Customer Ratings & Reviews

This is probably my favorite speaker I've ever purchased from Bose. The highs are crisp and the lows are thunderous. This speaker honestly takes every party to the next level. I mostly use it as background music at family parties but its really convenient having this speaker get as loud as it does. Super versatile and I really LOVEE the top handle. It is made of such great quality and it feels so comfortable to carry this speaker around with the top handle. Battery life is also pretty amazing. Used it at a family party for over 5 hours and only got it down to 70%.

I have been wanting to purchase this speaker but hesitant at regular price. At the black Friday deal finally grabbed one. Product is solid and seems exceptionally well made. Set up and app are very easy to use. Adjusted eq to my preference and great sound followed. Bass is exceptional for a small speaker. You get what you pay for with this product.Excellent sound in a weatherproof package. Plays loud and clear. Looking forward to summer pool parties jamming with this speaker.

Excellent sound and bass. Powerful and portable. Hold its charge for long periods. Highly satisfied with the purchase, will buy again

I'm old enough to remember when Bose was new to the mainstream commercial market and a home that had their Wave system was 'high-falutin'. I cut my teeth on Bose products when I finally had money of my own and was stepping into the audiophile world. I quickly moved past Bose into the ethereal realms of speakers and headphones, but always had a soft spot for Bose, even though it seemed like they were consistently getting beat at their own game. Well, I was pleasantly surprised to see and hear Bose come out swinging with the SoundLink Max. TL:DR - It deserves to be on the shortlist for anyone looking for an outstanding portable bluetooth speaker. It's the first portable BT speaker to even come close to acing my audiophile test playlist. Here is what I like about the SoundLink Max: Sound Quality: I kinda feel like this has taken a back seat for a lot of portable BT speakers as of late. Many people prioritize the portability or battery life of a system over pure sound quality. Understandable since if you can't take it with you, or if it doesn't play long enough, the quality really doesn't matter. You don't have to compromise on sound with the SoundLink Max. Even though I stopped chasing the holy grail of audiophile sound (it got WAY too expensive), I do still utilize my test playlist with all my new sound gear, and the Max is the first portable bluetooth speaker I've owned that could even come close to nailing each test. Everything from depth, impact, focus, transients, and resonance were spectacular. Of course it can't get proper separation due to the closeness of the speakers (but a paired set might just do it), but no single point system can do that. The only test that it even tripped over was part of the bass response, and I'm having trouble isolating whether that is an actual issue with the speaker or if it is something else. On some dance/R&B tracks with certain bass segments, there is a 'stutter' in one frequency set. It's weird, and it only pops up in certain songs. It could very well be an artifact from processing or the original production. Other than that, the SoundLink Max has an impressively controlled bass response which has usually been a weak point for BT speakers and Bose in particular. Looks: My wife loves the Blue Dusk color and the SoundLink Max design itself is simple and clean. I don't need disco lights nor do I need it to look like some alien spaceship. I also dig the rope handle, which I guess can be swapped out for a longer shoulder rope strap but that's not for me. Battery Life: Bose says you get 20 hours at moderate volume, but I spent six hours with the audiophile test and just regular music yesterday and a good three hours so far this morning just working in my office and the speaker is still reporting 100%! Now I hope that's not an error with the software but the weight of this speaker makes me think that it has some solid battery capacity built into it. Charge Capability: Unlike a few portable speakers I've utilized lately, the SoundLink Max will charge your phone if you plug it into the USB-C port. Always a nice feature. Durability/IP Rating: The Bose SoundLink Max feels solid and sturdy, plus the rubberized coating all lead you to feel that it can take some abuse and still keep rocking. That, and the fact that you can replace the handle if needed, all give me a good feeling that I'll be using this speaker for years to come. The solid IP67 (and weirdly secondary IP64) rating also mean that this is a great speaker to take out and about, whether it is to the pool, beach, desert, or wherever you may roam. Phone App: Simple and clean. Always appreciate that. What I don't like as much (but none are very big issues): Weight: Despite being a relatively compact speaker, you could probably do some serious damage to someone if you were to swing this at them. Perhaps Bose should consider marketing it as a self-defense item or perhaps a stylish exercise weight. It's nothing egregious, but it has some heft to it. Equalizer: While I appreciate that the app is clean and simple, and that the equalizer is easy to adjust, I would appreciate some better presets, or better yet, the ability to save my own. Hopefully this will come out in a future app update. I am VERY happy with the Soundlink Max and I look forward to years of great sounding music no matter where I may be.

