So I think Bose’s current portable bluetooth speaker line up is a little lack luster especially when you compare them to their direct competitors. Both the Bose Soundlink Flex 2 and Bose Soundlink Max are a little lack luster and hard to justify. However I am impressed by the sound that comes out of the new Bose Soundlink plus… but this speaker is still a little hard to justify when compared to its direct competitors. Nonetheless today we’re going to compare the Bose Soundlink Flex 2, Bose Soundlink Plus and the Bose Soundlink Max.
So first theres the design of these speakers, now all of these speakers feel very durable and luxurious cause they all have a silicon wrapped body and powered coated front grill. All of these speakers are also dust and waterproof and they all have no problem floating in water. However when it comes to their size and portability, these speakers are a little strange. Now the Flex 2 is the smallest speaker here and its very easy to take on the go with you… however when compared to its direct competitors, the JBL Flip 7 and Sony ULT Field 1, this speaker is a little bigger. But then there are the Soundlink Plus and Max… and these two speakers are very similar size wise… but the Plus is noticeably larger and denser than its direct competitors, the JBL Charge 6 and Sony ULT Field 3… but the Max is noticeably smaller than its direct competitors the JBL Xtreme 4 and Sony ULT field 5. Now even though the Max is a little larger than the Plus, its actually a little easier to travel with the Max thanks to its built in carrying handle and if you want you can swap out this carrying handle for a shoulder strap, but that is sold separately. Where as with the Plus, you cant swap out this loop.
Now when it comes to battery life, the Flex 2 has an advertised battery life of 12 hours which is okay… where as both the Plus and Max have an advertised battery life of 20 hours… but given all of these speaker’s sizes and weight, I would like to see longer lasting battery lives in them… especially for both the Bose Soundlink Plus and Bose Soundlink Max… especially for the Plus cause mid sized speakers are hitting 24 hours of playback time.
And to charge these speakers they all charge via a USB C port as they should, and with both the Plus and max, you can also use this USB C port to charge your own devices, which is super useful. However you cant use this USB C port as a wired connection… however you can use the Max with a wired connection cause it is the only speaker here with an audio jack.
But when it comes to bluetooth connecvity, all of these speakers can be connected to two devices at the same time so you and a friend can both be DJ. Latency is not issue for these speakers so you can use them to watch video with on your phone. And when it comes to audio codecs, all of these speakers have support for SBC and AAC but the Plus and max also have support for Snapdragon sound, but in order to use that you do have to be an android user.
But with all of that being said lets talk about sound. When it comes to speaker set up these speakers are very different. The Bose soundlink Flex 2 has a frontward firing driver and dual passive radiators that shoot out the front and back of this speaker. Where as the Plus has a fonrtward firing driver, a frontward firing tweeter and dual passive radiators that shoot out the front and back of this speaker. And then theres the Bose Soundlink Max, this speaker has dual drivers which are angled out a little bit, a single frontward firing tweeter and dual passive radiators that shoot out the sides. But the fact that both the Bose soundlink Plus and Bose Soudnlink max have a tweeter is a big deal cause this helps with these speakers sound more open, like this.
Tweeter demo
So like you may have just seen the driver handles the mids and the tweeter handles the highs, so this helps with your instrument seperation and it helps these speakers sound more open. Now given the Plus’s and Max’s sheer size and price, I do expect to see a tweeter in these speakers… but I also expect the Flex 2 to have a tweeter, but it doesn’t. But now we’re going to jump into the sound test. All of these speakers are playing at 75% Volume with their stock EQ’s.
Sound test
So when it comes to sound, these speakers all sound very different. With the Bose Flex 2 since this speaker is missing that tweeter it does leans towards a warmer sound signature and it doesn’t sound as open. But then theres the Bose Soundlink Max, which obviously since it has more hardware, its going to get louder and its going to sound more open… however I would argue that the Bose Soundlink Plus sounds better than the max cause the plus sounds fuller and more defined in the mids. My problem with the Max is that it sounds hollow cause it doesn’t have that much emphasis on the mids as the Plus. So even though the Plus is smaller than the Max, I think the Plus sounds better than the Max, and I really hope that the Bose Soundlink max 2 is going to sound much better than the current max. But obviously, the Plus just doesn’t get as loud as the Max. And when it comes to max volume performance, I feel that the Flex 2 is good for like 5 people, the Plus is good for like 8 people and the Max is good for like 10 people get togethers. But overall, when it comes to sound quality, hands down I think the plus is the best sounding speaker here and hopefully Bose’s future speakers will sound more similar to the Plus, cause I am not very impressed by the Flex 2 or max.
But finally lets talk about pairing these speakers up with other speakers. Now with both of these speakers, if you have two of the exact same speakers then you can wirelessly pair them up and get them to play in left and right stereo mode, but they have to be two of the exact same speakers.
Or if you want you can pair either a Bose Soundlink Max, Bose Soundlink Plus, or Bose Soundlink flex 2 together and get them to play in sync, but you can only have a total of two speakers paired together… which is super limited. So if you plan on growing your collection of speakers, then bose wouldn’t be my first pick.
But with all of that being said, Bose’s current portable speaker line up is a little lack luster when compared to its direct competitors. With the Flex 2, this speaker lacks a tweeter so it doesn’t sound as open as its direct competitors. With the max, this speaker doesn’t sound a full in the mids, but also its battery life is little shorter when compared to its direct competitors. And then theres the Plus, I like how this speaker sounds and it sounds better than its direct competitors, but this speaker is very large and dense for a midsized speaker and both the Plus and Max carry a large price premium.