There's a definite "notchiness" to the speaker's response that emphasizes the sibilants in speech or the breathiness in a sax player's noodlings. Vocals (dialogue) are crisply delivered and easy to decipher. The speaker's upper-mids emphasis helps if you're using this as a speaker for your TV (yes you can do that using the audio input). At low to medium volumes, it sounds magnificent with plenty of oomph from the bass woofer. The bigger SoundTouch 30 III is the more exciting of the two flagship speakers. While we found the original Bose SoundTouch 20 to be more neutral sounding than the original Sonos Play:5 this time around the roles are reversed. It's targeting people who want a system that's simple to set up and use and is most likely tapping into a music service such as Spotify, Pandora or Internet radio. All that said, Bose's primary customer for this system probably isn't the person who has a networked music library or the hard-core audiophile.
#BOSE SOUNDMATE BASS INSTALL#
In the end we had to install the SoundTouch software on that laptop and tell it to look for an " NAS," even though it was just software running on the same machine. For instance, we initially had difficulty adding music from a Twonky server on a networked laptop (it simply wouldn't find it), while the Sonos system had no problem. But in the absence of streaming from your phone we found adding network libraries more challenging. In most cases just input your user account info (and password) for each app and you're good to go. Setting up streaming services was pretty straightforward. We'd have liked to control the amount of treble, but the ability to ratchet down the bass actually came in handy during our tests.
Unlike the Play:5, which now comes with both tone controls and a room correction feature, the Bose speaker only comes with a bass control. While the improved routine is still not as elegant as Sonos' - you need to press the "2" and "Vol-" together to put the speaker in setup mode - it's still preferable to what preceded it.
#BOSE SOUNDMATE BASS PC#
When the SoundTouch range was first introduced you needed to connect each speaker to your PC via a USB cable, and this was light years behind Sonos' wireless system. One of the most welcome changes Bose has made is in the setup of the speaker. As noted, the app started out a little rough around the edges, but has steadily improved - and continues to get better. As far as multiroom apps go, it's one of the better ones and places all the key functions front and center. The speaker and the system it sits within is controlled via the SoundTouch app, which also features the same six shortcuts seen on the speaker and remote.