I bought this product with the expectation that it would be a bass power house. I can for sure tell you it beat my expectation. Though its not the loudest kid on the block it for sure delivers crisp sound and amazingly good bass for its size of speakers. Now given its multiple speakers its battery life isnt as great at high volume. Now if you have it at a decent medium high volume it will last a good 6 to 8 hours on an single charge. Im a diesel tech and it delivers perfectly in a loud environment like mine. Made with good quality and a good battery. I cant forget the connectivity, with a long range i can walk awayy with my phone about 20 feet and it still plays really well. In essence the down side is the battery does drain quick at high volume but thats due to asking it for everything it has. Not the loudest but delivers great bass Not fully portable but great size for its sound. I will definitely continue to invest in Bose products.

This Bluetooth speaker packs a punch and fills the room with music without needing to be very loud indoors. I look forward to using outdoors. It’s small but loud enough to use for a family gathering. I love it. I think it’s on the expensive side but Bose doesn’t disappoint with the sound and toughness of the speaker. I am glad that I purchased this speaker.

This Bose Sound Link Max delivers the best quality sound with a smooth design, pleasurable appearance and of course, portable and long playing battery life

I own many Bose speakers and this portable speaker is awesome. For the size, the sound quality is clear, loud, battery life is good and indicator tells you the battery life. Would recommend purchasing a carrying case for easy travel. We took it on our Hawaii trip, excellent purchase, do recommend.

It sounds incredible! That Bose sound!! The bass is crazy!!! Rumbles!! Mids and highs are crisp and clear. You can also adjust the EQ to your liking on the app. Great battery life!! Dust and waterproof is a plus. It also looks elegant. A bit pricey but if you can afford it, you'll not regret it.

I love this thing. Great sound quality, really loud for the size and the bass is crisp and clear. Highly recommend. Battery life is impressive and can even charge devices using port.

I'm not a Bose fanboy at all but this speaker is fantastic. I think at one point I owned 15 Bluetooth speakers so I have a good idea of what I want out of a speaker over a wide range of sizes. Everything about the Max is perfect. The bass is solid. I can't believe they fit all this sound into such a small package. The build quality is perfection. The Bluetooth is rock solid. It connects instantly every time. Handles multiple devices no problem. The price is steep so maybe wait for a sale in the future. But even if you pay full price I don't think you will have buyers remorse. I would love if the app EQ was 5 band instead of 3 band but I would not change anything about the speaker itself. So tempted to get another one once they add stereo pairing.

Its heavy but sounds great and the battery life is pretty remarkable. The detachable handle was nice on our canoe trip to secure it to the canoe. Would recommend this purchase if you want quality sound and don't mind the heft, its a lunker fo sure.

Best sound and Bass. Overall battery life is amazing. Volume at half way and used it for 5hr still 3/4 full..only thing missing is a charger in it so you can charge your phone n be sure please with it.

The SoundLink Max bolsters Bose’s reputation that “If it’s a Bose, it sounds awesome.” A three-band equalizer is included in the smartphone app. It has a few presets, but also allows manual setting of bass, midrange, and treble. Once pairing has been established, it connects automatically on power-up. A second device can be paired, and you can switch between the two. The thick, comfortable carrying handle just barely kept the speaker from fitting in the space I had intended. The handle is easily detachable, so that wasn’t a problem. The sound quality is unbelievable for a device this size. The downsides are few but not severe: FIRST: The only instructions actually included with the unit is inside the box. As you can see in photo 1, you are instructed to 1) charge the unit (without telling you exactly how you know when it is fully charged), 2) press the power button, and 3) connect to the unit with your smartphone and download an app for it, using the QR code. In my experience, Bluetooth devices need to be connected fairly quickly, before the pairing times out. This is exactly what happened to me, as I had to sign into the newly downloaded application, go back to my settings to select the unit, etc. Download and set up the app FIRST. SECOND: There is no owner’s manual. There was a 24-page booklet with regulatory information in seventeen languages. At the top of the first page, there is a QR code linked to Bose’s support website. [see photo 2] The website has everything, but you have to follow at least a couple links for every piece of information. Fortunately, it is not terribly difficult to find the link to the 40-page Owner’s Guide, but a link to that would have been very useful without having to chase it down. THIRD: When powering-up, the speaker “thumps” and announces its battery level. It is annoyingly loud. The announcement can be disabled in the Bose smartphone app, instead playing just the “thump” on power-up. It is still loud, but not as obtrusive. Overall, the SoundLink Max is an incredible speaker. Typical for Bose, the sound quality is unmatched in any other device in its class.

