Bose Home Speaker 500: Smart Bluetooth Speaker with Alexa Voice Control Built-In, Black
- SOUND PERFORMANCE: Fill any room with impressive wall-to-wall stereo sound from a single speaker
- BUILT-IN-ALEXA: Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant are built into this smart speaker for hands-free voice control. And a noise-rejecting mic system listens in every direction for your voice
- CONNECTIVITY: Pair your device to this home speaker to stream your favorite music and more via a Bluetooth connection, your home Wi-Fi network, Apple AirPlay 2, or Spotify Connect
- CONTROL: Easily control your home speaker with three different ways to manage what you hear: your voice, the Bose Music app, or 6 one-touch presets on top of the speaker
- MAKE OR TAKE CALLS: With Alexa only, make or take calls from this smart speaker to Bose smart products, Amazon Echo products, and anyone in your contacts list. Hands free, phone free, and free of charge
- BOSE MUSIC APP: Use the Bose Music app for simple setup with detailed prompts
- COMPATIBLE PRODUCTS: This home speaker is part of the Bose Smart Family and works with other Bose smart speakers and soundbars for a multi-room listening experience
- BOSE SIMPLESYNC TECHNOLOGY: SimpleSync pairs your Bose Home Speaker 500 to compatible Bose products for sound that follows you from room to room. Away from your phone? Press and hold the Bluetooth button on each device to sync their sound. Already got a group going? Link by pressing the Action button to connect at a moment’s notice
Product Attributes:
| Attribute Name | Attribute Value |
|---|---|
| Brand Name | Bose |
| Item Weight | 4.65 pounds |
| Product Dimensions | 4.31 x 6.68 x 8.01 inches |
| Country of Origin | Mexico |
| Item model number | 795345-1100 |
| Batteries | 1 Lithium Ion batteries required. |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| Output Wattage | 50 Watts |
| Color Name | Black |
| Special Features | |
| Speaker Type | Soundbar |
| Domestic Shipping | |
| International Shipping | |
| Date First Available | September 20, 2018 |
| Availability | Sold Out |
| Rating | 4 stars and up |
Ratings & Reviews
Reviewed on July 29, 2023
After years of listening to my Fav music very conveniently but also rather thinly on various Amazon devices scattered around the house I decided that for our great room we needed something more substantial, but I didn't want to go all massively tower-speaker about it. The Bose Home Speaker 500 struck the right balance - a minimal footprint upgrade that can audibly fill the room when you're really in the mood to fully hear and experience music (e.g., for classic albums like Santana Abraxas, Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here). While it is a good all-in-one speaker, you need to be realistic that the still relatively small package cannot be a substitute for those huge bass speakers on a more traditional all-out home sound system. But for the money and size, I'm quite pleased with the sound. Pros: + Very good sound quality - wide range, sound fills our great room, little distortion at high volume + Relatively small footprint + Straight forward installation (note I only installed the one speaker, not a speaker group, etc.) + Native support for several music services (I've only tried Amazon Music so far - see Cons below) + Native support for Amazon Voice app extension (essential) + Good overall ROI Cons: - The screen (e.g., to display album cover art) is too small and has a narrow field of view so unless you're close to and directly in front of it you can't really see it very well. Only marginally useful. - The Bose Music App is utilitarian, non-intuitive and has a ten-years-old App vibe to it. Given the Bose name, and that this App is for use across ALL their sound products, I'm wholly underwhelmed. - I can't speak for its support for others, but the Amazon Music App extension is effectively useless - e.g., - yes - you can search for albums, playlists, etc., but - no - you can't turn on shuffle mode. (!) - Best I can tell so far no Apple Watch App support - not even for basic volume control. (!) So after wasting time trying to use the Amazon Music App extension I gave up, installed the Amazon Voice extension (whew - glad they offered that), so I verbally interact with the speaker as if it were a native Amazon device. I'll probably hardly ever use the Amazon Music App extension again. So overall, for my needs very good sound - which I've come to expect from Bose - but mediocre App, which I consider pretty weak for the Bose name.
