About rickatk

Re: PLAY ALL NOT WORKING - DO NOT BUY SOUNDTOUCH PRODUCTS IF YOU WANT TO USE PLAY ALL   Play All works fine! I ran a number of multiroom configurations using Play All and AirPlay2 through the paces a couple weeks ago.  Bose Play All performed very well and out performed AirPlay 2 to some degree. See my post where I detailed the results.   I suggest you check your setup, confirm your updates for your routers and Bose gear etc.    Good luck.     ... View more

Fizzes wrote:   ... The bottom line is that I feel very happy now that I’ve chosen peace of mind over a minimal difference in audio quality. My hope is that Bose will one day again be a company I admire. But for now, I’ll just have to watch from afar — while I enjoy my new Sonos setup. A Lifelong Bose Customer, Signing Off.   I am relatively new to the Bose line up of audio gear (5years). I moved over from Yamaha and Boston Acoustics products after many years, in search of an all digital music solution . The ride was a little bumby as I was trying to find an all round solution. I tried Bose, B and W, Yamaha and Audioquest in various applications and configurations including Home Theater and free standing speakers. I remain very pleased with my choice to go with SoundTouch and have a good line up of speakers and Home Theater solutions. The SoundTouch software has worked pretty well for me and I remain completely satisfied. I don’t feel I have missed out on any features or capability even though I use Airport Express to access Apple Music. My setup sounds very good.   As time marches on Bose is making further enhancements and not surprisingly ventured into their next lineup. SoundTouch remains aviaible and serviceable, probably for a while yet. Which is good because I certainly didn’t  want to make a large investment for new gear any time soon.   Its all about choice isnt it? Of all the product lines I auditioned Sonos was not high on my list. In fact I would likely had gone with BlueNote or Naim as an option. Even Marshall looks like a cool solution. Sonos just doesn’t do it for me, never has.   At any rate I hope you find what you are looking for and enjoy your music/ home theater  experience in the Sonos eco system, because enjoyment is what it is all about.   Cheers! ... View more

    >I will respect that kind of decision if Bose has something to back it up.  But they don't.  SONOS, for example, has good videos about WiFi co-channel interference (LINK).     I quite like the Sonos video about Bluetooth v WiFi...funny.   Sonos BlueTooth balls 2016.   ... View more

@Antti Multiroom wrote: I have same system, with airport express, multiroom works perfectly, and those know supports even airplay 2! With five Soundtouch speaker and 5 airport express I get Apple Music to every room.   Great setup! I understand the setup you cited, like mine may not be bleeding edge but the components are proven and reliable. I plan on using my gear for quite a few years. That is one reason I buy Bose and Apple products. As well, Airplay has worked very well with Apple products such as iMac, iPad, iPhone and Airport Express. Not so much with other AirPlay baked into products such as Bose and B and W in my experience. Thanks to the trusty 3.5 mm however, Apple AirPlay is very capable marrying Bose and SoundTouch. Now even with only one AirPlay device you can get multiroom on SoundTouch which is pretty good! Having Airport Express on each Bose speaker gives greater flexibility over AirPlay 2 around the house.   These digital audio signals have to be converted to analogue at some point along the chain. I have read the AE serves as a very good DAC adding to my excitement about using an Airport Express to facilitate AirPlay for SoundTouch.   Hope you are enjoying your gear.     ... View more

