Bose SoundLink Max Review

Our Bose SoundLink Max Experience

The SoundLink Max is one of the most impressive speakers we've ever tested. Seamless pairing led directly into a fantastically immersive listening session right off the bat. We had a hard time putting it away when it was time to move on to the next model.

Though it's not at all a travel-sized speaker, we still wanted to bring it everywhere with us, because it sounded that good. Luckily, it has the steel to hold up to any adventures, or misadventures, of the day. We took it camping, and it fell face-first into a rock (ouch!). While we had the worst-case scenarios running through our head, we picked it up to find only some light scratching and no difference in the sound quality. Made braver by this experience, we dropped it in the lake on purpose and it continued to float and play music without skipping a beat. We also took it to the beach, but it didn't fare so well in the sandy environment. A few grains managed to make their way through the steel grill, and now give a slight rain stick effect when we tilt the speaker back and forth. This doesn't affect the sound of the music, but it's not something we'll be doing again.

When we drop it into water, it floats to the top.   Credit: Matt Lighthart

The Max isn't the most sand or dust resistant due to the large holes on the grille plate.   Credit: Matt Lighthart

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While the SoundLink Max has enough oomph and bump to make it an amazing party speaker, it doesn't look like one. We appreciate the clean aesthetic, which sits inconspicuously on our desk or bookshelf, and looks classy on the coffee table at home. We love the velvety smoothness of the silicone casing, and the monochromatic color scheme looks clean and modern. We were a little worried the grippy outer material would attract lint and pet hair, but that didn't happen, even when we were babysitting a friend's malamute wearing his winter coat.

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We connected the SoundLink to our projector to watch our favorite TV shows, and the difference in audio quality is incredible. Our show finally had smooth and realistic dialogue, whereas it was previously grainy and compressed, like an old TV from the 80's.

The SoundLink Max is already loud enough to be a party speaker, but if you want music to float seamlessly through multiple rooms in your house, you can sync it with other Bose speakers. We tried this out, and like 90% of the rest of the world, we didn't want to read the instructions first. We were surprised and thankful that the speaker issued spoken instructions, telling us when to turn on the secondary speaker, when it was paired, and if it was lost.

Our Analysis and Test Results

Sound Quality

The sound profile on this speaker is bold, yet balanced. You can tweak EQ settings, but we didn't feel the need to, even when listening to a genre-hopping playlist that took us through everything from fast-paced bluegrass to smooth R&B.

The bass sounds elegant, controlled, and refined. When listening to “Slide” (feat. Frank Ocean & Migos) by Calvin Harris, the low, sliding vocals and beat at 2:00 are full-bodied without sounding boomy, exaggerated, or like a caricature of the real thing. While it doesn't compete with the aggressiveness of larger boomboxes (bass-heads may be disappointed), we think the bass here is far more palatable to the average listener and offers a more realistic listening experience.

Treble sounds natural and clean, bringing a refreshing brightness to the music. They come through with much higher quality and detail than most of the speakers in our lineup, but could be a little better if you're looking for the best of the best. We're being nitpicky now, though. This is also an area where you can really tell the difference in the quality of sound mastering between different tracks. Tightly produced tracks are downright delightful; we feel like we're hearing the music as it's meant to be listened to.

And mids? Lovely, just lovely, for lead instruments like guitar, piano, and synth. Human voices have a realistic timbre, and lead vocals float over the supporting instruments like a dream. Likewise, podcasts sound clean and clear without any funny business. The Max emits realistic dialogue, and we felt as if someone were standing beside us telling a story.

The Max delivers full-blown sound from the front and sides of the speaker.   Credit: Matt Lighthart

Most of the sound is delivered through the front of this speaker.   Credit: Matt Lighthart

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While not a total 360 sound experience, this speaker's sound pours out from three sides at a comparable level of quality, giving it an exceptionally wide soundstage that's full and developed. To take advantage of this, we placed the speaker in the corner of the living room facing out, and the sound floated rich and flavorful around the room. The SoundLink creates a wide, immersive sonic experience in the right orientation, but it still sounds pretty darn good even when it's just flopped on the countertop.

Portability

The SoundLink Max is about the size of a football, which, when you consider the dense tech packed inside, is pretty compact. The Max was designed to improve upon Bose's smaller portable speakers, and improve it did. We love that it remains fairly portable while delivering more powerful sound and deeper, richer bass. Still, at 5 lbs, it's pretty heavy for the size, and it's better to park it and leave it.