This speaker is the best speaker. Is compatible and very loud I love the texture and it has a very good batt life

Lets get the elephant in the room out of the way. This BT speaker is stupid expensive. But…. If you can afford it, it sounds amazing given its size. Its has a smaller footprint than the JBL Xtreme and it blows the JBL out of the water (as it should for $150 price premium). I’ve seen some Amazon reviews saying bass response is disappointing. That’s ridiculous. Bass is nice and tight. The entire soundstage is linear. It not bright and its not boomy. Yes, some bass is lost if listening outside. But thats the case with just about every BT speaker except JBL boombox. Hoepfully with time some deals will come out. I’d say its a deal at $325 and a bargain if it ever falls to $299.

This speaker is excellent if you want a portable speaker, able to play stereo, customizable in the app to suit any music genre, able to play all the high res. Codecs, connects automatically to you Regine or pc when started up, and so much more. Bose did not skimp on this speaker. If you enjoy playing music, sitting at your desk doing work or homework, etc . This is it for you. It can play very loud for its size. My main reason for this purchase is because I am a well informed consumer and I wanted something that had a good subwoofer feel to it, even on low volumes. And it delivers on every star I’ve given this Bluetooth speaker. Bose FTW.

Bose SoundLink Max in Blue Dusk Bose has a new set of portable bluetooth speakers that it has named the SoundLink Max line There are 2 models available in blue or black colors. I am discussing the Dusk Blue model here but both have identical specifications Approximate sizing is 10.4 inches wide, 6.4 inches high and approximately 4.1 inches deep. The speakers have Bluetooth 5.3 The internal battery, per the Bose specifications on the website, should last up to 20 hours of usage on a charge at moderate volume levels. The specs say a battery charge lasts 3 hours at full volume. I did not test this water proof feature, but the speakers are also IP67 waterproof and dust-resistant. I don't normally mix water and electronics. Of good convenience is another set of features: The speaker has both an analog 3.5mm auxiliary input jack and a USB-C port; the USB-C is to both to charge the speaker and charge external devices such as phones, using the internal speaker battery, when circumstances require it. Of course, doing so will reduce the length the speaker will play music. It works to charge my phone. The sound quality is very robust, rich and filled with both strong bass and bright treble depending on how the Bose app is adjusted for a user’s preference. Let me state that it has quite some strong volume that will cause some of my less exuberant family members to loudly implore me to turn down the volume. It is very good! Bose has apps available for their Bose headphones and Bose portable speakers that likely are mostly used with mobile devices such as phones, tablets, Chromebooks, and other bluetooth portable music devices. Using that app allows setting the music tone quality (EQ equalizer settings). Really cool. The app is also compatible with Bose SimpleSync to enable a multi room audio environment. I did not test that since this is my only Bose Bluetooth speaker (for now). There is a feature that powers off the speaker if no sound is transmitted via bluetooth and no control buttons are used for 20 minutes. That time length is adjustable to hours or turned off via the app. A voice prompt announces the battery level every time the power is turned on, or when being used, if the power button is pushed and held. It also announces the device it is connected to via bluetooth. It can connect to 2 bluetooth sources at once and mine does announce my Samsung Android phone and my Gigabyte Windows PC when powered up. BTW: I have grown very much accustomed to using this with my laptop since the sound it produces is FAR superior to my internal tiny speakers as well as other computer speakers. Recommended with enthusiasm!