I decided to test all my speakers, both Apple and Bose, to see how multiroom ran using SoundTouch and AirPlay 2. The hardware combinations I have are as follows:   2 SoundTouch 30s with Airport Express 1 Cinemate 130 with SoundTouch adaptor(BlueTooth) and Apple TV v3 1 Solo with Apple TV v3 1 Solo 15 with Apple TV v3 1 24 in TV (kitchen) with ATV v4   I tried a variety of combinations including individually targeting the speakers, using   Bose Play All and AirPlay 2 on my iPad and on my iMac, with the help of Airport Express routers and Apple TVs. I was able to view all the speakers from both my iMac and iPad in the SoundTouch app, iTunes app(Mac) and iPad music control panel.   There were so many combinations available, after a while my head and ears started to spin.       Impression   After playing with a combination of speakers it seems to me only the iMac and Apple TVs were out of sync in some circumstances. The iPad did not play sound when other speakers were activated. As a result I could not tell if there was a lag between the iPad and the speakers    In all cases the Bose SoundTouch speakers were in sync with each other, that includes in play all and non play all mode using SoundTouch(vtuner) and AUX using Airport Express(Apple Music) controlled by the iPad and the iMac.   The Bose speakers using Apple TV and the Kitchen speaker using Apple TV4 were slightly out of sync with the iMac playing through iTunes. There was a noticable lag between the iMac and with the Airport Express routers when SoundTouch was in Play All playing iTunes. The lag was minimalized when the SoundTouch speakers played independently in iTunes   The ATV v4 kept calling for security codes and key chain access. That was remedied by pressing the “always allow button”.     The older ATVs did not play well with AirPlay 2 on the iPad in multi-room mode. They just shut off, sometimes taking down the other ATV and AE speakers, especially if tried to mix the Airport Express speakers with ATV speakers. Guess this was to be expected as the older ATVs are not AirPlay 2 ready.   I could stream to a single older ATV using the iPad and of course the iMac.     I could also stream to the updated Airport Expresses and ATVv4 together using the iPad.   The iMac still did a better job of streaming Apple Music to the Airport Express routers and ATVs, all versions and combinations.   Conclusion     The Bose SoundTouch app and speakers were rock solid when SoundTouch was used in play all and single room modes.   The Mac OS also implemented the multiroom fairly well.  MacOS could stream to the AE routers and all versions of Apple TV simultaneously. There was a noticable lag with the iMac speakers and the SoundTouch Speakers in play all. When the SoundTouch speakers played independentally as selected in iTunes, they were in sync.   The iOS AirPlay 2 app played well with all the updated Airport Express routers and newer Apple TVs. But could only stream to the older ATVs one at a time.    It wasn’t too many years ago when my streaming setup consisted of a single iMac running iTunes, an Airport Express and a simple stereo receiver. Now I am able to stream music all around the house using my iMac or iPad and some really good sounding Bose speakers in a variety of configurations.       Very satisfied!                 ... View more

@gonzalohb wrote:   >The best combination that I found is use airplay 2 on the soundtouch 30 via aux port whit the airport express and then I do the broadcast with the soundtouch app to the rest of the speakers and it works great, but the homepod is out of the system. If Apple does not improve this delay between the speakers, it will not help anything that Bose incorporates Airplay 2 since its own system is currently better in this regard. I hope to help the rest of the community with these tests.   Well put... presently I engage multiroom using the SoundTouch app for my VTuner selection and AUX rebroadcast for Apple Music. The stream is very tight with no lag between rooms. It all really does work well and sounds quite nice!    ... View more

@gonzalohb wrote: There is no multiroom option between SoundTouch and Bosé Home. I think you should buy another SoundTouch300. On the other hand I tell you that I have besides 2 SoundTouch 300 a SoundTouch 30 another SoundTouch 20 after the last update sent to me from Bosé the multiroom works excellent without cuts and the Bosé system has no lag. I also have a Homepod and the SoundTouch 30 connected to the airport express now with AirPlay 2 and the synchronization with AirPlay 2 in the multiroom from Apple is not perfect it has a small lag, instead when using AirPlay 2 in the SoundTouch 30 and then multiroom using the system of Bosé SoundTouch works great with zero lag, I think that even the Apple AirPlay 2 system needs to improve over time, but now the multiroom from bose works better in terms of lag.     I agree: If you are considering adding more speakers to your present setup, go with SoundTouch. Multiroom is working very well. If you already have an Airport Express you can play Apple Music via AUX redirect to all your SoundTouch speakers simultaneously with individual volume control. This all works very well.   With AirPlay 2, your firmware upgraded Airport Express, HomePod and an Apple TV v4, plugged into a SoundTouch 300, all speakers will be seen as AirPlay 2 speakers either from your Mac or iPad.     ... View more

