How to turn a Bose SoundLink Mini into a white noise machine

January 5, 2017 by M.B. Grant Leave a Comment

Continuing our series of re-purposing Bose SoundLink speakers, today’s post is about how to use a Bluetooth speaker (such as the popular Bose SoundLink Mini) as a white noise machine!

If you have a Bluetooth speaker laying around and you want to use it as a white noise machine, read on!

Previously: How to use your Bose SoundLink Mini as a soundbar for your TV

This is the speaker I use as a white noise machine, but the techniques I describe in this article can work with virtually any speaker.

When our first baby was born 3 months ago, we quickly realized that white noise helped her (and us) fall asleep and stay that way in our small apartment where everyone can hear everyone else. I have several dedicated white noise machines (my favorite is the LectroFan Jr.) but I thought, why not turn the Bose SoundLink Mini into a white noise machine, too? It’s not like I’m using it for music while I’m trying to get myself or the baby to sleep.

Turns out, this was easy to do – and there’s quite a few ways to do it.

(Don’t feel like you have to do it this way or you have to have this exact equipment – I just didn’t want to be vague and refer to features that may or may not exist on specific Bluetooth speakers.)

What speakers does this work with?

I wrote these steps for the SoundLink Mini because that’s what I use, but there’s really nothing particularly special about it. If you have a speaker with AUX in or Bluetooth pairing capabilities, then one or more of the techniques in this article should work for you.

Since most people want to play white noise for hours on end (ie: overnight), you’ll want your phone plugged in to a power source if you’re streaming over Bluetooth or you’ll want to stream over WiFi so your phone’s audio isn’t tied up (explained more further down in this article). Also, if your speaker is portable and rechargeable, you’ll want keep the speaker plugged in or on its base so that it doesn’t die in the middle of the night.

Technique #1: Stream to the SoundLink over WiFi with an Echo Dot and Spotify Connect

I think this is the best approach. It’s “set it and forget it”, versatile, and easy to use. You don’t have to leave your phone near the speaker or tie up its audio output. However, this technique works only if you have access to a WiFi network, so it’s great for home but not so great for travel. You’ll need an Echo Dot to give the SoundLink WiFi capabilities, since the SoundLink speaker can’t connect to WiFi on its own.

This is my default setup for playing music and white noise over my SoundLink Mini.

What you need

Spotify Premium account with a playlist containing at least one “white noise” song
Amazon Echo Dot
3.5mm AUX cable
A speaker with an AUX input jack (SoundLink Mini and Amazon Tap both have this)

This setup looks complicated compared to the others, but it’s great because you can just stream from an online service (such as Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music, etc) to your speaker without having to tie up your phone’s audio output, draining your phone battery on Bluetooth, having to keep your phone near the speaker, or having any issues with the Bluetooth connection cutting in and out.

To get a setup like mine:

Set up a Spotify playlist of one white noise “song” and set it to loop. This is my Spotify “white noise” playlist
Hook up an Amazon Echo Dot to your Bose SoundLink Mini (via an AUX cable) to give the SoundLink speaker WiFi capabilities. (If you’re trying to stream to a speaker that has built-in WiFi connectivity like a Sonos PLAY:1, you can skip the Echo Dot middleman part.)
Turn on the speaker
Set it to AUX input
Open the Spotify app and select the white noise playlist
Hit play and set the Device to your Echo Dot

The SoundLink does not have WiFi connectivity by itself; you have to hook it up to something like an Echo Dot to give it that power.

Advantages

Easy to set up and use
Streaming over WiFi doesn’t drain phone battery like Bluetooth would
Can still use phone for calls, watching junk on Facebook, recording videos of your pets or kids, etc while the white noise is going
No Bluetooth dropout from interference
Control volume from your phone (or any device with Spotify on your WiFi network)
Play/Pause from your phone (or any device with Spotify on your WiFi network)
Easily switch to music when you’re done with the white noise
Don’t have to keep phone near speaker
You get all the fun features of Amazon’s Alexa

Disadvantages

Requires an Echo Dot to make the Bose SoundLink Mini into a WiFi speaker
Not travel friendly: having to bring a Dot and pair it with WiFi in every hotel would be annoying
Streaming over WiFi isn’t 100% perfect – I still hear the occasional dropout, though far less on WiFi than over Bluetooth. Some days it goes for hours without a cutout, so it might just come down to connection quality.

This approach isn’t ideal for travel, since you’d have to bring your Echo Dot with and get everything on the WiFi network wherever you go (assuming there even is one).

Technique #2: Stream to the SoundLink over Bluetooth from your phone

This is an alternative way to turn your SoundLink into a white noise machine. If you don’t have (or want to buy) an Echo Dot, you can instead connect to the speaker over Bluetooth. The big disadvantages here are that your phone’s audio output is tied up (you can’t make a call or watch a video on Facebook, for example, without stopping the white noise) and streaming Bluetooth from your phone drains the phone’s battery. You also have to keep your phone near the speaker (or at least in the same room-ish).

To play white noise over Bluetooth:

Set up a Spotify playlist of one white noise “song” and set it to loop. This is my Spotify “white noise” playlist. (Or use whatever music service you like – I recommend something you can play from your phone’s local storage without WiFi so you’re not also draining your battery on Bluetooth streaming.)
Pair your device with the SoundLink mini
Let ‘er rip – white noise will play through the speaker until you tell it to stop

Personally, I find Bluetooth connections kind of unstable. They seem more prone to blips and brief interruptions, which is particularly annoying when you want a solid whooosh of white noise washing over you without pauses.

