Bose Home Speaker 500 review: Rethinking--and reshaping--smart speakers

Bose is masterful at building compact speakers that deliver performances out of proportion to their size, but it's been viewed as having been outmaneuvered by competitors such as Sonos when it comes to building smart speakers that respond to voice commands. The brand-new Bose Home Speaker 500 should change that perception, but not all Bose fans will be pleased with the path the company has taken to get there. While Bose wisely built on the five-year heritage of its SoundTouch series of self-powered speakers and soundbars--some of which are compatible with Amazon Alexa devices, although they don't recognize voice commands themselves--the new mobile app that controls the $400 Home Speaker 500 (and its companion soundbars, the $550 Soundbar 500 and $800 Soundbar 700) rely on different mobile apps. If you already have SoundTouch speakers and want to add one of Bose's new smart speakers to another room, you won't be able to control all of them with the same app. Some consolation: You can use any of Bose's smart speakers to trigger a SoundTouch (or any other Alexa-compatible speaker).