Bose Soundlink Color II [Review]

January 17, 2023 Modified date: January 17, 2023

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The realm of Bluetooth speakers just got a little bit more competitive with the roll-out of the Bose SoundLink Colour II Bluetooth Speaker. Considered among the finest Bluetooth audio speakers, it boasts an outstanding quality of sound (standard of Bose), a newly-integrated voice prompts, and an IPX4 Water Resistance for shower room or pool-aside being attentive.

Bose SoundLink Color Bluetooth Speaker II - Soft Black

$129.00

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Last updated on April 19, 2024 2:32 am ⓘ

Design

Measuring 5.3 by 5. by 2.3 ins (HWD), the 1.2-pound SoundLink Colour II can be purchased in black color, coral reddish, light-weight azure, and greyish. Its thinner layout has curved finishes and a rubberized shape that’s immune to water—it has an IPX4 status, so that it can endure splashes and rainwater, but isn’t submersible for over a very quick time period. The front deal with of your loudspeaker is emblazoned using the Bose logo and covered in grille perforations. The left side houses the connection for that mini USB charging cable as well as a 3.5mm aux enter.

Bose SoundLink Colour II inlineThere are handled across the top board for potential, partnering, input (this switches on the aux input), and quantity. The amount of control keys job along with your mobile device’s grasp quantity degrees and a multifunction switch regulates play-back, phone control, and monitor the navigation depending on how often you faucet it. The top board also homes a central NFC pairing region for compatible smartphones.

You can find no components aside from the incorporated mini USB cable television. It would’ve been great to find out the addition of your 3.5mm sound cable tv to the aux insight, but you’ll provide that yourself.

The Bose Connect up app is free and simple to use. Throughout the app, you can access an individual guidebook, disable sound prompts, management play-back and volume level, and control your link with the speaker—as well as any other wi-fi Bose speakers that work with all the app and therefore are in a collection. The application is not required for controlling the presenter, but we appreciated working with it.

The built in speakerphone mic delivers decent intelligibility. As with most Bluetooth mics, there are several music items introduced into tracks, so things can audio a bit fuzzy, but whoever is in the other collection should certainly understand every word.

Bose estimations battery life to be roughly eight-time, however, your final results may vary together with your amount levels, along with your blend of cabled and wireless network play-back. To save lots of life of the battery, the lecturer will potential down automatically after twenty or so minutes of inactivity, however you can adjust or disable this work completed in the application.

Performance

On tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Knife’s “Silent Shout,” the SoundLink Color II delivers solid low-frequency response. At top volumes on tracks like this, it sounds like it’s close to distortion but never actually gets there, whereas at just slightly lower, still-loud audio levels, the bass sounds fuller and richer. This is likely due to digital signal processing controlling the deep low frequencies at top volumes to prevent distortion. The highs on this track are well-represented so that things feel balanced.

Monthly bill Callahan’s “Drover,” a keep track of with a lot less deeply largemouth bass from the mix, provides a feeling of the SoundLink Color II’s all round seem unique. The drums for this track can noise thunderous on bass-forward techniques, but aren’t overpowering within the tiniest here—in fact, they feel almost relegated to the background. It’s Callahan’s baritone vocals that audio increased and rich. There’s lots of lower and low-middle of the boosting, there’s hardly much sub-bass sounds existence, neither would we expect there to remain a speaker this dimension. The vocals and electric guitar strums reap the benefits of a robust substantial-middle and frequency appearance, however—things are sculpted in this variety, and also the result is some added lucidity and illumination to hold the abundant very low-mids from disconcerting the complete stability.

On Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “No Church within the Crazy,” the kick drum loop receives a good amount of higher-mid appearance, letting its strike to maintain its sharp advantage and piece throughout the levels of your combine. The sub-bass synth reaches that punctuate the beat are provided by using a good semblance of power, but we hear their raspy best notes over we notice their serious reduced frequency fury. The vocals about this track are supplied clearly and cleanly, without having added harshness and just the slightest trace of sibilance.

Orchestral monitors, such as the starting picture in John Adams’ The Gospel In accordance with the Other Mary, get some included existence from the lows and very low-mids that forces the lower sign-up instrumentation forward inside the combine a little. The focus, nevertheless, still is one of the better sign-up brass, strings, and vocals—they use brilliant, distinct shipping and delivery which is the most popular aspect of the mixture, despite having the somewhat boosted bass sound appearance.

Verdict

For the size, the Bose SoundLink Colour II delivers very strong sound expertise, with wealthy lows equalled with sharp levels. Anyone trying to find massive subwoofer-like audio, or perhaps an extremely-precise audio signature, should spend more money cash on a larger, better speaker. So far as smaller sized portable Bluetooth loudspeakers go, there’s small to complain about here—even the retail price would seem fair. In this particular common price range, however, there are a few solid alternatives also well worth your thing to consider. We’re fans of your JBL Fee 3, the Sony SRS-XB3, as well as the JLab Prevent Celebration. The SoundLink Colour II is actually a certain option for Bose fans, nonetheless, and really worth your attention.