"Bose Home Speaker 300" review, Bose's new smart speaker is compact and good!

Bose will release a new smart speaker "BOSE HOME SPEAKER 300" (hereinafter BHS300) on August 22.Just saying, "Look! This is a smart speaker created by a long -established audio brand."

The BHS300 is a younger brother who made Bose's first smart speaker "Bose Home Speaker 500" (hereinafter BHS500) released in the fall of 2018.The direct sales price is 32,400 yen, which is quite reasonable compared to the 50,760 yen of BHS500, the brother.

The height of the body is about 16cm.The shape is elliptical when viewed from above.Both siblings have a design like Roppongi Hills, but the BHS300 is considerably reduced to the height and the occupation area of the feet, making it easier to place anywhere.The BHS500, mainly aluminum, weighed about 2.1 kg, but the BHS300, which was lighter with aluminum and resin hybrids, is 900g.The movement is easy.

The BHS500 has a LCD screen, and information such as cover art and song name of the playback songs can be displayed, but the BHS300 omits this and gives priority to miniaturization.The BHS500 has a built -in power supply in the main unit, and the BHS300 is an AC adapter to thoroughly miniaturize.The AC adapter is not so large, so I don't think you'll be in trouble with the place.

There are six Mike Alay systems on the top.No matter which angle you talk to, it will respond accurately to the voice command.The illumination of the light bar on the front while responding while accepting voice commands is accepted and the light bar on the front glows pale is beautiful.However, it may be difficult to see the lighting if it is a little far away.

In order to make the body compact today, the internal speaker unit is reduced from the BHS500 to one full -range unit.Place the unit downward, apply a sound to the acoustic deflector and spread it in 360 degrees.It is a smooth and uniform balance sound.Vocals and radio voices are easy to hear.In addition, the powerful bass by the sound port design "Quietport Technology" that enhances the bass with Bose's unique small body is also characteristic.I would like to touch the impression of music playback a little later.

You can choose Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant for voice assistants.It is a specification that activates either when setup from the companion application "Bose Music", but it can be changed later, so I purchased the BHS300 as a smart home control tower, and purchased a smart home appliance that I purchased later.I think that it is an ant to set the main audio assistant according to the IoT device.

"Bose Music" is a multifunctional, but it is an application that can be operated simply without worrying.From the point of view of the writer who has been using the Bose's network speaker "SoundTouch" series for many years, I think that the results of brushing up the usability of speaker applications since SoundTouch came here and blossoming.

From the global menu at the top of the screen, select the home screen, Amazon Music, Internet radio Tunein, AirPlay (iOS only), Bluetooth and 3.5mm mini external audio input.The fact that Apple's AirPlay 2 is compatible is attractive to iPhone/iPad users.

The "preset" lined up under the global menu is a function that allows you to preset a music source you often listen to in up to six slots, and assigns Amazon Music playlist, artist, Internet radio station, etc.It is convenient to access your favorite source immediately after touching the touch panel controller on the top.I am useful when listening to Internet radio during work.It is a useful function that is also installed in the SoundTouch series, and of course it is also located on the BHS500 of your brother.

Another function of the app that is likely to be used is "audio setting".It is a function that can increase or decrease bass and treble in ± 10 levels.It is an effective function when you want to customize the music according to your preference, but if you feel that the bass sounds too much when listening to the music at the BHS300 in the middle of the night, reducing the bass can sound a little quietly.

Select Google/Alexa and operate audio.Multiple speaker cooperation

As a smart speaker with a built -in audio assistant, Google Assistant and Alexa can be freely selected, support for abundant music sources, and equipped with a preset function that is convenient for listening, the Bose Home Speaker series is a unique product.It seems to be.

You can also use the Google Home, NEST series, or the Wi-Fi in the same house as the Echo series of Amazon.For example, the BHS300 was named "Dining" and talked to Echo Spot, "Dining with Michael Jackson music from Spotify."Operation in the opposite direction is also possible.

However, there are some places that are partly different from the smart speaker of the "head family".For example, in the case of the Amazon Echo series, it has recently supported Apple Music audio operation, but the Bose BHS series is based on AirPlay playback.For Google Assistants, we have not yet read out the news, routine functions, and chromecast yet, but in the future it seems that software will be updated.

In addition, group playback with multiple speakers is recommended to cooperate with the "Bose SoundBar" series of sound bars equipped with voice assistants.It is not supported in cooperation with Bose's SoundTouch series that supports the same Wi-Fi connection.

This time, I tried the voice operation of BHS300 mainly with Alexa, but the response to the command was a bit faster and accurate, although it was a little slower than the Echo series.The Alexa compatible model of the Sony TV "BRAVIA" series can also be operated on/off.

Amazon and Google are scattering hot sparks this year with a new smart speaker with a new product.Bose's BHS300 is not equipped with a screen, so it is the best wireless speaker for users who want to use audio assistants occasionally, with the main focus of "listening to music calmly and carefully".It seems to be.

What kind of sound does the BHS300 sound? I will introduce the response of playing music while comparing the BHS500 of my brother.