| Customer Reviews Collected from bose.com |
Bose - SoundTouch 20 Series III Wireless Music System - Black
Average Customer Rating:
3.8
Rating breakdown 114 reviews
5 Stars
62
4 Stars
11
3 Stars
14
2 Stars
7
1 Star
20
Customer Reviews for Bose - SoundTouch 20 Series III Wireless Music System - Black
Customer Rating
5
Perfect for my needs.
on January 28, 2017
Posted by: TEBNYC
Gender:Male
It's hard to believe that such great sound comes from this little unit. Setup was a very simple procedure as was the app that controls the various features. There may be a premium for BOSE products but it's well worth it. Wifi and bluetooth work flawlessly as does the downloaded app for my Mac. Don't waste your time looking for something better. In my opinion there are none. Great job BOSE.
Written by a customer while visiting bose.com
Customer Rating
2
Awesome sound, Disappointing Setup & Installation
on November 28, 2015
Posted by: Vienna Bhat
When it comes to being one of the best in the business, expectations from anything Bose are always high. We got the SoundTouch 20 Series III system a couple of days ago.
Setup
SoundTouch 20 came in a neatly packaged box. Installation instructions sounded simple enough
1. Download the SoundTouch Controller App from the AppStore
2. Follow directions within the App
SoundTouch 20 came in a neatly packaged box. Installation instructions sounded simple enough
1. Download the SoundTouch Controller App from the AppStore
2. Follow directions within the App
Downloaded the App, followed the instructions to connect to the device. All of that went smooth till it came to a point where the App said something on the lines of "Upgrade the device software " - and then NIGHTMARE.
It took forever & the SoundTouch system appeared to be hung. After about 45-55 minutes, I unplugged and retried the same process. After multiple retries and trolling user forums, found an option to download the update and use a thumb drive to update the SoundTouch system.
Followed instructions on the download page but things still did not work. After a few tries, we finally decided to rename the downloaded update file to "Update" instead of "Update_Version_number"
Viola - it worked. It took almost half a day of frustration to get it going but once done it was pure bliss.
Sound Quality by itself - 5 stars
Setup & Installation - Come on awesome engineers @Bose, don't let us down!!!! Please, please, please - give us what we have come to expect from one of the best in the industry. We LOVE YOU
Setup & Installation - Come on awesome engineers @Bose, don't let us down!!!! Please, please, please - give us what we have come to expect from one of the best in the industry. We LOVE YOU
Response from bose.comBy Gary, Bose Service, December 1, 2015
Thank you for taking the time to share your thorough comments about the SoundTouch 20III. We appreciate the great ratings you've assigned to the sound quality, appearance and durability and are sorry to learn of the frustrating issues with set-up.
Your feedback about the software update process is very important to us. Coincidentally, we released a software update this morning that addresses many of these issues and also adds some great new features.
Please be aware that we have a team of dedicated professionals ready to assist if you ever find you have questions or need some help. Please feel free to contact them on their direct line at 800-905-2156. Support hours are M-F 9:00 AM to 9 PM and Saturday 9 AM to 7 PM, Eastern Time.
Your feedback about the software update process is very important to us. Coincidentally, we released a software update this morning that addresses many of these issues and also adds some great new features.
Please be aware that we have a team of dedicated professionals ready to assist if you ever find you have questions or need some help. Please feel free to contact them on their direct line at 800-905-2156. Support hours are M-F 9:00 AM to 9 PM and Saturday 9 AM to 7 PM, Eastern Time.
Written by a customer while visiting bose.com
Customer Rating
5
Absolutely Enjoyable!
on October 26, 2015
Posted by: Jeepguy
Gender:Male
I've had mine for over a year and a half. Other than a goofy message on Pandora along with an occasional freezeup (also Pandora ) we LOVE THIS THING! Had a couple of issues during updates, contacted Bose by phone and some of the BEST CUSTOMER SERVICE I've ever received! Doesn't matter whether it's Pandora or my library, the sound and operation is great! Looking to buy one for my son's new house for Christmas. The 20 is great for outdoors on the deck or anywhere indoors. If you like to rock outdoors consider the 30! If I had mine to break or something else I would probably look at the 30 myself. Just because I'm an old rocker that still likes it Loud... from time to time!
Written by a customer while visiting bose.com
Customer Rating
5
great product
on January 11, 2016
Posted by: Susan C
Gender:Female
Just bought the SoundTouch 20 yesterday - traded in my Sound Dock. I was apprehensive about the set up process after reading other reviews but I'm happy to say it was flawless. I'm not particularly technologically savvy but from when I unpacked the box, it was barely 30 minutes before I had music playing - so very easy. As expected the sound is great.
Written by a customer while visiting bose.com
Customer Rating
4
Great sound, beautiful. Odd button selection.
on November 1, 2015
Posted by: Ryan
Gender:Male
Pros:
- Style: The SoundTouch 20 is a work of art. It looks beautiful anywhere in my house.
- Style: The SoundTouch 20 is a work of art. It looks beautiful anywhere in my house.
- Sound: The sound is excellent, as you would expect from Bose.
- Streaming support: The built-in streaming works amazingly well. Especially Pandora, which works seamlessly.
