Look out, Sonos. Bose wants to be the new king of connected audio.
With the release of its new wireless speaker, the SoundTouch 10, Bose is upgrading its multi-room listening experience. The new speaker brings with it a software update to the entire SoundTouch line (including the larger SoundTouch 20 and 30 models) which allows the devices to talk to each other over Wi-Fi.
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Now, if you’re streaming to a single speaker via Bluetooth, that speaker can then mirror that stream to any and all the other SoundTouch speakers in your house. It’s done over dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi (it used to be single-band), and you can manage which speaker is playing what via the app.
The app is getting a big upgrade, too, with deep Spotify integration. Spotify and Bose worked together to bring the main parts of Spotify right into the SoundTouch app. That way you don’t need to launch and coordinate both apps to start listening, and the two apps are kept in sync. The bad news: The integration doesn’t debut until early 2016.
The new SoundTouch speaker also has the same stream-from-the-Internet abilities as other models. You can use the app to grab playlists, artists or channels from iHeartRadio, Pandora, Spotify, Deezer and a bunch of preselected Internet radio stations. These all stream directly from the Internet -– no mobile device required.
Better still, you can program those streams into the six presets, each with a physical button on the speaker. That way, you can just press to start listening, even when your phone is in your pocket, on a counter or just MIA.
The new SoundTouch 10 costs $199. To be clear, it’s a tabletop speaker, not a portable like Bose’s SoundLink Mini. In a controlled demo, it sounded excellent, producing the surprisingly powerful bass for a speaker just a bit thicker than a box of cereal.
The new speaker brings some much-needed affordability to the SoundTouch line (the SL 20 costs $349), although it’s still only a solution for those who want to go Bose-only. The Spotify integration is a potential killer app, although the service says Bose is simply “the first” speaker manufacturer to have it – others will almost certainly follow.
Still, for anyone who wants multi-room audio as simple and frictionless as possible, Bose’s SoundTouch deserves a look before you write a check to Sonos.