Continued Support for Home Speaker 500 Screen?

[smooreless]

While trying to find reviews for the new Portable Home Speaker, which I've ordered through Amazon (and isn't expected for delivery until late October at the soonest), I came across information on Youtube and on bose.com about the Home Speaker 450. Since then, I found a product listing for it on costco.com with a list price of $350. From what I can gather, the 450 appears to be the exact same speaker as the 500, but without a screen.

I bought three of the 500 speakers about a month and a half ago, and I'm really happy with them overall. And even if I had known about the 450, I think I still would have gone with the 500, because I do like the screen quite a bit.

However, the screen on my 500s has been spotty. When using Spotify, often it doesn't display album art, even when going to a new track on a the same album (when the art had been displayed on the prior track), but instead displays the generic musical note icon. And when using SiriusXM, it will often display the wrong album art or no art at all. So, I want to provide this feedback so that perhaps Bose can address these issues.

But I also want to hear from Bose because I'm aware that, within the growing Smart Home product line-up, the 500 is the only product with a screen, and I want to know that Bose is planning on continuing to improve and support the functionality of the screen on the 500. I know that SoundTouch users (which I was not one of) are feeling burned by Bose's move towards the Smart Home products, and I'm hoping I won't be feeling the same.

[Charlotte_G]

Hello smooreless, 

Thank you for your post and welcome to the Bose Community. 

You are correct in the sense that the Home Speaker 450 is essentially a Home Speaker 500 without a screen. The audio performance is exactly the same. There is nothing to worry about regarding the Home Speaker 500. Support will not be discontinued and we are not removing the Home Speaker 500.

Regarding the display issues that you are having with your Home Speaker 500, I would like to suggest the following steps:

- Reset the speaker by disconnecting power for 30 seconds. 

- Reboot your router by removing power for 30-60 seconds.

Get back to me if the issue persists.

Warm regards,

Charlotte G - Community Support

[smooreless]

Thanks, Charlotte,

Your suggestion to reboot everything appeared to have had an overall positive effect on the functioning of the speakers. They responded much more quickly to touch and voice (Alexa) commands than they had been. And, when playing Spotify at first, they displayed album art accurately, even after adjusting volume, skipping tracks, etc.

However, when I switched to SiriusXM, it showed incorrect album art (it showed art for songs that would play on that station but weren't at that time playing -- and it would change with each song, it was just incorrect). Then it reverted back to showing the generic musical notes. Then when I went back to playing Spotify, it's also showing the musical notes and not album art. This, all within the first hour of the reboot.

[Jessie_O]

Hi Smooreless, 

Thanks for coming back to us! 

I'm glad to hear that the reset somewhat resolved things. I have flagged your original post so the team can review this. 

I would recommend making sure you are running the most recent Firmware. You can do this through the application. 

Let me know how you go, hopefully, this can get your system behaving correctly. 

Kindest, 

Jessie O 

[smooreless]

Thank you. I have confirmed that all three of my speakers are running 5.0.11-8128+2af4a93. All have a "Great" Wi-Fi strength rating.

[Zoe_C]

Hello smooreles,

Thanks for back in touch, that's a shame that you are still experiencing difficulty. I would suggest removing the speakers from the Bose Music app and then setting them back up again. You can find helpful information on how to set up your speakers HERE and there is helpful information on removing a speaker from your account HERE.

I hope this helps, please let me know how you get on!

Kindest regards,

Zoe C

[smooreless]

I removed all three devices on the app and then added them again (though I didn’t really have to set them up as I seem to have only lost my presets, and I had to reactivate Alexa). Should I have done some kind of reset on the speakers so that I’d have to do the full install?

With what I have done so far, album artwork still does not display correctly on SiriusXM stations (and, actually, it typically displays the wrong artist and song title, too; it always displays song and artist info that would play on that particular channel, just not the song currently playing, and from what I can tell it’s not a song that has been played very recently or will be playing next, either).

[smooreless]

Update: this morning, less than 24 hours since I rebooted everything, I am again losing album artwork after changing the volume (it goes to the generic music notes after showing the volume change). This specifically is when using Spotify (playing via Spotify Connect). Wi-Fi strength is “Great.”

[Vicky_W]

Hello Smoorless,

Thanks for getting back to us. 

As these steps have not worked, we will raise this issue with the development team. 

As soon as we get any updates we will let you know. 

I am sorry that we could not help more. 

Kind Regards, 

Vicky W 

[smooreless]

Thank you! I hope the development team is able to address these issues. I’m happy to receive a phone call from them if we need to create the issues in real time.