The 10 Best Bose Speakers
Editor's Notes
January 19, 2021:
The fact that Bose updates their range so infrequently is possibly indicative of their unhurried approach and attention to detail when rolling out new products. As a result, the options in our list mostly remain current since our last update, with only a few new additions to the ranking.
Firstly, we added the Portable Smart, which, much like its competitor, the Sonos Move, is intended for use around the home or via Bluetooth, where Wi-Fi isn't available. This versatile speaker has a decidedly impressive bass response for its size and allows you to take your music, podcasts, or radio shows to the kitchen, bedroom, or garden, greatly expanding your entertainment options around the home.
Next, we added two similar items, namely the Soundbar 300 and Soundbar 700, to our list as they are both equally worthy of inclusion. Those who have a smaller living space might consider the former, as it is considerably less expensive than its larger cousin, but will greatly improve your audio-visual experience nonetheless. Alternatively, larger setups would benefit from the latter, and this has a better overall frequency response as compared to the smaller version.
July 02, 2019:
Bose has been making high-quality speakers for a number of years, and our previous ranking was a testament to the staying power of some of their older models. This time around, however, I wanted to makes sure that newer models were better represented, so I combed through the company's listings for the most recent and most capable offerings. The result is a nice mix of the modern with the traditional, though the days of dedicated, plug-in computer speakers seem far behind us. On the more modern side, you'll see the Home Speaker 500, with its small display screen capable of showing you things like album art. It's essentially an Alexa device on steroids. More traditionally, you'll see something like the Lifestyle 650 at number three, which is set up like a typical surround sound system, but with its center speaker being replaced by a soundbar to keep up with the times.
On the topic of sets like the Lifestyle, you may notice that the constituent parts of some sets are available on the market individually. We looked at them on their own and as parts of more comprehensive setups and decided that the sets tended more toward both savings and practicality, as most people are more likely to invest in a set than they are to cobble together a surround system from different makes, models, or years of speakers.