Two years ago, in a major product bump-up, Bose untethered its signature sound systems and enabled them to be wirelessly connected to multiple music sources, using Wi-Fi. Meanwhile Blue was the new Black: makers of speakers for the burgeoning mobile market, did away with messy wires by making them Bluetooth-pairable with phones. Never one to concede leadership in the audio business, Bose has now combined Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in its new range of home music systems. The SoundTouch 10 is the first offering in this range with this wireless double whammy. Using Bluetooth, one can stream music stored on any compatible mobile phone, music player or tablet — or streamed from Internet radio stations.
Then Wi-Fi kicks in, letting you broadcast the music to other SoundTouch speakers in the house. The unit is small considering the volume and quality of music it belts out, weighing 1.87 kilos. In the Bose tradition of stark simplicity, the top has six buttons to select preset music sources or choices. All other functions including latching on to multiple sources are performed using a remote with the SoundTouch app. Those who have known and enjoyed the Bose quality earlier are unlikely to grudge at the asking price of Rs 19,013 for the Bose SoundTouch 10. Also released this week are larger units for bedroom or drawing room — the SoundTouch 20 and SoundTouch 30 Series III.