Bose SoundLink Plus Review

Design

• Silicone and powder-coated steel construction
• 99 x 231 x 86mm (HxWxD)
• IP67

Aside from the option of a rather lurid citrus yellow finish, the SoundLink Plus (which is also available in black or dusk blue) is quite obviously a member of the SoundLink family.

The smaller Flex and the larger Max share the same bouncy, shock-resistant silicone chassis covering as the Plus, and like its big brother the Plus also has a powder-coated steel grille running the full width and height of its 99 x 231 x 86mm (HWD) frame.

The go-anywhere credentials are enhanced by the loop of hefty nylon rope attached to one end – it’s more than capable of supporting the speaker’s 1.45kg weight if you attach it to the strap of a bag or what-have-you. 

And the IP67 rating that means the Bose can comfortably withstand any realistic environment for as long as you can – certainly it’s perfectly happy under a metre of water for as much as half an hour, although the fact that it floats means you’d have to hold it under to really put this to the test.

Which means it’s probably just as well that the SoundLink Plus is rust-resistant on top of everything else, then. 

Features

• Bluetooth 5.4 with aptX Adaptive codec support
• 20 hours of playback from a single charge
• Mid/bass driver, tweeter and four passive radiators

As is usual with Bose, there are some aspects of the specification of the SoundLink Plus that we are going to have to accept we’ll never know.

For instance, the company will happily let you know the driver array consists of a mid/bass driver, a tweeter and four passive radiators – but as for how big they are, what they’re made of, how much power is driving them or what the resulting frequency response is, your guess is as good as mine.

Still, at least the details of wireless connectivity are all out there: the Bose uses Bluetooth 5.4 and has codec compatibility running to SBC, AAC and aptX Adaptive.

And the company is forthcoming about battery power, too: as long as you’re not caning the volume level then 20 hours between charges should be achievable (if you are caning it then you’re looking at more like four hours).

From flat to full takes a rather leisurely five hours via the USB-C slot on the speaker’s rear – but the SoundLink can also use its USB-C to charge other devices (your smartphone, most likely). And commendably, the battery can be replaced by Bose if and when it becomes necessary.

Spotify Tap and Google Fast Pair are available, as is multipoint connectivity and Bose Simple Sync. Two SoundLink Plus can form a stereo pair, and Party Mode means any current Bose speaker with a shortcut button can be synced to play the same content in different spaces.

Setting the function of the shortcut button (choose between speaker link or Spotify) happens in the Bose control app that’s free for iOS and Android. You activate Party Mode or form a stereo pair here too, and it’s also the place where you can investigate some EQ presets, create your own using a three-band equaliser, and check for firmware updates.

There are some physical controls on the speaker too, naturally. A slightly recessed strip across the top of the speaker offers you that shortcut button, power on/off, Bluetooth pairing, play/pause and volume up/down. 

Sound Quality

• Hefty, informative and relatively spacious sound
• Plenty dynamic enough when required
• Low frequency control is not all it might be

I may as well start with the downside to the way the Bose SoundLink Plus performs, because it won’t take long and it will leave me enough time to deal with all the stuff it does really well.

There’s a shortage of control to the way the Bose deal with bass information, a slightly lax attitude towards the attack and decay of low-frequency information that means tempos can plod just a little and rhythmic expression isn’t as naturalistic as it otherwise would be.

The SoundLink Plus has no problem finding and revealing even quite fine details regarding tone and texture at the bottom end, but it is short of authority and the upshot is a speaker with low-frequency presence that sounds fractionally remote from everything else that’s going on.

So with that out of the way, let’s me turn my attention to detail retrieval in general. The Bose is very adept here, able to reveal and contextualise transient detail just as readily as the broad strokes contained in a Qobuz-derived FLAC file of Haim’s I Quit.

Its tonal balance is just marginally warmer than neutral, which makes perfect sense in the context of a) the brand we’re dealing with here, and b) the type of product this is and the environments in which it’s likely to be used. And with the exception of the slightly remote nature of the lowest frequencies, the integration and frequency response of this speaker is very smoothly judged indeed.

And while there’s an obvious point-source of sound, the SoundLink Plus is nevertheless a quite open and spacious listen, able to give each element of a recording a little space in which to operate.

No details of amplification power are forthcoming, but it’s perfectly apparent that there’s sufficient oomph available to allow plenty of dynamic expression when a recording ramps up the intensity or attack. And at the same time, the Bose is attentive to the dynamics of harmonic variation to an extent that’s quite unusual in a product like this.

With the exception of the button end, the presentation is nicely unified and of a quite convincing whole. The speaker’s overall character is breezily musical, and it can maintain this attitude even if you’re playing at big volumes – treble sounds don’t harden, bass sounds don’t swamp the midrange in a way they can when less accomplished speakers are playing at high volumes. But obviously big volumes are, ideally, to be avoided because they eat into the battery life so markedly…

Should you buy it?