The carrying handle can be detached and swapped out with a longer strap for carrying over your shoulder.   Credit: Matt Lighthart

The carrying handle is comfortable and sturdy.   Credit: Matt Lighthart

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The sturdy handle makes it easy to carry, but it can't compete with the true portable speakers we tested, many of which weigh under a pound and fit in your jacket pocket. It can technically fit in a backpack or tote, but we found it easier to grab it by the handle and hope we didn't have to walk too far. Our ideal use case for this speaker is to leave it on the bookshelf at home most of the time, and bring it around to a house party here and there.

Volume

This compact speaker gets loud, up to 98.2 decibels, which feels something like standing front row at a concert. The sound filled our living room before we even got to the max volume, and it's plenty loud to drown out the buzz of conversation at a house party.

The louds get really loud, and the quiets get super quiet. The kind of quiet that makes us wonder, “Who is actually listening to anything this quiet?” We could barely hear it. As a result, the mid volume is a bit quieter than most, and we noticed the steps between volume clicks are oddly large, so we often wished for a half-click up or down. Likely due to the huge range

Despite the questionable range choices, we can't deny that the Max is impressively consistent at any volume. The lows and highs come through with a clean punchiness even when blasting at the highest volume, and are still clearly discernible at lower levels.

It's not the absolute loudest speaker, but what makes it special is that we notice zilch drop in sound quality, even when cranking the volume up high. The bass still comes through with a clean punch, and the trebles aren't piercing like most other speakers.

After a few drops, the silicon on the SoundLink Max begins to rip at the seams.   Credit: Matt Lighthart

There were some tiny dents in the corners of the grille.   Credit: Matt Lighthart

Luckily the only damage the SoundLink Max sustained is cosmetic.   Credit: Matt Lighthart

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Durability

The heavier the speaker, the harder the fall. Because the Max is one of the heavier speakers, it fell victim to its own heft. After knocking it off the table a few times, the front panel showed some pretty noticeable scratching, and the silicone casing started to tear around the edges.

The Max has an IP67 rating—meaning that it can be dunked in water for up to 30 minutes and is supposedly dust-tight. We tested this out by throwing it into the lake, and it survived. It even floated on the surface for easy retrieval. We're not as confident in the dust-tight claims, since a few grains of sand wiggled their way inside the speaker at the beach. We can't say for sure whether it affected the sound quality, but we wouldn't push it.

After all this, to our surprise, it still worked just as well as when we unboxed it. It still plays music loud and clear, and as far as we could tell, the damage is purely cosmetic. That said, we don't recommend intentionally, repeatedly knocking this speaker to the ground or dunking it in the lake for fun. But it's nice to know that this investment-heavy speaker will hold up to most accidents.

Battery Life

This speaker has mega battery, lasting more than twice Bose's claimed play time. We measured it at 43 hours and 7 minutes, which will last you over two weeks if you listen for a few hours after work every day. We've been using it off and on for about a month and still haven't had to plug it in (we jinxed it and the speaker died as we were writing this sentence).

It can also act as a power bank, so you can plug in and charge your phone in a pinch. Of course, this will dramatically reduce the battery life, but it's nice to know that it's an option.

Ease of Use

Basic functions of the SoundLink, like pairing, volume adjustment, and playback controls, are fairly standard and work as expected. Most speakers these days are pretty easy like that. The Max also has a few extra features that take it above and beyond the basic, yet still don't overcomplicate things. One of our favorite features is Party Mode, which allows you to link any Bose speakers to play music from a single phone. If one of your friends also has a Bose speaker, this is a great way to set up for a party where you want music to float through multiple rooms, but you don't want to blast people's ears off in the main room just so it can be heard faintly in the others.

It has an app where you can adjust EQ settings to fine-tune your music, but we didn't feel it was needed; the Bose sounds great right out of the box. Lastly, for anyone after true lossless, high-fidelity audio, the Max has an aux port. We also used this a bunch for playing movies or music off of other devices like a projector or record player.

But the features stop there. You can't use it to take calls or use voice commands, as there's no onboard microphone. All told, the Bose does not have as many flashy features, but for the most part, we didn't miss them.

Should You Buy the Bose SoundLink Max?

The SoundLink Max makes music sound better than we thought a portable speaker could, no matter what genre we were in the mood for. It's good-looking enough to sit classily on a bookshelf at home, yet rugged enough to take trips across town, whether to a friend's house, a dance studio, or even to the mountains for a camping trip. It's definitely an investment, but it would be a great choice for someone who is ready to step up their home listening, but isn't ready to give up the on-the-go ease of a portable Bluetooth speaker.

What Other Bluetooth Speakers Should You Consider?

The JBL Charge 6 is probably the most comparable speaker. It's close in size, gets almost as loud, and sounds almost as good. However, it's half the price and has more rugged durability. We were more inclined to take this one to the beach, to the pickleball court, or even rafting.