Bose SoundLink Mini: Review

Revolution in Portable Speakers!

The revolution in portable high fidelity sound was marked with the

Bose SoundLink Mini

innovation of 'Walkman' series in 1980s by Sony Corporation Ltd of Japan. For almost two decades Sony Walkman ruled the market in personal music entertainment space, although other major brands such as Panasonic, Aiwa, Hitachi, Sanyo, Marantz etc too came out with similar products later.

Then were the portable compact disc players like the Sony Dicman which could play both WAV as well as MP3 audio files. And finally, now in the digital age, the iPod of Apple Inc - capable of playing both audio and video files, has been ruling the global market what Sony Walkman was once upon a time. Today the market is flooded with several genres of iPod-type players rolled out by various brands.

The Mini Connected to a MacBook Air via Bluetooth

In general, to experience a hi-fi sound from these devices, one has to plug in-ear phones, headphones or noise cancellation in-ear/head phones to enjoy music from your iPod, smartphone, tablet or other device.

Using the headphones at times can be quite tiring and one would prefer to have a similar quality belting out from speakers which can be carried easily on-the-go.

Portable speaker technology has advanced dramatically in recent years as evidenced by the ready availability of features like Bluetooth connectivity and amazing audio output. 

Over the past couple of months I had visited several retail outlets, shopping malls and tested various portable speakers of many brands. I had loaded few good as well as low quality audio tracks in my cell phone to make an honest comparison.

Bose SoundLink Mini docked in its charging  cradle

Some of the outlets had a small auditioning room but it did not hamper for those which did not have. Infact, winter had something special - listen to any of your favourite audio track and discover incredible sense of soothing magic to the ears... Mozart would have loved most songs, as each chord and note on the harp sounds so clear and perfect since there is less of ambient noise associated with coolers, fans, air conditioners etc that affects audio experience dramatically.

I tried the Bose SoundLink Mini at Croma - an electronics mega store. For the size, the sound quality is incredible. There were a number of other speakers including JBL Flip, JBL Charge, Jambox mini, Jambox Party, Logitech Boom Box, Jabra Solemate, even Bose SoundLink  Bluetooth mobile II.

Seriously, the Mini blew them all away! I think it is a revolution in

Cradle and charging adapter

portable music - astounding bass, mids and high. I was hearing things in songs which I never noticed before. The Mini is not intended for outdoor party screaming-volume, but listen to it at normal level - quality is really outstanding with deep and powerful bass and pretty smooth mids. Only treble could sparkle a bit more!

At 0.6 kg,  it is small enough to fit in your palm or tuck it inside your bag. The speaker has a range of about 30 feet which pairs easily with smartphones, iPad or any Bluetooth devices without wires. 

The retractable prongs charging adapter

The speaker features power and volume buttons -  you control all other functions from your Bluetooth device. And it remembers the most six devices you've used, so reconnecting is even simpler. The speaker circuitry is built on Bose proprietary innovative transducer and dual passive radiator technology which enhances the sound clarity. I had watched Casino Royale movie by connecting the speakers to the laptop which was simply mind blowing.

Bose seems to have done a thorough market research before deciding to do away with the hands-free speaker phone option, an add-on facility, which comes with most Bluetooth speakers. In reality, I have found that several people who owned such speakers with the hands-free option rarely used it, but the psyche of an average buyer would naturally like to have all such options loaded since the price they would be paying for the device. 

An interesting point to note -  Earlier Bose used to make its gadgets solely compatible to Apple devices, but now it seems to cater to a wider market like Android, Windows phone and all kinds of Bluetooth products.

The SoundLink Mini strives to reproduce the musical sounds as closely as possible to those of the original performance. And Bose strive to avoid flashy sounds such as those associated with accentuated bass and / or treble frequencies. While those sounds may be attractive to the novice, but they are not enduring.

Its single-piece aluminum casing is both attractive, durable and some critics have commented that if the big 'Bose' logo was not mentioned in front of its grill, people would have thought it may have been another product rolled out from Apple Inc!

The Mini comes along with a charging cradle where the unit can be docked on top of it when indoors. However, the charger adapter can be also directly connected to the unit while on travel. A full charge would give seven hours playback time. The one I tested was for five hours and still had enough juice. It has also an aux input for devices which are not Bluetooth enabled.

Unlike other speakers, this unit cannot be charged from the laptop via a USB cable - probably it may be due to a higher input (12 volt) voltage requirement. At the bottom of the unit there is a mini USB socket which is only meant for Bluetooth firmware upgrades.

Universal conversion plugs

The charging adapter deserves a special mention. Bose has thoughtfully made prongs of the charger retractable for convenience of travelling. Besides, it has also included five conversion plugs for global usage as per the country specific AC mains.

Additionally, leather covers in black and magenta and soft covers in blue, green and orange are available separately. A trendy travel bag too is available at some of the stores.

Dr. Amar Gopal Bose

The final verdict: you might not expect sound this rich from a speaker this small and don't have to sacrifice performance for portability! After all it is a premium product from Bose Corporation - a company founded by India-born US citizen, Late Dr. Amar Gopal Bose who was also a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was an electrical and sound engineer who devoted his life to investigating our psychological and physiological responses to sound.  

Bose charges a premium for quality and workmanship. They are worth every penny to me over all the plastic speakers flooded in the market these days. It comes at Rs 16,200/- which is pricy indeed!