The Bose SoundLink Max is the latest iteration to the SoundLink family, a well respected line up of portable Bluetooth speakers. Does this one live up the name, and as its own name suggests, provide the Maximum experience? Lets take a listen and find out. The packaging is clean and straightforward, with an emphasis on minimal use of plastic or Styrofoam. Refreshingly, the speaker comes with both a USB-C cable and a high wattage charger, bucking a recent trend of not including chargers with products. Other than those two items, some basic documentation, and the speaker, there is nothing else in the box. The speaker itself looks like a grown up version of the SoundLink Flex. It has side grilles for the passive radiators, a set of buttons on the top, and the carrying handle. It’s an understated design with no flashing lights or other gimmicks, which is what a speaker should be, in my opinion. The Blue Dusk color is very on trend and looks great. Inside, the speaker features two woofers and a tweeter, and does support stereo sound, which is nice to not have to link two smaller speakers together. It also supports Bluetooth 5.4, finally moving the line away from the older Bluetooth 4 standards. Another nice include is an analog audio input, letting you connect it to any number of devices, like a turntable if you are hopping on the vintage audio trend of late. You can also use the battery in the speaker to reverse charge your phone or other device by plugging it into the USB-C port. I do wish there were dust covers on the ports to keep sand and liquids out of them, especially the aux input port. If you are going to take it outside you might want to get a couple of dust plugs for the ports to keep stuff out of there. After charging the speaker the recommendation is to connect it and use the Bose app to configure things like the EQ, apply any product updates, and customize the shortcut button. Weirdly, the shortcut button right now has just two options – configure it to switch to the line in input, or be kind of an oddly hacked up interface only for Spotify. I left it at input switching. You don’t have to use the Bose app if you don’t want to, but a few controls do require connecting it to the app from time to time. After connecting, it’s time for a listen. It’s immediate that this by far has the most bass of any SoundLink speaker to date. It’s not room shaking, as there are limits to the size and power of a portable speaker, but it is present for sure. It also has a very wide stereo sound stage, remarkably so for a smaller speaker, especially at the sweet spot of about 4-5 feet away. Bose is claiming they are using some of their virtual surround enhancements normally reserved for a soundbar in here, and there is kind of an uncanny depth to some audio tracks that does sound more like a surround sound setup than just stereo. It may also lead to kind of an overprocessed sound on occasion, with Charle Puth’s “Left and Right” (which I used to test the stereo separation) having an oddly distorted sound at some moments in the drums. This could either be an issue with the track’s encoding or how the speaker is processing it, and Bose may still be working the kinks out of how their sound processing works with this specific speaker. I found the speaker with the default EQ to be a little bright and actually a little lacking in bass when used outside. I tuned the EQ to +5 bass and -2 treble to find what I found to be a more balanced sound. It can get SUPER loud at full volume. Overall, it sounds good, which at this premium price point, it should. As anyone with other SoundLink speakers know, one feature of the SoundLink family is the ability to link SoundLink speakers together in a “party mode” to spread sound around a space. Sadly, this speaker, despite the name SoundLink, does not actually link to any of its SoundLink cousins. In fact, it uses the Bose app, not the Bose Connect app, so it sits outside of the SoundLink line and only seems to share the name and the look. That said, this speaker is quite capable of filling a space with sound on its own, and having stereo means you don’t need two speakers linked together for stereo sound. You can link it to some other Bose smart speakers as well, but it's still a little odd that the SoundLink Max can’t link to the other SoundLink speakers. Overall, this is an expensive, premium portable speaker that punches well above its size. Showing up at a party with it or using it when you have guests over will almost certainly get comments about how much sound is coming out of this still relatively compact package. Portable, modern Bluetooth and charging capabilities, and still having an analog input make for a well rounded speaker that will keep your party rocking for hours.

Let me just say wow, I’m blown away by the sound of this speaker. No matter what genre of music I played it sounded great. There’s two small speakers on the sides & one large across the front. It’s small enough to fit on a countertop & it rumbled the countertop & cabinets. Setup was very easy, it synced with my iPhone immediately. I still have an iPod but I wasn’t able to sync it with that. Volume controls, Bluetooth & play/pause buttons are on the top of the speaker but can also be controlled using the app. I already have the Bose app so finding the Soundlink Max was easy. There’s an equalizer in the app for bass, treble, bass boost, etc. but it sounded great right out of the box. I added a little extra bass & treble & it sounds amazing. The range is good too, I walked through my house while using Bluetooth & there was no cutting out or lost connection, you can also use it while it’s charging. So far battery life is good & I used it for a few hours today. This is very sturdy & well made, even has a rope holding the handle on. I got the Blue dusk & it’s a beautiful color. My only complaint would be that it’s very heavy! I weighed it & it’s almost 5 lbs., not sure I’d want to carry it for a long time! Other than the weight it’s an awesome speaker for parties, picnics. Highly recommend!