Bose Home Speaker 500 with Built-In Amazon Alexa

The speaker sounds great, but the set up is needlessly confusing and frustrating.

Excellent !! Great speaker big
fan Have a lot of Bose speaker and love how you can bluetooth them together

I love this smart speaker has great sound for its size and I’m able to link it to my sound bar and listen to the same music in another room.

ose is the master of psychoacoustics, and has been for many decades. I purchased the 500 to operate connected to two three Home Speaker 300s, two of them brand new and one rebuilt by Bose. The Smart Speaker 500 produces fine detail and clean sound with crisp, tight bass. It never gets to an ear-splitting level, and the bass output will not rumble the walls and floors, but is plenty loud enough for entertaining. It is high quality sound that is a pleasure to listen to, especially with good recordings. The pleasure ends there, however. Any consumer product should be easy to use and reliable, without exceptional troubleshooting efforts. It appears as though the Bose music app is an underdeveloped, unstable disaster. I got the feeling that I was beta-testing the app for Bose at the cost of the speakers that I purchased. Bose should be paying me for my field testing efforts! I placed the 500 and 300s around the house to provide room-to-room sound. It was great while it lasted, that is when they occasionally worked as a group. Most of the time they would not connect, and when all of them did, the connection would not last. Once underway with a four speaker group, the app displayed the error message “connection to the product has been lost”, usually within 30 minutes or so. I could not disconnect any of the paired speakers at that point, and there was no control of the master volume or that of the individual speakers. Bluetooth is apparently used to communicate with and control the primary connection speaker in a group, so I placed my iPhone as the control source within 10 to 15 feet of it at all times, to ensure that it was not out of range. Some speakers could become "Not Available" at any time. At start up, this meant that I was simply not going to be able to use them. This was the case for the two new 300s every time I attempted to boot them up for use. During group play the “Not Available” message meant that all speakers were out of control. I “could not adjust the volume or remove them from the group. “Something went wrong. C3" was also a frequent one-size-fits-all error message that would pop up at any time. After 4 or 5 days of 3 to 4 hours each day trying to debug these problems through product restarts, firmware updates, reloading the app numerous times on my iPhone, etc. I am throwing in the towel and returning them. I have a long time career as an engineer and still found all of this frustrating and disappointing. I can only imagine the infuriation of a consumer without technical know-how trying to make these things work as advertised. I get the impression that Bose is desperately trying to play catch up with its competitors, one of whom has been in the wifi speaker business for 20 or more years, and they rushed the Smart and Home speakers to market without completing app software development to get a foot in the door. I haven’t experienced software this wonky since the days before the advent of the Microsoft Windows 7 OS. Once I regain my confidence, and some of my funds for toy expenditures, I may try other manufacturers' products as an alternative. That is, if this experience didn’t drive me back to a hard-wired two channel audiophile stereo system. From the days of the 901 and the Wave Radio to this. Hey Bose, what happened?

Big sound from a speaker its size.Very happy with it.Just what I was looking for.

I bought this for my wife to use while teaching songs in a play. She loves it!

I’m a lover of music and my new Bose 500 Speaker has not let me down. So many aww features to list! Sound is clear and loud…you can definitely feel the music!

Money well spent!!! Great clear sound when compared to it's size

Sounds amazing even at low volume. Mic works well also.

This is an awesome purchase!10 ??
You won’t be disappointed!

I miss the radio tuner, I used it a lot. Now I have to connect in to my phone and then to bluetooth to the bose. Plus Alexa connection is not possible

I recently purchased my THIRD Bose Smart Speaker 500. The two we had previously, had connection issues quite often. They do not connect easily to Alexa of Sirius XM.

I bought this speaker a month ago to replace my previous model. This new Bluetooth system works really well and the sound is electrifying!

Being a Bose consumer for years, I had to buy this one when I heard the music coming from the electronics section in my local store. It blew me away how clear it was . So I bought it. Kind out off by the additional app. Can’t figure out why Bose can’t come up with their own app that can be used no matter what speakers you buy.