Advantages

Requires the fewest parts – assuming you already have a phone and a SoundLink, you have everything you need for this approach
Easy to use – just like how you already use the speaker for playing songs
Travel friendly

Disadvantages

Can’t play any other audio on your source device, since its audio is being piped to the SoundLink (so YouTube, Facebook videos, recording videos on your phone, and making phone calls are all out while the phone is busy playing white noise through the SoundLink)
Drains device battery streaming Bluetooth
Somewhat more prone to cutting out – not ideal for a white noise experience
Your phone has to stay in range of the SoundLink speaker

Technique #3: Connect via an AUX cable and play directly from your device to the SoundLink speaker

This is my favorite technique for turning a SoundLink into a white noise machine when I travel. The SoundLink travels pretty well so I often bring it with in my luggage. The AUX cable provides a much more stable connection to the speaker than Bluetooth does, in my experience. Once connected, set the SoundLink to AUX mode and play the white noise song like you would any song. Like the Bluetooth technique above, though, this technique also ties up audio on the phone.

Advantages

Strong connection unlikely to cut out
Easy to set up
Travel friendly

Disadvantages

Must keep phone close to speaker and connected from a wire – not great for in-bed phone web surfing
Drains device battery because it’s constantly playing music

Where to find a white noise “song” to play

You’ll need some kind of white noise audio source, whether it’s on your device (ie: saved to your phone) or on someone else’s server, such as Spotify’s. Honestly, finding a good song that would loop cleanly (no fades, no obvious markers of repetition inside the song) was the hardest part of this whole project.

Why I recommend Spotify

Spotify’s a great place to browse for white noise “songs” because you can find out if they loop or not without spending buck after buck or having to wade through reviews and guess. Spotify has a lot of white noise “songs” to choose from. Some are better than others – a lot of them have an audible fade out/fade in, which sucks and totally defeats the purpose.

After some trial and error, I found Pouring Rain – Loopable with no fade. This is my favorite “white noise” song on Spotify because it sounds great and I can’t hear it looping. I found this song inside a larger collection called White Noise Therapy, which has about a zillion similar “songs” to pick from so you can find your favorite (also good: Waterfalls and Dulled White Noise).

To get a single song to loop on Spotify, you have to make a playlist and put that one song in it. Set the playlist to loop with this arrow button:

Here’s the 1-song playlist I use for Pouring Rain (you may have to set it to loop yourself, I’m not sure if looping on/off is “saved” with a playlist). Since I have Spotify Premium, I downloaded the song locally to use it even when I don’t have a WiFi connection.

Note: I’ve never used Spotify without Premium so I don’t know what the non-Premium experience is like. Presumably, Premium means I can play it as much as I want and without ads, which is essential to having a nice, relaxing loop going.

Dig around in your favorite music streaming or music buying app and I’m sure you’ll find something you like.

Happy listening!

The best speakers for listening to Spotify via Spotify Connect

September 28, 2016 by M.B. Grant Leave a Comment

Sonos Play:3 – just one of the many great speakers you can pair with Spotify Connect

I’m a recent Spotify convert, but I’m already spoiled by the convenience of streaming Spotify music to a speaker over WiFi in my home.

This article is about how Spotify Connect works and speaker recommendations that suit your budget and any existing audio equipment you already have.

What is Spotify Connect?

With Spotify, your phone, tablet, PC, or laptop no longer has to be the source of the song files themselves. Pick a song and it plays from Spotify’s servers out of that device.

With Spotify Connect (a Spotify Premium feature), your phone, tablet, PC, or laptop can be like a “remote control” for the music you are playing, and a different speaker on your WiFi network can play the music.

You can play anything Spotify has on offer (which is a staggering variety of music, both niche and mainstream). Cool!

Some huge benefits to the Spotify Connect new hotness:

You don’t need to store the audio files on your device
Play from any of Spotify’s curated playlists (or your own custom made playlists on Spotify)
You don’t have to “pair” your device with the speaker
Your laptop or phone can still play its own sounds or make calls without interrupting the music
You can leave the room or even the WiFi network with your device and the music will keep playing
Sound quality is better over WiFi
Change which speaker is playing Spotify music without having to restart the song or lose your place in the playlist

With just a few drawbacks

Your device and speaker must be on the same WiFi network when you kick off the playlist
Spotify Connect doesn’t work with local files, so if you have a song that Spotify doesn’t, you won’t be able to play it over Spotify Connect
Spotify Connect is part of Spotify Premium, so you have to subscribe to get it

You can get some pretty complex setups going

From your phone, choose a playlist of lullabies for your baby’s room
From your PC, change the song being played through your TV’s PlayStation4
From your phone, stop music from playing on your PC in the other room… and start it playing in your kitchen
Ask your Amazon Echo (Alexa) to play a playlist from Spotify without lifting a hand

How to use Spotify Connect

Again, you have to have Spotify Premium. Once you do, in the Spotify app, click DEVICES AVAILABLE to get a list of available devices.

On Windows, it looks like this:

spotify_connect_via_spotify_app_on_pc

Select a speaker and, if necessary, authorize it to Spotify.

When you want to change which speaker or device is playing music, just pick that device out of DEVICES AVAILABLE. You can do this from any instance of the app.

So many different ways to play music with Spotify Connect

Once you see how cool Spotify Connect is, you might want to expand your speaker collection to take advantage of it. Spotify has its own long list of recommended speakers but this list isn’t sorted, features a lot of very high priced products, and doesn’t explain the overwhelming amount of options available (it also leaves out some really good choices).