- iPhone App: It's kind of ugly, but it works. You get the sense that UX design isn't Bose's biggest strength. But this can and probably will be improved in the future.
- Setup: I found setup to be very easy. Bose uses the standard method that other products, such as Nest, use to setup a device onto your Wi-Fi network. You first connect your smart phone to the unit via the local Bose Wi-Fi network. You then setup the unit to connect to your regular Wi-Fi network via the Bose smart phone app.
- Remote: The remote is fabulous. It allows you to thumbs up or down a Pandora song, select a preset station, change the volume, pause, etc. It also feels really great to hold in your hand.
Cons:
- No more Airplay support! As mentioned by others, the lack of Airplay support is a real downer for Apple users. Bluetooth works, but it's less convenient to use than Airplay. It would be great if Bose could simply offer both options, or even offer an Airplay version of the unit for Apple users. They already have that product built with V2 of the SoundTouch 20.
- No more Airplay support! As mentioned by others, the lack of Airplay support is a real downer for Apple users. Bluetooth works, but it's less convenient to use than Airplay. It would be great if Bose could simply offer both options, or even offer an Airplay version of the unit for Apple users. They already have that product built with V2 of the SoundTouch 20.
- Button layout on unit itself: Bose made some less than optimal choices for what buttons to include on the unit itself. There are 6 'Preset' buttons, 'Volume', 'Power' and 'Aux'. There is no 'Pause' or 'Skip' button on the unit itself. The preset buttons are huge and the volume buttons are extra small. The design appears to assume that people are more likely to do station surfing and less likely to change the volume when standing near the unit. I'm sure Bose could do a study to see what buttons are most frequently used, but I would imagine that this was based on an outdated layout from their earlier designs for FM based radios. If I'm streaming Pandora, I don't ever need to change the station since I can simply skip a song if I don't like it. Except you can't without the remote handy. The 6 preset buttons are also kid of overkill when so few buttons are included on the unit itself. I currently use only 3 of them and the 'Aux' button is totally unnecessary to have as one of the few buttons on the unit itself as well, since that could easily be programmed as one of the 6 presets if the Aux port is even in use. Basically, I would much rather have a 'Next' button on the device itself instead of 'Aux'. Power doesn't seem totally necessary either as the device never actually completely turns off anyway. The bottom line is that 'Pause/Play' and 'Next' are fairly no-brainer buttons to have included on the unit itself. They seem to have been omitted for no apparent, good reason.
Alternatives:
I listened to the SoundTouch 30 at the Bose store and I didn't feel the more powerful base was worth the extra cost. Especially with the massive size the unit takes up. The next big step up was the SoundTouch 120, which offers mind blowing sound quality and very powerful base. I plan to get one of those as well.
Summary:
I would highly recommend the SoundTouch 20. Bose clearly has a few areas that they can improve on, but those are fairly minor areas. The product itself is gorgeous. The iPhone app is not beautiful, but it works well. The sound quality is excellent.
Written by a customer while visiting bose.com
Posted by: Sam529
Gender:Female
Verified Purchase:Yes
Love the sound along with quality but yet a convenient size.
Written by a customer while visiting bose.com
Customer Rating
5
Wow!
on April 30, 2016
Posted by: WillK
Gender:Male
As a musician, I can say without a doubt that this system is far beyond the sound and build quality of other units in this price range, and often times outperforms much more expensive speakers. Its rich, punchy, room-filling bass, paired with its clean, pure treble, give it a sound that matches real life timbre with outstanding accuracy. The crisp guitar, warm vocals, and rich sounding piano are some of what has inspired me to write this review. Additionally, contemporary pop, hip hop, and EDM are reproduced incredibly, without having an overly bright treble. Undoubtedly the best speaker in the price range, and an amazing speaker for all genres of music.
Written by a customer while visiting bose.com
Customer Rating
3
Not bad but...
on December 31, 2015
Posted by: IVNLL
Still can not play many formats. For example WAV. Should I convert now many songs made in this format to another? No! I think Bose muist add this and more.
Response from bose.comBy Julius, Bose Service, January 4, 2016
Hello IVNLL,
Thank you for reaching out. We appreciate the review.
While the system does not currently support wav, it does support MP3, AAC (excluding protected files), M4A (including Apple lossless [ALAC]), WMA (excluding WMA lossless), OGG (Spotify only) and FLAC.
We take feedback like yours seriously. We also have a SoundTouch feature request page here:
http://bit.ly/1KC5FGv
We also have dedicated SoundTouch support agents available at 800-380-4831. We are here to help Monday through Friday 9am to 9pm and Saturday 9am to 7pm EST. If you ever have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us and we would be happy to help.
Thank you for reaching out. We appreciate the review.
While the system does not currently support wav, it does support MP3, AAC (excluding protected files), M4A (including Apple lossless [ALAC]), WMA (excluding WMA lossless), OGG (Spotify only) and FLAC.
We take feedback like yours seriously. We also have a SoundTouch feature request page here:
http://bit.ly/1KC5FGv
We also have dedicated SoundTouch support agents available at 800-380-4831. We are here to help Monday through Friday 9am to 9pm and Saturday 9am to 7pm EST. If you ever have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us and we would be happy to help.
Written by a customer while visiting bose.com