>Thank you for your recent updates @Joel_D and providing as much information as you currently have.  I'm sure they'll be some exiting news to come next year   I am thinking along these lines as well. The SoundTouch architecture, in consumer tech year's, is getting on. I wasn't entirely surprised to see this announcement and understand that in order to move forward with newer technologies, sometimes the older architecture has to be left behind. At least with SoundTouch, Bose has committed to backwards Airplay 2 compatibilty, for models with BlueTooth.   Indeed the Airplay 2 rollout has been slow but heck, I just upgraded my Apple AirPort Express routers to Airplay 2 yesterday, as that is when Apple finally released the firmware upgrade. In fact, using Airport Express and SoundTouch's built in AUX redirect feature, I have been streaming Apple Music to my SoundTouch speakers around the house for a few months now - well ahead of Airplay 2.    Moving forward... the new line up looks interesting as the first Bose smart speaker products with built in voice commands via Alexa. I have to wonder if one of the reasons there is going to be a further delay of Airplay 2 is because we may see a Siri option on the Bose Smart Speaker line up in due course. The 500 and 700 speakers are good entrants into the smart speaker realm. I am sure they will perform every bit as well as the competition (Sonos Beam) and likely exceed in sound quality.   I was particularily happy to see that presets have remained. While this seems redundant for voice controlled systems, still nice to see the feature remain. I was also happy to see there is still a 3.5mm port, albeit both features will some day really become unecessary.   The new Bose Music App looks promising as well and I like the overall streamlining of the product model names. Smart Speakers, SoundBars, Music App and Bose Home all seems to describe the line nicely. I was never a fan of "SoundTouch." The term never resonated with me and seemed a little unconventional. The newer naming scheme seems more in keeping with a modern product line.   I wont be making any purchases for a while yet. I am firmly in the 2015 era with SoundTouch, Airport Express, 1080p and all. Certainly when it is time to upgrade I am sure Bose will continue to interest me.   ... Sound Touch 30 x2 Cinemate 130 (with SoundTouch Adaptor) Solo 10 and 15 A bunch of AirPort Express's and Apple TVs. Companion 20 speakers IE2 earbuds Bose Bluetooth Headset Series 2(collecting dust because of Siri Handsfree in my truck)            ... View more

Joel:   I have a SoundTouch adaptor (rectangular)  that happends to have Bluetooth along with SoundTouch. Do you know if that will accomodate Airplay 2. ... View more

@Andy_K wrote: Apple has been kind enough to release a firmware update for their Airport Express to make it Airplay 2 compatible https://www.cultofmac.com/572373/apple-airport-express-airplay-2-support-firmware-upgrade/ A product that was released over 5 years ago in 2013 that was recently discontinued but has support pledged for another 5 years - Quality that they do this for a $100 product and a reason why Apple maintain customer loyalty After reading this post I immediately went to my Mac, launched Airport utility and there they were, two Airport Express icons ready to be updated. One click on each - updated! Then on to my iPad Pro to see if it could recognize the AE routers as AirPlay 2 speakers - voila! The AE routers were now listed with check circles along with my new Apple TV v4. My older Apple TVs don’t appear to be AirPlay 2 ready.  Back to the Airport Express routers. All working fine. I can now deploy multiroom control of those devices, plugged into the back of my Sound Touch 30s, from my iPad. Not a huge gain for me as I had multiroom control from my Mac for some time and more recently via the AUX ports on the SoundTouch speakers using the SoundTouch software. Let’s see what Bose do - still no possible model list or release insightful for Airplay 2 Bose has promised AirPlay 2 on it now legacy SoundTouch gear and I expect they will deliver. I suspect this is going to be combined with Siri support.  In the meantime seems my choice to go with Airport Express to get Apple Music over AirPlay remains a sound one.  But a mysterious new product and eco system announced - Bose Home and Bose Music - with no mention of SoundTouch Definately too bad Bose Home and Music isn’t available on legacy SoundTouch speakers, that would have been really nice but that is how consumer tech goes. Apple did exactly the same thing with its line of routers. They are discontinued in favour of Home Pod and AppleTV all tied together with AirPlay 2 and HomeKit.  Let’s see how interesting this gets...   Indeed, lots of coolness to look forward too! ... View more

David Moore wrote:   >The 2 new soundbars are mid-range products between the Solo 5 and Soundtouch 300.   David: On closer examination I would say the Sound Bar 500 resides between the Solo 5 and SoundTouch 300. The SB 500 has less speakers, non glass top and appears shorter. The SoundBar 700 seems to be on par with the ST300 and incorporates the same speaker array including 4 oval speakers, one centre and two lateral phase guides. Essentially the bump here is Alexa, eARC and Bose Music app.   I wonder if we will see an updated Life Style series with Alexa, eARC and Bose Music app in the near future.       ... View more

I wonder if we will see Airplay 2 integration on the Bose products occurring hand and hand with HomeKit and Siri capabilities. At present we are seeing a bit of Alexa integration but seeing HomeKit and Siri coming into the Bose products would be a plus. ... View more

grant.olson@ccci.org wrote: I'm looking to replace my Lifestyle 135 soundbar and found a CineMate 1 SR soundbar for sale. I'm wondering if it will work with the 135 base module.    Is there a problem with the sound bar?   Be aware the 1 SR sound bar is an older version of that series of sound bars. They were essentially v1 of the line.  If you are looking to repair or replace your Lifestyle 135 soundbar contact Bose directly. They keep a good supply of replacement parts and can either repair of replace the soundbar.      ... View more