You don’t necessarily have to buy new speakers – scroll down for some solutions for using speakers you already have, even if they aren’t WiFi. What you choose depends a lot on your budget, your wants, and what you already have.

In this section, I’ll show you what I would buy (or have bought) for playing music over Spotify Connect in a variety of scenarios.

Best Standalone WiFi speakers for Spotify Connect

These are speakers with the built-in ability to connect to a WiFi network. This is as “plug and play” as it gets. You simply put your WiFi speaker on the network, authorize it to Spotify, and there you go – now you can play anything Spotify has to offer from that speaker!

Be careful that you’re buying an actual WiFi speaker and not just a Bluetooth speaker – a lot of Bluetooth-only speakers show up in searches for “WiFi speakers”. You want a WiFi speaker that’s always “on” and waiting for instruction from you.

Speaker	Price	Sound quality	Bluetooth	Special features
Bose SoundTouch 10	$$	Better	Yes	Remote control, 6 on-unit hotkeys you can map to play certain playlists
Libratone ZIPP Mini	$$	Good	Yes	10+ hour rechargeable battery, pair up to 6 ZIPPs
Libratone ZIPP	$$$	Better	Yes	10+ hour rechargeable battery, pair up to 6 ZIPPs
Sonos Play:1	$$	Better	No	Part of the expandable Sonos family
Sonos Play:3	$$	Best	Yes	Part of the expandable Sonos family
Bowers & Williams Zeppelin	$$$$$	Best	Yes	Deluxe audio quality

I picked these speakers because:

All are WiFi speakers
They all have excellent sound quality
They work with Spotify Connect right out of the box
Most are within a $200-$400 price range
All have overwhelmingly positive Amazon reviews
Some have nice extras like a remote control, a battery so you can take it with you around the house, or buttons you can save to certain playlists

Bose SoundTouch 10

I think the Bose has a slight edge when it comes to overall sound quality vs. the similarly priced speakers. It’s just got a wonderful richness to it that’s kept me coming back to the Bose brand over and over.

The SoundTouch is the most affordable Bose speaker with WiFi connectivity built in.

But wait, there’s more! The Bose SoundTouch 10 has 6 customizable buttons that you can map to actions, such as playing a particular Spotify playlist. 1 can be your “morning routine” playlist, 2 your “chillout at night” playlist, etc. The remote control gives you access to those same hotkeys.

Bose SoundTouch’s 6 buttons can be personalized: set them to play your favorite Spotify playlist, Pandora station, iTunes playlists, and more.

The SoundTouch 10 supports both WiFi and Bluetooth, so you still have the option to bring it with you to places where WiFi isn’t available and stream music from your device to it (provided you can plug it into AC power).

Libratone ZIPP WiFi + Bluetooth Multi-Room Wireless Speaker

The ZIPP comes in four attractive colors and is truly portable (and wireless) with a rechargeable 10-hour lithium battery.

With its beautiful physical design and excellent sound quality, the ZIPP WiFi + Bluetooth Multi-Room wireless speaker is like an Amazon Tap on steroids. The 360 degree sound projection, carry strap, and 10-hour lithium battery all add up to make the Zipp the most portable WiFi capable speaker in this comparison. The ZIPP might be the perfect speaker for you if you want fantastic sound out of a speaker you can easily grab and take with you into the backyard, along on a road trip to the beach, or into your apartment complex’s rec room.

It comes in two versions that are fairly close in price and features: ZIPP and ZIPP Mini.

libratone_zipp_vs_zipp_mini

These two speakers are almost identical in features (battery, carry strap, touch controls on top). The major difference is the wattage and the size of the woofer, which mainly affects the overall sound quality and how well it holds up at louder volumes.

ZIPP speaker

4″ neodynium woofer
100 watts total power
10 hour battery
3.3 lbs
10.3″ tall

ZIPP Mini speaker

3″ neodynium woofer
60 watts total power
10 hour battery
2.4 lbs
8.8″ tall

If you’re having a hard time deciding, go with the full size ZIPP. These two speakers are very close in price and the bigger ZIPP has an edge when it comes to overall sound quality.

Sonos Play:1 Compact Smart Speaker

The Sonos Play:1 offers some of the best sound quality you can find at this price point.

The Sonos Play:1 Compact Smart Speaker is part of a whole family of amazing-sounding speakers that coordinate to play the same song in multiple rooms, or stream (via Sonos’s own proprietary app) different songs to different speakers.

The Play:1 is actually the entry-level speaker in the family: there’s also the Sonos Play:3 and the Sonos Play:5, which are also WiFi enabled and better at filling larger areas with even better sound. The Play:1 is at home on your desktop or bedroom, somewhere where you aren’t necessarily trying to fill the room but just want some easy listening right next to where you’re sitting. It still sounds good at higher volumes, but if you think you’ll be regularly filling a room with music, the Sonos Play:3 is better suited to that job.

When you synchronize a whole bunch of Sonos speakers, the auditory experience is nothing short of incredible, and there’s virtually no limit to how big an indoor space you can soak with Sonos goodness.

There isn’t a bad one in the bunch: the whole Sonos Play family is fantastic.

If you only intend to get one speaker you’ll miss out on the Sonos’s unique feature and major selling point: its ability to integrate with a collection of Sonos speakers. With multiple Sonos speakers, you can fill a room or have the same song play in multiple rooms.

Sonos Play:3 Smart Speaker for Streaming Music

banner_up_a_notch

Bigger, better sound from the Sonos Play:3 make it a smart choice for better, bigger rooms.

