Although the products aren’t cheap, they promise to offer high-quality sound and the ability to pick up your voice commands over loud music. Look for them next month starting at $400.
Bose is making a push into the smart speaker space with three new products with Amazon Alexa built-in.
The new wireless speakers promise high-quality sound and the ability to pick up your voice commands, even over loud music. However, the products aren’t exactly cheap. The Bose Home Speaker 500, for instance, will retail for $399.95, making it $50 more expensive than Apple’s HomePod .
Bose acknowledged that the market is full of other voice-controlled speakers. But the company said the Home Speaker 500 has some advantages over competing products, such as the ability to deliver «true stereo separation» which eliminates the need to pair it with another speaker to create accurate stereo imaging.
To pick up your voice commands, the speaker leverages the company’s microphone technology from its commercial headsets. Bose claims this allows it to hear your voice across a room, even if a party or other conversations are going on.
The Home Speaker itself is contained inside an 8-inch tall aluminum case that’s designed to direct the audio in opposite directions, letting the sound bounce off the surrounding walls. If you’re not a fan of voice controls, you can simply use the physical buttons, located on the top of the speaker. The Home Speaker 500 also comes with a display that’ll show off album art.
If you’re seeking to build a home theater, Bose developed two soundbars that have also been equipped with Amazon’s Alexa. The Soundbar 500 will retail for $549.95, while the Soundbar 700 will go for $799.95. The larger soundbar, the 700, comes with a universal remote, but you can also control the speakers via the Bose Music app.
All three speakers can connect wirelessly over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to stream your music. They arrive next month, and Bose says they’ll support Apple AirPlay 2 by early 2019. Eventually, it will add support for other voice assistants but Bose didn’t specify when or which ones.
