Bose SoundLink Max

Verdict

A brilliant-sounding portable speaker from Bose that will light up any outdoor event, it’s a fun, rich-sounding effort that will happily play any tune you throw at it. The only annoying thing about the speaker is that it’s so difficult to charge the battery

Introduction

The Bose SoundLink Max is a portable speaker that aims to cause raucous wherever you take it.

Following on from the SoundLink Flex, the SoundLink Max is Bose’s most premium portable Bluetooth speaker yet (unless you want to count the S1 Pro+), featuring an array of features for an easy, long-lasting audio experience that can survive any conditions the weather (or you) might throw at it.

Does the Bose SoundLink Max bring the noise? Let’s find out.

Design

• Integrated handle
• 2.3kg weight
• IP67 rating

The SoundLink Max has the look of a sonic handbag with its sturdy handle, a handle that’s useful considering the speaker weighs over 2kg – that’s not exactly portable.

You’re not going to throw this speaker in a bag so it’s mightily useful that the integrated handle mitigates some of the strain of carrying it. It’s also a fine looking speaker with curved outlines, front-facing grille, and minimalist looks.

It’s a simple and elegant speaker – essentially a bigger version of the SoundLink Flex – and I quite like the blue finish it comes in, though there is an option of a black colourway.

It’s well built and feels solid – a knock on the surface suggests it’ll be hard (but not impossible) to make a dent in it. An IP67 rating ensures that it’s waterproof (for a limited time up to a metre in depth) and that splashes of water and dust won’t be a problem either.

On top are physical buttons for power, Bluetooth pairing, shortcut and playback/volume controls. Tiny but visible LED lights for the first three buttons show up when they’re engaged. Around the back is a USB-C input and an aux-in for plugging in an analogue source.

Features

• 20 hours of battery life
• aptX Adaptive Bluetooth
• Potential for stereo pairing

Bose claims 20 hours of battery life for the SoundLink Max, which is pretty good going for a wireless speaker. While less expensive, the JBL Charge 5 Wi-Fi is up to 20 hours. The Marshall Middleton is 20+ hours, the Sony SRS-XG300 is around 25 hours, the Loewe We Hear Pro is 25 hours – I think you get the point that the SoundLink Max is towards the upper limit of battery capacity, and in a smaller form than some of those speakers.

However, it has a tendency to lose its charge when not used. I had a sneaking suspicion about this so I charged it back up to full battery and left it for a couple of weeks – it dropped to 80% despite not being used.

It’s also a portable speaker that’s a pain to charge. Bose supplies a USB-C cable but without a plug, and plugging it into devices often comes with the message that the speaker is charging too slowly. With some plugs, it won’t charge at all.

I managed to use a Samsung plug for my laptop (which is equally annoying in terms of charging) and it charged relatively quickly but getting this speaker up to full charge is more of a pain than it needs to be. The speaker comes with a USB-C plug in the US but not in the UK, so it’ll be worth purchasing a USB-C plug for a smoother charging experience.

You can use the SoundLink Max as a powerbank for a mobile device.

Its wireless support equals Bluetooth 5.3 (there’s no Wi-Fi support), and in a welcome surprise there’s aptX Adaptive compatibility, which should offer a stickier connection and allow for more data to be transferred over a Bluetooth connection helpful if you’re listening to higher quality music streaming services such as Tidal and Qobuz.

The connection has been stable even from a distance. No hiccups, no extended pauses – the SoundLink Max works as described.

Bose’s SimpleSync connectivity allows for the SoundLink Max to be connected to other Bose products (smart speakers, soundbars), so you can listen to your music in more places around the home. There’s also a party mode (playing the same music) and stereo support with two SoundLink Max speakers thanks to a recent update.

The Bose app allows the speaker to be updated, as well as assigning a feature to the Shortcut button (Spotify or switching the aux input), a three-band EQ (or bass and treble adjustments) much like there is with Bose’s headphones.

You can also customise the name of the SoundLink Max, and the ones Bose are almost more suggestions to inspire you. Names such as ‘Tailgater’ (for NFL tailgates presumably) and Workout Warrior are more than just clues.

The app is clean, easy to use and navigate but it’s never been the most stable. Sometimes it’ll recognise the speaker and connect, other times it won’t bother. Annoyingly, if you jump to another app and go back to the Bose app, it’ll crash and restart again.

Sound Quality

• Rich but detailed audio
• Expansive soundstage
• Can go very loud

This is a stupendous-sounding portable speaker.

The first thing you’ll notice about the Bose SoundLink Max is how wide its soundstage is. This speaker pushes sound out from its body to the point where you can instruments either side of the speaker instead of hemmed into its body.

It creates a spacious sound, more room for vocals and instrumentation to exist alongside each other without impacting the other. And it’s not just width either, with some tracks (Maye’s La Cancion, for example), there’s actual depth to the track too – not quite as clear or as detailed as to what’s happening in the foreground, but again it’s the sense of space that the Bose creates just very impressive.

Many portable speakers have jumped onboard ‘3D’ or stereoscopic sound but this is the first speaker I’ve heard that creates an almost hi-fi sound with its performance – and it doesn’t even boast a 3D sound feature. The spaciousness also aids the speaker’s stereo effect – Stealers Wheel’s Stuck in the Middle of You has genuine placement of instruments to the right, voices in the middle and the clap sounds to the left. It’s impressive for a speaker of its size to be able to do this.

The second thing you’ll notice is the bass this speaker can output. The low frequencies have a richness that gives them depth and oomph, but there’s control in the bass too. This isn’t a portable speaker that gives the low frequencies a sizeable boost at the expense of clarity elsewhere – vocals are given solid levels of clarity and focus so you can hear what’s being sung.

The third is that this is a portable speaker that’s capable of nuance and good levels of detail. Its sound has an overall warmth to it, but like with the bass, it’s not lacking for clarity, definition or detail. Highs are dealt with a clarity and sharpness that I didn’t expect in GoGo Penguin’s Erased by Sunlight. Even with its bass performance, there’s no sense of higher frequencies being lost in the mix – tonally it strikes a well-judged balance, retrieving plenty of detail that makes it a good choice with a range of music genres. I haven’t come across one that seems to have flustered it yet.

It’s capable of a sound that’s energetic and flowing, especially at higher volumes, though increased volume results in a loss of detail. With slower tracks, the SoundLink Max settles into a measured and balanced performance, and there’s dynamism on both a small and large scale.

Whatever you fling at the Bose SoundLink Max it seems able to take in its stride and make something of it. With portable speakers I’ve tested there’s always been some sort of weakness: too smooth, too rich, too crisp or too cramped with its soundstage. The Bose is a rich-sounding and expansive listen, but most of all its fun. I haven’t heard a portable speaker as good as this in years.

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