If your budget allows for it, it’s totally worth it to go up a bracket and get the Play:3. Compared to the Play:1, the 3’s sound is richer, deeper, and crystal clear even at high volumes.

The Sonos Play:3 has two mid-range drivers, one tweeter (each with their own dedicated amp), and a bass radiator (contrast with the Play:1’s two custom-designed drivers with dedicated amps). Basically, the Play:3 adds a tweeter and bass radiator – and what you hear is a richer range of sound. It’s serious business in a fairly conveniently sized package.

You can orient it vertically or horizontally. There’s no battery in it, so it’s not really meant to be portable, and it works with virtually any streaming service, not just Spotify Connect.

Bowers & Williams Zeppelin

Full disclosure: I don’t own this speaker and I don’t know anyone who does, so it’s the only speaker in this list I haven’t tried in person and listened to myself. Spotify.com recommends it, though, and I felt this list could use at least one super deluxe option.

The Bowers & Williams Zeppelin has the widest “stereo image” of all the speakers in this list. (Normally you’d use multiple speakers to get a wider stereo image.) The Zeppelin has 2 double dome tweeters, two midrange drivers with FST technology and a 6.5″ subwoofer for deep bass. If that comes off as just a bunch of jargon, don’t worry – it means this speaker has multiple sets of what makes speakers sound great, plus a generously sized subwoofer for its size.

This is a total luxury purchase for music streaming. If you want the experience of multiple good speakers packed into one awesome speaker (and your budget is generous), check out the Bowers & Williams Zeppelin.

I have an awesome home theater and I want to play Spotify music through it over WiFi

Cheap solution: get an Amazon Echo Dot. Amazon Echo Dot turns any speaker into a Spotify Connect capable speaker. You can control a Dot (and through it, your speakers) with your voice or the Alexa app. (See the Dot section further down in this article to learn more about using Dot with Spotify Connect).

Pricier solution: upgrade your receiver. If your current one is kinda old and you want more ports, WiFi support, etc, you might be best off upgrading your receiver to a WiFi receiver (and keeping all your existing speakers).

The Onkyo HT-R593 is a reasonably priced choice that supports both Bluetooth and WiFi. This isn’t quite the one my family uses, but it’s close (ours was part of an Onkyo speaker bundle).

Upgrade to a WiFi capable receiver and you can stream Spotify to your existing home theater setup. Look, it even has a Spotify sticker on it!

I don’t have an awesome home theater but now I kinda want one

Now, if you want to upgrade your entire home theater speaker setup, check out the Onkyo HT-S7700 5.1.2-Ch Dolby Atmos Ready Network A/V Receiver/Speaker Package. This is what we have in our house for TV/movies/gaming/recreational music listening and it’s just an amazing home theater set. The bundled receiver works great with Spotify.

The Onkyo HT-S7700 is an all-in-one home theater package (5 speakers and a WiFi capable receiver). We often stream Spotify to it when chillin’ out in the family room.

I have (or want) an Amazon Echo, how does well Echo work with Spotify?

In a word: seamlessly.

I use Spotify Connect with my Amazon Echo all the time. The Echo lives on my nightstand and gets a lot of use as a late-night relaxing music playing machine. Spotify Connect totally replaced Amazon Music for me, which I was only using begrudgingly (the Windows application interface takes some getting used to, and I hate when I ask it to play a song and get a sample instead).

You can tell it, “Alexa, play <PlaylistName> playlist from Spotify” and it’ll find the playlist, whether it’s a Spotify playlist or one you created yourself. You can also set Spotify as the default music player so you don’t have to specify, “from Spotify”.

One caveat: Spotify has a lot of its own playlists, so you might have to come up with creative names for the playlists you make. For instance, I struggled to get Alexa to understand that “New Stuff” was the name of one of my playlists. I renamed the playlist to “Beep”, which Alexa reliably gets right.

New for 2016: The Echo now comes in both black and white so you can experience more choice paralysis in your life.

Now, as far as being a speaker goes, the Echo is just okay. It’s better at low and medium volumes than it is at high volume. I use mine for listening to “chillout” / “relaxation” type stuff before I fall asleep or in the morning before getting out of bed, and for that, it’s perfect. Virtually any similarly priced speaker from Bose, Sonos, or similar will sound better than the Echo does, but you don’t get all the cool voice control stuff.

However, Amazon has a solution to this. It’s called…

Amazon Echo Dot

Amazon Echo Dot turns any speaker into a Spotify Connect capable speaker. It’s also back in stock starting October 20, 2016, after selling like a heap of hotcakes this spring.

The Dot listens for your requests just like an Echo, and instead of using its own built-in speaker (which it has, but it’s pretty poor quality for music), it pipes the audio into the (much better) speaker you’ve plugged into it. The only “catch” here is that the speaker hooked up to the Dot has to be turned on.

connect_dot_to_any_speaker

Also new: you no longer have to already own an Echo in order to get a Dot – you can order a Dot directly from Amazon.com.

Dot also comes in both black and white now!

Awesome speakers on your computer itself

If you spend a lot of time on your computer (and keep it on a lot) like I do, you might like having a good set of speakers on your computer itself. As long as my computer is turned on and Spotify is open (which is almost always true), I can stream Spotify music through my PC’s speakers from any instance of the Spotify app.

Yes, this means I can be nowhere near my computer, controlling the music coming out of it via the Spotify app on my phone. (This is also great when I realized I left my computer playing music in the other room and don’t want to get up to turn it off. Apparently, I am that lazy. Also, we have a new baby, so little conveniences like this really add up.)