@Game vortex wrote: >I have read plenty of posts here regarding this. So far I have learned that at least at this time the Soundtouch 300 doesn't and can't support Dolby Atmos. However is it possible, since this system all ready has surround sound speakers and a subwoofer which I own, is there a possiblity of adding a multidirecitional speaker to for this system that is upward firing? Then just update the whole Soundtouch 300 for Dolby Atmos suport and this would prevent me from having to replace the whole system.  Also since there is a Dolby Atmos for headphones app for the pc. And Dolby Atmos headphones whiich I also own, Bose should look into developing those too. I am very interested in this now since Apple anounced that Dolby Atmos is comming to the Apple 4k TV next fall.    I highly doubt we will see a firmware update released to support Dolby Atmos. Seriously, the last firmware update released by Bose resulted in a clock and some maintenance releases. Of course Apple Music has been promised as a firmware update.   I expect and hope the next release of sound bars from Bose will have all the latest trimmings and speaker bar formats from Dolby and DTS including: Upfiring speakers on the main chassis, HDMI 2.2 for 4K and the same great build and hopefully the same deluxe sub and wireless rear speakers as an option. If Bose gets serious about Atmos, I expect we could see a third speaker added to the Jewel / Cube speakers, pointing up of course.   About upfiring speakers, the 130 line was a great speaker bar with its optional vertical horizontal orientation feature. I envision something like that speaker bar lying flat with the Atmos channel speakers oriented forward and upfiring through metal grilles.The metal grilles really make the Bose speakers stand out.    After auditionaing the Sony speakers bar Atmos offerings, I am confident Bose can offer a better sounding better looking more refined Atmos solution, but they have their work cut out for them. The Sony Atmos gear sounded pretty nice!       ... View more

I was in BestBuy recently and asked where the Bose display was. The associate advised that the Bose home audio gear was in the corner and to be aware the speaker line was quite out of date. I pursued these comments further and was advised that the Bose line(ST 300) was not offering the latest in home theatre sound and in particular Dolby Atmos.   I was then invited to a listening test of a brand new Sony Atmos sound bar setup in their main auditioning room. Very impressive. The sound eminating from the sound bar with its upfiring speakers was quite clear and emersive. I came away thinking that Atmos can be well implemented in a sound bar configuration.    Not to to take away from the Sony setup I thought Bose could do a bang up job with sound bar / sub design with upfiring speakers as well. Hopefully we will see such a product in the near future. Unfortunately I don’t see any of the existing Bose products being up for the Atmos game by way of a firmware upgrade, simply because of the chassis design. Atmos standards require upfiring speakers. ... View more

@VP wrote: >We have a orbi gigabit mesh network & incredible speed throughout the house but the soundtouch app is constantly searching for speakers & not letting us scroll through the dozen or so zones we have. That sounds promising now that Apple has dropped router production. >Seems like others have had positive results with eeros mesh network. I’m considering switching out to that option though it’s going to cost me another $500 in just equipment plus the time wasted of switching everything over in our smartphone. With years of terrible unreliable soundtouch system I don’t see another solution. Try taking your ST speaker account off line (sign out) and reloading on to your new network. If that doesn’t work try a factory reset of the speaker and start anew and join your new network. While a bit of a pain sometimes this is necessary when you are trying to get your ST speakers up and running on new network gear.   Bose telephone support is good in this area.     BTW have you checked the signal strength to the Bose ST speaker?           ... View more

Try setting to “Auto”. Let the router figure out the best channel. ... View more

As long as your Wave speaker is SoundTouch capable both products will link together via SoundTouch on the same wifi network. If your Wave speaker isn’t SoundTouch capable you can add a SoundTouch wireless link adaptor for SoundTouch capability on that speaker. ... View more

dal1pam@gmail.com wrote: I currently have Bose 251 wired outdoor speakers.  I would like to buy Soundtouch SA-5 with 251 wireless/bluetooth outdoor speakers.  Will wired speakers and wireless speakers work together at the same time?   The SA- 5 is a nice sounding well powered integrated amp. It has two sets of speaker connections and will accept your exosting speakers.    Note: According to the manual,  the wireless capabilities are limited to the SA - 5  itself. The speakers are connected to the SA-5 amp by wire. If you are trying to get SoundTouch outside, you may want to just purchase the amp and connect to your existing 251 speakers or add a SoundTouch wireless adaptor to whatever is powering your 251 speakers now. ... View more

