Bose SoundLink Home Review | Tom’s Guide

When my Mom says something ‘looks nice’ and tries to work out ways that it might fit into the living room decor, you know that it doesn’t look like traditional audio gear. In fact, there’s only one thing she’s done it with before — a small Bluetooth speaker that now gets moved around the country for various different meetings. The second, and most recent is the Bose SoundLink Home.

I agree with my Mom. I think the new SoundLink home looks great, with its panels of grey fabric, and unbroken metal band that surrounds the outside. I’m doing my best to make sure that this one stays firmly within my hands, however, because it’s really, really good.

From the way that it sounds to the way it manages to fill a room with audio, I’ve come to really appreciate the simplicity of the SoundLink Home. To me, it easily ranks among the best Bluetooth speakers around, and while it might not be the cheapest, it should be high on your list of Bluetooth speakers for the home.

Bose SoundLink Home: Cheat Sheet

What is it? A very stylish Bluetooth speaker.

What does it cost? $219.

Who is it for? Those who want a nice-looking speaker for carrying around the house, or leaving in one spot indefinitely. It’s not one for taking out and about on account of its lack of water and dustproofing.

What do we like? The way that it sounds, the way that it looks.

What don’t we like? The lack of app support, and the price.

Bose SoundLink Home: Price and availability

• It’s not cheap
• You can only buy it from Bose

The SoundLink Home is not a cheap Bluetooth speaker. It will cost you $219, a whole lot more than speakers of a comparable size. The newly released SoundLink Flex Gen 2 costs $149 — a whole $70 less — but you don’t get the fancy design from the Home. The Home also sounds better, with a richer, more mature sound signature. That doesn’t mean that the Home is worth the extra, but it goes some way to explaining why it’s been priced as such.

There’s more availability weirdness besides. The speaker is only available in the U.S. as of time of writing, and there’s no clue as to whether it will travel across the seas or not. It’s also only available on the Bose website. That’s no problem, but it does mean you have to rely on a single source for your new speaker.

There is a bundle you can buy that puts two of them in the same box (and use them connected together in stereo mode) for the same price as buying two separately. Come on Bose, just a little discount for buying two would be nice.

Bose SoundLink Home: Design

This is one of the big highlights of the SoundLink Home. Thanks to its ceaseless metal band around the outside and clean fabric facias on either side, there’s a kind of retro minimalism to the whole thing. It wouldn’t look out of place in a dark wood-covered sixties office, alongside reclining leather chairs and a pervasive mist of tobacco smoke.

It’s certainly a speaker that’s not designed to be moved around very much. It’s not particularly heavy at 2 pounds, but you get the feeling that Bose wants you to find a place for it and let it live there for the length of its stay in your home. There’s no carrying handle to speak of (although the elevated metal foot could be used as such), and there’s no water or dustproofing that you might expect from something that’s designed for outside use. This is thoroughly an indoor speaker.

It’s a simple affair across the top as well, with a series of buttons for control. There’s a power button, a pairing button, a volume key, and a smart button. That last button does a couple of different things. When used in conjunction with the minus volume button you can change the language of the status voice, for example. Its main job is to connect two SoundLink Homes together for stereo listening.

Beyond the lack of weatherproofing, the speaker is built like a little fabric-covered tank. The metal exudes quality, and adds some heft to the speaker. The fabric grills on the front and the back feel top-notch, and easily came out on top when I dropped the speaker from waist height onto my office room’s carpeted floor. The buttons click with reassurance, and they feel similar enough to their metallic surroundings that I’d wager they’re made out of the same stuff. In hand, the SoundLink Home feels like its worth every penny of that high asking price.

Bose SoundLink Home: Connectivity

• Bluetooth only, no Wi-Fi
• USB-C audio connection

This is where some people might take umbrage to the SoundLink Home. The only way to connect to the speaker is via Bluetooth 5.3, and it doesn’t connect to the Bose app like the SoundLink Flex 2. To me this isn’t a deal breaker, but it does raise an interesting question about the speaker itself.