Attached to my computer are a slightly older version of the highly-rated Bose Companion 2 Series III Multimedia Speakers. These are the PC speakers I recommend to everyone who asks because:

the sound quality is incredible
they’re reasonably priced
they don’t take up a lot of desk space
you can plug your headphones right into the front of the right speaker without getting out of your chair

The sound quality way better than a few larger speaker sets I’ve owned that came with more speakers and a subwoofer.The headphone port is in a convenient place, too, not on some “pod” that’s easy to lose track of or on the back of the speaker. I’m still using these Bose “TriPort” headphones (mine are of 2006 vintage, they’re immortal), and when one of my favorite bands puts out a new album, these speakers are what I first hear it on.

bose_multimedia_speakers_for_PC

Why use Spotify Connect over WiFi instead of playing through Bluetooth?

When you play music to a speaker over Bluetooth, the sound quality is worse and you’re restricted to having to stay near the Bluetooth speaker you’re playing to. If you go too far or put the phone in your pocket, the signal quality is degraded or drops entirely. If you open a YouTube link, get a phone call, or something autoplays on Facebook, your music-over-Bluetooth stops and you get your (possibly accidental) audio instead.

Basically, streaming over WiFi is just a better overall experience, but you will still appreciate Bluetooth connectivity if you want to take your device and your phone outside of WiFi range. (In that case, I hope you have a good data plan or your carrier lets you stream Spotify for free, because streaming over wireless data is usually less than ideal.)

The bottom line

I love playing music to any speaker in my home with Spotify Connect, and I love all the conveniences of switching which speaker is currently receiving the stream. Streaming has largely replaced playing over Bluetooth for me, and it’s an all-around better experience.

Bose SoundLink Color packs sweet bass into a small package

August 2, 2016 by M.B. Grant Leave a Comment

Last updated: 8/2/2016

Our Bose SoundLink Color rating: 5/5

2 years later, it’s still the best entry level Bluetooth speaker on the market

Bose SoundLink Color Bluetooth speaker in black It’s nearly 2 years old, but my family’s Bose SoundLink Color Bluetooth speaker is still going strong. It’s still the Bluetooth speaker I recommend to anyone looking for a high quality, under $150 Bluetooth speaker.

You can use it over Bluetooth or directly jacked into your phone via the headphones cable (“AUX in”). It’s also a far better speaker than the Amazon Tap (see our comparison here) if sound quality is your top priority.

My top 3 priorities when evaluating a Bluetooth speaker:

Sound quality at a reasonably loud volume (this includes richness of bass, which a lot of speakers suck at)
Ease of connectivity and ability to stay connected and remember my device
On-unit controls and ease of control via the actual speaker body

And, to a lesser extent, portability.

Bose SoundLink Color Review

10 years ago, you’d spend a couple hundred dollars on a wired speaker system to get the kind of sound the Color makes out of its portable plastic body. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing when I first tried this speaker in the Bose store.

Before getting the Color, I listened to music either at my computer with my 5.1 surround sound speaker system or through my Bose TriPort over-ear headphones (which are apparently immortal – I got these in 2004 and I still think they’re awesome).

Once I had a Color, though, I started bringing my music everywhere.

Audio quality

Bass and lows

The thing I always notice with speakers is how good or lacking the bass is. Some people don’t seem to mind when 1/3rd of their song is basically missing due to weak bass, but I notice, and it makes me unhappy to hear my favorite songs spoiled by a hollow-sounding speaker.

The Bose SoundLink Color has excellent bass, especially for its price range. No other speaker I’ve tried in the $80-$150 price range comes close. With the volume up, I can hear it thumping from another room, but it’s not unbalanced – it doesn’t clip or drown out the rest of the song.

Mids and highs

The rest of the song sounds great, too. Crystal clear with no clipping, even if I turn the volume up. On cheaper speakers, higher volumes sometimes make a “fuzz” sound when you crank it up. That’s called “clipping”, and it’s because some aspect of the music you’re playing is outside the range the speaker is capable of producing.

Overall, I would describe songs as having a “warmth” to them when played through my Bose SoundLink Color. That same warmth is absent in the Amazon Tap speaker and the popular (and significantly cheaper) Cambridge SoundWorks OontZ Angle.

Ease of connectivity

If you’ve ever struggled to connect over Bluetooth, you know how connectivity problems can ruin an otherwise cool device. My Color speaker has had several devices paired to it (a couple of iPhones, one Android phone, and a Macbook) but it hasn’t “forgotten” devices or gotten stuck in that frustrating state where it just won’t pair with something.

According to Bose, the speaker remembers up to eight devices. It can also connect to two different Bluetooth devices at the same time, so you can switch between them quickly.

If you have an MP3 player or similar without Bluetooth (like an older iPod) you can still connect to this speaker via an auxiliary cable. Just plug one end of the aux cable into the headphones jack on your device, and the other end into the aux port on the back of the Bose SoundLink Color, and switch the Color to AUX mode via the “AUX” button on top.

On-unit controls

There are six buttons across the top:

Power
Bluetooth (for pairing setup)
AUX (switch to cable input)
Play/pause
Volume up/down (hold to go forwards/backwards in playlist)

bose_soundlink_color_top_buttons

Yes, you can control the song selection and volume from your device, but having the controls on the unit is important, too. Sometimes you just don’t want to find or turn on your phone screen. Even if you’re near both the speaker and your phone, it’s often easier to just reach over and adjust the volume or the song selection by pressing the on-unit buttons.

