About this deal
This hi-res display is sharp, and with three lines of text at its disposal there’s enough room to fit long song titles without scrolling. It offers full-bodied and loud sound, allowing you to enjoy your favourite music while sitting anywhere in your home. The speaker ships with a remote, which is a welcome addition for a device without a touchscreen and limited controls.
The Bose® SoundTouch 30 Series III Wireless Music System is a powerhouse of music playback and streaming. While it may seem counterintuitive to add Bluetooth to a Wi-Fi speaker what it does is improve the system's flexibility -- especially when compared against the company's main rival. That said, the Bose’s sound can become a little dense and congested, particularly when you start turning up the volume. Additional music features: skip forwards/backwards, play/pause and rate your music (thumbs up or down buttons) as you listen.However, our recent multi-room system test – which saw Bose’s Wireless Link enter our testing rooms for the first time – gave us cause to run the rule over its SoundTouch speakers once again. The remote enables the same functionality as the system’s button pad (power, volume, set/play presets, auxiliary mode). Detail levels are more than adequate for a product the size of the SoundTouch 10, however, while the strands are set in greater space thanks to the larger speaker’s increased scale, there isn’t much more insight to be gained. The Bose SoundTouch range received a makeover in September 2015 with the addition of a new speaker, the entry-level SoundTouch 10, and a few extra tweaks, including the addition of Bluetooth to all the new speakers in the line going forward.
Attractively designed, it comes in a choice of white and black finishes (with a matching gray or black speaker grille) and features a black-and-white OLED display in the center of the unit. Helpfully, you don’t have to press any buttons to kick-start discovery – just plug it in, run the app and enter your Wi-Fi password. The SoundTouch 30 speaker uses a proprietary waveguide and high-performance drivers to fill your biggest rooms with deep, rich, true-to-life sound.If buttons work on one but not the other, see Remote is intermittent or does not control your Bose product, Buttons on product do not work or work intermittently or App is blank, unresponsive, won't open or crashes. A silver panel below the OLED display adds a touch of glamour, while an illuminated Wi-Fi icon at the top tells you it’s online. Audiophiles should be aware that like Sonos and Denon's HEOS system it will only support CD-quality files and not 24-bit high-res files.
The SoundTouch 10 is our smallest SoundTouch speaker that delivers full, rich sound and Bose performance that seems to defy its size. Well, the Bose speaker comes with a few features the Play:5 doesn't have: Bluetooth connectivity (in addition to Wi-Fi), a remote, and a presets system that allows you to get your favorite playlists or Internet radio stations up and running instantly. The Bose SoundTouch Control Skill will be available to all existing SoundTouch owners through a free software update. Swipe the “Explore” tab and you’ll see a list of music sources, including Spotify, Music Library (PCs, NAS drives), Internet Radio, Bluetooth, Aux In and Add Music, the latter allowing you to add new music libraries or log into any streaming services you subscribe to. Depending on your product and region, you will be provided a contact number or the ability to setup service online.The front and back of the rectangular cabinet are gently curved, and the lack of button clutter results in a pleasingly minimal look. Scroll down and tap the system you want to remove from the group: When grouped, a check appears next to the system name; when ungrouped, a + appears next to the system name.
But perhaps the biggest challenge is Bose, which is also targeting mainstream consumers and has been steadily improving its software to make its systems easier to set up and use. While the speaker has integration with iTunes there is no Apple Music yet (Sonos has now added it to its list of services accessible via the Sonos app). Lisa Gerrard's Middle Eastern-inspired melody soared beyond the confines of the cabinet to fill the small CNET listening space, and the egg shakers that flank her appeared to come from a foot away from each side of the box.Speaker Systems, Sounddocks, Speakers including Multimedia Speakers, Portable Audio Speakers, Headphones and Home Cinema Systems, plus Multi Room Systems and Out Door all Weather Speakers. On the top live the rubberized controls that include six shortcuts as well as volume, an aux/Bluetooth switch and power -- though, sadly, no mute or play button. What began as two tabletop speakers and a portable has become an entire suite of wireless multiroom speakers.