Portable Home Speaker Alexa Problems

[Fleareniks1]

I have had the Bose portable home speaker for about a week now, the sound is excellent however the Alexa integration is second rate,

1) Alexa volume level of her voice is way too loud and unacceptable, why can’t it be adjusted or matched to the media playing, any advice?

2) Volume levels of media seems to vary, for example internet to blue tooth to Spotify seem to need adjusting, this can make the Alexa voice level worse 

3) Alexa will not turn off or go into standby when on the radio, stop standby, pause, nothing, Spotify ok. She is generally hit and miss with interactions. Any ideas

4) I bought a Pure DiscovR at a good price and although the sound quality isn’t a match for the Bose the Alexa integration is a different league. It works well and the Alexa volume and levels are balanced.

Bose charge over £300 for an item that claims it is a smart speaker but does not meet these claims, this is a poor show.

Any help anyone apart from sawing off the top of the Pure and fitting it into the Bose

Thank you

[Charlotte_G]

Hey @Fleareniks1,

Thanks for posting in the Bose Community. 

It's great to hear you are enjoying the sound quality of your Portable Home Speaker but I am sorry that you're disappointed with the Alexa Integration. Your feedback in greatly appreciated and I will do all I can to assist you.

To touch base with your first point regarding the Alexa volume, we do have another thread that discusses this matter. You can find this here - Alexa Volume. This has been raised but is something that will need to be implemented by Amazon and not down to our choice.

In regards to the source levels being different, let's see if resetting the speaker minimises this. To do this, please press and hold the Play/Pause button for ten seconds. The light ring will display pulsing white light on top and bottom as the speaker reboots and connects to a Wi-Fi network.

Could you please let me know which stations you are listening to? Some stations may require different commands.

I look forward to hearing back from you.

[Fleareniks1]

Hi there

Thank you for responding. I have carried out the reset it made no difference. I tested it a number of times and found the following also checking with a sound meter on my phone for comparison. 

Bose Portable Home Speaker:

Ask Alexa to play Spotify, she confirms a little louder than say the volume level of Spotify by 5-8db.

Ask Alexa to play BBC Radio London, she answers as BBC Sounds again at the same loud level however Radio London is quieter than Spotify by 10 dB.

So here is the problem, I turn up Radio London as an example whether its sourced from Tunein or Amazon to the same level as I had Spotify and when Alexa speaks it is 10-15 dB louder. Far too loud.

This says to me there is either a fault in the unit or it has a design fault that does not set the input volume between sources, a bit like an old stereo system where you have to adjust the volume between phono, tuner, cd etc. unless could be individually set or self adjusting as in later systems.

If I do the same test on the Pure DiscovR the voice of Alexa, Spotify, any radio source are all at pretty much the same level, being critical the radio lower by 2-3 dB. Overall it works. Not only that the Alexa communications are far more responsive and accurate.

Both The Bose and the Pure DiscovR are 2019 release systems. That says to me it is nothing to do with Amazon but the unit itself. The biggest problem being that the Alexa voice volume is set higher than say Spotify. If it were the same level and the radio were a little lower that would be ok, the difference however is far too great and unacceptable for a product of this price and reputation.

Can you confirm whether my unit is faulty or this is in fact a fault in the design which concerns me as there are a number of threads saying the same?

Thank you

[Fleareniks1]

Hi there

i still have not had a reply as to whether my unit is faulty, Like others I cannot connect with Airplay and recently it can’t find BBC on Tunein, then it sometimes plays it.

i need a response or do I just return the unit and try another,

Thanks 

[Fleareniks1]

Do you have news as to whether my unit is faulty, now I find it won’t link to Airplay, I have done all the suggestions on the forum, I don’t know if anyone else’s works either ?