However, you don’t have to use the on-unit buttons once you’re past the pairing step, so if you put it out of reach or your mobility is limited, you can do volume/song control from your phone.

Below: iPhone 6 leaning up against the Bose Color.

bose_soundlink_color_with_iphone_6

Battery Life

The Color goes for 8-9 hours easily; I’ve run it overnight not plugged in and found it still going when I wake up.

Watch out for…

The built-in lithium ion battery isn’t replaceable by the consumer, and it’s said to get about 300 charges before you have to send it to Bose for replacement (and you get a refurb unit, not yours back).

This kind of sucks, but it’s par for the course with many modern rechargeable electronics. You won’t find something better with a different speaker. If you run the Color on A/C power when convenient to do so, you can preserve battery cycles for when you really need them.

Convenient size and portability

Here’s a photo of the Color in my hand (I’m 5’8″):

It weighs about a pound. Because of its height, it’s a little bit more tipping-prone than its squatter, slightly more expensive sibling, the Bose SoundLink Mini, but the Color is also rugged enough to survive a few tumbles and smooth enough to not damage anything else in the process.

A variety of carrying cases and wraps are available for the Color. I don’t have one of these because I usually just bundle it up in some clothing inside my duffel bag and then set it somewhere safe when I use it, but these cases are pretty cheap and look nice. If you think you’ll carry your Color around a lot, it’s probably worth the few extra dollars to buy one.

Something you probably won’t want to do with the Bose Color is clip it onto your bag or bicycle like you might with an Amazon Tap. It’s not really designed to dangle and swing, and the cases on the market for the Color don’t really offer a hook or strap for the purpose.

The Amazon Tap, while an inferior speaker, is more designed for that kind of portability. The trade-off, of course, is sound quality (and yes, there is a very, very big difference in sound quality between the Color and the Tap).

Charging the Bose SoundLink Color

An AC adapter is included. The Color can play music while charging, even if the battery is totally dead. I recommend plugging into AC power whenever possible to preserve battery cycles (you get about 300).

What’s in the box

Bose SoundLink Color speaker
Micro USB cable for charging
AC wall adapter

Color options

As of mid-2016, the Bose SoundLink Color comes in mint, red, black, blue, and white. For whatever it’s worth I like my black one, and it doesn’t show dust as much as I thought it might.

Clicking the image below will take you to Amazon’s current stock of these various colors.

Bose SoundLink Color vs. Bose SoundLink Mini II

I own both a Bose SoundLink Color and a Bose SoundLink Mini. They’re priced about $70 apart (MSRP) but they have essentially the same features. The Color has voice-assisted pairing, which is nice (and it’s fun to hear the robo voice pronounce your phone’s name), but that’s the only major difference in the user experience and controls.

The Mini has a richer sound, especially at louder volumes, but for casual, lower volume listening within 10 feet of the speaker it’s hard to tell the difference between them. If you’re hoping to fill a larger room or a backyard with music, the Mini might be a better choice.

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Some more reasons you might choose a SoundLink Mini over a Color:

Richer sound, including deeper bass that is better at filling a room
Charging cradle makes it a little faster to pop the unit off the base and go (you can also plug the AC adapter directly into the Mini’s body, skipping the cradle altogether)
Shorter body design is less likely to tip over
Metal body design feels higher quality than Color’s plastic body

It’s kind of hard to pick between them, really – they’re both great speakers. I use my SoundLink Mini as a soundbar for my TV a lot these days since my voice-controlled Amazon Echo has taken over my casual background music needs.

Bose SoundLink Color vs. Amazon Tap

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I recently wrote a detailed comparison of the Bose Color vs. the Amazon Tap, but the TL;DR of it is that the Color is a significantly better speaker. The Tap cannot compete on richness – the bass is all but absent and it gets a little fuzzy at high volume.

I almost sent my Tap back when I first heard it, that’s how much Bose spoiled me, but I kept it around as a computer speaker / white noise maker for when I travel.

Bose SoundLink Color vs. Amazon Echo

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Speaking strictly as speaker vs. speaker, the Color is the better choice over the Echo. But you don’t get an Echo just to have it be a speaker, you get it for all the other stuff it can do, too.

I’ve come to rely on the home automation features (“Alexa, turn the lights off”) and use them daily; and because it’s easy to activate, my Echo is often used to play music, too (“Alexa, play playlist Chillout from Spotify”). I don’t really use the Echo for those times when I really want to listen to music, but for background sound (I live in a city, it’s nice to have something soft playing in the background) the Echo is great.

The bottom line

The Bose SoundLink Color has been on the market for nearly 2 years, but it’s still the top pick for its price bracket. Its sound quality remains unchallenged by newcomers like the Amazon Echo and Tap. Bose offers better Bluetooth speakers for more $$$, but the Color is plenty capable as-is. You won’t regret getting the “bottom tier” model if you choose a Color and I think we’re unlikely to see a major product refresh from any of these speaker lines before the end of the year. Grab one and enjoy!

» Check Amazon.com for current price and more buyer reviews «

Altec Lansing IMW257-AB Mini H2O waterproof speaker is perfect for the pool, river tubing, the shower, rainy days…

July 1, 2016 by M.B. Grant Leave a Comment

Last updated: 7/1/2016

Our Altec Lansing Mini H20 rating:

Two weekends ago, we grabbed a little Altec Lansing Mini H20 waterproof bluetooth speaker on our way to river tubing with friends.

Total impulse buy – we didn’t expect a lot from it, but it’s fast becoming the star speaker of the summer. This little guy fills a niche our Amazon Tap and Bose Mini speakers don’t: it can get wet! It can also get dirty! And at just $40, it can go everywhere with us!

