthermore, I had a problem with the play pause button of the speaker, as long pressing the same button activated Bluetooth at times which was not expected, and i am grateful to amazon for facilitating a refund; and I also feel the device’s bass might require further calibration as it was not prudent of Bose to include bass and treble adjustment in the Bose app, I am saying this because what would a consumer know about the ideal bass treble adjustment? Since Bose is revered for its unique sound engineering/accoustics prowess, I expect their high priced products should adjust bass treble automatically to best suit the music being played and render the listener speechless !