BOSE SOUNDLINK MINI: #LikeABose

For the average listener, Bose is where the audiophile conversation used to start and end. But pro-sound is a completely different category with players reinventing the sound every few months. But for us lesser known mortals, Bose was 'it'. Bose was acing it with headphones and with their Acoustimass sound systems. But competition caught up pretty soon. About 4-5 years ago, Bluetooth Speakers was an upcoming trend, now of course everyone owns one. This particular review is about how Bose took the cake and ate it too.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN 2013
Bluetooth speakers were just becoming popular. Jawbone was killing it with their funky looking, great sounding speakers. Logitech’s Ultimate Ears was making all the right noise. JBL too joined in. Dr. Dre’s BEATS was fresh out of their partnership with Monster and were introducing BEATS PILL. So, the market was booming and consumers were lapping up these tiny speakers.  Bose had its Soundlink system in place, but that wasn’t really a portable option. And somewhere in mid 2013, Bose announced the Soundlink Mini. A premium, sexy looking all-aluminum body with a charging cradle and world adapters. It looked like an Apple product - premium, clean, silver aluminum body. And in many ways performed like one as well. While most of the Bluetooth speakers came with a hands-free calling feature, the Mini didn’t. It was meant purely for music. And at ₹16,000, it wasn’t cheap either. So what made me go for the Bose, and how has it fared over the years?

DIBS ON MIDS
The average consumer strangely uses only one parameter while judging a Bluetooth speaker – how loud it gets. And then there is the BEATS breed who eat, breathe and sleep bass. But for the rest of us, it’s basically three things – the balance, the sound and the soundstage. Firstly, let’s talk of balance. The treble is crystal clear, the bass is punchy enough, but the mids are just music to the ears. Balanced crystal clear sound. You don’t miss a beat, you don’t miss an instrument, you don’t miss anything. From the Beatles to Pink Floyd, Clapton to Zeppelin, Radiohead to Porcupine Tree, Alexi Murdoch to John Denver, CCR to Allman Brothers, Neil Diamond to A.R. Rahman, Bose gave me memories across rooms, across cities, across countries. That great sound, also had a great soundstage. Big and room-filling. It’s wide enough to make you feel like you’re there, but not enhanced enough to make it sound artificial. If you’re into acoustic, indie or folk music, the Bose Soundlink Mini will never sound out of tune. It’s pitch perfect.  

4 YEARS LATER
It’s been four years, and now you’d find many Bluetooth speakers trying to catch up with Bose, some offering more features, and acoustics just as great. Bose itself has a Soundlink Mini 2, with hands-free added, and a few other fixes here and there. Almost every major sound company now boasts of a sexy looking Bluetooth speaker. Companies like Jabra and Fugoo are building weatherproof speakers with the latter boasting of a whopping 40-hour battery life. But does that mean the Soundlink Mini sound sub-par? Far from it. Even now, the sound is comparable, and in some cases far superior to what’s available in the market. Bose Soundlink Mini continues to blow my mind even now. It lifts me up on a sad day, makes dull afternoons lively, and makes every song sound better. In one word, it’s AWESOME.