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Highlights

It’s everything-proof: water, sand, snow, drops and bumps
It floats!
Good sound and fairly loud
Strong metal “carabiner hook” for clipping it to things with a carabiner or lanyard
Micro USB charging
3.5 oz weight makes it portable and light enough to wear
Speakerphone and microphone for taking phone calls out loud (we haven’t tried this feature)
AUX port for hooking the speaker up to your phone via its headphone jack (note: it’s not waterproof in this configuration)
Keep your fancy expensive speaker safe at home!

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In hand

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The top buttons allow you to control audio volume and navigate a playlist backwards and forwards (hold the – or + button)

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The bottom’s rubber flap covers the AUX port and the micro USB charge port.

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The bottom flap opens up for charging and AUX in

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A Little Waterproof Bluetooth Speaker that Goes Everywhere

Lanyard hook for the win

The speaker has a metal loop that you can hook a carabiner or lanyard to (neither is included). The speaker is light enough to wear around your neck or clip to a bag or bicycle.

This was great for river tubing, since getting in/out of the river usually fills your hands with important things like your inner tube and the copious amounts of alcohol you brought with.

Here’s ours in action:

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Loud and clear – for the most part

We brought the speaker to the pool, sat it on the edge near the deep end while we played around in the pool. The speaker was audible from the shallow end and could be heard over us splashing around. This speaker wouldn’t be sufficient for DJing your backyard summer bash, but it’s fine for creating a good volume of background music for a backyard swim or float.

The sound quality is better than we expected from this price range. Honestly, it’s not that much worse than the Amazon Tap speaker at low and medium volumes. Bass clipping is noticeable when you turn up the volume and play a bass-heavy song, but how bothersome this is varies by listeners. Hardcore audiophiles will cringe, your kids and grandparents won’t care.

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It can go for a swim!

Yes, it floats. No, it doesn’t float “speakers up”. It floats one-corner-up with its speakers underneath the water, so if it falls into the water you won’t hear it. The floating feature seems like it’s there to help you retrieve it if it gets knocked into the water (which beats swimming to the bottom or losing it in the river).

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6 hours of battery life, at least

I’m impressed at how long this thing ran on a single charge. The manufacturer says 6 hours but I ran it for 6 and let idle for a week in between uses and it still has half its battery life left, according to my iPhone. The speaker uses Bluetooth 4, which allows the device it’s paired with (in this case, my phone) to display its remaining battery life.

Easy to pair, stays paired

We tested pairing this speaker with an Android phone and an iPhone 6 and both paired easily and stayed paired.

Comes in 6 colors!

We went with red so it would stand out against the pool, but the speaker also comes in black, white, blue, orange, and mint. (Amazon’s prices sometimes vary by color, so be sure to check them all).

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What would make it better?

For $40 this speaker is amazing. It’s hard to find much to complain about.

Only two minor gripes stand out:

It should come with a lanyard

The corner loop makes you think it’s going to come with one, and a lanyard goes a long way to improve its portability. The lack of a lanyard almost made us not buy it on our way to the river, but we were able to scrounge one up between the store and the river shore.

Built-in voice is kind of annoying

The built-in voice that announces successful Bluetooth connections, charging status, etc is very loud and tinny. I’d have been happy with beeps. On the bright side, at least you know what the speaker is doing when you plug it in, turn it on, turn it off, etc.

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If you need something bigger and more booming, check out the CB3 Armor XL Waterproof Rugged Wireless Bluetooth Speaker, which is one of the speakers we considered but didn’t go with because we wanted ours to be tiny enough to take river tubing with us.

The bottom line

If you’re looking for a durable, inexpensive waterproof speaker to accompany you on all your summer adventures, look no further than the Altec Lansing H20 Mini.

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» Check Amazon.com for current price and more buyer reviews «

Amazon Tap vs. Bose SoundLink Color speaker

April 13, 2016 by M.B. Grant 2 Comments

Apparently, I have a Bluetooth speaker fetish. Over the last several years I’ve accumulated: a Bose SoundLink Color, a Bose SoundLink Mini (1st gen), a Bose SoundLink III, and (most recently) an Amazon Tap. Oh, and an Amazon Echo too, if that counts.

I also have a lot of opinions about how a speaker should sound, so let’s get started.

Launched March 2016, the Amazon Tap is Amazon’s first foray into the Bluetooth speaker market.

The Bose Color is a couple years old now, but despite being Bose’s most inexpensive speaker it’s still out-performing significantly pricier speakers.

Amazon Tap vs. Bose SoundLink Color

Audio (bass, clarity, overall quality): Bose SoundLink Color, hands down.

Bose Color has much richer bass and audio quality. It does one thing and it does it well.

The Color can get very, very loud. I’ve never even pushed it up to its limits, that’s how loud it gets. I thought my eardrums might burst.

Some reports measure it around 90 db without any sound distortion, which is probably louder than you’ll use it around your house unless you like to DJ for parties or use it outdoors. My family uses it outdoors near our pool (not close enough to get wet – it’s not water resistant) and it’s plenty loud, even without being at max volume.

Bose = strongest, loudest, clearest, bass-iest audio.

If there’s anywhere the Tap has the Bose Color beat on audio quality it’s the directional output. Color seems to output sound in a direct line from its front, and there’s a noticeable drop-off in quality and volume if you are to the left/right of the unit. The Tap outputs its audio in 360 degrees, so it doesn’t matter if you’re “behind” it or to the side of it – the sound is the same.