Works with my iPhone just as I thought it would. I can play all my playlists and the sound is incredible.

Love the sound. Alexa app works well with it
Would recommend for someone who does not want portable

Glad i made this purchase! It’s sound quality is immersive.

Great House Speaker and amazing sound , just having problems with the Google Assistant trying to wake up to music on preset stations I have programmed

Nice sound, nice features. I was extremely disappointed with the Alexa interface and after having spent 2 hrs on the phone with Amazon and Bose support I was not able resolve the problem with the Bose500 executing Alexa skills. On more than two occasions the unit had to be power cycled (not an issue with my network). After reading some of the reviews on the Bose500, I was surprised to see these issues have been brought to the attention of Bose. Apparently they have not been addressed

Fantastic Product - Perfect for my Jiu Jitsu Academy!

I got the Bose 500 for my open spaced home , the sound is heard equally through out the house , amazing sound and quality

Use it everyday. Very easy to use. Love the sound and convenience.

I'm replacing an existing Bose speaker that I apparently blew the speaker with the same model. I'm having trouble getting Alexa hooked up to the new speaker.

LIKE JUST CONFUSED ON SOME THINGS ,LIKE IT LISTENING AT RANDOM TIMES

The speaker it self is good. Sounds good but the Bose Music APP is on of the worst APP’s.

Received this as a courtesy upgrade from outdated sound-dock for iphone 3gs. No complaints :)

All family members are impressed with the sound of this product.

I’m really happy with this unit, the only problem is that you can’t sync with YouTube.

I have been used Bose Speaker for over 10 years still have no wifi connection.. now I try the wifi one, sound bar, sound tought and smart speakers..all group together...super great sound

Just bought this product and it surprised me that it sounded so rich and full

This is the best speaker I have purchased by far....great sound

We love anything Bose! Have for years! We bought this for playing SiriusXM in our home! Absolutely love it!

several times since I bought this speaker a coloured light appears . Have to unplug it to.get rid of the coloured light. why does i appear ? is there something wrong with the speaker ?

I like it but for the price it should play louder but good quality sounds just not loud enough for that price

Unfortunately I bought a Bose 500 speaker. I had to return the product due to the fact that it would power shutting off and on automatically. After the return I was eager to receive my new speaker because I love my bose products. Unfortunately that one had a loose wire internally so it sounded horrible a lot of static and couldn't listen to it unless it was on very low volume. The Bose rep was wonderful. I am now waiting for speaker #3 hopefully the 3rd time is charm.

I bought this speaker about two weeks ago and am having a frustrating time trying to connect it to the bluetooth on my pixel 6; still isn't connected. Connected ok through wifi to spotify.

I listen to it every morning to wake me up and energize my day.

Exceeded my expectations by a long shot. The sound quality is fantastic and the power of this little unit is surprising. I use it in my garage and it performs like a much larger sound system.

I’ve got both the 450 and 500. Like them both. Akashi they would conn to the flex speaker.

Wish it came with a remote for easy volume control!

The unit puts out great sound as we have come to expect from Bose...but...I'm finding that it keeps powering off at random times while playing music. Yes the unit is up to date, it's just a quirk I've noticed.

We replaced a Soundtouch 10. The improvement is remarkable

I am a big fan of Bose - Absolutely the best quality sound - I wouldn't purchase any other brand - I am a Bose Girl for sure - Love the sound and look

Sounds good and connects with Bluetooth well but doesn’t do wireless internet connection well or if at all.

Very happy with performance. Great sound and easy to use

Great speaker; linked to Alexa and got my Sirius XM account but can't link Alexa to my Apple Music account. Really disappointing. Come on, Bose!

This is a must have filled the room with great output and got people wondering where that sound is coming from.

Quality sound, easy setup, appearance and design great product

Except for no Apple Music on Alexa, great product. However, that is a big "except".

Lost the screen display. Only 4 months old if that. Very helpful on the phone and troubleshooting. Had to send in much quicker turn around time then thought.