As I’ve already said, the SoundLink Home feels like a speaker that’s designed to sit about the house, playing you music from its fairly permanent home. It’s not going to find its way outside, and if it does, it only be when the weather is fair. A lack of Wi-Fi feels strange, especially given its presence in other Bose Bluetooth speakers.

I, for one, am not too bothered by the Bluetooth-only connection and lack of app. There’s an element of simplicity that comes with a Bluetooth dedicated speaker, and given it’s a small audio device, you’re not going to reap too many of the sound quality benefits that come with a W-Fi connection.

If you really want the extra fidelity you can use the USB-C audio mode, and play your music over a cable. That does bring some audio extras, but not enough to make you wish for a Wi-Fi connection. Yes, it’s more limited, but I never found myself asking for more in my testing.

Bose SoundLink Home: Features

As I alluded to before, you can connect two SoundLink Home units together for stereo sound. You initiate it with the button on the top, and then enjoy a wider soundstage than a single speaker is capable of pumping out.

Beyond that, there’s not much. No customizable EQ, no sound modes, and nothing that the SoundLink Flex 2 gets. Again, though, I never found myself missing them over my testing, but if they’re things that bother you, you’ll want the more portable Bose option.

Bose SoundLink Home: Sound

For such a small speaker, the SoundLink Home does a stellar job at filling a room with sound. While it might only be a mono speaker, as pretty much every model this size is, there’s some clever audio trickery to make it seem a whole lot larger. It’s capable of sending some thick, chunky lows out too, enough to make the base of my seat rumble in my small testing space. I found it best to listen a small distance away. When you’re too close to it, like next to you on a desk, the lower notes can become overwhelming. When a suitable distance away it gets more of a chance to breathe, and the music widens out.

The dance beats of Porter Robinson’s Shelter are impactful and deep, with plenty of mid-bass hit. The synthesized vocal line ebbs and flows amongst the layered soundscape, although the compression on the digital drum line is immediately obvious. It’s a comfortable performance rather than a lively one, as you might expect from something designed for the home, but it’s a pleasing one nonetheless.

Caligula’s Horse’ and The World Breathes With Me manage a suitably spacious, proggy experience. The speaker doesn’t have the greatest dynamic range, so the quieter parts are largely the same volume as the louder ones, but its still a lovely listen. The vocal lines are a highlight here, with some great clarity to the sung parts of the track. The dancing bass guitar is a lot of fun as well, but when the volume is cranked it almost becomes too much.

Finally, Windowlicker by Aphex Twin brings an altogether more… unhinged time for listeners. The sub-bass kick is more than present here, while the vocal affectations layer over the top of the modulated synths with confidence. It’s a lot of fun, that’s for sure, and it highlights the ability of the speaker to sound larger than its frame suggests.

Bose SoundLink Home: Battery life

Battery life should be stronger, and it’s the main issue I have with the Bose SoundLink home. It only nets you 9 hours of listening on a charge, and I got around that while I listening during a work day. Given it’s going to be in and around the house it’s unlikely going to be too far away from an outlet, but it should get more than 9 hours. The similarly sized SoundLink Flex 2 gets up to 12 hours out of a charge, so it’s strange that this one doesn’t. It’s my one major mark against the speaker.

Bose SoundLink Home: Verdict

The Bose SoundLink Home is an excellent speaker, make no doubt about it. It looks great sitting around in your living room, and if you get two, you’ve the makings of a solid little home audio solution. But there are a couple of things that I can’t overlook that stop it from getting the full five stars.

It’s quite expensive and becomes even more so when you buy two for stereo mode. If you want a similar experience but don’t want to spend as much, then you should consider the SoundLink Flex 2. The battery life is also not up to par, as 9 hours simply isn’t enough staying power in 2024. But to me, those are minor issues with what is otherwise an excellent Bluetooth speaker.