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Bose Home Speaker 500
The world of smart speakers is ever-expanding, and the Bose Home Speaker 500 is among the many. Bose has a lot of smart speakers in its lineup, and the Home Speaker 500 fills the niche of being moderately sized but with loud audio. Is that enough to stand out from the rest?
Editor’s note: This review was updated on September 24, 2024, to answer several more FAQs.
What you need to know about the Bose Home Speaker 500
The Bose Home Speaker 500 is a smart speaker that works wirelessly over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth 4.2. It supports the SBC and AAC audio codecs and has a 3.5mm aux input. It needs to be plugged into a wall outlet to work and requires the Bose Music app (available on iOS and Android) to use Wi-Fi features. Those Wi-Fi features also include Apple AirPlay 2 and Chromecast. There’s Alexa and Google Assistant integration, so you can choose which you want to use with it.
The Bose Home Speaker has capacitive touch controls on the top of the speaker, which allow you to adjust volume, play and pause music, turn on Bluetooth, turn the microphone on and off, and select presets. You can also control the speaker from the Bose Music app. It has an LCD display on the front, showing what you’re listening to, and album art when listening to music.
The speaker features two 2.5-inch full-range drivers, one on either side of the speaker, and Bose advertises good stereo separation.
What’s good about the Bose Home Speaker 500?
Arguably, the most important aspects of a speaker are how loud it gets and how good it sounds. Thankfully, the Bose Home Speaker 500 does well in both of those areas. The speaker gets quite noisy, even when the volume is only halfway up. It sounds really good, with a strong bass response and pleasant treble. When I play Anti-Hero by Taylor Swift through the speaker, the bass sounds punchy and loud while not drowning out the oscillating synth, and Swift’s voice comes through clearly throughout the whole track. The bass might be loud for some by default, but the Bose Music app lets you adjust it or treble, which I find handy when I want to avoid irritating my neighbors.
The Bose Music app works well for the most part. You can select your preferred voice assistant from Alexa or Google Assistant, connect a music streaming service and choose music, adjust bass and treble as mentioned, install updates, and more. It’s a simple app that helps get the most out of the speaker.
The speaker gets quite loud, even when the volume is only halfway up.
The speaker can connect with other Bose speakers (to an extent, more on that later) to create an ecosystem in your house. This way, you can use your voice assistant in multiple rooms, play music in different rooms, and enjoy your smart home setup.
The touch controls on the Bose Home Speaker 500 are quick and responsive. The touch panel has six buttons for presets, so you can quickly play your favorite playlist or song at any time.
It’s also very aesthetically pleasing. The aluminum exterior works well with many different interior styles and blends easily into a home. The light silver color I’m using matches many of my other tech products in my home.
What’s not so good about the Bose Home Speaker 500?
Immediately upon setting up the Bose Music app, the speaker had an update. This update took 10 minutes to install and made me think something was wrong. Never-ending updates are a known issue with the speaker and can sometimes take hours or never complete. After downloading the update, neither the app nor the speaker shows progress for how long the update will take to install, so you’re left to wonder when you’ll be able to use the speaker. After that, setup takes a while, and the process is quite convoluted.
You’re out of luck if you want to use the Bose Home Speaker 500 as part of an ecosystem with a Bose Soundtouch speaker. You can pair this speaker with other speakers that use the Bose Music app, but the two aren’t compatible since the Soundtouch line uses the Soundtouch app.
This speaker, and smart speakers in general, are not for people who don't want to compromise on data privacy.
While the buttons are responsive, I wish they had a way of letting you know you used a control. Sound, haptic feedback or even physical buttons are preferable. It just feels like I’m touching a cold piece of metal and hoping it does something, and it would be nice to feel like I’m pressing a button. When you press something, the screen shows a light strip, but that doesn’t feel like enough of an indicator.
A concern that applies to all smart speakers is privacy. The whole point of a smart speaker with a voice assistant is that it’s listening to you for a wake word or command, and the fact that it’s always listening can be pretty creepy. You can turn off the microphone, but you won’t be able to use the voice assistant. Your commands and questions are recorded and sent to servers, which helps improve the voice assistant software. Your data is also collected through the Bose Music app, adding to the information companies have about you. This speaker, and smart speakers in general, are not really for people who don’t want to compromise on data privacy.
Bose Home Speaker 500 specs
It’s a good idea to know what you’re getting into when buying a smart speaker, so here are some of the most important things to know about the Bose Home Speaker 500.
| Bose Home Speaker 500 | |
|---|---|
Size | 203 mm x 170 mm x 109 mm |
Weight | 2.15 kg |
Channels | Stereo |
Audio specs | Two full-range drivers |
Audio inputs | 3.5mm |
Wireless audio connection | Bluetooth 4.2 Wi-Fi Apple AirPlay 2 Chromecast built-in |
Streaming services | Amazon Music Deezer Pandora SiriusXM Spotify TuneIn |
App | Bose Music app (iOS/Android) |
Controls | Touch |
Price | $379 USD |
Bose Home Speaker 500 review: Should you buy it?
Overall, the Bose Home Speaker 500 works well and sounds great, making it a solid choice for anyone looking for a high-quality smart speaker. The most significant caveat is just how expensive it is, which is $379 USD. I would recommend this speaker to anyone with a lot of money who wants a loud, smart speaker in their house. I wouldn’t recommend this for most people, for whom the $379 USD price tag may be too expensive. There are cheaper alternatives that could suit those with lower budgets, and this speaker isn’t the be-all and end-all of smart speakers. I also wouldn’t recommend this speaker, or any smart speaker for that matter, to people who don’t want to compromise their data privacy.
If you want a cheaper option with Google Assistant integration and good sound, the Google Nest Audio is excellent. You can even pair two together to get stereo sound or put multiple in different rooms to create a home ecosystem. You can pick up the Google Nest Audio for $99.99 at Best Buy.
Another speaker with many similar features to the Bose Home Speaker 500 is the Sonos One (Gen 2). It has Alexa and Google Assistant integration, streaming service integration, and in-app EQ in the Sonos app. It’s more affordable than the Home Speaker 500, though still pricey. You can buy it for $219 at Amazon.
Frequently asked questions
No, the Bose Home Speaker 500 is not water-resistant in any way, so you shouldn’t use it in a humid environment.
No, the Bose Home Speaker 500 does not have Bluetooth multipoint.
Yes, the Bose Home Speaker 500 has strong, punchy bass that sounds great even at high volumes. You can adjust the bass settings using the Bose Music app.
The Bose 500 offers superior sound quality, with better stereo separation and more features, but it is also more expensive than the Bose 300.
It works via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, allowing for wireless streaming from various music services. You can control it using the Bose Music app or through touch controls on the speaker itself.
Yes, it requires a constant power supply from a wall outlet.
Yes, you can connect it to your TV using Bluetooth or the 3.5mm aux input. However, it is not designed as a dedicated TV speaker.
You can control it via touch controls, voice commands (Alexa or Google Assistant), or the Bose Music app.
Yes, it has Wi-Fi and supports Apple AirPlay 2, Chromecast, and various music streaming services.
Yes, you can use Bluetooth or the aux input for non-Wi-Fi connections.
Yes, Alexa is built-in, along with Google Assistant, so you can choose either for voice control.