Customer Ratings & Reviews

Bose Home Speaker 500 Review Perhaps the best way to start this review is to let you know that I returned the speaker after owning it for only 3 days. That’s right 3 days! Let me be clear the Bose Home Speaker 500 does have some great points, but it was severely lacking in two important areas. Below you will find my positives and negatives for this speaker. Positives: + The build quality is fantastic, it looks and feels like a well-designed device. + The buttons on top of the speaker are very convenient, especially the presets (I do wish they were raised up a little bit to make them easier to press). + The speaker is WiFi and Bluetooth enabled with an aux input. + Bose has made this speaker “smart” as it Alexa enabled. Interestingly, after saying the keyword, the speaker never provided any audible chime to let you know that it was listening. + A small screen is on the front of the device that provides song information and a clock when the speaker is not in use. Frankly, this really isn’t a positive for me, but it could be for some people. Negatives: - At $400, this is a pretty expensive speaker. - A limited number of music streaming services are accessible. While Spotify and Amazon Music is available, for roughly half the price you could buy a Sonos One and have access to a lot more services. - I found the sound quality to be extremely disappointing. I repositioned the speaker, I let it play for hours to break it in, I used different music services, but nothing worked. I wanted the Bose Home Speaker 500 to sound good, I was hoping it would live up to the hype, but sadly it did not. It should be noted that this speaker is not the first one I have ever tested. I own a number of speakers including Sonos, Polk, Klipsch, Elac, Pioneer, Bose, Sony, Apple HomePod, Echo and Google Home. In the end, the poor sound quality is ultimately what led me to return the speaker. I am not to the point of never using Bose again, but this purchase has certainly left a bad sound in my ears.

The sound is incredible! Very high quality and a typical Bose speaker. HOWEVER... that is only if you can use it... The app is a nightmare and filled with bugs. You cant connect your speaker to Spotify because the link spotify button is broken within the app. You press it and nothing happens. Iv been waiting 3 months now for Bose to fix the problems in the app and they have done absolutely nothing. If you have Spotify, do not buy this!

I wish I could give this a better review. The setup is easy; the sound is good; but the Google Assistant feature only half-works, even though it is prominently featured in the advertising. Do NOT buy this speaker if you use YouTubeMusic to stream music. If you do, the Google Assistant feature will not work; the only thing you can do is to use a Bluetooth connection, making this about the most expensive Bluetooth speaker on the planet. I'm keeping it, but only in the hope that Bose and Google can reach some accomodation...

Bose is overhyped and overpriced. Bought 2 of these and right at one year they are blown. Good thing I opted for extended 2 year warranty or these would be a total loss. For what Bose charges for their supposed top of the line speakers the company need to get their act together. Sonos in my opinion is a superior speaker. I would not buy Bose products again.

The sound quality is as expected with Bose. After six+ months of nearly daily use in a home office, I can say I am otherwise not at all impressed. Wifi connectivity is abysmal - at best. Music will inexplicably start to cut in and out, have static sounds in the background, and frequently just not play at all. The unit will lock up displaying the app logo you're trying to play from and require the age old unplug/plug back in to reset. I purchased this to replace an old Sounddock and truly wish I bit the bullet and upgraded to Sonos. I will surely replace this before too much longer.

Battery doesn't work and I have a hard time getting the Bluetooth to work, my music on my phone was working but now I have tried everything and it will not work.

Great sound but would not use skills needed to stream music from Sirius XM or Amazon.

The sound is ok, nothing real special. It constantly disconnects from the source I have it connected to while playing music. I honestly would not buy it again, I'd return it if I could.

Never got the chance to hear it at home, the soft ware would not download to my LG Phone that is only 5 years old. I was told I should buy a new phone. Really, I just spent $$$ on this expensive Bose speaker and now I should spend several hundred more to get it to work! "I don't think so Tim", not a reasonable solution. I returned it for a refund. My advice, make sure the software will download to your phone before you buy it.

I was so in love with this speaker and then a couple weeks ago it started making a crackly noise intermittently. Now it it consistent, all the time. My return period has expired. And, when I search the iternet, this is a very common problem. I guess the fix is taking it to a Bose service center, but the closest one to me is hundreds of miles away and is not an option. Incredibly disappointed.

Should have been figured with internal battery. Can’t take it anywhere

It's cool just a regular coo little device just make that best buy Topeka ks doesn't like to stick to the policy of the 60day return or trade in

Dissatisfied with sound, functinality, and Bose support.

Does not work with my Bose speaker bar. Will be returning. Did have the remote or owners manual.

This is the first time I write a review for any product that I buy. This is also my second Bose speaker and I don’t like it. When I play my music at first it plays nicely but after a couple of songs the music starts to get cut off and it is really irritating. We have used the speaker with different phones and the same thing happens I just want to enjoy my music without getting it cut off. This speaker sucks.