Bose SoundTouch 30 Series III Wireless Music System

Product Information

update- Still beyond happy! I've since added one more Bose 10 (for a total of five in addition to the central Bose 30) for more complete coverage on my first floor, and the system has handled it without problem. I should add that I have Spotify Premium as opposed to basic, which I find terrific paired with my Bose system. The pairing is seamless no matter which app (iOS) I use, Bose or Spotify. The Bose app only allows 6 presets and I do wish there were more, maybe 10 or 12, but it does open the Spotify app. I find Pandora way too limited and I have yet to explore any of the other options. I also only use my IPad or iPhone apps to start or stop my system rather than the remotes because the apps can operate all the units at once wherever I am within the range of my wifi. Once you start either the Bose or Spotify app, you do have to press a button on the Bose app to have all units join the group of system and it would be great to have a way to have the whole group operate together automatically. Regarding price, yes, it Is expensive as a system especially considering how many units I have, but as they say you get what you pay for. I love love love (sorry to gush) being able to push a couple of buttons and have amazing instant music plus choice wherever I go on our first floor.

The app itself looks professional and works like a dream. The intuitive layout places tabs at the edges of the screen, which you can swipe inwards to switch menus. While browsing music libraries, the lists are logically structured and lightning-fast. The app scrolls through huge music libraries without much hesitation – I whizzed down a list of more than 900 albums on my NAS drive and it needed only a brief pause when it reached “M”. Thanks to its built-in Wi-Fi connection, the SoundTouch 30 lets you stream music from servers on your home network, such as PCs and NAS drives, as well as Spotify, Deezer and internet radio. You can link up several SoundTouch devices in different rooms and enjoy the same music through them all, or send different sources to individual speakers. These functions are carried out through Bose’s SoundTouch controller app, available for iOS and Android devices.One issue I would point out to others is that my router (and many others) supports both 2.4G and 5G wifi network speeds. I have internal networks at both of these speeds and guest networks for both speeds as well. I used the 5G speed for the Bose (it does operate on both speeds which I appreciate) in an attempt to reduce buffering if that might be an issue. I have had no trouble with buffering or disconnects at all. The unit has run for several long days without a single issue. But we have had issues with our iphones not finding the speaker on occasion. After leaving home and returning, the iphone might select any of our internal networks for wifi connection. I learned that if I have trouble finding the speaker, I can make sure my iphone is using the same network as the speaker and it finds it immediately. One of the best speakers out there. I prefer Bose over Sonos. There is no equalizer function built-in in the app that controls the speaker. If you connect the speak to your laptop and play through iTune, which does have the equalizer function, you can adjust the frequency individually. Once you have done this, you will be able to hear the true nature and quality of this Bose speaker. What’s more, the mids and treble could do with a little more refinement – certain instruments and vocals flirt with hardness, a far cry from the silky top-end and gorgeous layering of the B&W Zeppelin Wireless and Naim Mu-So, or to a lesser extent the Denon Heos 7. On the whole, however, there are many more positives than negatives in the SoundTouch 30’s performance.

After listening to a variety of songs through the SoundTouch 30, its sound is best described as “meaty”. Burly bass output and a tight, cohesive union between the drivers and subwoofer makes music sound remarkably solid and punchy. Compared to the more neutral Yamaha NX-N500 monitor speakers, the bass of the Bose SoundTouch 30 sounded overemphasized -- which was apparent when listening to King Crimson's "Walking on Air" via Radio Paradise -- the bass notes tended to overhang or sit a little too long. The quality of the bass / low frequency is superb. The high frequency is also good until you crank up the volume to max or almost max, then the sound quality falls. Then again, usually no one will listen to music at max volume for any reasonable amount of time. I did it for the sake of testing only. En cuanto a bocinas de la misma gama, creo que es la mejor opción. A pesar de que el sonido de Sonos es muy bueno, limita su uso al WiFi (además de que es fea), Harman Kardon se queda corta en su oferta y Marshall no suena tan bien. That said, the Bose’s sound can become a little dense and congested, particularly when you start turning up the volume. Its rich, bottom-heavy presentation comes at the expense of openness and breathing space. Placement and imaging become slightly lost within the Bose’s weighty wall of sound.Si quieres otras opciones con excelente calidad de audio, y a precio y tamaño razonable, yo no buscaría en bocinas de este tipo, yo me iba por un micro componente Onkyo o Denon. Considero que son excelentes equipos (hi fi), y mucho mejores que cualquier bocina como éstas. There’s decent clarity here too. Hi-hats are crisply conveyed and snare drums have a nice slap to them. Switch to Corinne Bailey Rae’s cover of “Munich” and the Bose identifies the fragility and detail in her voice. I now have had the Bose music system for eight months, one 30 and five 10s, and the Bose system is often spotty with its connecting to my strong wifi and Spotify especially when the weather is bad. I know it's not Spotify because my iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Air usually connect well to Spotify- not that Spotify doesn't have problems itself. There have been many Bose updates, but the problem continues. Like just now. And now again. And now again (it's raining). Another thing- the speaker system and the microwave don't play well together. While we found the original Bose SoundTouch 20 to be more neutral sounding than the original Sonos Play:5 this time around the roles are reversed. The bigger SoundTouch 30 III is the more exciting of the two flagship speakers. At low to medium volumes, it sounds magnificent with plenty of oomph from the bass woofer. One of the most welcome changes Bose has made is in the setup of the speaker. When the SoundTouch range was first introduced you needed to connect each speaker to your PC via a USB cable, and this was light years behind Sonos' wireless system. While the improved routine is still not as elegant as Sonos' -- you need to press the "2" and "Vol-" together to put the speaker in setup mode -- it's still preferable to what preceded it.