@pmart wrote: Wonder why Sonos, a relatively new company, is so far ahead of Bose!!!   Interesting and thought provoking question.   My first thought is what does “so far ahead of Bose mean” ?   Sonos gets full marks for being everywhere these days and that includes in advertising and promotion and for having a large selection of music services available on their platform. The grand daddy of course is AirPlay and Apple Music. Who knows why Bose dropped support for AirPlay a couple years back. The official reason(lacking multiroom support) was minimally enlightening.   Sonos has a pretty broad selection of wireless speaker products and were very early to the game. But does that mean they are selling more wireless speaker products? Reading posts from Sonos users, they have their complaints as well. Not surprisingly Sonos / AirPlay 2 is buggy.    I have watched some of the Sonos product marketing videos, thought I was at Bose.ca! Perhaps there are a few ex Bose employees working at Sonos these days.    I had a good look at all these products before making my purchases a couple years back. I found Sonos sound lacking, kind of boring. Similar observations for of the other brand name products out their - boring sound. Devialet, BlueNote and Naim were certainly contenders and they have very good sound, but are pricey. I could never get AirPlay/ Wi-Fi to work properly on B and W.    My observation of Bose is that they are a large company, move slowly, carefully and play tightly to the market. Bose, like Apple, will not hesitate to drop a product if that product is perceived not to be selling very well. Bose has really trimmed their speaker line up these days. I think the Bose line up represents what people are buying. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the next speakers to go are the book shelf speakers (161 and 301).   Instead consumers are putting integrated SoundTouch speakers on the shelves these days.   Finally, Bose has a broader array of products such has personal gear like head phones(which are very popular) and BlueTooth Speakers not to mention their commercial division. Hence my first comment.    Update: Wired magazine is running a story this month about Sonos. Reading the article, I better understand how difficult it is to bring these audio technologies to market.  ... View more

@ST wrote: Bose Extra-Large Ear Tip Test     Can I use the XL tips with other Bose products? The XL ear tips are available to Hearphones™ customers only.   I purchased a set of XL ear tips for my IE ear buds. The ear tips were for newer IE buds and weren’t necessarily rated for my older IE sets. The fit was great but I found the  bass heavy and overall sound muted. I concluded that these ear tips are very product version centric and can only be used for the product they are designed for. Full marks for fit though.     ... View more

@sunny2k1 wrote:     >The Sonos implementation of AirPlay2 seems to be buggy (no HomePod sync, etc.).    I am a log time Apple product user. Less time where Bose products are concerned. For the most part I have been very happy with the iMac, MacBook Pro, iPad and iPhone as well as Airport Time capsule, Airport Express and Apple TV, albeit the Canadian version of ATV is still quite limited. The Bose products have been very good as well.   As far as non core Apple products I am a little more cautious. Apple will drop a products very quickly and some of the implementations are not smooth. Case in point Apple stereo. That speaker had so much promise but was dropped very quickly.   While AirPlay 1 is fantastic using Airport Express and Apple TV,  Airplay 1 baked into SoundTouch speakers did not work well. The same is true for B and W in my experience.   Your comments about AirPlay 2 on Sonos is not surprising. I think the AirPlay 2 rollout on Apple iOS and tvOS gear and non Apple gear like Sonos and Bose is going to be slow going.      ... View more

@dermiller wrote: @rickatk wrote: Can you set different Spotify playlists using the Bose presets? >Just one Spotify playlist per preset, but I don't need more than one at the moment. Why?   I was curious how integrated services such as Spotify, that house numerous playlists, actually worked on the SoundTouch system. My curiosity arose more from another post where a user commented that in order for Sonos speakers to play Apple Music, over AirPlay 2, an i -Device had to be connected. I am assuming Apple Music over AirPlay will be the same as that is how AirPlay 1 works presently.   Currently I use Airport Express to access and play Apple Music on SoundTouch speakers. I am required to use one of my Apple devices (iMac, iPhone or iPad) to get the ball rolling, one playlist at a time. In my particular setup and because I am the kind of customer Apple and Bose likes, I have an Airport Express connected to each of my ST 30s located in the living room and in the garage. As such,  I can select different playlists for each location. Handy, when there are different musical tastes in the household.   The real win would be to see Apple Music as a baked in service to SoundTouch, like V-Tuner and Spotify. ... View more

Can you set different Spotify playlists using the Bose presets? ... View more