The tradeoff, of course, is the quality of that sound. The Tap just isn’t as rich sounding, especially on bass-heavy songs.

Portability: Amazon Tap

The Tap is smaller and lighter than the Bose Color (by about half a pound) and just seems to fit nicer in bags I’ve carried it around in. As another bonus, it projects its audio 360 degrees, so if you lay it down (like I’ve done inside my bicycle bag) you don’t have to worry about “facing” it a certain way to hear it.

The Tap also has a nice charging base that the Color does not. To charge the Color, you just plug it in to a wall adapter, but that plug in / unplug step hinders its “grab it and go” portability just a teeny bit, and that little bit of friction doesn’t exist for the Tap (just lift it off the base).

You can get a “sling” for your Amazon Tap, but it covers up the charging connection on the bottom (boo, hiss) but it does let you clip the Tap onto your bag (not that it won’t feel like a 1-pound brick swinging around…).

Battery life: Tie

The Bose has about 8 hours of battery life, the Tap about 10.

Battery charging: Amazon Tap

The Tap gets an edge on all things battery-related thanks to its convenient base. Just rest the Tap on top of the base (orientation doesn’t even matter!) and it’ll charge. You can use it while it charges. (You can use the Color while it charges, too). To charge the Color, you have to find the other end of its micro USB cable and plug it into the speaker hardware. Not a huge hardship, but I’ve rooted around under my desk enough times for the fallen end of the Color’s cable to take note of this convenience.

Closeup of the Tap’s base and charging cradle.

Price: Tie

You can usually find either of them for about $129.

“Personal assistant” features: Amazon Tap

This is where the Tap shines. Tap’s integration with Alexa, Amazon’s voice-controlled “personal assistant” service (it’s free, even if you don’t have Prime) is pretty powerful once you learn your way around. I use Alexa to turn my Philips Hue lights on/off every day, control devices that are hooked up through my WeMo plugs, access playlists that I set up on Amazon Prime Music (“free” if you have Prime)

Connectivity and ease of pairing: Amazon Tap

I’ve had far fewer long waits / unexplained failures to pair with my Amazon Tap than I have with any of my Bose speakers. I regularly switch up which device is paired with my speakers (an iPhone, an Android phone, and a MacBook Pro laptop) and I just seem to go through more connection failures with the Bose speakers than I have so far with the Tap.

It’s also worth pointing out that the Tap has WiFi capabilities as well and can directly stream music over services like Prime Music, Spotify, Pandora, TuneIn, and iHeartRadio via WiFi, but the Bose Color only receives your music over Bluetooth (not that you can’t stream those services over Bluetooth via your Bluetooth enabled device, it’s just another step to be aware of).

Physical styling: Tie

Bose Color comes in a bunch of colors, many of which are pretty fun. The plastic case doesn’t feel overly rugged, but given that it’s a $129 speaker you are probably going to want to at least try to put it somewhere safe. The top of the Color speaker features an array of control buttons embedded in a single rubbery control panel. The inclusion of physical buttons is a nice addition, allowing for easy on-device control of the song selection and volume.

The Tap only comes in black, but it’s very nice looking up close (the speaker fabric in particular has a good texture to it). Like the Color, the Tap has a nice rubbery top with an array of control buttons with the same buttons for volume and song selection.

Bose Color comes in any color you want, as long as that color is blue, teal, red, black, or white. I feel like a baby pink one would’ve sold like hotcakes, but Bose didn’t consult me on color choices. 😉

Both speakers have the same drawback: they can both be tipped over with relative ease. Neither is particularly squat or bottom-heavy, so if you have small children or cats (or are just prone to flailing about), you’ll need to watch out for tipping. I’ve tipped both my Color and my Tap over flat on their sides, though, and no harm has come of it.

The bottom line

Assuming you don’t want to spend more than $129…

… for the bestest audio you can get, go with the Bose Color. It’s a great speaker and you’ll get years out of it.

… for streaming over WiFi and giving voice commands to Alexa (and you’re okay with the tradeoff on audio quality) go with the Tap.

Wait, what’s your price range?

If you’ve got a bit more than $129 burning a hole in your pocket, and you want rich, high quality audio (and booming bass) delivered to your ears via Bluetooth then you can go straight to the higher end of the Bose SoundLink series of speakers.

Yes, you will pay more than you would for a Tap or a Color, but the price difference is worth it. There is a noticeable step up from the SoundLink Color to the SoundLink Mini to the SoundLink III. Get the one at the top of your price range – you won’t regret it.

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The SoundLink line is sturdy, loud, and the rechargeable batteries last a long time on a single charge. These speakers that shouldn’t get left behind (technologically speaking) for several years to come. When Bose refreshed their product line and updated the Mini from the 1st gen to the 2nd gen, they barely changed a thing.

The SoundLink Mini is great for placing on your desk or in your kitchen as you work and for $100 more, the SoundLink III can fill the room with crisp audio and make you think you’re listening to a 3-speaker setup, complete with subwoofer. (And if you can tolerate the NFL branding, you can sometimes find the NFL-themed SoundLink III for just a few more dollars than the price of a Mini… depending on the season and how the teams are doing). I use my SoundLink Mini primarily as a TV sound bar these days, and it’s indistinguishable from more expensive sound bars I considered. Heck, the SoundLink Mini is even just as portable, if not moreso, than the Tap or the Color.

Of the four Bluetooth speakers in my rotation, the SoundLink III and the SoundLink Mini are still the two dedicated speakers getting the most use in my home.