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Audio equipment maker Bose Corporation has been on an overdrive during the past few months, churning out devices that integrate its speakers with the home network and/ or the smartphone.
Streaming music has become the norm, and the options for listeners can run into the thousands if internet radio is thrown into the mix. So, the older wireless speakers, and many current ones, that used to connect only through the Bluetooth protocol had inherent limitations in terms of range and connectivity.
Bose was one of the early adopters of WiFi as a platform for integrating its speakers with the home network. The brand’s SoundTouch speakers, first introduced two years ago, recently got upgrades with the arrival of a new generation and an addition in the form of the SoundTouch 10 speaker. We put this new speaker in the SoundTouch series on our test bench and here are our first impressions.
Design The SoundTouch 10 sports classic Bose design and build-quality touches. Its design and choice of materials are very familiar and reassuringly Bose. The brand’s preference for the rectangular form factor continues in the new speaker, which is the smallest speaker in the series.
A combination of plastic, polymer and silicone gives the SoundTouch 10 a refined, user-friendly appeal. Rounded edges, metallic elements and a lightly curved front and rear panel makes the form seems more purposeful.
The rear panel has a bass port at the top, which also doubles up as a finger-hold slot for carrying this portable speaker. The SoundTouch 10 seems like it would only be a bit larger than a limited edition hardbound of one the Harry Porter novels. The top panel finished in silicone sports the control buttons for power, volume, Bluetooth, Aux-in and the presets.
Performance Bose’s characteristic miniaturised form, and size-defying reproduction and loudness levels is the leitmotif with the SoundTouch 10’s performance too. The first impression you get is that behind the black mesh panel there must be a couple of Bose’s cube speakers with an alternating bass module. But, what it actually houses is a single new Unidome transducer, which has a 2.5-inch driver.
Said to be the most powerful transducer of its size in Bose’s history, the speaker is combined with the brand’s signature signal processing to boost performance.
Bose doesn’t share output figures, so we are not going to hazard a guess. But, the SoundTouch 10 outdoes many other speakers that fall within the same form and size in the loudness department, though it is not exactly at the top of the heap in terms of reproduction quality especially at higher volume levels.
Connecting the SoundTouch 10 is a breeze via Bluetooth. It connects back instantly to the paired device every time it is turned on.
Connecting to a home WiFI network takes a bit more effort and you need to download the SoundTouch app to use the speaker to full potential. Once connected using a tab or smartphone, the speakers presets can be chosen to connect to an internet radio station playing your kind of music or your favourite artist.
This speaker too gets the SoundTouch system’s advantages such as daisy-chaining multiple speakers around the home with all of them connected to the same network. So, more of the same speaker or others in the SoundTouch series can be added to the rooms for live streaming music around the house.
The presets connect directly to the music even in the absence of the device that was originally used to set up the speaker. We listened to tracks across genres and the most likeable reproduction from the SoundTouch 10 were all classical or orchestra music.
John Williams composed Jurassic Park movie theme was presented with great clarity and instruments like the baritone horns, the shakuhachi woodwind and xylophone came through with equal emphasis. On the other hand, the bass levels at high volumes seemed a bit overwhelming while playing U2’s Cedarwood Road.
Bottomline The SoundTouch 10 is a compact, portable WiFi speaker, so if you are looking for room-filling sound, you will have to consider some of the other, larger Bose SoundTouch speakers. You also get a bit of future-proofing with these next-generation speakers, since they will offer in-app integration with Spotify from next year.
Price ₹19,013
Love : Design, compact size
Hate : Pricey, bass response
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