Taking your sound to go is possible with portable speakers, and the latest from Bose aims to let you easily carry a big sound in a smallish package.
There are times when you just want to listen to music by yourself, and others when you just want to share. For the former, there are scores of headphones, with a massive amount of choice. And for the latter, plenty in the assortment of speakers, too.
Your phone can play sound without an extra speaker, as can a laptop or tablet, but the main difference between why you would use one versus over not is typically volume and quality.
External speakers will usually give you a whole lot more volume than what your device does natively, and they may even deliver better sound performance in quality, too.
Speakers will differ across models, mind you — consistency across brands can be a fickle thing — but there’s no shortage for you to pick between.
Australians should be seeing at least one more of those this month, as Bose adds another entry to the “SoundLink” range, delivering the SoundLink Max, a sizeable-but-still-portable speaker that comes with enough tech for a big sound, as well as a decent assortment of battery life, too.
The speaker comes with two custom-designed passive radiators for base and three transducers, using similar tech to what’s inside Bose’s soundbars, with support for the Bose app to customise the sound accordingly as it plays over Bluetooth 5.3. That said, you’ll also find an auxiliary input here, making it possible to be plugged into wired sources such as a turntable or something else deliberately old school.
There’s a level of water resistance here, rated for IP67, and it comes with a silicone-wrapped steel casing to deal with corrosion and UV light, making it outside friendly.
The big brother to Bose’s previous SoundLink speakers, the Max measures 26.47cm wide, not far from an A4 piece of paper’s 29.7cm maximum length, giving you an idea of just how big this speaker will be. There’s a built in rope handle that can be easily removed, and an optional carrying strap should you want to throw the SoundLink Max over your shoulders, but it’s still portable enough, even if it won’t necessarily fit comfortably in a pocket.
As far as pockets go, Bose’s SoundLink Max may see you needing slightly deeper pockets than other compact speakers, hitting Australia for a recommended retail price of $599 locally in two colours, black or blue.