4.0 out of 5 stars Great Sounding Speaker - Bose Music app needs work depending on your streaming service.
Reviewed on February 19, 2021
First off i would like to say, i own the Bose 500 and 300 speakers. They sound very good for their size and the 500 can definitely fill a living room with sound. Base is good and everything sounds very clear. If you have other Bose products you know the sound, and wont be disappointed. The main downside with this speaker is not the sound but the accessibility of the bose music app. More on that in a moment Sound - As mentioned this is one of the strongest features of the speaker. It is a quality sound and can get loud. i have it in my living room and never use at more than 50% volume so cannot comment on distortion but unless your going to be in a massive room i dont think you should need to turn it to the upper volume levels. Appearance - This looks clean and minimal. It can easily sit on any table or shelf and is unobtrusive. The screen on it is a nice touch though its practicality is limited. The main thing for me is doubles as a clock so you can put it on a table next to the couch and be able to see the time at glance. While it does show the album art this is more a novelty than anything because its too small to really recognize much unless your close and unless you know the album art of every song you're better off just identifying it by listening. still its a nice touch. Functionality - the speaker has 6 preset buttons on the top which can be set for any cpmaptiable service, whether it be a station, song mix etc. if you have something you always listen to, like a spotfiy daily mix, this is ideal to just walk over and select than have to pull your phone out all the time. It also has a mute button for the mic so you can turn that off if you arent keen on Bose music listening to everything you say. It is compatible with Alexa and Google Assistant (not home). though note that google home is more limited functionality. This was added later via firmware update so its not like having a Nest audio. it will perform basic functions like timers, weather, music, calendar sync, but keep in mind that the speaker does not support YouTube Music. Even though they are owned by same company. The speaker also supports apple airplay but NOT chromecast. This is a major issue which i will talk about next depending on what music service you favor. Spotify connect works flawlessly and alexa cast is decent but tends to lose sync more than normal (its still not great even on echos). Music Services - Bose Music app supports the following services: Spotify, Amazon Music, Deezer, Pandora, IHeart Radio, TuneIn, Sirius XM radio. Notably missing services are Youtube Music and Tidal. These services are accesed through the Bose Music App, which has limited functionality. The good news with the app is its easy to use multiple services at once. You can switch between any of them seamlessly at any point. The biggest issue is that some of these services have better support through the app than others. Deezer is bare bones and unless you already have all the playlists saved, it is difficult to use it for any type of music discovery. Also you have to have premium version or you only get 30 second previews of songs. Iheart radio is okay if you only use it for radio or shuffle but does not support on demand or podcasts at all. Despite iheart advertising as one of the best podcast services you cannot use them through bose music. If you want podcasts you have to listen through TuneIn or spotify connect. Pandora is also only radio so if you have pandora premium you are SOL. Its very basic implementation. I would say that Spotify and Amazon music have the most support, while there is a weird quirk with amazon music that for some reason you cannot favorite songs on the app or through voice unless it is on a station. If you have spotify and want a great speaker to play it on, this is perfect as you can totally discount the bose music app and just use spotify connect. i actually think Bose Music implementation of amazon music is better than Amazons own app, but that isnt saying much. Finally, airplay is supported but NOT chromecast. This is a massive oversight considering how poorly implemented some of the other services are through the Bose app. I could look past the medicore bose music app if i could just cast those services through chromecast but alas its not possible. so if you are on Deezer, Iheart, Pandora you are out of luck unless you can deal with the bose music app. Setup/Ease of Use - when the speaker first came out there were issues with connection and setup. It takes forever to download firmware updates. there are numerous reviews that talk about nightmare experiences trying to get your bose music account synced and setup with the speaker. however, they have made multiple patches and i think now its mostly fine. the grouping also used to be finicky and would not always connect to the second speaker, but again since the last few updates this seems to have resolved itself. the voice functionality works but obviously favors amazon music. im old school though and still prefer to run things off my device and much prefer the original music service apps than bose music half implementation. Sound is great and if you are on one of the better supported services, like spotify or amazon you got a winner here. Its also usually on sale for $100 off so can easily be had for cheaper than list price. the full price is not worth it.
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